Are you chasing speed over competence? Have you (wittingly or unwittingly) become a speed demon?
I hope by now you have relented and incorporated Scales into your practice as a warmup! They make the case themselves simply because they are essential, central, and so easy, you have to wonder why you wouldn’t do them!
There is one little thing that bears mentioning though. Because, while it’s easy to fall into this trap, it can kill all your gains in an instant! What is this little thing?
Speed
Somewhere along the line we decided that playing faster faster faster meant being good. After all, if you were good, you wouldn’t be slow. You see it in every instrument – being a speed demon hot shot is a goal even in elementary school and middle school.
We have talked before about slowing down while learning new music. And the importance of working slowly through challenging passages for getting all the notes, rhythm, fingering, and phrasing accurate – and then moving into playing more quickly.
But what about when working on technical elements? Well, that might be when taking your time and staying in control is the most important. We know that all our music is made of up the patterns we practice when we do the “grunt” work – so we should be expending attention and energy when we do it!
There are so many things of which to be cognizant while doing this “grunt” work. Things like posture, breathing, being relaxed, finger order, complete closing, memory, tone, legato, timbre, and more. And that’s a long, but incomplete, list! Each time you do a good, complete, focused scale you learn a little more about your harp, the notes and their relationship to each other, and frankly, about yourself!
So take the time to do your scales with care, not speed (technical exercises as well). Focus on whatever you are trying to learn – whether that is using the right finger at the right time; keeping all the notes even in time, in rhythm, in volume; using a rhythm pattern; getting different weights out of each hand; learning to hear the interplay of notes in different intervals, or just to learn when you have warmed up enough to be ready to take on the stuff you need to work on. These are all important things. Being able to play faster is one of the things you need to learn – but it’s certainly not the only thing!
When your scales begin to be easy, change what you’re trying to learn – so that you are always learning. Did you start playing the harp so you could get stale? Probably not – so don’t let it creep up on you! Don’t leave out getting faster, but don’t let it be your be-all end-all either!
Take your time. You’ll be glad you did. With a little of that time, drop a comment about if you’ve been chasing speed over competence? If so, what changes will you make? If not, how do you keep improving? Can’t wait to hear from you!
I know I’m always saying it, but you might not believe me – I love to hear from you! Most of the time I’m living here in my own head, so it’s good to hear what’s going on in your heads!
I’ve written a lot about getting your practice time in. Recently Sharon mentioned that she struggles to understand why getting practice time in is so hard for some people. Most of us are adults, so we don’t “have” to practice like we did when we were kids and a parent “made” us do it. We have freely (and lovingly) chosen to play our beautiful instrument. We are adding it to our lives because we have always wanted to play it, because it speaks to our hearts and souls, because in our mind’s eye we can see ourselves behind it making incredible music. Some, like me, play because at the beginning, it was there (sorry I don’t have a better, more romantic origin story – I really did start playing because while we were drinking wine in a hot tub, someone suggested it, and I had a little free time that week). It is an instrument we love to love.
Sharon has a good point – why would you not make time for something you love? When you fork out many days’ salary for an instrument and pay quite a bit for instruction, why wouldn’t you spend as much time with your new crush as possible? When she began playing (as an adult), she not only looked forward to playing but also did play nearly every day. So, reasonably, she doesn’t understand how people can keep distant from their own true love! I don’t blame her for asking!
She’s got a point – as a teacher it can be frustrating to have students come in unprepared. It’s also frustrating to see a student get stuck, especially in elements we think of as easy or simple, that are steppingstones to more challenges. And as a teacher, it can be heartbreaking to watch a student’s own frustration as they don’t make progress.
I’m of two minds here. Of course I want my students to burst into bloom, playing ever more difficult music, generating their own compositions, flourishing as musicians. I’m not a monster!
But I also need to be the teacher they need. To recognize why they are sitting here with me. To facilitate their learning – whatever it is they need to learn today and in the long run. To be honest, students don’t come to me to prepare for their Juilliard auditions. They don’t come to me for coaching ahead of their Carnegie Hall debut.
