Mostly worked on invention #6 today. It's fun, and coming together
rapidly. I spent some time studying its harmonic structure to help me
get through the thicket of accidentals
in the middle section.
Here's a very common
mistake that people make when practicing. In trying to work out a
passage, they play it until they get it right and then move on to the
next thing. Sounds natural enough, but what did they just do?
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it right
go onto the next thing
So,
in effect, they mostly practiced playing it wrong even though the last
repetition happened to be right. What's going to happen the
next time they go back to that passage? They'll play it the way they
practiced it: wrong.
It's important, once
you get it right, to immediately practice it the right way until it's a
stable habit that overwhelms all the wrong ways you played it. If you're
honest with yourself about what's really going on, and if you're
ruthlessly self-disciplined, it'll look more like this:
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it right
play it wrong
play it wrong
play it right
play it wrong
play it right
play it right
play it wrong
play it right
play it wrong
play it right
play it wrong
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
play it right
go onto the next thing
Now you're done with that passage and it won't come back to haunt and frustrate you.
[Before beginning this blog, I was sending emails to a friend. I'm incorporating those into the blog, and embellishing them here and there. This entry was from 1/18/2012.]
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