On Not Doing Things in a Half-Assed Way

I was frustrated by my piano lessons. I would play all week, sometimes hours a day, and then not play very well in the lesson. So I decided to make a change. I played, all week, one song for all my practice time, working with it methodically, with a metronome some of the time. I worked out some voicings, then composed a few fills, put in some rhythms. As a result, I played better for my teacher than I had ever played before then. Of course, the undisciplined playing still has its place, but real practice is not just fooling around on the keyboard, but doing things systematically. Improvisation is great, and I am learning to improvise too, but a lot of things have to be solidly in place before improvisation even makes sense.  

I could use some time to practice jazz standards, and devote other hours to composing and playing my own music.  That's the only way things are going to happen for me.  So it is with everything else.