It is often said that we can be our own worst enemy, and this is never more true than when we are practicing. No-one really wants to practice, they would rather play perfectly all the time with no effort. There is the famous story of cellist Pablo Casals who broke his thumb on a hiking accident: the first thing he felt was profound relief he wouldn’t have to practice for at least a month! Is it in any wonder then that when we are finally able to do a little practice the first thing we do is drift off in our minds to some other place and dream of this and that in order to avoid experiencing the full horror of addressing our imperfections? Well, it is not only normal, it is natural, and all musicians must compensate for this by working as hard as they can to practice with full grounded focus, instead of wafting away into their imaginations, painting castles in the sky while neglecting their scales and arpeggios .