I had played 16-odd bars of Ode to Joy perhaps 200 times in the 10 days leading up to last Tuesday, in addition to a lot of other songs. I used to quite like the melody, but I've heard myself play it (badly) so many times that I was about ready to snap.
Not even rectifiable by listening to the full version? I find it nigh-impossible to be in a bad mood after listening to the 4th movement of the 9th. (Also 4th movement of the 7th or 5th.)
The other problem is the Dairy lobby in Canada coopted this song, inserting the words "Drink Milk love life Drink Milk love life" over the entire length.
2. Learning a musical instrument is the kinesthetic process of turning songs you love into songs you hate.
Oh my. I so hear you on that. Took me right back to my piano practicing days... *shudder*
What I figured out eventually, was that to play a piece well (piano anyways, but probably guitar too), your had to have a physical memory to the point where you didn't have to think about where to put the fingers, the fingers just went there automatically, so then you could think about other things like, for how long to hold the notes, or how hard to play them, etc.
The process of learning that finger memory is what bored me to tears and drove me insane that I couldn't do it perfectly within a few tries.
The good news is I'm bloody-minded (I memorized a dictionary, right?) so I've stuck with it and some of the muscle memory is starting to kick in. It's getting to be the fast part on the learning curve which is always a complete blast :)
I just heard about Rocksmith on Friday at our Xmas lunch at work. A coworker told me about it (and I don't own any consoles). I was pretty quick to say "gee, thanks, you just cost me $400 for a PS3 plus the game." :-)
Wow-- that sounds nothing at all like my experience of learning the piano. I found nothing aggravating about playing a piece wrong a jillion times in the process of getting it right. I found piano lessons boring as a child and preferred instead to sit at the piano and jam.
With my students, if we've been belaboring the same passage too many times, I won't press it. I move on to another passage and then, time permitting, we return to the trouble passage.
It is very different singing or playing alone than playing with someone else. Specifically, you can't afford to stop or do things over. It's no cause for alarm; with practice it gets easier.
There's something to be said for playing stuff VERY slowly, and gradually playing faster. Seems to work on Sesame Street: http://youtu.be/xk9l6fyxcBE
I definitely agree re: the playing with someone else, which of course I've never really done.
I probably should do the really really slow thing a little more often. I'm being excruciatingly slow on chord transitions now; my teacher suggested going as slow as possible and just trying to figure out how to transition from one finger shape to another all at once, rather than putting the fingers down one at a time and trying to get the chords coming out faster.
I used to have a hard time figuring out why I played worse at my lessons than I did in the previous week of practice. One of the biggest things turned out to be my shoes.
Comments 10
Not even rectifiable by listening to the full version? I find it nigh-impossible to be in a bad mood after listening to the 4th movement of the 9th. (Also 4th movement of the 7th or 5th.)
Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNX_seqmDWw
It was like the above, but a bit worse.
I got better at playing it, so I no longer want to cut off my fingers :)
Reply
Oh my. I so hear you on that. Took me right back to my piano practicing days... *shudder*
What I figured out eventually, was that to play a piece well (piano anyways, but probably guitar too), your had to have a physical memory to the point where you didn't have to think about where to put the fingers, the fingers just went there automatically, so then you could think about other things like, for how long to hold the notes, or how hard to play them, etc.
The process of learning that finger memory is what bored me to tears and drove me insane that I couldn't do it perfectly within a few tries.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
With my students, if we've been belaboring the same passage too many times, I won't press it. I move on to another passage and then, time permitting, we return to the trouble passage.
It is very different singing or playing alone than playing with someone else. Specifically, you can't afford to stop or do things over. It's no cause for alarm; with practice it gets easier.
There's something to be said for playing stuff VERY slowly, and gradually playing faster. Seems to work on Sesame Street: http://youtu.be/xk9l6fyxcBE
Reply
I definitely agree re: the playing with someone else, which of course I've never really done.
I probably should do the really really slow thing a little more often. I'm being excruciatingly slow on chord transitions now; my teacher suggested going as slow as possible and just trying to figure out how to transition from one finger shape to another all at once, rather than putting the fingers down one at a time and trying to get the chords coming out faster.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment