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My instructor in college (reluctantly) admitted to us that he would occasionally watch golf while practicing. He made sure to mention that he thought golf was good for this since almost nothing happens (you can zoom in and focus on a particular problem without missing much “action” during the broadcast).
I’ve spent a lot of time running through scale passages/doing technical work while I practice (leading up to my senior recital, I watched all 6 seasons of “Lost” in <6 months: 2 episodes a day during my 2 hours of technical work (scales, arpeggios, etc)).
I recently started this up again and admitted it to a friend over coffee. He instantly picked up a book he was reading and found a passage in it where Liszt recommends reading a book to “dull the boredom of practice” (or something to that effect).
I’ve since stopped watching tv while practicing. After all, I didn’t see any substantial technical gains after watching all of “Lost” while practicing way back then. I still feel that my technical chops are inadequate.
And, if there’s anything that early recordings teach us, it’s that performance standards have risen quite a bit over the past 100+ years. Liszt’s skill level would likely be unremarkable today. And, clearly, his advice on practice is not informed by any scientific research.
But, yeah, I’m with Noa. If it gets you practicing, go for it.
Keep in mind that many of my students (and this is generally true elsewhere) that the biggest difficulty is starting. If they say “I will practice for only 5 minutes, even though I don’t feel like it”, they’ll practice. And at the end of the 5 mins, they’ll be motivated to keep going.
Perhaps you could use tv in this same way. Say “I’ll only watch the first 10 minutes of this show”, then see if you’re motivated to turn it off and do deliberate practice for the rest of your practice session.
Eventually, you may be able to cut out the tv entirely.
