Why We Practice

Introduction

Why do we practice? It takes a long time, it can sometimes be boring, and no one ever hears it (or when they do, they typically get annoyed after 10 or so minutes). Baseball players put in a lot of practice, but the average community team plays 30 or 40 games a season—it makes sense to put so much time to practice if the visible return on that practice is so high. Your typical music student has one performance a term, or here at BMA, 2. So why put so much work into something that gets you so little visible return? What’s the purpose of practicing Practice has two primary points: performance and praise.

Thinking of Music as a Gift

While we tend to think of music “performances” as showing off the self and one’s skills, that really shouldn’t be the central goal. That would be like a rich man giving a lavish gift just for the sake of showing off his wealth. Does it happen? Yes. Does that mean “gift-giving” is about showing off wealth? I hope not. Much in the same way, many musicians perform for the sake of showing off. But this being the primary purpose is a corruption of what practice really should be, and that is a gift to an audience.

Musicians are in the business of gifting beauty to a typically beauty-starved audience. The music they play isn’t about them—properly understood, performance isn’t about the performer, but the performed-to. Performance is a gift, and that makes practice the preparation of that gift. You wouldn’t normally just run to Walmart 10 minutes before Christmas morning presents to get some unwrapped thing for a sibling or child, thinking it’s “only the thought that counts.” Yes, the thought counts, and it counts a lot, but much of that thought is in the preparation; typically, we prepare gifts to be as beautiful and as thoughtful as possible. We need to be doing the same with our practice. Don’t practice because you have to, but because you get to give this gift of beauty to a thirsty audience. Spend time in the preparation, so that your gift to others might be as beautiful and perfect as possible.

Conclusion

All of this is geared towards praise of God. As with everything, performances must be dedicated to Him chiefly, even over human audiences. In the end, after all, it is music we will be doing in heaven, so practicing down here is essentially practicing for heaven. Practicing music is an under-appreciated way in which we fulfill that great petition on earth as it is in heaven. It is bringing what we do in heaven down to earth, and because of this, music practice is, if I can dare to say, more important than baseball, more important than football, more important than soccer. Yes, you might play more games and see greater return on your practice each season, but Revelation doesn’t describe an MLB game happening in the throne room of God. While we can HOPE to get perfected baseball in heaven, we are GUARANTEED to be singing. So practice now, perform now, in the homes, in the elementary school recitals, in the Carnegie halls, all in practice and preparation for the great concerts and choral fests of heaven.

-Jaeger Winckler, BMA Professor of Voice and Piano