They come to me because they have a yearning. Some of them are not even sure what that yearning is, but they feel it is connected to music of the harp. Some have played an instrument as a child, so they have some cognizance of the need to practice. Others have never played an instrument and honestly, practicing is a foreign concept. But they each have their own (differing) definition of success – and I must honor that…and play my role in aiding their journey.
All my (adult) students are professionals in their fields. They’re not strangers to discipline or hard work. They range from early career to retirement, and they represent divergent fields from engineering to non-profit administration.
They also have, you know, life to take care of. They face pressures from being laid off to moving, caregiving, care receiving, and more.
And yet, they yearn.
Are they challenging? They are, to a one, creative, intelligent, and curious. They make me think about the harp and music (and sometimes life) in new ways. But that’s about me – what’s more important is about them. And what they need to learn as we sit together.
Of course I want them to become proficient at playing the harp, but here’s what else I want them to learn:
Creating makes you feel whole.
Learning new things requires bravery – that you already have and just need to exercise.
While it’s nice to play really well, until then, it’s ok to play just ok.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Often what feels like no progress is just processing.
I cannot be disappointed in you – only you can be disappointed in you.
Hard things have big, juicy rewards.
What was hard yesterday will be easy tomorrow and be replaced with something even harder.
When you’re being attacked by multiple things, it’s easiest to take them on squarely but one at a time – so if practice slipped this week, so be it!
You can’t pour from an empty pitcher. This is something you selected for yourself – honor that.
When life hands you lemons, flex! (if you’re not “prepared” for our lesson today, I’ll think of some other way to torture you! 🙂 )
No matter how much you think I don’t want to review this again or that I’m bored with you, this piece, this technical element – HA! I have endless reserves of “again” – I use them all the time when I’m practicing and I’m happy to share them with you!
A little bit every day is so much better (and sustainable) than an hour the day before your lesson.
Students will often say:
“I didn’t practice again – you’re going to fire me!”.
Nope, you’re not getting out of it that easily! I reply:
“I will only fire you if you don’t practice and then come in here and whine, ‘I don’t know why I’m not getting any better’! Until then, let’s (do some musical activity that isn’t necessarily just playing whatever you didn’t practice).”
Having said all that, there are many reasons that practice gets skipped. I’ve found that in new students it is often because they don’t understand that they have made a commitment. And it’s like getting a puppy (but without the cleanup). But a puppy will whine, cry, and piddle on the floor while your harp will just sit there going out of tune.
Other students haven’t made a “permanent home” in their schedules for practicing, so they are in a catch-as-catch-can situation – and then it’s midnight and while lunches are packed, laundry is folded, and teeth are brushed, the harp is unplayed. It’s sometimes difficult to “find” that time. For this, I suggest getting up 15 minutes earlier for some you-time (I know, ugh).
Sometimes, practice grows in our heads. We don’t have an hour to practice. And like a callus, this concern grows with friction. Well, duh, who has an unplanned hour? It can be difficult to carve out time for something you’re doing for yourself, that has no monetary value or an immediately observable domestic value. For this, I often give “counter-homework” in which their practice is to sit on the bench but NO PLAYING! Just plant the tush onto the bench and then walk away. The next week might be to set a timer for 2 minutes and play pentatonic improv, but when the timer dings, get up and walk away. No extra time. This is a gentle reminder that when you (finally) get on the bench, you want to be there! Making the time dear helps highlight this.
Just so you know, I have it on good authority that the practice police are not going to give you a ticket if you break up your practice into smaller segments. You can do scales for 2 -3 minutes in the commercial break of the show you’re not going to give up watching. Do technical exercises for 3 – 5 minutes (which is actually less than the time for the commercials on PBS! (yes, I watch too much tv)). Want 10 minutes to work on your new tune? That’s about how long it takes to boil pasta (it will cook without you watching it and you get dinner at the end!). When we acknowledge that practice does not require a monolithic chunk of time, that we can control it and still learn, then it gets easier to squeeze it in!
