Practice Makes Perfect....Or At Least Brings Improvement

Dancers practicing with instructor.

It's always interesting when something new pops into your attention and with your new awareness you see this new concept, idea, thing, everywhere or at least you see it again.

Last week I was looking at Daniella Woolf's book Encaustic With A Textile Sensibility.  In her introduction she mentions the concept that it takes 10,000 repetitions of a specific action to master that action.  In the case of this reference Daniella was speaking about learning to prime a substrate with wax  so that it was flat.  Looks easy but isn't.

WOW!  10,000 repetitions!  Really?  OK, Daniella did not make this number up and I doubt she really literally means 10,000 repetitions, but I do appreciate the idea behind what she was saying.  In order to be a master at what you are doing you must put in the time to learn your craft.  You can not expect to walk in an art studio, or any other studio, and do everything perfectly the first time you try.  It does happen that some people have more dexterity or better ideas etc. but sometimes this is the famous occurrence of beginners luck.  What I'm talking about is the absorption of a skill to the point that you use it correctly and with ease.  It becomes part of who you are and what you can do.

Repetition of a skill or better yet, conscious and informed repetition of a skill will bring improvement.  I looked around on the web and found several articles about this idea of 10,000 repetition.  Here is link to one of those articles relating to dancing: Repetition: The Mother of All Learning.  This article points to the importance of practicing correctly.  You can also teach yourself to do something incorrectly just as easily as correctly.  I shared with you some time ago that I am taking piano.  The system my teacher teaches is Simply Music.  This system teaches by playing and then later you learn to read music.  This means that you practice pieces over a long period and continue to practice and in about a year you should be able to play around 50 pieces with no music. If you practice correctly you will play correctly.  Students are encouraged to learn the music slowly so as not to learn bad habits.  The best practice is with a teacher who can give you feedback instantly as to what is correct and what you might need to change.  The picture I shared is in a dance studio and in the back ground you can just see the instructor who was dancing with the students and then watching them to give directions.

The visual arts attract people of all ages and the expectations of these different age groups is very different.  The child often comes to the art table with wide eyes and a fearless attitude.  Adults often come to the art table with self imposed pressure, anxiety and a desire to perform like a pro but without the years of practice a pro has.  One of the things I try to incorporate into my workshop classes is accepting students where ever they are in the process and helping them to stay positive and see that they just need to keep learning and practicing and change will come.  Will we all be world class art makers?  I don't think so but we can grow and improve and feel the satisfaction that comes with that growth.

I am compelled to end with this old joke:  How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice.

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Thank you for spending time at Studio 24-7.

Practice is a good thing.

One day those hard skills will be as natural 

as blinking.

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