Do you keep practicing something until you get it right? 

Is that really the best way to practice? 

After decades of practicing myself and teaching other people how to practice, I have discovered that it's not enough to "keep practicing until you get it right". 

Consider this: would you agree that perfect performance must be achieved habitually? 

I do. I believe that you cannot expect excellent performances if you don't make a habit of playing excellently. I also believe that this habitual excellence is acquired in the practice room, not on stage. By the time you are on stage, it's far too late to do anything about excellence.

Now consider how the concept of "keep practicing until you get it right" relates to the "habit" of excellent performance. To explain this relationship to my students, I use a score board as an example. On one side of the score board we keep track of how many times we play something correctly. On the other side we keep track of how many times we make a mistake. So let's look at what happens to the score board when you "keep practicing until you get it right". 

So you try it again and miss it again.

First Down

.

Second Down - Third Down

You TRY it two more times and both times you make the same mistake in the third measure. Finally, you play that measure right and keep going. 

A Completed Pass

You play through the third measure, through the fourth and into the fifth but you make a mistake on the fifth measure. 

First Down Again

So you go back to the beginning again to TRY to get through the fifth measure. Only this time you mess up on the third measure again. 

Ten Yard Penalty

So you start over, get through the third measure and into the fifth, only to make a mistake there, again.

Quarterback Sneak - Tackled - First Down Again

Then you try the whole thing again and finally make it through the fifth measure without messing up. Here's what the score board looks like at this point:

This same kind of thing goes on for a while and after sixteen times of TRYING to play it right, you actually make it through the entire eight measures without making a mistake. 

Touchdown!!!

So, you're done now, right? You've played the eight bars correctly so it's finished.....time to move on to the next piece? 

NO

Look Who Won the Game

Remember, excellence is a habit and habits are formed through repetition. How many times did you make mistakes while you were working on that eight bars? Thirteen!!! Now look at how many times you played it correctly. Just three!!!! Which "habit" has won the game here....the habit of playing it right or the habit of making mistakes? If habits are formed through repetition then the person who "keeps practicing until they get it right" is a person who has formed a habit of making mistakes. 

The only hope this person has is to make up for all of the mistakes by repeating the music correctly at least twice as many times as the number of times he made mistakes. The problem with this "hope" is that the habit is already formed. So playing the piece correctly for twenty-six times is going to be a HUGE struggle. Most likely, that number is going to grow from twenty-six to something less reasonable, because the habitual mistakes WILL return. 

Habits Are a Mental Momentum

After all, that's what habits are. Habits are something of a mental momentum. You know, an object in motion wants to stay in motion. Habits are the same way. Once they get going, it's difficult to slow them down or stop them. 

That's exactly why it's far better to practice in a way which promotes the habit of correct playing instead  of the habit of making mistakes. You do this by being careful. Even when you first begin looking at the music you should be careful about playing it correctly. You can play the music correctly by using a proven practice system or practice technique instead of just TRYING to play the music right.  

How Practice Techniques Work

Practice techniques simplify the music in order to reduce the risk of mistakes. This might involve slowing the music down. It might involve singing the music instead of playing it. It might involve practicing only a few notes at a time. It might involve slurring something instead of tonguing it. There are different practice techniques for different musical and technical situations but all of them serve the EXACT same purpose. All of them simplify the music to reduce the risk of making mistakes. 

When you use proven practice techniques, you reduce the risk of mistakes. When you reduce the risk of mistakes, then you reduce the occurrence of mistakes. When you reduce the occurrence of mistakes, you make a habit out of excellence.

A Winning Team 

Knowing that, let's look at a hypothetical score board for someone who is more careful when they practice and uses a practice technique to learn the music:

Kick Off

Let's say you have another eight measures to work on. Instead of tackling the entire piece, recklessly, making careless mistakes, you use the "working backwards" technique and decide to play only the last three notes. You play them once and since it's just three notes (simplified), you get them right:

Touchdown

Then you play those same notes three more times and get them right all three times. 

Three More Touchdowns

Three More Touchdowns

Now you add the entire measure before that. You play it correctly the first three times but make a mistake on the fourth time. 

Tackled - First Down

Three More Touchdowns

You play it three more times correctly and decide to add another measure. You play it correctly twice and wrong once. 

Two More TDs - Tackled

Three More TDs

You play it right three more times and then add another measure. You play it right once and wrong once. 

One More TD - Tackled Once

Who Won?

Do you see how this works? By using a proven practice technique, you have practically eliminated the mistakes and have taken a huge step towards habitual excellence. 

Isn't this SO MUCH better than just TRYING to play it until you get it right? 

Believe me, I've lived with this philosophy for the past twenty years of my life. I've seen the effects this "habitual excellence" has on not just my playing but that of my students. I use this "score board" concept in all of my practice efforts. When I practice anything of importance, I always simplify it first. I repeat it in it's simplified form at least ten times before I increase the difficulty. And the bottom line is that I rarely make mistakes when I practice. I repeat things literally thousands of times and out of those thousands, less than a hundred of them have mistakes. 

Do you think this might make a difference in performances?