Enough of my pontificating, Sharon had a good question – if you’re not practicing, what’s stopping you? Are you bored with your tunes? Do you have a technique question that’s getting in your way? Do you think some version of, “this is pointless, I’m never going to get there (however you’ve defined “there”)? Do you dread your lesson time? Are you not gelling with your teacher? Do you struggle to fit it into your day? Are you no longer in love with your harp? Things that get in the way tell you a great deal and knowing the why can help with the what of “what to do”.
If you’re struggling, your teacher already knows – and wants to help! So, you can always ask. If you don’t feel that would be a productive conversation, you can ask me!
Do you find you often don’t get to practice? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have a chance to try some of the stuff I’ve listed here, I’d love to hear how that worked out for you! Sharon and I are very interested to hear your thinking about the thing you love to love, so please let us know in the comments!
One of the reasons people don’t like to play scales is that they are “boring”.
Boooorrrrriiiiiinnnnnnngggggggg
Here’s the problem with that thinking – boring is not a bad thing!
Wait, what?
It’s true – boring has some important positive qualities, all of which can make playing easier and better!
What are these qualities? Let’s take a look – they come in two flavors – one cognitive, the other creative.
The first of these – cognitive – means that you do not need to apply your full attention when playing your scales. When you have played something long enough, you have learned (something) about it. It feels like playing is getting easier (we’ve used this metric before!). Eventually it will be so easy you might think it is “boring”. But being bored is a really just a feeling of tedium, not an indication of thinking of the elements of playing. When tedium sets in, you actually have learned enough that your brain is looking for a new challenge. That means you have spare capacity to do or learn more. That’s why we have more complicated versions of each scale as well as other scale related exercises. This is definitely something to pursue. And it can go on forever – because once one thing is easy, there is room for expansion and adding to your effort. Once it’s easy, there’s no end to the things you can do to make your scales more interesting!
The second flavor is creative. When you have achieved an ease of play as mentioned above, you can use that foundation for creative exploration! Being bored is a great place to start when you want to be creative. That same freedom you have from being bored will allow you to come up with new ways to play your scales. Or you can use those scales to come up with new melodies. You can also use these strong scales to come up with varying harmonies – the possibilities are endless!
So, the next time you are thinking your scales work is boring, instead shift your focus. Develop a take on making them more effortless so you have the spare cognitive capacity to take them farther. Or use them as a launch point for creative exploration. Keep in mind that you can also bring the two together – using your freed capacity to be more mindfully creative.
What do you think? Are you going to go for freed capacity or creativity or both? Let me know in the comments!
We just past Quitter’s Day – the day by which most people have let their resolutions fade out and die. It’s depressingly early in January to have given up. But really, days are long, especially if you’re trying to make a change in your day…or your practice…and motivation and willpower can only hold on so long.
How do we make a different choice and skip right over Quitter’s Day so we can continue to grow?
We develop habits that reinforce our continuing to keep going!
What makes a habit? Repetition and intention, focus and routine all build toward consistent learning, growth, and performance.
Pablo Casals was asked why he continued to practice given that he was 80 years old at the time. He answered that he thought he was making progress! And he lived quite a while longer, so he had loads of time to practice. He had a practice habit and so should you!
So, what’s the easiest habit we should have but might not? What will get us to confident, fluent playing which comes to mind as an appropriate end state for all of us. Let’s build one strong habit that can support that and helps throughout our harp lives.
Let’s build a daily habit of playing scales.
We learn from a young age that scales are boring. And they are if all you do is rip through them mindlessly! But just a little bit of thinking and they become not only a technical challenge but also brain work and a portal to music we know and music we haven’t learned yet.
Typically, we think of doing scales at the start of practice time – and they do make an excellent warm-up. But there is no rule that says you can’t do them at the end of your practice – like a desert. Or, for that matter, you can do them in the middle as a break between other tasks and learning.
