The Importance of New Ideas

It’s truly a Fluid world we live, isn’t it. Sometimes I find my own fluid moving like molasses on a cold winter night. Last night it was moving like a Mississippi flood.

Sometimes the fluids around us flow with our own. Life is bliss and wonderfulness.

Sometimes they do not. And there is challenge.

In my practice session this morning there was plenty of challenge. What I thought I had memorized and secured in my fingers was nowhere to be found.

I was tempted by frustration.

Happily, though, I didn’t go there. I chose the other path. Getting on with it.

I recognized that what was happening was a necessary step in the process of learning. The kind of memory I used was not the exact kind that would enable me to remember today, tomorrow, and the day after.

And today there was a depth to my practice that was not there yesterday.

One has to remember that we often don’t know what we don’t know. Until confronted by it. I’m thankful I was confronted with my ‘not knowing’ this morning. It’s much better to find things out in the practice room rather than onstage when you want to show your best.

This is why it’s a good idea to constantly question yourself. Questions like, ‘why do I think I know this,’ or, ‘can I play this in front of my toughest critic and feel Good about it’, are useful; when you back them up with proof that you DO know it, and CAN do it.

Now, it’s important to set realistic goals for yourself. Yet they must be goals; that is, something for which you must reach and stretch. A steady diet of this and you’ll be amazed at the ground you cover.

Yesterday I received some wonderful feedback on the ‘Allegro Players’ program from someone who has been in it for several months. I think the course is successful for so many people is that it sets clear goals and shows you the steps to reach them successfully.
There’s a wealth of detail to keep the ‘new ideas’ coming.

If this all sounds like what you need you may get Month One of this great instructional DVD course heading your way today.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. This month – Month 7 – folks are tuning up their left hands with Chopin’s ‘Minute Waltz.’ What a gas!