Practicing Something New

I practice music, yoga, meditation, and writing, but mostly I practice the piano. Daily. It’s part of my life, and I just don’t feel complete if I haven’t spent time at the piano. Daily practice feels comfortable and familiar, even if I’m working on a difficult piece of music.

This summer I was gifted a pottery class, and couldn’t wait to try my hand at the potter’s wheel. I wanted to feel my hands in the clay, and form it through my fingers, working with the wheel and shaping it with my hands. After all, I use my hands every day to play the piano.

Something new to practice!

On the first day, as my fellow classmates confidently slammed their lumps of clay on the wheel (I think they had done this before…) my clay landed with a wimpy thump, and as I started the wheel it flew off before I could grab my hands around it to start centering. I felt my confidence drain away as I realized,

This is harder than I thought.

Luckily, I had two patient and super encouraging teachers. (Shout-out to Matt and Sam @www.pottersshop.com!) They seemed to think I was doing just fine, even as I struggled with each new skill. Each week was a new opportunity to practice, and I was right, most of my classmates had done this before! As the weeks went by I learned to center my clay with confidence, and while my ceramic pieces are not as polished as my piano pieces, I started to relax and enjoy the practice, instead of focusing on the finished product.

Over time I started to notice that each class also brought me closer to what my students experience in their piano practice: the desire to clearly understand and execute a new skill, and to play with confidence and ease. Maybe my clay flinging off the wheel wasn’t that much different than my student struggling with a scale fingering they spent all week working on, or an unexpected memory slip during a passionate performance. Beginning a practice of something brand new helped me to reframe ways I could help my students enter into the practice itself with more energy, grace, and creativity.

Here’s a challenge!

Start practicing something brand new to you. Maybe try a new craft, a new sport, or a new language. Allow yourself to take in the experience of not feeling accomplished right away, or maybe even feeling a bit of struggle. Let that be okay. And, have fun. Tell about it here. We want to know,

Are you practicing something new?

Have you practiced yet today?