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Six musings on learning a musical instrument...
“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
...which introduces the first of my musings on learning an instrument...
No 1 - You must love your instrument. Technical mastery and well-thought-out interpretation will get you very, very far, but even if you can fool an audience you can’t fool yourself. Pick an instrument and repertoire that inspire you and the dream begins!
No 2 - Spend most of your practise time on the bits you can’t play – wallowing in the bits you can play is not strictly practising! Why not do 15 minutes practise then 45 minutes wallowing if you still have the time?!
No 3 - Learn everything in slow motion, and don’t stop practising when you get it right once. Stop practising when you get it right every time, then speed it up...and then start wallowing!
No 4 - Listen to the sound you are making – never be satisfied with getting the correct notes, rhythm, dynamics etc. The final and most important step is adding your own personal interpretation which gives you ownership of the performance. This might be through a particular nuance of articulation, injection of emotion or expression of character. The only way you can experiment with this is to listen to what you are playing, asking yourself such questions as... do you like the tone you are producing? Are you making the music come alive? Are you conveying something to your audience? Are you invoking some sort of response in them? However, remember there is a balance here – the underlying technique must be solid.
No 5 - Don’t get hung up on mistakes during a performance. Get good at disguising them and keep the artistic integrity of the performance your top priority. To quote legendary Russian pianist Lazar Berman – “It’s not important if you make a mistake while performing, the important thing is how you get out of it.”!
No 6 – Practise little and often. Lengthy practises can be daunting to the extent that you put them off and don’t practise at all. Committing to doing 5 minutes is psychologically easier to handle and you are likely to do this much more often – especially if you leave your instrument and music out ready at all times. I personally have many more 5 minute free slots than hour ones. Oh, and it works more effectively too.
I could go on, but I’d like you to come for lessons... !!
