Addicted to the Present Tense: Reframing Practice
Steve Treseler
A frame is a set of beliefs that influences how we see the world. They are stories we tell ourselves. Some frames are so deeply ingrained into our culture that we don't realize they exist. For instance, if you believe all politicians are liars, this frame colors how you interpret the news. On the other hand, if you believe politicians from party X are noble patriots, and politicians from party Y are lying scumbags, your interpretation of the news will be much different. Once we are aware of our frames and how they shape our view of the world, it might be possible to exchange them for new ones. This reframing can have a massive impact in our creative lives.
Many of the circumstances that seem to block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on a framework of assumptions we carry with us. Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view. Find the right framework and extraordinary accomplishment becomes an everyday experience.
- Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility[1]
REFRAMING PRACTICE
What does it mean to practice music? In Western cultures, practicing may bring to mind a musician sitting alone in a small room running through technical exercises, scales, and repertoire. The underlying frame is that practice is not particularly enjoyable, but necessary, like homework or a chore. Students are expected to suck it up, delay gratification, and slog through hours of tedious drills to reap rewards later on. Some musicians glorify suffering as “paying dues.”
Discipline and good habits certainly help us achieve mastery, but the "practice as homework" frame has unintended consequences. Most of us stop doing homework as soon as external pressure is removed—once the exams are over, math homework suddenly seems less urgent. Similarly, if musicians only practice to satisfy external demands, many will not continue once those demands are removed.
It turns out willpower is a scarce resource and is not the most effective tool for fueling a lifelong musical practice. If drawing on willpower were an effective strategy, we would all eat healthily, save for retirement, work out regularly, steer clear of substances, and practice for hours each day. At least 80% of people fail to stick with their New Year's resolutions for the entire year.[2] For most people, the promise of future satisfaction alone isn’t enough to form a life-long practice. Instead, we ought to consider new frames and motivational sources to craft a practice that sticks.
DOCTORS, MONKS, AND SNOWBOARDERS
The word “practice” has different meanings for practitioners in various disciplines. For artists and athletes, practice is often a series of goal-oriented learning activities that help them prepare for future performances. Other domains embrace a more holistic view of practice. For instance, practicing medicine includes seeing patients, research, collaborating with teams, professional development, and much more. There is no separation between “practicing” and “the real thing.” Religious practice can also be thought of in this way. For many devout people of faith, practice is embedded into the fabric of their daily lives.
For another conception of practice, consider how snowboarders build their skills. When a foot of powder dumps overnight, do snowboarders have to motivate themselves to get out of bed to go practice snowboarding? (They may need to draw on willpower to stay at home!) Master snowboarders develop their craft not through 10,000 hours of delayed gratification, but through an exhilarating journey they enact each time they hit the slope. How can we bring this same enthusiasm and joy to an artistic practice?
Shifting one’s frame can help one embrace a more holistic view of an artistic practice. A broader musical practice can include skill development, listening, performing, teaching, learning, rehearsing, connecting with collaborators and audiences, composing, recording, jamming, dreaming up new projects, and drawing inspiration from other disciplines. In this way, practicing isn’t just something we do for an hour or two a day—a practice can be embedded into our identity and how we live our lives.
ADDICTED TO THE PRESENT TENSE
Even with a holistic view or practice, artists do spend countless hours alone honing their craft. Some artists are able to align skill-development with activities that are intrinsically satisfying in the moment. One of my mentors, saxophone luminary Jerry Bergonzi, gives insight into his integrated music practice in a 2016 interview with DownBeat magazine. Bergonzi tells us, "I love to practice, and I don’t practice to get better. That’s my secret. I practice because I like practicing. People say, ‘Do you do yoga?’ I say, ‘Yeah, every time I take out my instrument.’ I get in that zone physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. That’s yoga. Union. I’m in it. That’s why we all play music. We’re addicted to the present tense."[3]
Embracing practice in this way creates a virtuous cycle: when practice is intrinsically rewarding, we want to do more of it—and consequently we level-up our skills, finding satisfaction in the process and the results. This can lead to ferocious practicing habits, and in Bergonzi’s case, world-class performance.
AUTOTELIC EXPERIENCES
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research on happiness found that people are most happy not when they are idle, but when deeply immersed in meaningful work. He tells us that an autotelic experience is intrinsically rewarding. Autotelic, coming from the Greek auto (self) and telos (goal), refers to refers to joyful immersion in the process, rather than suffering now for future rewards.[4] Tapping into autotelic experiences can help one shift from a homework frame toward an experience that is both effective and enjoyable. Here are a few actionable strategies to help develop an intrinsically rewarding practice:
Indulge Curiosity
Let your curiosity guide the direction of your practice, rather than a list of “shoulds.” Self-directed learning need not feel like homework. In his book Drive, Daniel Pink tells us that autonomy is one of the drivers of intrinsic motivation.[5]
Skill/Challenge Ratio
Tasks that are too challenging evoke anxiety, and trivial tasks evoke boredom. Some studies have shown how challenges that slightly exceed our abilities (Csikszentmihalyi estimates by 4%) channel our attention into the present moment, and are enjoyable to work on.
If you find yourself bored or distracted during practice, pivot to a slightly more difficult activity. If you feel overwhelmed or frustrated, shift to a goal that is less challenging in order to hit the sweet spot. (Dan Pink calls these “Goldilocks Tasks.”)
Mindful Rituals
Certain foundational practices like warm-ups aren’t challenging in themselves, and leave many musicians feeling bored. Bringing mindfulness practice to this work can transform repetitive, perhaps thoughtless technical practice from a tedious chore into a centering and relaxing part of our day.
Mindfulness is the practice of directing one’s attention to their sensory experiences often breath, sight, sound, or touch—in the moment. An example is, while playing a long tone or technical warm up on your instrument, beginning by directing all your attention to the physical sensation of the instrument vibrating on your body. After several minutes, shift your attention to the tone of your instrument, listen for overtones within the sound you and your instrument are producing together. You can continue to rotate your attention between different sensory targets.
Connection
Connection with a community of like-minded artists and audiences is essential for developing a lifelong practice. Even as we hone our skills on our own, connections and collaborations inspire us and propel us forward. Belonging to something larger than ourselves gives us a sense of purpose that pushes us through challenging times.
Goal/No Goal
Opening to holistic and intrinsically rewarding frames for practice means embracing practice not as a means to an end, but as a lifelong exploration. In his book Mastery, George Leonard tells us “The trick here is to walk the fine line between endless, goalless practice and those alluring goals that appear along the way . . . but the journey is what counts.”[6] The magic comes from embracing the process rather than the outcome: not only do we often achieve far greater results in this way — we also have the satisfaction of being on a journey worth going on.
Steve Treseler is a Seattle-based saxophonist, teaching artist, and author who performs and leads creative music workshops across the U.S. His music has been featured in the New York Times, DownBeat, and NPR. Steve is on faculty at Seattle JazzED, Seattle Pacific University, and Pacific Music Institute in Honolulu. Learn more at stevetres.com
Works Cited
Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
Clear, James. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. New York: Penguin Random House, 2018.
Daley, Claire. “Jerry Bergonzi: The Mystic.” DownBeat, November, 2016.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
Pink, Daniel H. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.
Leonard, George. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment. New York: Penguin Publishing Group, 1992.
