Practice & Habits

May 15 2021 12:13

My guru Charles Cooke, staff writer on The New Yorker and avid amateur pianist, whose Playing the Piano for Pleasure ¹ got me started and has been a great practical influence, wrote:

When you substitute a good habit for a bad one, or when you decide to acquire a habit where none existed before, the new habit must function at first, for a little while, from power supplied by you. This is the stage where we have to make a strong conscious effort, even to the extent of a sensation of spiritual pain. But in a surprisingly short time the habit begins to take over the task of supplying power; it begins to develop its own momentum; and finally we get a sensation of spiritual pain if we don’t exercise the habit.

I’m starting to feel “spiritual pain" when I don’t play the piano: I miss playing, I feel a mild longing to play, when too much of a day has gone by before I start.

The reluctance to sit down and play came, I think, from beginner’s frustration. Every mistake led to self-judgement. Who wants to play under constant criticism? I think I’m starting to break the habit of self-judgement.