I have a degree in music. Many hours of my life have been spent practicing piano, voice, and flute. Many more hours of my life have been spent leading others in rehearsal. Moreover, I have spent yet more hours of my life practicing physical activities such as yoga, weightlifting, dance, and drama. I know a few things about effective practice and rehearsal.
My current occupation has skills that must be practiced as well. We even have scripts to read and use. Whenever someone has to explain something many times, a script naturally develops. If you check in on a math teacher’s classroom, you will find that she has her own way of explaining concepts, and that she does it almost exactly the same way every time. She may not know it, but she has developed a script. Even when she gets derailed by a question, she will give an answer and then return to the unwritten script. Some people think they are above the use of scripts: “it sounds stilted” or “that’s not me.” Actors use scripts every day: they work to make them not sound stilted, and they are paid to be someone other than themselves.
Just like some movies are better than others, some scripts are better than others. The math teacher in room 101 may have better scripts than the teacher in room 102, and her students learn more as a result. Which would you rather use: an organic but untested script, or a carefully developed and tested script?
Realtors generally don’t like to use scripts, or at least ones they are aware are scripts. Real estate trainers, on the other hand, are big on the practice and use of scripts. Trainers insist — and rightly so — that these scripts are proven to work, and will practice they will sound natural. However, first you have to learn the script. This goes beyond knowing what the words are and what they mean. It must be internalized, so the next line is the most natural thing you could possibly say: yes, just like “who’s there” naturally follows “knock knock.”
Recently, a trainer advocated “internalizing” by reading the script as quickly as possible and/or in funny voices and accents. I could not disagree more with this approach. The natural tendency is to perform in the same manner that we practice. For example, I once had to break a performer of doing a funny walk between music stands. He’d always done it that way in the practice room, and now he was unconsciously doing it on stage!
Practice itself does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.
In closing: 500 new fairy tales; fact checking; the TSA is a security risk; national debt; an excuse to keep people in prison past their sentences; federal deficit; and Too Big To Fail.