Make time to practice

Many people have the misconception that you either have creativity and talent or you don’t.  This is particularly true when it comes to visual art.

However there is another important element in the process of creating: practice.

In some art forms this is more obvious than others.  Music, especially instrumental music, is one of the art forms where practice is acknowledged as an important element.  I learned this the hard way when, as a elementary school student learning piano, I was forced to sit at the piano even if I didn’t want to play.  Although this was dreadful in many ways, particularly at the time, it also taught me an important lesson.

Even when you don’t want to practice, you have to at least show up.

I finally started enjoying piano in college and began playing everyday for at least an hour, something I had never accomplished in my many years of piano lessons before that.  But after college I moved to an apartment without a piano in it and my piano skills are quickly deteriorating.  There are a few pianos in my graduate school that I could play but there’s never the time or the sheet music that would make me actually practice.

This semester, my final semester of education, I’m changing that.  My first hour of piano practice is complete.  I’ve started two new pieces and I’ve chosen the time in my schedules when it would make sense for me to practice.

I also rewarded myself by taking a fun, up-close picture of a piano.  I’ve always loved doing that.