Well I am nearing the end of this challenge of practicing violin every day for thirty days. I haven't really blogged about it, because if I'm honest I didn't have very much to say. Basically: I practiced every day that I could (unfortunately there were days when I was only in at times that were not appropriate for violin playing!) I was getting slightly better, and I was enjoying it.
In fact, I've been really, really, really enjoying it.
Even though I'm still pretty terrible.
In my last blog post I talked about getting over the fear of being terrible. My advice to myself and anyone else trying to develop a skill was to 'chuck it in the fuck it bucket and move on' - and that's exactly what I did. I played terribly to my hearts content and, sure enough, as each day went by I began to care less and less about what others thought of my playing. And I got a little bit better. And, most importantly, I started to really have fun.
And here is something I've realized. Practice should be fun. One of the great things about getting better at a skill is the very fact that, as you get better, you begin to take a lot more pleasure in doing it. And for that reason, taking the time to do some of the more tedious parts of practicing (like scales, for example) is very much worth it. It feels boring at the time, but ensures more fun in the long run.
However.
I also think it's important to make practice more fun for yourself by doing things your own way. EVEN if this means you slow down your own improvement. For example - there have been times when the sensible thing for me to do would to play the piece really slowly, really concentrating on my weak points and focusing on my technique until I got it perfect. But instead, I played the piece at my pace (which is almost always too fast) messing up many notes along the way, sounding pretty bad for most of it but then always playing the last bar with a dramatic flourish. Then I'd do it again. Four or five times. At this point, it was most likely that I would have improved a little bit on the piece just by bashing it out, but it would be far from perfect. Still, I'd just move onto the next one and do pretty much the same thing. All the while enjoying myself immensely.
Is this the most efficient way to improve on a skill? Absolutely not. But ultimately, practice needs to be enjoyable, or one simply won't want to do it. So even though I know that I could have come a lot further with my violin by now if I had really disciplined myself - I don't really mind, because I've been having a lot of fun. And ultimately I am progressing, just a little slower than I could be.
I like to imagine that Einstein had it right when it came to balancing discipline with fun. And his quote here is a reminder to me that playing music should always be joyful.
So, the conclusion that I have drawn is that if you want to improve on a skill and also enjoy doing it, then you have to find that middle ground. You need to discipline yourself so that in the long run you will be able to get better and therefore enjoy yourself more. But you also need to make every practice fun so that you will want to do it again the next day. At the moment, I think I am indulging slightly more in the fun than the discipline, but I'm happy to work on that, and try and balance it out a bit more.
Most of all, I'm just really happy that I have yet another hobby in my life. Another challenge that has made the time I spend on this earth just that little more valuable.
Because I started late, I do have a few days left on this challenge before it is officially over. However I want to keep to my schedule, and so I will be announcing my new challenge, which I'm really excited about, tomorrow. So look out for that!
In the meantime - keep striving and keep smiling.
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