Practice Makes Perfect, Except When It Doesn’t

John Man has been studying piano for some time, and has a big concert coming up in which he has to play several difficult pieces. He has been working at them for months, but is still having a great deal of trouble with some of the really difficult parts.

His teacher, Dorothy Schnupsky, tells him that the solution is to practise more. “You are not practising enough,” she said. “Practice makes perfect. If it is not perfect, do more practice.”

Leaving aside the question of what perfection really is, Man is increasingly wondering if just doing more and more practice is really the answer for him.

“It seems like if I am supposed to practise more to make it perfect, and I have practised for a long time already and it is not perfect, then…what if the problem is me?”

“Exactly,” said Dorothy. “You need to practise more, like I said.”

Man explained that he had recently met a brilliant musician who had shown him how it was possible to practise more efficiently, rather than just practising for more time, and that this could lead to even better results.

“That doesn’t sound very committed to me,” explained Dorothy. “You’ve got to remember that a piano is made of hammers, and they need to be hit, so the thing you need to do most is hit the hammers the minimum number of times.”

Man chatted to some of his pianist colleagues at the local music school to see what they thought.

“I like to hit the hammers,” one drooled. “It hits the hammers, the hammers, hammers…”

Dorothy nodded sagely. “Exactly,” she said. “One can only be a truly unique artist if one sits at the piano until it’s perfect, even if that means not eating or noticing the sunset or ever meeting people. Look at me, I think I once had a pet, but now? Now I am good pianist. This is the way forward: more practice.”

Man sighed, and went back to the practice room. “When it is perfect, that’s when I’ll know that I’ve done the right thing,” he explained. “Like a good boy. A good boy. Such a good boy…”