I Need To Keep Practising!

A lot of friends of mine are musicians. I also have a lot of friends who aren't and when I tell them that I still practice the piano every day, they look at me with genuine confusion. Their response is 'But you can play already?'.

The need to still practice is one of the things I love most about playing the piano, and why the hunger to improve hasn't lessened even after playing for nearly 30 years - you can ALWAYS be better. Something which, in truth can be frustrating on those tougher days when new skills aren't registering as quickly with you as perhaps they might normally; you know the only solution is to put more time in.

Amongst my friends who are musicians, there are a couple whom I particularly admire their playing - they are recognised amongst musicians as being great players. When I ask them about their practising techniques, hoping for a quick fix, they have told me that growing up, on a daily basis they would put in on average up to 8 hours a day. And it shows. Natural ability takes you so far, but to be at their level, you can't cheat it - you have to put the time in.

With so many aspects to practise, whether that be sight reading, ear training, rhythm practice, improvisation, chord vocabulary, finger strength, soloing, or even just a revision of things you have already learnt, the truth is there will never be enough time to give as much attention as you would love to, to all of it. But that doesn't mean that myself and countless other musicians won't try, because on a good day you will leave the keyboard a better musician than when you sat down, and that feeling of reward for putting in the effort is as addictive today as it was thirty years ago.