I was working with one of my students the other day on a challenging part in a piece of music she’d been having a hard time with.

.

After a few weeks of frustration and a bit of struggling the challenging part finally started coming together for her.

.

“Wow”, I exclaimed this is great! You really have a solid understanding of this, and your rhythmic execution is right on point.” “Whatever you did in your practice over the past week, keep it up.”

.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I thought I could just push my way though and make it happen at full tempo. But then I realized I needed to break it down to really understand the rhythm, go slower, and work with metronome like you suggested; or it wasn’t going to work.”

.

“It’s still not fast,” she said a little discouraged. “That’s okay,” I replied. “Now you have the framework and understanding in place, getting it faster and cleaner will come more easily.”

.

After her lesson, I started thinking how analogous her comments were to life.

.

Often we (myself included) think we can just push through and force ourselves to get everything quickly and perfectly all at once.

.

But it’s not until we break it down, do the tedious unexciting work little bits at a time everyday, that we make a master piece :)

.

Photo: @stemsandforks