No matter when you do them, scales are a tremendous habit to build. And once you have a small, strong habit built, others can follow. When will you do your scales? Let me know in the comments!
It’s January, so it’s still appropriate to be looking back at where you’ve been to help you look forward to what your next steps should be. As a teacher, I know that we are all over the map with this – some students already have a list of things they’d like to work on, pieces they’d like to play, events they’d like to participate in, etc. Some others look blank. So, who’s right?
Like so many things, there is no right answer, only the answer for you. The downside to not having thought about this is that you might drift because you’re not heading anywhere. Of course, the downside to having already made a list is that you can be too focused and could miss out on serendipitous opportunities.
Indulge me – jot at least a couple of things you’d like to work on this year (if you haven’t already). Could be technique improvements (because we can all use that – bad habits are slippery!). Might be to tackle a piece you have always admired but have been intimidated by. Maybe it is a social goal, like inviting people to play ensemble pieces together (formally or informally). Or possibly you feel like you need a challenge that will test not only your playing and learning but will really stress your mettle?
Once you have a couple of ideas, take a look at them – probably some are smaller, shorter term (I want to learn to play (insert beautiful but very easy tune name here)) and some will be bigger, longer term (I will play with others in ensemble).
Then you’ll need to suss out the steps that will get you there. For our short-term example that might be that you’ll need about 6 weeks total to study, learn, practice, polish, and finish that tune. In our longer term example that might be to identify 3 pieces of level appropriate ensemble music, find 3 people you would like to play with who are at or near your level of play, invite them to join you, assign the parts, learn and practice your part, set a meeting schedule and place, and secure a place to showcase those pieces. Obviously more steps, some that require 5 minutes, some that will require a little effort over some number of weeks.
Both long and short term require that you keep an eye on where you’re going while also monitoring your progress, being honest in your assessment of your activities and development, “fixing” things, and checking that the gap is narrowing (or not).
Once you’ve got the activities, you can then build out your practice time. We all want to be efficient with our practice time, so interleaving these steps will make a good practice plan – include steps for both small and big ideas. Look for ways to “double up” and hit multiple ideas with one activity (I’m looking at you, technical exercises!). This way too, you are never practicing just to practice – always narrowing the gap from where you are to where you’d like to be.
All this will be true whether you’re working with a teacher or coach, or are guiding yourself. How will you incorporate small and large steps into your practice? Let me know in the comments!
I know it’s nearly Christmas, so you’ve probably already learned all the holiday music you are going to for this year. So, the next likely question is, what next?
How do you select the music you should work on next? You can, of course, simply ask your teacher to point you in the right direction. This is a great idea if you are a beginner or low intermediate – you’re at the stage in your harp life that you may not be ready to go without some guidance.
But if you’re a super independent beginner, or a more advanced student, you want to be selecting your own next tunes. How do you do that? Well, here are seven suggestions to point you in the right direction:
Go with your Heart – If you L-U-R-V some tune – learn it! This is also true for arrangements by someone you simply adore playing. Don’t worry about whether you’re ready. Tunes can be simplified, arrangements can be flattened, you can learn new techniques, and/or you can invest more time into learning. I never tell a student they can’t play a tune – they may not be ready to play it, but we can work our way there!
Go with your Head – maybe you know that you are weak at something – rolled chords? Harmonics? Whatever your weakness – find a tune (or arrangement) that requires that thing and work on it until you are good at the weakness. Two birds, one stone – you correct a weakness and learn a new tune to boot!
Go with your Gut – if you feel like you are missing something, you probably are. Seek out tune types you might be light on. Do you have all the different tune types you need to make a well-rounded set? Do you have fast tunes and slow tunes? Major and minor (and other modes)? Can you build good sets from the tunes you already know? If not, your gut is pointing out to you that you need to fill some gaps.
Go with your Reach – like going with your heart – what tunes do you not necessarily lurv but every time you hear them, you think, “I should learn that”? Learn those. These can be a little slippery because these are the tunes that you like enough to want to play but not enough to lurv. So, keep a list and learn these along the way.
