HOW THE PROS GET IT DONE

In addition to teaching thousands of musicians around the world on a weekly basis, I also love studying
the practice habits of professionals. Not only professional musicians. Basketball players, musicians,
chess players, martial artists...they all share some common themes when it comes to their practice
habits. In my course The Art of Practice for Musicians, I break apart how to begin to systematically
implement the practice habits discussed in this report to create a practice ritual aimed at getting you
consistent results day in and day out.

So what exactly is it that the pro's do in their practice time that is so different? I have a list that is
several pages long, but here are 4 of the practice habits that come up again and again.

1. They break it down and go slow.

If there is one thing I find myself saying repeatedly to students, it's this. You have to slow things down
and break the concept you are working on down into small bite-sized pieces.

Kobe Bryant is known as one of the best basketball players of our time. Shaq wrote about Kobe in his
book:

"You'd walk in there and he'd be cutting and grunting and motioning like he was dribbling and
shooting — except there was no ball. I thought it was weird, but I'm pretty sure it helped him."

Practicing without a ball??? But Kobe got it, and that's why he is such a success. He broke the material
down to its most basic form by removing the ball.

After you have broken the concept into smaller pieces, you work through the material at a
painstakingly slow pace. To quote Sergeant Alvin York, who was a member of the "Lost Batallion" in
World War 1 and led his platoon to capture 132 German POW's, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast".

Itzhak Perlman, one of the pre-eminent violinists of our time (as well as a skilled conductor and
pedagogue), has this to say about slow practice:

“If you practice something slowly, you forget it slowly. If you practice something fast, you forget it
fast.”

Going slowly allows us to process the information, ingest it, and remember it. The speed comes quickly
after you have mastered the initial movements. I stress this constantly with my students.
In his book "The Art of Learning", Josh Waitzkin says this of one of his original chess teacher's:

“Bruce slowed me down by asking questions. Whenever I made an important decision, good or bad, he
would ask me to explain my thought process.”

2. They have an intense passion for the game.

It almost goes without saying, the pros have an intense passion and love for whatever field they are in.
Great coaches, teachers, and mentors know that this is an important component of any endeavor and
strive to instill that in their pupils.

Some of my students joke with me, because before a lot of my lessons, I say "I love talking about
_______". I didn't realize how much I said it until they pointed it out, but it's true! I love every aspect
of music in a very intense way. If I didn't, I would quit and go do something else with my life. Life is
too short to be miserable.

Here's a quote from an NBA scout in 2008 about Kobe:

"Allen Iverson loves to play when the lights come on. Kobe loves doing the s--- before the lights come
on."

In the same year, Sports Illustrated reported that Kobe will keep random players after practice so that
he can try out new moves on them. Similar to what he did to bench warmers in high school. That's
crazy intense passion for the game!

Josh Waitzkin also points out in his book that his parents sheltered him in certain ways “...because they
wanted my relationship to the game to be about learning and passion first, and competition a distant
second.”

You have to be in this for the love of the game, and no other reason, for your practice time to be as
productive as it should be.

3. They don't practice what they already know.

While I was in college, I had a pretty crazy practice schedule. It wasn't uncommon for me to get in 6, 8,
or 10 hours of practice a day (I only WISH I would have known then what I know now about
productive practice times. So much wasted time). Then, I had ensemble rehearsals and gigs to do.

While I was practicing one day, I had one of the drummers from the percussion department stop in
during a practice session. He had been listening outside the door and wanted to know what I was
working on...because it sounded horrible!

I totally agreed with him. It sounded bad. Really bad.

It sounded bad, because it was something I couldn't play. It was new material, uncharted territory. And
it was beating me up like a heavy weight boxer!

Antonio Sanchez is one of the most musical and versatile drummers in the game today. In an interview
on https://itsgoodpractice.wordpress.com, he had this to say about the topic:
“I can tell you what I used to do when I was practicing a lot. I used to work on my weaknesses and
spend little time on the stuff I knew already.
Don’t waste time practicing stuff you already know. When one practices stuff that you haven't mastered
yet, it is natural to feel unaccomplished and uncomfortable but that feeling is an important step
towards growth and mastery. It’s a matter of how you channel and harness that feeling that will make
you develop and evolve.”

Josh Waitzkin (Chess world champion and Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands world champion) put it in even
simpler terms:

“Whenever I noticed a weakness, I took it on.”

4. They take regular breaks and enjoy life.

This one took me years to come to terms with. It's very easy to take this to the extreme and take too
many "breaks" in your practicing. That being said, across every professional field that I have studied, I
have found the concept of taking consistent periods of rest from practice to be extremely common.

Here's Antonio Sanchez on the concept of resting from practice:

“As of late not that many because I’m so much on the road. After many years of practicing I feel like I
need to stop and step back and take a close look at my playing.
I feel like when you practice too much you regurgitate licks and patterns more than being in the
moment. I think when you are a creative jazz musician you can actually practice TOO much. I felt like I
had too much technique and hand reflex that would sometimes override the creative side of my playing.
I feel like I have less chops than before but I’m way more musical and creative and mature and 'in the
moment'.”

Jascha Heifetz, who is widely referred to as one of the best violinists of modern times, is quoted in the
book "Violin Mastery: Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers" as saying the following:

"I do not think I could ever have made any progress if I had practiced 6 hours a day. In the first place,
I have never believed in practicing too much - it is just as bad as practicing too little!

I hardly ever practice more than 3 hours a day on an average, and besides, I keep my Sunday when I
do not play at all, and sometimes I make an extra holiday. As to six or seven hours a day, I would not
have been able to stand it at all."

If you want to learn how to begin to integrate these concepts into your practice time on a daily basis,
you don't want to miss this course. The Art of Practice for Musicians will give you common sense
steps to creating a practice time ritual catered to your needs. There is nothing else like this program out
there. Believe me, I've looked countless times. If you apply the concepts, you will begin to see progress
in your playing on a daily basis. I promise.