Fast slow
mistakes tell us where to go and what to do
If it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly
failure is always an option
practice makes perfect?
deep practice involved stop
attention Stop
Why are some people so good at the piano or singing, or art (fill in your field of endeavor here________) ? Why do some people seem to get it while the rest of us struggle? Are they just born better? Are they smarter, more talented?
Perhaps, but consider this: Some people have just figured out how to practice effectively.
There was a time in college when I practiced all the time and I just wasn’t getting any better. Why ??? This just didn’t make any sense; practice makes perfect, right?
Not necessarily.
I wasn’t paying attention to mistakes I was making. I sang the easy things and gave up on the hard passages. I was so stressed at my failures, so I avoided them. I got so upset, that I couldn’t attend to the two things that would make me better, my mistakes and zeroing in on the parts that were just on the edge of my abilities.
What I have learned ~
Mistakes are good!
If a mistake is made, stop! Ask yourself; (and answer) what is going on here? Try again. If you blunder again, instead of calling yourself stupid, Stop! Ask yourself, would it work better if I used a different fingering? If you make a mistake stop! try playing three long counts to each note. Look hard at the music. Are there any other spots that are similar? Really take the time to figure it out.
Practicing something just out of reach of your abilities will make you better.
This is hard because no one likes to sound terrible, but when you allow yourself to be bad something good happens. Opera singer, Renee Fleming, has said in her master classes sometimes you have to make all sorts of sounds to get to your most beautiful voice. She remarked once that if anyone heard her practicing they would think she was a five-year old singer and not a particularly good one at that. And this is a world-class singer speaking!
An Artful Earful 