Go with your Smarts – If you have loads of tunes but they aren’t in the right keys to make good sets, work on learning the tunes in different keys. This could be dedicated time to learn tunes in new settings OR it can be deep work on transposition on the fly. Both of these will be good for your brain, good for your tune list, and good for your playing!
Go with your favs – Not everything you play has to be work. Make sure you have some playful tunes in there too! If you love Taylor Swift, you can play that. If you love Mozart – have at it. Just because you may have made yourself a niche doesn’t mean you can’t get out of it every once in a while. Holiday tunes are sort of like that, n’est pas?
Go with your hunch. Be honest, are you working toward your Julliard audition? No? Then pick music that is a little bit challenging to learn but is engaging enough to keep you playing. If you don’t like it (no matter what it is or who assigns it to you), you’re not going to play, so don’t pretend. Move on to something you will play.
For adult (and more experienced younger) players, you can step up for these choices. A good teacher will, of course, make suggestions to move you forward. But in the end, you’re the one who has to decide. Don’t push the peas around the plate – take a little time to determine what you should play next.
Let me know what you pick – can’t wait to hear! Share with me know in the comments!
It’s the week before Thanksgiving here in the US. This used to be the indicator that Christmas was coming. Now it’s more like Halloween starts the holidays countdown (but that’s a different diatribe!). I don’t know how you’re coming along in your preparations for playing throughout the holidays, but I find myself wishing I had an extra three weeks!
You might wonder how I know I need an extra three weeks – not two, not four, but three.* It’s because I can see where I am, where I want to be, and where I had planned to be at this point in time. (I originally typed “should be” but went with “planned” because should is such an evil, subversive word!).
How do I “see” this? I have a sticky system. Literally!
My system allows me to track each of the tunes I need to have ready for a holiday program(s) as they develop. It also allows me to see if something is just not going to be ready so I can replan for something that I will be able to play better. After all, the point of holiday gigs is to spread cheer and comfort – not to terrorize yourself trying to wow people with your brilliance! Save that for another time like competition or audition!
This graphic gives you an idea of what it could look like. And here’s a shot of mine just now.
You may have seen similar systems in your travels – this is much like kanban or scrum. Not surprising since I am a systems engineer when I’m not being a musician**, so of course I cross my tools between domains (goose/gander, etc.). The differences are that this is just for you, not a group (although you could use it for ensembles!), it is not as rigorous because we’re not building bridges (except ethereally) and we only need as much rigor as is required and not more, Finally, while on the one hand preparing music is a “project” on the other hand, it’s more than that – we’re making art not planning to pour cement or launch wonky code.
If you’re eager to start, you might want to know – what do you need to use this? Well…
First – you need sticky notes! You need as many colors as you think you need. Lined or unlined? It’s up to you!
Next, you need enough space for you to keep track of your work over time. I like the little stickies because I write small but if you need more room, use the bigger ones (they do come in sizes from 1.5 in x 2 in all the way up to 25 in x 30 in). Use the size that lets you write comfortably and fits in your usable space. I use a variety of spaces – a wall, the side of a bookcase, that photo shows one panel of a room divider and when I need to, I switch to a sheet of paper – depending on my mood and where I happen to be at the time (and if I need to take it with me). I write the name of the tune (and maybe the source if I’m reading) but you can put whatever else you decide to put there (maybe the key you’re playing in, etc.).
Now, you need a scale for time. Use whatever type of calendar you work best with. If I have a long time (e.g., tunes I might teach next year) I will use a monthly calendar. If it’s something more imminent (like the holidays) I use the week. I used to use a daily, but I found that kept me too focused on checking the box rather than learning the music. Frankly, for daily progress I use a journal so I can capture details that would just get lost on my big sticky board.
