Pitfalls of playing piano for pleasure

I am enjoying playing piano as a relaxing time, away from work pressures. Although I am not practicing to work up to a performance goal, I still do not want to become a sloppy player!! Playing for pleasure and not working on musical skills is a sure way for playing to get messed up with bad habits. Rhythmic instability and incorrect note readings creep in and take over over time. There are many pieces I have learned and am playing through now, all of them need a little careful work to be ready for performance. I am working on the Chopin C# minor waltz. The middle/fast section was a big mess, with missed notes and general lumpiness… a half hour with the metronome fixed that. At first I tried one metronome click to the bar, but had to switch over to one click to the quarter note. The quarter note clicks were what I needed to get perfect note accuracy, then I switched back to one per bar. The metronome helps with developing the musical line when the clicks are set to the musical pulse, such as here with one to the bar…which is the same as the musical pulse. I played the piece through for friends and was very happy with my improvement. There were no missed notes and the fast section flowed smoothly. I felt centered and in control while playing!! practicing piano