Not all practice hours are created equal...

Sometimes while I'm in traffic I have epiphanies.  My friend Megan and I both do this a lot.  She tells me of the times that she will be sitting at a stoplight, writing the next chapter of the deeply profound novel that she's constantly writing in her head, when all of a sudden she'll be startled back to reality by someone honking behind her.

I can totally relate.  I write in my head a lot too.  Especially while in the car.

During this morning's car-writing experience, I came to verbalize something in my head that I have long-known to be true in my subconscious.  And it made me laugh a lot when I came to grips with this phenomenon, which is that for a musician, not all practice hours are created equal...

I know, right??  It's soooo true.

This came about mostly because I had an awesome practice day yesterday and then had a relatively useless practice session this morning which came to an abrupt halt when I realized that I had errands to go take care of that I'd henceforth completely forgotten about.  Seriously, Katherine... why do you do that to yourself??  Write it down.  And then don't forget to look at it.

Anyway, once I started thinking about this, it reminded me of all the times in undergrad when I would dutifully head to the practice room and get absolutely nothing accomplished.  One morning I remember stopping to chat with my theory professor on my way to practice, and as we were parting he told me he'd better let me get going so I could take my coffee on up to the practice room and spill it in the piano.  He was of course joking, but his words were scarily true.  I confess, it's a miracle I made it through undergrad... it wouldn't surprise me if the back stairwell of the MU music school still smelled like coffee.  But I digress...

What materialized in my head this morning was a scale of 1-10, relating the level of focus to the feelings/thoughts that run through the head of many a musician I know during a given practice hour.  It looks something like this... (hopefully you can relate)

Level of Focus: -1 to 3 (aka the "I Got Nothing Done" Zone...)
"Ugh, I forgot my coffee at home..."
"It's stupid early..."
"Omg it's soooo late..."
"Sightreading 101: What IS this??" (aka it took you 20 minutes to make it through three measures)
"Ugh... I forgot I had to _____"  (at which point you leave after half an hour)
"Wait, I've played this before... I practiced this yesterday!"
"How long has it been since I started?"
"This bench sucks..."

Level of Focus: 3.5 - 6 (aka the Semi-Productive Zone -- I spent the majority of my college career in this zone)
"Ugh, I spent way too much time on that first piece..."
"Maybe I should take a break..."
"Maybe I should sightread for a while..."
"Ugh, I suck at sightreading!"
"I need to play something fun first..."
"I wonder if that guy in the next room can hear me.  I wonder if he thinks I sound ok.  I wonder if he thinks I'm cute... does it matter?.... nah."
"I wonder if my teacher can hear me..."
"Oh yeah, THAT'S how that goes..."
"Well that's a dumb rhythm..."
"Ugh... WHY do you want me to play this??" ("you" being whomever has commissioned your work on a given piece)
(fumble fumble) "Yeah, I'll come back to that later..." (meaning sometime in the distant future, possibly never)
"I'm out of coffee..."
"Maybe I should just play through it again..."

Level of Focus: 6.5 - 9 (aka The Zone Zone)
"OMG, I love you Brahms/Bach/Beethoven/etc..."
"Brahms/Bach/Beethoven/etc, you are KILLING me!"
"WHY did you write it like that??  Oh, that's awful!"
"Oh that fits really well in the hand!"
"Holy cow, he was a genius..."
"Agh!  Where's my pencil??"
"I WILL get this right..."
"Again"
"Again"
"Ok go back to the section before that"
"Wait... nope, that was right..."
"Again again again"
"YES.  That was good.  Again."
"Why am I not getting that??  OH... tension.  Ok release."
"Again"

Level of Focus: 9 - 14 (aka The "My Mind is Mush" Zone)
"Wow.  I deserve a medal."
"Wait, what's my name?"
"What time is it??"
"Ohhh it's bright...!" (said upon going into the sunlight for the first time in hours)
"So wait, what all did I work on today... ?"
(counts practice hours on hands)... "Yeah, 3... I think... no, 4."
"Ugh, I still have to go teach all afternoon..."
"I can't believe I waded through that chromatic section like that... wow."
"I am a beast..."
"I need chocolate"
"Ok... I need food..." (usually accompanied by dizziness)

Ask any pianist.  They will tell you... pretty accurate, if I do say so myself.  Not all practice hours are created equal, dependent entirely on the level of focus on a given day and whether the ref in your brain woke up that morning or not.  And now you know :)