Now, you need a metric. I typically use what I have shown in the graphic – whether the tune is coming along, practically done, ready to go. This not only tells me how the tune is developing, it also helps me plan my practice – if I haven’t actually learned something at this point, it gets more attention so it can get “caught up”. You will always have some tune in this category of disrepair – how much you stress over it depends on how important it is (relative to the time you have to prepare). It’s important not to stress over these – if you’re not learning you’re not living!
You need maintenance. This tool will only help you if you set aside a little time to review and update it. In the graphic example, that would be once a week so you can see, identify, and enjoy your successes, replan your practice as needed, and keep your sanity. If you review too often, you’ll get lost in translation. This is a tool but it’s not a cudgel!
And finally, don’t forget to… Breathe.
Give it a try, play around with it. It’s not rocket surgery, but it also didn’t come down a mountain on stone tablets, so feel free to modify it so it can work for you! Then, let me know how it goes when you start. I’d love to hear what changes you made for yourself and how prepared you think you are for the holidays! Let me know in the comments!
* PS – I just learned that the em-dash is the exclusive province of AI…and me! I probably taught the model that. And I assure you, for good or bad, this is all me and NI (natural intelligence)
** Ha! I’m not sure I could be one without the other – being a musician makes me better at thinking systemically and being a systems engineer certainly informs how I think about, work with, and play music. Yet, I persist in pretending like they’re not on the same spectrum.
There are so many connections between seemingly disparate things – activities, ideas, technicalities. This concept of making appropriate estimates of ourselves resonated with me.
I was reading Arnold Schwartzenegger’s email today, and he had some good points that will directly align with our harp playing. He points out that we (humans) typically overestimate ourselves at a micro level but underestimate the quality of outcome at a macro level. What could be more true with respect to our practice?!
What does overestimating the small look like? How about expecting ourselves to be able to flawlessly sight read a brand-new piece of music on the first try? Or thinking that we will thoroughly learn a new tune in a single practice session? Or expecting a short number of repetitions will result in flawless performance?
These are all clear overestimations. We would never suggest to someone else that any of the above will result in the perfection we crave. So why do we make such overestimations of our own practice?
But equally, we discount how much we can accomplish with steady, consistent practice. A little time every day will result in more learning and accomplishment because it starts small (and manageably) and builds overtime. If we apply a structure over time, we will learn more tunes and be able to play them more successfully.
In other words, 20 minutes of practice every day will result in more growth than 3 hours of practice the day before your lesson. Other things we have talked about before also make it work better to – keeping track of what you get each day, deciding (specifically) what to work on that will help you make meaningful progress in both the short and long term.
But you also get more by small and consistent – you will also be more confident of your learning and playing. Because you haven’t crammed your grasp of the music will not be tenuous!
So, if you find yourself thinking that you’re never going to learn the music, stop underestimating yourself. Acknowledge you will learn – a little bit every day. You won’t master the tune in a week. But you can gain a little mastery each day, stacking your gains – no matter how small,
Don’t lose sight of the fact that you will want to overestimate the small gains but also that you’ll underestimate what you can build with consistent practice over the month, the season, the year, and over the years.
Doubt me? Pull out your Christmas music and prove the point to yourself. This is music you have practiced (somewhat) consistently on a long-term basis with “cram practice” (November?) but also long-term practice (how long have you been playing those tunes?)
Stick with it. Put in the time – but in small bites.
Because, as Arnold says, “when you stop underestimating yourself, you start becoming unstoppable.”
What can you achieve if you take it in small, consistent bites? Let me know in the comments!
Sometimes I have no idea what I should write here. I could launch on how the blank page is terrifying but instead, I decided to poke around the web for a better idea, and in about three clicks, I had it!
I came across a page on journalling. It had a load of prompts to help goad you into writing in your journal. That’s pretty helpful. But farther down on the page, there was an interesting list that I decided could be molded into something that would be helpful here. It had a list of prompts for each day. That is, there were day specific prompts that could be used to move your journaling along.
