The Ink-Pot and the Palette

That's it exactly! In my upbringing, "practice" just meant "keep repeating." There was always a sense that repetition alone would magically impart all needed improvements.

It imparts some, for sure: it stores the steps of a dance in muscle-memory and helps you memorize the alto line of the motet and those 501 French Verbs. Sewing lots of patterns and making lots of mistakes as a young girl certainly made me a better seamstress--albeit slowly.

But I don't think I can remember a single instance of a teacher having time to help me observe my own mistakes, analyze them, and correct them specifically and mindfully.

My mind keeps going to the amazing prodigies coming out of Asian schools. I'm sure the 18-year-old Chinese violin virtuoso has suffered endless repetition (and probably lots of pain and heartache), but I can't help wondering if an embedded Do-Observe-Correct practice style doesn't account for a lot of the achievement.