Funny how much sheer pleasurability and inspiration matter for habits. Ever since I got a new piano, my old practice time goals (which I often struggled to meet) feel comically low. Now somewhat effortlessly 3 months ahead of target… gotta ratchet up the goal!
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Making the habit more pleasurable is an oft-suggested strategy. I think it'd be pretty enabling to assemble a wiki-style database of per-habit pleasure/inspiration-increasing strategies!
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Something about this feels wrong. Like: why should I come up with ways to make myself to want to play the piano more? Shouldn't I just naturally want it?
Yet: deliberate practice is unpleasurable! (Ericsson et al '93) *Playing* is, but need much of the former to get the latter.
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Eh, re-reading Ericsson, I want to backpedal a bit on that. The musicians studied found solo practice less pleasurable than playing for fun, but more than, say, chores, music theory, etc. The "effort" term is maybe the important element (8.0 vs 3.3 practice vs play for fun)
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This wiki is a great idea! I’m particularly keen on anecdotes from scientists who find ways to play with abstract ideas (eg Feynman and his plates). Additionally, pre-video-game designers like Bernie Dekoven had many ideas for finding the fun in daily life
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His first book “the well played game” is among my favorites. Although he acknowledged pleasure could aid skill growth, what made his writing so refreshing compared to typical “gamification” pieces was his confidence in the idea that Play/Fun are meaningful ends unto themselves.
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If you can find a way to make me enjoy playing my scales every day I will donate a couple of eth to a charity of your choice AND come to SF to perform a *very* ropey version of the Aria from the Goldberg Variations
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:) Wish I had a great answer for you here. Some things that have worked (somewhat) for me:
1. Creating a clear sense of progress by tracking max-smooth-BPM for each scale and watching it go up; also by moving through levels of RCM technical requirements. files.rcmusic.com/sites/default/
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