by Sean Stone-Ashe
Perfectionism is a gift and a curse that many serious music students possess. The quest for perfection is
important to musicians because of the high standards in music and the feeling of satisfaction when everything
goes right.
However, perfection in its most pure sense is an unattainable phenomenon. If we are lucky enough to give a
performance of a piece of music with no mistakes, it is still undoubtedly the case that our expressivity could
have been more refined, or different decisions could have been made to better please the current audience.
For many years, I avoided saying the word “perfect” in music lessons when setting goals for students. It felt
counterproductive to set students up for failure with the unattainable goal of perfection.
Nevertheless, over time I have become more comfortable with using the word “perfect” when directing students
in a lesson. Consequently, student achievement has increased both during lessons, and week-to-week in their
own practice.
Rather than vaguely telling them “everything needs to be perfect,”, what helped me to feel comfortable
demanding perfect playing from my students was identifying specific goals minute-to-minute in our lessons
where perfection was a reasonable expectation.
If a student performs their assigned piece in a lesson and makes ten glaring mistakes throughout the
performance, it is not realistic to expect them to play it again with no mistakes just because you said so.
However, by going section-by-section through the piece you can work out solutions in some of the problem
areas, and then insist on perfection in rehearsals of these smaller sections.
Interestingly, most students respond well when I request a perfect run-through of a small section that we’ve
been practicing for a few minutes. Whenever the word “perfect” is uttered, students tend to feel that the stakes
have been heightened, and their focus usually increases as a result. I find that if I ask for a perfect run-through at
the right time, my students almost always deliver for me.
These moments are not only validating for students, but they also serve an important role in increasing the
overall quality of their practice habits at home. It is good for musicians to get accustomed to perfect playing and
successful attempts at playing their instrument.
Often when a student takes on a challenging piece, they allow themselves to make too many mistakes and
become desensitized to sloppy playing. If their plan is to be successful in music, this mentality is obviously
detrimental to their goals.
Instead, students should get used to identifying realistic goals moment-to-moment in their practice where they
can experience complete success. In this way, students get used to always playing at a very high level, where
perfection is often reached.
While this may not ever result in a permanent state of perfection in music, these practice habits will
undoubtedly raise the level of playing and confidence in performance scenarios, ultimately resulting in much
cleaner and more expressive playing.
It is easy to shy away from using the word “perfect” when discussing music and musical goals because we know
that nobody is perfect all the time in music (or anything for that matter!). However, the goal of perfection can
be a powerful tool when this goal is actually achievable. The key for any musician is to find how much music
they are ready to play perfectly right now, knowing what speed they need to go to make this happen, and
knowing which details must be performed correctly for the music to be truly perfect.