What does that have to do with us? Well, we can use the same approach to tailor our practicing. If we view each day of the week as having a focus, we could tailor our practicing to achieve more (and maybe with less work?). As I thought about it, I was reminded of the childhood song in which each day of the week had a chore – washing clothes, ironing, sweeping. While we were singing around the Mulberry Bush we listed what we were supposed to do each day of the week. Better still, it’s changeable so we can fit in our own chores – our practice chores! If we listed our “chores”, we could be focused while still getting in all our practice, and meantime probably learn something while seeing progress over time.
What might we put in our song? Technical (scales and etudes)? Reading? Musicality (phrasing, dynamics, expression)? By the time we get to the mid-week, when we’re losing sight of what we’re doing, slogging through relentless repeats, our song could help us stay on track. We shouldn’t forget to include fun (tunes we know and love), accomplishment (tunes that are just coming along), or joy (tunes that remind us why we love to play). And by week’s end we would have gotten to everything and been left with pride or satisfaction (acknowledging our work)!
Once we know these, we can sing our song to ourselves (nothing wrong with using the melody from Mulberry Bush – or writing your own!). If you can’t recall, here’s a starting point:
Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush, Practicing on a music day.
This is the way we play our scales, play our scales, play our scales. This is the way we play our scales, Practicing on a Monday.
This is the way we phrase our tune, phrase our tune, phrase our tune, This is the way we phrase our tune, Practicing on a Tuesday.
Etc for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
This is the way we play for joy, play for joy, play for joy. This is the way we play for joy, Practicing on Sunday.
You can put your tasks in any order throughout the week. You can even use a different time frame if it’s right for you (2 weeks? 3 days? What’s right for you?). It’s up to you how many stanzas your song will have. The point is to keep focus – it might be just what your week needs.
What would your lyrics be? Can’t wait to hear! Send me some of your ideas!
We all do it. It’s especially clear on fast tunes, but every tune you learn goes through it.
“It” is the ugly phase. You know the ugly phase. It’s that time when, no matter what you do, it seems like you are stuck – or even going backwards – as you try to learn a tune and make it satisfying!
Your fingering falls apart. Your rhythm deserts you. Your memory fails. All the phrases sound the wrong and none are in the right order. The repeats are like torture. And when you add the harmony, nothing hangs together. It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. And it feels like it will never end, leaving you with a tune in tatters. It’s so discouraging. It feels like the tune is winning and that you are losing.
But are you? No, you are not.
It is actually especially important for you to get through this phase, no matter how intimidating it feels. There is a lot of learning going on. Your brain is sorting through all the inputs (the notes, the fingering, the rhythm, the series of sounds, and more) and outputs (same list mostly) on its way to figuring out what goes where, when, and how. We consistently underestimate how much we’re trying to learn, how it is related and interleaved, and how challenging it can be to make music.
To weather this phase and get to the other side with a mature, satisfying tune that you can be happy with and proud to perform you, of necessity, need to keep track of what you have done and what you need to do next. How should you keep track of your progress and assure yourself that you’re getting somewhere and are “winning” the battle to learn? Document your progress! This ensures that you will see how you are winning even when you feel like you’re losing or going backwards! And it will help you see that even when you feel like you’re going backward (losing), you’re making progress (winning!).
It’s important that you do this in a manner that will help you follow your progress. This could be keeping a written journal to capture descriptions of your work and describing progress verbally. Or you could make audio (or video) recordings of your practice to hear (and see) what has changed across time. Or you can use any medium that records your thinking and your progress – draw your concept or do a puppet show! Whatever you need to see your progress over time! The form is not important. What is important is to acknowledge your progress over time and find what you should work on next to continue your development. While it is essential that this be a tool for your use, if you are actively taking lessons, you can work this with your teacher.
I know some of you have been consistent in capturing your work – let me know what form you use and any insights you might share with others. If you have kept track but haven’t been consistent – could you let me know what you think is preventing you from being consistent? And if you’ve never done anything like this before, what do you think would work for you? Looking forward to hearing about how you keep track of your wins!
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