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My second-favorite question to ask a world-class professional musician is, “Have you ever been stuck in your practice?” I like asking the question because the typical answer is something like, “Every single day.” Good practice is all about working on something you can’t do, so it’s natural to feel stuck. Embrace that struggle, because that’s what good practice is. Practice is often fun, but it’s not supposed to be easy. Don’t label something you can’t play as “difficult,” though. When you label something you can’t play as difficult, that label sticks, even after you’ve mastered it. Instead, think of challenging music not as difficult, but simply as unfamiliar. Good practice is all about embracing the challenge of making the unfamiliar, familiar.
The Practice of Practice
Jonathan Harnum
It began with a series of Tennessee River dams, providing and selling electrical power to the people that lived in the valley. In the end it saved three million acres from erosion, multiplied the average income in the valley tenfold, and repaid its original investment in federal taxes. TVA had long been the dream of Senator George Norris; it came true because Franklin Roosevelt, while still unpacking in the White House, sent Norris a note saying that “as soon as this rush of emergency legislation is over” he hoped Norris would come and talk to him about “the Tennessee Basin development.” Under such a President, people began to feel that anything was possible.
The Glory and the Dream
William Manchester
I was ready to give up when Esther suggested that I read Terrence Real’s book I Don’t Want to Talk About It, a groundbreaking treatise on the roots of male depression. Once I started, I could not put it down. It was almost creepy that this guy seemed to be writing about me, despite never having met me. His main thesis is that with women, depression is generally overt, or obvious, but men are socialized to conceal their depression, channeling it inward or into other emotions, such as anger, without ever wanting to discuss it. (Hence the title.) I could relate to the stories that he shared about his patients.
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