practex.htm

Introduction:	Here's a question that applies to the study of all instruments, and indeed to the development of any complex motor skill: What's the difference between practice and exercise? There's nothing a musician knows better than the dismal fact that every instrument requires lots of practice, and that practicing is an activity that usually involves large doses of repetition. There is never any lack of passages, whether from compositions being prepared or from specialized works known as "studies" or "exercises", that demand repeated execution intended to render them manageable and reliable. In fact, many passages--scales, for instance--become part of a regular routine, while others may require a unique approach devised for the occasion. But there are right and wrong ways of practicing; it's how we practice, as many teachers are fond of repeating, that makes all the difference in learning to play.
Muscle or Brain?	In the act of developing any motor skill, the how of the training procedure is of paramount importance--much more important than, say, the intensity or duration, which, if done with incorrect movements or excessive tension, can in fact be more detrimental than no training at all. Dogged persistence in practicing something the wrong way will almost certainly end up making things worse instead of better, so the learning process ought to begin with the understanding that practice and exercise mean two different--though simultaneous and complimentary--things. Dr. Kenneth D. Cross, of Northwestern University Medical School, investigated the relationship between brain and muscle activity in motor skill development. Writing in The American Journal of Physical Medicine in 1967, Cross defined exercise as "the repetitious performance of an already-learned act with the purpose of modifying one's physical characteristics." Practice, on the other hand, is "the performance of any act...with a view to fixating the spatial and temporal organization" of that activity. Put simply, we may say that exercise involves changes in the muscles, which can be done with mere repetition; but practice is aimed at making changes in the brain and nervous system as well, and in order for that to happen each repetition must be different from the previous one.
Muscle AND Brain:	This is where the active brain comes in: every repetition has to be analyzed as it happens so that it can be improved the next time instead of merely repeated. Thus the performer's attention has to be focussed continuously on finding ways to make the execution of a passage ever more efficient: perhaps the string player shifts the position of his bow slightly, or the wind player resets his embouchure or modifies his breathing, or maybe the pianist tries a better fingering or a more direct trajectory for the hand. In a thousand subtle ways a repeated passage can be gradually honed to approach maximum economy and efficiency.
The Teacher:	Herein lies by far the most important part of the teacher's job. I often say to a student, "I can't really teach you to play--nobody can learn to play in an hour a week; all I can do is teach you to practice." The teacher's primary task is to impart the skills needed, first to diagnose problems, and then to apply the proper strategies needed to solve them--and these are things the student must ultimately learn to do on his own in the practice room.