Ye Olde Music Major and the Self Fulfilling Prophecy

That's kinda cool....it sounds Harry Potterish...


   Greetings from college where I'm preparing a senior recital. Two of the pieces, the Ingolf Dahl Concerto and Youshimatsu's Fuzzy Bird Sonata both have very rapid, heavily articulated passages and the Youshimastu has slap tonging as well. This has made me cringe a bit all summer because I'm not very skilled at slap tonging and rapid articulation is an area where I could use some improvement. More on this in a minute (I had another one of my self reflective moments in my lesson this morning).

   I gave a lesson yesterday to a ninth grade student named Abigail. Abigail is one of my favorites because she has a great attitude and a rare work ethic. She works HARD. I decided that since she was going to see Ferling etudes for the next four years of our all region band auditions, I might as well get her started on the etudes. She's ready. She'll learn and grow from working on them. As I opened the book for the first time I watch her eyes get very large. I said "What's wrong?" to which she replied "So many 16th notes!". I asked her what was so bad about 16th notes and she said what most young students would say- "They're FAST!!".
   I explained to Abigail that the 16th note is a measurement of rhythm, not time. She didn't get it at first until I had her play the first two measures of Ferling #2 at 35 beats per minute. I asked her if they were still fast and she said 'well, no.'. At that tempo she (of course) had little difficulty making it through the first few systems of the etude.
   You see, there's a self fulfilling prophecy here. If we begin work on a passage thinking "Oh man, this is going to be HARD!", we'll be right....100% of the time. If we say 'Ok, let's begin slowly and work this out.', it might take a bit of time but it's so much easier than banging our heads against the proverbial wall because we believed something was hard going in.
    Back to my articulation issues- you see, it isn't just younger students who go through this. In my situation, I simply have to remind myself that there are just techniques that I haven't mastered....yet. Slow, diligent, and consistent work will correct that.

Go in to the practice room with the confidence that if you start slowly, practice in a matter that is smart and consistent and be content with the fact that progress takes time....then NOTHING is impossible.

Be Smart.
Be Confident.
Get it done.