Repetition; the Key to Success

Play anything enough times, and you’ll learn to play it well.

Whatever skill or technique you can think of from a tennis serve, a golf putt, a football free kick, or sewing in a straight line; they all require a lot of practice to perfect. You can read the books, watch the films, study the masters in action, but in the end it comes down to you doing something many, many, many times to get good. Repetition is dull, monotonous, boring and mind numbing to most people, but to masters of their craft, repetition has been the key to their success.

We have some great friends who left Winchester for the north a few years ago when their children were relatively small. The eldest, Joss (9) had just taken up the cello, and when we all met up every 3 or 4 months we got to listen to his latest piece. From those brief thumbnails over the years we could see he was progressing but it was a particular moment a few weeks ago when we visited them last that really impacted me. We had arranged a short weekend but the weather had turned dramatically and so were unexpectedly and literally holed up in Bakewell, in the snow, for 24 hours longer than we had anticipated.

With plenty of food and a wood burner (what more do you need?) we were all sat round the warming fire with the white stuff piling up outside, and no better time to encourage the now 19 year old returning Uni student to give us an impromptu recital. It turned out to be magic in motion. We were all enjoying the incredible 1st Movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and it made me think there and then; all that effort and all that practice was absolutely worth it to enjoy a beautifully deft performance such as this.

That’s the reward, but it doesn’t have to take 10 years. There are small rewards to be enjoyed every week, every month, if the willingness is there to push forward in the name of progress and that jewel of a polished performance. It doesn’t have to be Elgar, but it could be Elvis. It doesn’t have to be 12 minutes long, but it could be just a two minute simply strummed chord intro, or a quietly finger picked chorus. I often tell my students “play those short ditties enough times in your bedroom and when you come to ‘perform’ it you’ll be sure to impress the crowd”.

Scales are scales. Nothing fancy and wonderful to listen to. But ask any pro and they will tell you how important they are. Improved finger placement, strength, mobility, and increasing speed around the fretboard (or keyboard) are the foundational skills for any great player. If you are a beginner and want to know how to improve the quickest, then not only play some scales regularly but any riff or exercise or chord change for that matter. Something that is repeated often enough has to get better, smoother, quicker; it’s a law of life!