I heard a little interview the other day with Steve Young, the Hall of Fame NFL quarterback. He was being asked about the potential problems on a team (the Jets) with two quarterbacks that fans may want to see play. Young is particularly able to speak to this since he began his career backing-up Joe Montana. In talking about his experience, he said something that of course for me connected with cello practice.
He said, "every great player...claws their way to it. nobody dances their way to it. It is a clawing against all odds, everybody is out to get you [mindset]." He also said that those players "fight for those reps. Nothing is given--everyday is a competition." He said that he was completely annoying in his back-up role, always asking the coach for more repetitions in practice, and pushing to get on the field.
Really effective practicers will identify with this. I think of really effective practice as practice that accomplishes a lot. Practice should be judged by how much better you get, nothing else. This kind of practice will be full of struggle and frustration. I don't mean that it is overwhelmingly difficult, and without any success, but that it is staying difficult enough that we are at the edge of our ability. There must be a strong motivation in order for us to put ourselves into this kind of place over and over. The great athletes like Young love to compete and that motivates the attitude toward practice he described. When a person really loves music, they have strong ideas about how it should sound. It is very bothersome when it doesn't sound that way, and they are frustrated by it. Then the clawing comes naturally, and the progress comes fast.
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