Years ago, back when I was an undergraduate at Oberlin, I was getting very impatient and frustrated one day while I was practicing one of the fugues in the last movement of Beethoven's sonata Op 110.
I just couldn’t seem to fix all the mistakes I was making! And the more I practiced, the worse it seemed to get.
I was venting about this to good friend of mine, a violinist who I really admired. She suggested that I think of each mistake as a learning moment, not as a test I’d failed. After all, my hands were trying to follow the instructions from my brain, but somehow the information I was giving them was not yet specific enough.
A few years later, when I was working with my teacher Gilbert Kalish at Stony Brook, I noticed that he used the words "not yet" when talking to me about something that I didn't do well. Particularly if I had a disappointing performance, he'd respond by telling me I hadn't achieved it "yet" - with the clear implication that one day I would.
That phrase - "not yet" - has stuck with me for these many years. Whenever I start to notice myself getting impatient while practicing, I mentally take a step back and grow curious. What am I not yet able to do, and what is keeping me from doing it? If I can be specific enough, I will find an answer that leads to something I can take action on, and move away from overthinking and negative self-talk.
My question for you this week is: in your own practice, what strategies do you use in order to overcome feelings of discouragement and stay motivated? Feel free to write back and let me know - I might share your insights in a future newsletter!
👋 See you next week! Happy Practicing! 🎹
-Kate
📈 Today's Practice Tip: Embrace a Growth Mindset!
Many musicians fall into the trap of approaching practice with a fixed mindset, which is the belief that abilities are innate - and therefore, if you make a mistake, you're just not talented enough.
The psychologist Carol Dweck popularized the concept of a growth mindset, which is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be improved through persistence and hard work.
When you embrace a growth mindset, you see difficult passages as opportunities for improvement rather than as insurmountable obstacles.
A growth mindset encourages better problem-solving. For example, instead of becoming frustrated with a challenging passage, approach it with curiosity. Ask yourself what specifically is happening instead of the outcome you are looking for (e.g., the left hand went too far to the left on that leap) and think about the strategies you can use to fix it (e.g., don’t move the left hand quite so far to the left the next time you try that leap).
Integrating a growth mindset into your daily practice will help you become more resilient in the practice room, and you will develop the habit of turning every mistake into an opportunity.
This week’s exercise: Journal Prompts
Those of you who know me know that I am a big fan of journaling - it helps me gain clarity and perspective and see change over time. (You can learn how to keep a practice journal here.)
To help shift into a growth mindset, spend a few minutes answering the following two prompts every day in your practice journal this week:
What specific improvement did I notice in my playing today compared to yesterday? Compared to last week? What specific actions did I take that led to this progress?
What practice strategy did I try today that didn’t work as expected? How can I adapt or change my approach tomorrow to achieve a better result?
Quote of the Week
“As a respite from your musical studies, read a lot of poetry. Take lots of walks in the fresh air.”
- Robert Schumann, from his House Rules and Maxims
🎥 YouTube Update:
In this week's video, I take you through a stretching routine that I teach my students and that I often do myself before I practice. This is a short routine you can do every day before you start practicing the piano. This video goes through the routine in real time: by the end, you will be ready to sit down at the piano and start practicing!
July 24: Flagstaff, Arizona - World premiere of NISHIKI: Bright Fabric, by Miho Sasaki, with oboist Pam Ajango and bassoonist Doug Spaniol, at the International Double Reed Society Conference.
💜 Some of My Favorite Things
Performance: 🥳 In celebration of Robert Schumann's birthday on June 8, I have been listening to his symphonies this weekend. Here's one of my favorite movements: the scherzo movement from his second symphony, which highlights the playful, impetuous side of Schumann's personality.
Book: These days, in preparation for an upcoming project I'm working on, I'm learning as much as I can about Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn's sister, who was a highly skilled composer in her own right. I'm enjoying R. Larry Todd's biography Fanny Hensel: the Other Mendelssohn.
Dear Friends, Classes have ended, final grades are due on Thursday, and I’m sitting here with a cup of tea, looking out at the lilacs and wrapping up the last of the semester's grading. But here's the truth: grading piano lessons has never felt particularly natural. When I was a student, lessons weren’t graded week by week. You practiced as much as you could, went to the lesson, and used that time with your teacher to get past the blocks you couldn’t solve on your own. The teacher listened,...
Dear Friends, As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I’m developing a listening series called Piano Lit — a self-guided mini-course delivered as a weekly email over six weeks. I’ve been working hard on it this week, and I hope to have it available by mid- to late May. I was happy to see so much early interest already (more than 100 of you clicked the link!), and it’s been fun to imagine people listening and discovering new music as I build the series. It will cost $27 for the full six...
Dear Friends, Before we get started: here at Butler University, we are nearing the end of the academic year. Since I don't see my students over the summer, I like to give them a listening list to work through on their own. The other day I realized this would be great to share with my wider community. So, I’m working on expanding it into a listening series called Piano Lit – a curated list delivered as a weekly email over six weeks. Each week will contain links to performances of 6-7 pieces,...
