> If practice is not fun I just don't play, and I don't get better.

But what if your goal is to be one of the greatest pianist alive? Then we have to dissect what is "not fun". There are moments of neutral practice, or "monotony", which is what I think the article touches on. The idea that sometimes, practice can feel more like a chore than a pleasure. The article speaks about in this context, you have to push through the negative (or apathy) to continue practicing.

Last year, I had the privilege to attend a seminar in Aikido where two individuals were awarded the rank of godan (5th degree black belt). In our organization, the minimal amount of time required to be eligible for the rank is just over 18 years (and the requirements are increasing next year). One of the individuals spoke about how Aikido and training was much like a marriage - sometimes you enjoy coming to class, sometimes you hate it, and sometimes it's neither feeling; however, much like a marriage, good times or bad, you have to continue working on it.

I've spoken on here before as well about the element of discipline/perseverance/grit in terms of improving oneself. Angela Duckworth has studied the effects of grit across multiple fields, one in particular was grit in cadets at West Point. Higher levels of grit were more likely to complete the program and good leaders were more likely to have higher grit scores.

"Fun" is still a loose, ill-defined term. You can have fun being pursuing a task for leisure or for mastery.

In piano notes by Charles Rosen, he has a different viewpoint. Professionals should be those people who physically can not stop themselves from the act of playing. If you aren't obsessed with the act of touching your instrument, in his view you won't have what it takes to continue drilling and technically improving. For Rosen, who I'd say is a tad over serious, fun doesn't matter to professionals.

After playing 20 years myself, I must say I'm not nearly as obsessed as the 5 or so pianists I know who play for a living. I play folk and pop, classical I'd say is merely a hobby to me, therefore I'm a scientist in my day job.

True, though I'd still say the individual day-to-day practices can sometimes become dull. As you mention, this is where I think a lot of "fun" activities form - experts looking to spice up a particular activity. I like to train some kata by going as slow and precise as possible, then as fast and reckless as possible, THEN settling for normal speed.

This is not the argument this article is making.

I think you may be forgetting point in your history where you needed deliberate practice to get to where you are now. If you only ever choose between not playing and playing for fun, you will never get better. The transition to playing only for fun is the point where improving is now left to chance—not that you completely stop growing, but you become more entrenched in your existing practices and your skills crystallize at their current level.

The saying goes “practice makes permanent”.

This feels alien to me. As I play for fun of course I try new things, and keep expanding what I can do. That's how I've always learned music. I think I've even done my fastest growing while playing live for dances, which is probably the most "fun" and least "deliberate practice" there is!

You're speaking in very strong terms, as if we really understood how people become good musicans, but I think we really don't understand it and people take many different paths.

(My background: I started on guitar at about ten, switched to mandolin at about twenty, have always dabbled in other instruments, and at this point my main one is probably piano. I play in two contra dance bands, https://kingfisherband.com and https://freeraisins.com , and mostly play for dancing.)

Piano skills are specially not permanent.

Some stuff remains for sure, but you lose a lot after a couple of years of not playing.

Really? Never heard of this even it makes sense. But could they come back like cycle skill?

I've heard this from a couple of concert pianists in my family, and I've dabbled a bit myself too. Basically lost my 3-4 years of playing after a while. I can still play scales and chords, more or less, but I've tried learning again and struggle even with basic pieces.

I am way better at practicing things I wanna do. I stink at learning shit I am not enthused about. Here's a thought I had earlier today...

I hate going to the gym. I just don't like it, and that makes it hard to get good at it. I can make myself go, that lasts 1 to 3 months, I eventually hurt myself because I was to cheap to invest the resources necessary to learn proper form, I take a couple weeks off, lose all my progress, and get stuck on the fact that the same cycle is gonna have the same outcome, and I just stop going.

I love going to handstand classes. I see the same small group of people most classes, I know most of them by name, and for some reason I like working towards handstands. It have been taking these classes for 6 months, and my progress is slow for reasons (discipline, bi-lateral radial head replacement, weak starting point), but I love going. I spend the time necessary to learn the body awareness I need, and I get private lessons when I get stuck on learning something harder.

I highly recommend not bothering with exercise choices you think you have to do, and seeking those you wanna do.

if the practice is not fun, in the sense that it’s compelling like a great book or a great game or a great conversation, then 1. it isn’t effective practice 2. you wont want to do it- great practice is for everyone