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Thanks Markham. I’ll take your advice on my scales practice. Apparently I misunderstood what I was supposed to be doing so I appreciate the correction.
DavidThanks guys!
Angelo,
I relate very much to what you said. We live in a world where we want instant results. Modern communication via email means we expect others to reply in a few minutes or an hour. When I first started working, I would send a letter to someone and not expect an answer until the next week! Now we get frustrated when we have to wait. When it comes to learning to play the piano I suppose that impatience tempts us to take shortcuts (like you said). But that isn’t a quicker path to success and just causes more frustration. Then we give up.I like David’s (Markham’s) practical steps and I’m going to take some of those up. Great advice! What I had already decided on was a minimum of two practice sessions a day at the same time each day. If something intervenes then I force myself to re-schedule for later that day. I do that because I’ve decided it’s a priority. There’s no such thing as not enough time. I MAKE time for the things I place most value on. When I’ve let my piano learning lapse in the past I have to acknowledge that I didn’t want it enough. That’s the cold hard truth. David S talked about the ‘lack of caring’ factor and that’s what it is. I think my remedy for that is to make a promise to myself as if I was making a promise to someone else. It’s like making an immediate goal as Markham suggested. So I’m making a promise to myself that if I practise Misty and 3 scales every day (2 sessions of 20 minutes) that I’ll be able to play them perfectly by the end of November. Yes, I’ll aim to enjoy the process but I think the discipline will produce the rewards – more so in the initial stages. I need the discipline to get me past that initial barrier until I get to enjoy what I’m playing. The word ‘discipline’ sounds like a harsh word but it basically just means following a path set out by our teacher/leader. And we have that don’t we?
One other thing I’ve noticed. If I commit to sitting down to practise for 5 minutes, I usually practise for 10 or 15 – never less. Like most things, the hardest part is getting started.
David
Hi Judy and Angelo,
thanks for replying. Good to know there is life out there!Judy, that’s great that you’re teaching others. I suppose I tend to assume that Sudnow students are beginners at learning piano. Clearly that’s not the case. I signed up for the course about the time that David was in the last stages of his illness. It would have been a privilege to meet him.
I hope you DO get motivated to keep going with this. I’ve been listening to David’s seminar again (must be about the 20th time now!). I’ve been reminded that I haven’t taken his advice to do exactly as he said. That is, to get the scales to where I can play them in 2 and a half minutes perfectly and on time, learn the first couple of songs and then start voicing my own. So that’s my goal now for the rest of this year! I’m sure it will pay off.
I’m in Australia (Canberra) so it’s not easy to meet other Sudnow students.
Angelo, I’ve seen many of your posts on the forum – both recently and from when I first registered. Good to see that you’re still going. So…why would you say you ‘struggle with the Method’? And what would help to fix that?
David
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