One reason I love playing is that there are few situations where steady improvement from dedicated practice is more evident. I tell my math students this all the time, of course - even compare working practice problems with running scales and arpeggios. But if you sit down at a piano and force yourself to do the work - even if you're not having fun - then you get better. And then it gets fun, because music is amazing and making music is even more amazing.
In college I did an REU program at Texas Tech. And REU is a chance for an undergraduate to spend a month or so doing the things a grad student would do, living and breathing their subject with a small group of like-minded students. Honestly, I didn't get much mathematical value out of that experience, but it was perfectly timed piano-wise. Before the trip I (ill-advisedly) purchased a copy of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu (who knows if this is a good version). It was so out of my league at the time, but I had no idea (the cashier's comment: "wow, you must be quite good" should have tipped me off) and so I soldiered through that piece. Measure by painful measure. And by the end of the program, I had it, and I also had the knowledge that I could learn just about anything if I was willing to put in that steady work.
I never forgot that lesson, exactly, but I have certainly been ignoring it for a while. It's good to be back at it.
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