Haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been asked to play a fantastic chamber work that I have committed to learning and it’s taking every spare minute of my time to learn. It’s been kind of an obsession with me to work on at least one section of it every day because every time I come back to it I feel like I’m starting over from scratch. But I’m constantly reminding myself to practice what I preach to my students and realize over and over that the slower I take it and the more I break it down in layers (learn notes, find better fingerings, better bowings, figure out rhythms, do the correct dynamics, find the gestures, learn the tempo changes) the longer my work sticks in my brain. Since I’m quite an experienced performer (and have played a few less difficult works of this same composer in past years) I keep expecting to learn this piece much more quickly.
Putting on the metronome just slightly under tempo and thinking- yeah, this ought to do it. But – no way! So, okay, a little slower- nope, still can’t do it… okay a bit slower yet- don’t think so… until I finally find a speed that I CAN do it! And it’s about HALF TEMPO! OH NO! How stupid am I???? Well, guess what, I’ve gotten over it and am really enjoying taking it THAT slow and allowing my brain to not just learn ALL of the layers of it but also retain it better. Fortunately, I have the time to learn it at this level before rehearsals start and the performances are upon us.
So, YES! We can ALL learn ANYTHING as long as we do it slowly enough. Even if it’s one note at a time! It’s really all about being patient with ourselves! Okay, that’s it. Gotta go practice another measure… :))
