First, the smart guys:
“I don't like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself.” Joseph Conrad
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Then a few things I noticed at an open mic:
Nothing beats singing in tune and playing in time.
There were a lot of people showing us what they would like to be able to play, rather than what they actually can play. They end up sounding worse than they are because they're trying to sound better than they are.
Your hands do what you've trained them to do, not what you command them to do.
If I want to sing well on a Thursday night, I have to practice for the whole week and then warm up for half an hour before I start. Practicing on Thursday morning in order to sing on Thursday night doesn't make much difference for me.
And last, a few mid-practicing comments to myself from my practicing notebook:
Space: When you practice, you have to leave mental space so that you can notice things. Don't think too much, don't try too many things at once, don't try things that are way beyond your current ability, don’t load up one exercise with ten things to try.
The more you think while you practice, the less mental space you leave. When you think you're looking for what you hope or fear will happen. So that’s what you’re likely to see. This means there’s no room in your perception for anything else, so you’re likely to miss other, potentially more important things that are going on. For example: if you're trying to play a complicated string of notes, you may be so focused on pitch that you don't notice timing. Or you miss an easier way to play it. Or you don't notice that your shoulder hurts. Or you don't pick up on an easier way to think about the whole piece. Or you’ll miss the guy in the gorilla suit.
You notice more when you look at less.
Context: One day's practice means one thing by itself and something entirely different in a one-month context.
What matters about today's practice today is that you showed up, aimed high and got some kind of reward – fun, interest, enjoyment, diversion from the day to day, pride. Whether you made progress or not is irrelevant and probably invisible anyway.
What matters about that same practice in the context of a month is that it's part of a chain, connected to yesterday's practice and tomorrow's practice by planning, commitment and discipline. Over a month you can start to see and measure progress.
Exercises: Exercises are like walking around in a new city. You're trying to learn your way around so that soon you'll be able to go wherever you want to go. You're not trying to memorize a route. Similarly, you don't practice a scale so that you can play that scale. You practice a scale so that you do lots of other things that require the same kinds of motion and knowledge that the scale requires.
Confidence: Slowing down, I noticed that I play some notes in a phrase with more confidence than other notes in the same phrase. Who knew?