Everything I Need To Know I Learned in Piano Lessons, Part 2: Practice Makes Permanent
by Emily S. Jorgensen
I
suppose there are situations in which the old adage, “practice
makes perfect” is appropriate — perhaps in science where
great learning comes from trial and error. However, this is not
appropriate for preparing a piano piece for performance. And, I would
argue, it is not the way to salvation.
If
a student uses the “just keep trying until you get it right”
approach to learning a new piece, he will take much more time to
learn it and the end product will be full of problems. How can it
reach a state of relative perfection if each previous time it was
played was wrong? I tell my students that only perfect practice makes
perfect.
In
other words, repetition of the same notes, rhythms, dynamics, and
other details is what breeds the habit. If those elements are learned
correctly, and the vast majority of times are practiced in the same
way, then playing this piece correctly becomes easy — it
becomes a solid memory in the mind, easy to call upon in the
stressful moment of performance.
However,
if a student has practiced a piece 100 times and only the last 15
times were done with all of these details correct, what are the
chances really that he will be able to replicate the perfect product
come performance time? His track record is only getting it right 15%
of the time!
The
solution is to go so slowly, bit by bit, at the beginning of learning
a new piece that he can, in fact, get all those details correct from
the beginning. Then, it is simply a matter of stringing all the parts
together and increasing the speed. There are no mistakes to expunge;
there is no time wasted. Then, perhaps 90 times out of those 100 it
will be played correctly. The performance that comes on the heels of
such preparation is much more likely to be a positive one.
And
yet, there are still students who hope that some magic will happen
and they won’t actually have to face the tediousness of
building the good habit slowly and steadily. They dive right into the
piece, playing fast and ignoring half of the ink on the page. They
somehow expect that type of practice to produce the same results as
the methodical, progressive work I ask them to do.
This
reminds me of people who think that all they need for salvation is
the grace of God. Indeed, Ephesians 2:8 states,
“For by grace
are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
But, Christ never said that was all that was required. He doesn’t
swoop in and wave a magic wand and make all our weaknesses and sins
go away with no effort of our own.
Rather,
central to our doctrine is the notion that work is required on our
part as well. Elder M. Russell Ballard likens grace and works to a
pair of scissors that requires two blades to work (Building
Bridges of Understanding,
June 1998). Of course, we cannot accomplish salvation by ourselves.
We must depend on the atonement, the grace, of Christ to save us.
But, we also have to do the legwork.
And,
just like slogging through a dense measure of Brahms, the legwork
required for salvation is the daily grind. In search of salvation,
that is daily choosing righteousness. Scripture study, meaningful
prayer, Sabbath day church worship, Family Home Evening — it
can be rather monotonous. Too bad we can’t just do it all once
correctly and be done.
In
teaching our children how to prepare for their salvation, we parents
sometimes hope they will just magically “get it.” I was
shocked recently when our family talked about the Plan of Salvation
and my children couldn’t get through a decent explanation.
Only
last year they could draw the whole explanatory chart by themselves!
Like, with the circles and the long vertical rectangles and
everything!
One
perfect time through is not enough. For the lessons of the gospel to
really sink in, they have to be practiced over and over and over and
over — and they must be practiced correctly.
Of
course, this can feel like an overwhelming burden to parents.
Sometimes,
when I explain how Practice Makes Permanent to a student for the
first time, he will look at me with watery eyes and exclaim, “you
want me to be perfect all the time? I can’t do that!”
Of
course not.
Nor
are we expected to be perfect all the time. That is what the
atonement is for, after all.
Living
the gospel ourselves and teaching it to our children means that we
strive for perfection in all those daily chores of
righteousness. We hold family prayer as often as possible. We keep
the Spirit in our home with kind words and an appropriate tone of
voice rather than yelling at the slightest provocation. Family Home
Evening may be brief, but it is there.
It
is not enough to just hope our children will learn the gospel from
us, and haphazardly throw out a quick and uneven effort. We must grow
our family habits of righteousness slowly, bit by bit, always with
the end goal in mind — the salvation of ourselves and our
children.
Emily
Jorgensen received her bachelor's degree in piano performance from
Brigham Young University. She earned her master's degree in
elementary music education, also at BYU. She holds a Kodaly
certificate in choral education, as well as permanent certification
in piano from Music Teacher’s National Association.
She
has taught piano, solfege, and children’s music classes for 17
years in her own studio. She has also taught group piano classes at
BYU.
She
is an active adjudicator throughout the Wasatch Front and has served
in local, regional, and state positions Utah Music Teachers'
Association, as well as the Inspirations arts contest chair at
Freedom Academy.
She
gets a lot of her inspiration for her column by parenting her own
rambunctious four children, aged from “in diapers” to
“into Harry Potter.” She is still married to her high
school sweetheart and serves in her ward’s Primary.