In Robert Girouard’s excellent interview this month with Ed Sheeran’s drummer Mark Pusey, they talk about “having more skills than you need for the job.” I was extremely happy to see Mark mention this, as it is something that I espouse to all of my students. It was also something that was stressed to me by one of my teachers John Riley. John used to always talk about having extra fuel “in reserve” just in case you need it. Today, I tell students that if they want to really perfect a song whose tempo is 120 BPM (for example,) practice it at 130 or 140 BPM. Of course, you should first learn it at 120 (or slower,) but after you “have it” at that tempo, push the tempo a little, go that extra mile. That way you aren’t playing the song at the top of your tempo range and struggling. […]