On Trying to Play Piano Away from the Piano...

I put a lot of time into being a pianist. But people don't always realize how much time and energy goes into it.
I tell them it's like exercise. You have to do it every day. I can't just stop for a couple weeks, then dive back in and expect to play my Mozart concerto (my first ever--squeeee!) at the same level as before. It hurts my head, it hurts my hands, and is a tedious struggle getting back on track.
Rachmaninoff nails it, saying,

"If I miss practice for one day, I notice. If I miss practice for two days, my critics notice. If I miss practice for three days, everybody notices."

But some days it's a fight to drag myself to the piano. Some days practice is boring. Sometimes life gets in the way and my time is forced to be spent elsewhere. The solution?
Score study! The fancy name for what's basically the Think System, Professor Harold Hill's ingenious method of practicing away from your instrument. But unlike his students in "The Music Man," I'm actually making progress.

Nowadays, I bring a score to the coffee shop and play on the table top, or to my receptionist job for when I have a break. The library. The park. Long car rides. I'm amazed at how much this mental weightlifting
has helped me improve this summer, and how much time I save. By the time I practice at the piano, my fingering and rhythm is already solid, and I can dig deeper into the music. It also gives me the feeling that I am an invincible musical wizard. Or a Jedi. I can't tell which one is better.

Sometimes I get curious looks from people. They ask how I can call it practice if it's not at a piano. What am I actually doing? A lot, as it happens, and it's paying off.