Practicing

So, now I'm thinking about practicing. I'm thinking that some people don't like practicing things ("I would learn to play guitar, but I know I'd never practice..."), and this is making me question the term that I've applied to those happy times clearing my mind of everything but getting that hand movement perfected, or bringing that melody line out in front of the harmonies, or connecting all the notes in the bass part. Someone wrote on a discussion list that I read that they say they are playing piano, or working on something on the piano, but never that they're practicing. Hmmm...well, practicing is work, in a sense (in a very real sense, if you want to look at it as "I've been working really hard on this, I'm going to go take a walk to give my mind a break from concentrating and give my hands a break), but it's also something to be undertaken joyfully. I tend to retain emotions and weird associations from practice time, and to always remember them, on some level, when I play whatever piece I'm practicing (which, btw, is a good reason to be careful about practicing with the tv on in the background--I still associate the Menuet I from Bach's first cello suite with I Love Lucy...odd. Maybe not negative, per se, but definitely a little weird). Um...train of though derailed a bit, as I started wondering about associations of old tv shows and other aspects of life... I associate Donna Reed with creamed corn, and Mr. Ed with pepperoni pizza. But it's more complex than that, really, because I associate the taste of creamed corn, but the texture of pepperoni pizza...huh. And now I'm having an ellipse fit...
I guess I'll have to return to my thoughts on practice later. I don't feel inspired to ponder the subject further at this time, but I suspect I will again. Oh! I do have another thought a'bubblin' up here: I was going to say earlier that practice should be joyful, but it's also an almost emotion-free zone, when it's technical work. Zen-like, maybe. As dad would say, be the ball.