a lot of the advice for practising a hard piece of music reminds me of martial arts training. they deal with very similar issues:
- your performance is optimal when you're relaxed
- but the situation where you need your training the most (the stage, the ring, the assault) is exactly the opposite of relaxing
- making a mistake tenses you up even more which leads to worse performance, and it spirals
- you have to cut this impossible Gordian knot to find a place where you just let go and do it without thinking
- tl;dr "you don't rise to the occasion, you fall into your training"
- sadly training your body in this way is repetitive and tedious
- so you'll be naturally attracted to flashy techniques and niche stuff, but that's a distraction, nothing falls together if the basics aren't strong
- so the training advice has to do with how to handle the repetitiveness and the tedium (deliberate, intentional practice with clear goals; evaluating progress critically; taking plenty of rest; 80/20 principle, work on what gives you the most trouble; etc. etc.)
