Why do I use so much time practising?


For just one reason: the perfection of the music itself. To make it enjoyable to listen to. A concert, to me, is not something to get nervous about anymore; although it does induce apprehensiveness. In my opinion, a musician's duty is to(for lack of a better word) entertain, to move people through sound and silence, and each concert is therefore a fulfilment of that objective. So the more concerts I play for, the better for me. I realise it's quite pointless doing stuff just to satisfy teachers; I do that a lot with my homework. With my cello it's different though; impressing Mr Chan/trying not to make him angry with my lack of progress has never been on my list of aims. I set high standards for myself(which I often don't reach) and as a result spend months literally practising the same piece. I want to make sure each piece scores the equivalent of a full mark in my grade 8 exam at least; I'll wait for improvement before raising the bar again.


Just to remind myself of my direction in case I ever forget it.