You know the old adage, “Practice makes perfect!” Well, I call false advertising! Sometimes we practice something and never attain the ever-elusive “perfect!” My children have all had various piano and orchestra concerts this week in addition to their other sports and don’t even get me started on the class pictures that my elementary school kids had that I completely forgot about. But I digress…
This last week my oldest didn’t do great in his piano recital. Historically, he has practiced just ok and still performed well. He’s getting to the point where he needs to put in more work in order to master the pieces he’s practicing, but he’s also needing to balance homework and sports in there as well. Tricky. At his piano recital he was doing fine until suddenly he made 1 mistake, and obviously dwelt on it as he continued to make small mistakes throughout. Afterward, he said that one mistake made him nervous, and instead of focusing on the task at hand–completing the song the way he knew how, he focused on the mistake and continued to make little mistakes where he normally wouldn’t have.
Fast-forward 4 days to a school concert in which he played the piano while his friend played the cello. They had practiced this piece several times months ago, but had only practiced a few days in advance of this concert having signed up rather hastily. They played together beautifully. While each made a mistake, they played through it and continued as though nothing had happened, and the rest of their performance was great! The overall attitude after was so much more positive–what a fantastic lesson to have learned! The one mistake didn’t need to be the focus, and shouldn’t be the focus! Learn and move on!!
Truly, the best thing he can do as a musician is learn to play though a mistake and not get hung up and distracted by it in a recital or anywhere else he plays. Likewise, the best thing he can do as a person is not be bogged down by his mistakes and not move forward. Let us also remember to not get caught up on our own kids’ mistakes and not move on, or let them move on from it, or our own mistakes! Perfection is not the goal–improvement is! If perfection is the goal people, I’m already out. I’m not gonna make it and neither are my kids.
Let’s learn to move on and still do great, even if we have to pick ourselves up along the way!! Feel free to laugh at the mistakes, let’s just not trip over them!
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Kayleen
