Are you getting better at playing that piece you’re performing next month with ease and joy because you’re focusing on ease and enjoying yourself as you practice?

Or are you getting better at worrying about the hard parts and getting distracted by the noises down the hall as you play through your piece?

Do you systematically practice letting go of worries and paying attention to the note you’re actually playing right now, so that the music is free to flow naturally without a forced sound, and without rushing?

People tend to forget that they are not just practicing music when they practice; they are necessarily also repeating habits of mind and movement. When you repeat things with a certain attitude, that attitude becomes habitual and over time you develop an automatic response to similar problems.

For example, if your automatic reaction to seeing your instrument in its case is guilt, thinking, I really should be practicing, then the corresponding physical tension produced by that guilty thought is what you’ll bring to your instrument when you finally take it out of the case. You will have an automatic neural network association of “instrument—guilt—tension,” which will then, once you start playing, be more likely to trigger new unhelpful thoughts.

Because the excess tension you bring to the instrument when you finally pick it up will make it harder to play with technical facility and free-flowing emotions, you’ll be more likely to be judgmental about yourself. You might think: Oh, that sounds bad. I should practice more. I’m too tight. I need to relax!

So, if you’re bringing these kinds of self-critical thoughts to your practicing, along with their corresponding physical tension, clearly you are practicing “how-to-play-my-instrument-with-less-satisfaction-and-more-tension.” You will get better at that the more you practice.

And you know what? What you practice is what you bring to the stage.

You won’t suddenly feel better about yourself and perform with effortless ease, freedom, and joy onstage, tossing aside the guilt and tension you’ve been practicing with up until that moment. If you want to perform with self-satisfaction, effortless ease, freedom, and joy . . . well, then it follows that you need to bring those very qualities to your practice.

With Love & Light,
Jennifer

P.S. Remember, the habits you repeat in practice are the ones you’ll carry onstage. If you’d like support in bringing more ease, joy, and freedom into your music-making, join me for the upcoming Musical Sanctuary Workshops—a beautiful space to explore and embody these ideas together.