Walking in an Unfamiliar Dark Room

 

I continue to preach - rather unsuccessfully - the need for students to slow their music down, especially in the early stages of learning a new piece.

Today I related it to trying to walk around in a dark and unfamiliar room. If we are concerned about injuring ourselves, we don't walk into a dark room the same way we would in a room filled with light. We slow down, open our eyes wider and feel our way, being careful not to stub our toes.

We must treat unfamiliar music like a dark room. We must slow down, open our eyes - looking carefully for signs along the way, feeling our way from one note to the next, one phrase to the next. If we are making many mistakes and re-striking keys, we are going too fast for our skill at that time. By slowing down and learning everything slowly and correctly, we actually speed up the learning process and our retention. Speed comes only when we know our way around.

Until we finally learn to slow down and feel our way, our music will remain unfamiliar and dark.