Practising is what we do for ourselves. It is solitary. It is where we work in harmony with ourselves and teach ourselves everything we will ever know. A good outside teacher is essential, and skills are learned in lessons. However it is that time on our own, where we make those skills our own, through our own brains and our own instincts – that makes the instrument our friend and the skills second nature; money in the bank to be drawn on at will.

Practising is a luxury. Students often fail to realise this. In the full hormonal bloom of adolescence, the answer to the question