When at first you don’t succeed
Today’s title is the beginning of an old adage. Let me give you the whole thing, in case you’ve never heard it.
‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.’
Like any such ‘saw’, it can be true, and it can be untrue. After all, as Einstein one said, insanity can be defined as repeating the same action over and over, and expecting the outcome to change.
So, to get at the truth one must take the lesson from each and put them together. In other words, when practicing, yes, you will repeat things many, many times. But in doing so you must be making conscious adjustments with EACH repetition, constantly refining your purpose and intention to reach Meaning-Full outcomes.
Outcomes that COMPELL a listener to pay attention.
When you have someone’s full attention you have, in essence, a client. No matter whether you’re selling a musical performance, an instructional DVD course, or shoes.
As you know, I arrived here in Vermont a couple days ago with a lot of repertoire on my plate. There were two sonatas – for violin and harpsichord – that I was having great difficulty feeling any connection to.
My partner in crime felt the same way as we began rehearsing yesterday. First rehearsal provided a good deal of improvement on one of them. Through creative repetition we found the way in, so to speak.
The other sonata, by Darius Milhaud, proved more elusive. After all, neither of us play 20th century music for this unusual combination with any regularity. Well, never, actually.
Today things took off. It was very much akin to my motorcycle riding experience of last weekend – Attention to a goal + Creative repetition + Relaxation + Rest = PROGRESS. By the end of the session today we were both grinning from ear to ear, and eagerly looking forward to bringing this music in front of an audience.
So, keep these 4 things in mind as you practice. When the creativity begins to drain away it’s time to rest. When the creative juices are strong don’t forget to breathe and stay relaxed – burn too hot for too long and you risk burning out.
Just for the record, I did not select these two works. In this particular case it seems to be working out for the best. Normally I want to know in advance that I have the ability to, in my mind, say something meaningful with a piece of music.
But before you can do anything with anything, you must have some technique. Pure, efficient fundamentals are the name of the game in this regard. Get yours honed to a razor’s edge with ”Kreutzer for Violin Mastery”. And we just happen to have a little elf in Asheville who can have a copy headed your way tomorrow, even while I fiddle away up here in Vermont.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. And if you’re wanting to get up to Paganini speed, Volume 1 of ”Paganin for Violin Virtuosity” is the ticket. In either or both cases the same little elf will be doing what needs to be done.
