twocats I don't understand your procrastination comment then?
It is very, very difficult to avoid procrastinating the most difficult things to work on. Instead of attacking the most difficult passage that I need to be working on head on, I end up learning easier measures and practicing technique and so on, until the day of the lesson rolls around. I think this is common. While I was back in college, I would end up studying easy definitions and lemmas when I was studying far in advance. A two-page unbroken proof that you would need to focus for a solid hour to get the hang of? I could only do it right before the exam. I see this with piano students as well.
twocats Having read a ton of neuroscience content doesn't mean that you're putting it all into practice.
Oh, believe me, I've tried many things short of nootropics. They typically made me less effective, than just kind of naturally following my own rhythm and how things click in my mind. They often seemed to be flat out wrong for me. Statistics vs individual, perhaps.
twocats everyone is telling you that cramming the day of your lesson just doesn't work.
First of all, it is not everyone who said that. Several have, but for instance, MRC did not, and I still recall his post where he talked about how he memorized an entire piece over a train journey. Nor does my piano teacher: he told me he has memorized something (an easier piece) the day of a performance. No offense intended, but most of the people here who have said that cramming the day of your lesson just doesn't work are not advanced pianists/piano students. Who is to say that is the "truth"?
twocats Probably a little bit of genius.
Genius will have a neurological counterpart. When you say some people have a little bit of genius and the rules don't quite apply to them, you will admit that they will not for many other people too.