Law of the Farm

Introduction

Sometimes it pays to relate the complex world that we create for ourselves to simple principles. Stephen Covey did this when he discussed the Law of the Farm in his manual on life, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Learning a piece of music is not much different than planting a tomato seedling. You have to be attentive from the beginning to the end of the process. I’m sure you’ve seen the difference between a fully-grown tomato that is scrawny and one that is a spectacular celebration.

Sure, there are always external factors in farming, but that takes away from looking at the farmer’s role. There are some farmers who are more successful than others because they do everything in their power to produce the best result. The same is true about the factors that go into producing the best musical results!

Time And Attention Are Important

I have the practice conversation early on with my students and their parents, but everybody handles practice differently. I talk about it in my post Guide Your Child to Independent Practice. This article discusses guidelines towards practice time, it doesn’t discuss the limitations to practice, including focus.

Some children might be able to focus for 10 minutes, whereas some might be able to focus for up to an hour. Focus might be easier on some days than others, or at certain times during the day. And then, of course, we all deal with distraction.

Distraction can be an enemy as well. It can be from a device like a cell phone, where you end up being your worst enemy. The distraction can also look more old-fashioned, as an adult student recently related to me. He sits down for his 30-minute practice session, but he’s frequently interrupted. It might be a work call or his child who approaches with a homework problem.

He’s learned, and you’ve probably learned, too, that waiting for that perfect block of time means practice never happens. It’s better just to start, knowing you can pick up where you left off next time.

Frequency Is Also An Important Factor

Regular practice is the key to most students achieving the best results. However, that isn’t possible for some older students or adults whose free time is lumpy. They might participate in sports or marching band, which tend to have complicated schedules. They may have family obligations as well.

The good news is that older students and adults have the gift of longer focus. They might be able to find those two or three days where they have longer blocks of free time, and they are able to take advantage of them. I often encourage my pre-teen and teen students to transition to a more realistic schedule of practice based on their particular schedule.

Advanced Preparation

If there is anything relatable to the Law of the Farm it’s allowing plenty of time for recital or festival preparation. I make sure my students have plenty of time to learn a piece for a festival or recital, and I do the same for my own performing. If I have a recital coming up in a month or two, I try to get a jump on my practicing, because I know that I can’t afford to get behind.

If you own plants, you know that there may be a particular week where you forget to water or fertilize your plants. Pieces need that attention as well, but can suffer a week of neglect. However, a month of neglect leads to dead plants and abandoned festival or recital plans. Knowing what you have going on and coming up helps you to prepare for success.

Second Chances

Sometimes, even advanced preparation doesn’t always make the difference. It could be a timing issue, where a student gets involved with another school activity that parallels the critical practice phase. That commitment becomes consuming, with little time left over to practice. Sometimes a student just gets into a practicing funk, where the performance opportunity overwhelms and we need to reclaim the more important piano journey.

When time wins, you may have to drop an unrealistic goal. Life is full of second chances, and there will often be another opportunity a few months in the future.

Enjoy The Gift Of Time

You’ve probably heard many successful people say that their best ideas came to them away from their actual work, which for us would be on the bench. They might have had a discovery in the shower, while driving, or in the middle of their walk. The same is true for musicians. The effect of practice doesn’t end when we get off the bench.

Our brains process all kinds of things even when we’re not intentionally focusing on them. The key is time. If you practice at the last minute, you don’t allow time to be your ally. You don’t want to come to an important musical discovery about your piece two days after your performance.

I Come Up Short, Too!

A couple of years ago, I performed a piece on the organ where I played the notes correctly, but I didn’t understand the musical style. It was an early Baroque piece by composer Nicolaus Bruhns; I hadn’t previously played his music. The musical style was rather foreign to me, and I didn’t take the time to understand that as I should have. I learned the notes, but that wasn’t enough!

There were lots of nuances that went unexpressed, trills that weren’t well-executed, and the registration was not varied enough. When I performed it the next time, the result was so much better.

There are also more times than I’d like to admit where I left the note learning to the last minute. The Law of the Farm applies to me too! Even if I was able to fool some or most of the people in the audience, I disappointed myself. If you are your worst critic, you already know how that feels!

The kids that practiced hard did well, and those that didn’t, didn’t!
(Said during a break in the action on a long day of semester-ending juries)

Professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

In Conclusion

While I don’t recommend your wearing overhauls onto the concert stage, I would recommend paying attention to the Law of the Farm. There are no shortcuts to musical preparation. I have had my own farming successes and failures, and I’ve observed lots of good and bad farming practices through student performances.

I may not know what limitations affected a particular performance. However, if the piece was not beyond their ability, the issue had something to do with practice. All students can produce solid results that might even surprise them if they honor this simple guidance.