Playing Is Not Practicing

The easiest trap to fall into when practicing a skill is to practice what you already know. If you’re a pianist and sit in front of the piano, it’s easy to just play the 10 songs you love to play and then move on with your life. But playing is not practicing. 

If you’re a guitarist, it’s easy to go through the same motions. If you’re a songwriter, it’s easy to never mix up the process and to just keep writing exactly the same way.

But when you do this, you may not be getting much better at your craft at all. If you just play the same 10 songs on the piano that you already know and play well, that’s not practicing, that’s playing.

There’s a difference between playing and practicing. Playing is not practicing. 

Practice is intentionally working to get better.

Maybe it’s doing scales or other exercises. Maybe it’s working at a specific section of a song that you tend to struggle with. Practice can also be picking up a totally new song to learn.

But playing the same thing over and over isn’t practice. It’s playing.

And, you know by now… Playing is not practicing. 

Have you ever noticed that, whatever sports teams you may have been on, practice wasn’t just a scrimmage? You might have had a scrimmage at the end, but you probably had drills and other practice exercises.

There were probably dribbling drills, shooting drills, cardio endurance drills, and more. You didn’t just play for an hour and call it “practice”. Because you need drills in order to fix any issues you have or to concentrate on and improve on a specific skill.

If you just scrimmaged for an hour, and you struggle with dribbling, you may just pass off the ball as quickly as possible to avoid your weakness. But you have to get better at dribbling because it’s a part of the game. 

With practice, you have to actively work to improve on your weaknesses, not just continue to utilize your strengths.  

Practicing the verse of your new song won’t make you better at performing the chorus. 

Just as practicing your dribble doesn’t make you magically better at shooting. 

So be intentional about your practice. Figure out your weaknesses and work at them until they are weaknesses no more. 

Also, work on your strengths to maintain your skills. If you stop doing cardio, you’re not going to be able to run that half-marathon any more. Likewise, if you let up on scales, you’ll start to get rusty. 

So, whatever your craft…

Be intentional about practicing.

Target your weaknesses.

Target what you don’t know.

And continue to nurture your strengths.

Playing is not practicing.

So stop playing, go out and practice.

What are some of the weaknesses in your craft you need to address? Let us know in the comments below!