#045: Bridging the Gap Between Practicing and Playing

Practice makes perfect.
Perfect practice makes perfect.
Exactly what are we making perfect?

There is truth in those two statements but they are misleading too in a potentially dangerous way.

The truth is that how we practice determines how we play.

The danger comes if we take this to mean that if our playing isn’t as perfect as we want it, we haven’t practiced hard enough. So when our playing falls short of our expectations, we practice longer or more carefully or with more grit and determination. Longer practice can lead to injury or boredom. Practice focused on being correct often fails to be musical. And grit and determination are not conducive to beautiful, relaxed harp playing.

But there is one kind of practice that causes our practice to translate into the kind of playing we want. If we practice in this way, we play better in our lessons, we are more relaxed and we are able to be more expressive. 

This kind of practice is absolutely critical to our success, to our harp happiness, yet we don’t know about it, don’t recognize its power, or just don’t know when to use it. 

But after you listen to today’s show, you will understand the right kind of practice, by which I mean the kind of practice you need to do to bridge the gap between your practice and your performing. And we will sum it up in a single word so you can remember exactly what to do and how.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• 30 Days to Done Practice and learn your piece with the “playing” in mind. 
• Practice with a Kick, an Arrow and a Glass of Water blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]