Comments

 Brian, Good post. I don't play at your level but I recognize this problem. Your suggestions are interesting.  I know what the cause was for me (but I cannot apply this to others. They have to decide for themselves whether it is applicable.) I used to rely on facility to play things. I cultivated facility by repetition.

Repetition does aid facility do some degree. But repetition has limits.

I had to eliminate crutches and I had to learn technique and I needed to learn how to analyze. I had to dissect passages: how long is every shift, what are the intervals between every note,  what is the finger pattern for this passage, what fingers do I pre-position, what fingers cover multiple positions etc. Then I had to learn the motions and postures that allowed for repeatability and accuracy. This is ongoing but I also need to cultivate my ear so that it anticipates what I should be hearing. It is stupid to shift to a note three or four times and think that it is right but then after testing the pitch finding that I am a half step off. Several things were obviously wrong but my testing mechanism (my ear) didn't pick them up and force me back to analysis.  

The more I do this the less frustrated I am and the fewer "no progress days".

Hi Brian, even if me too I'm not your level, I regularly live this and I become angry etc... as I said many times here, my best cure ever is to listen to Oistrakh's Bach concertos that are so lively that it always makes me smile even when I don't feel like it at all!   And this makes me realize that the fun will come back another day, that if I stay angry, it will just be worst and tense up everything...  Also, it helps to remember your good memories with your instrument and to say to yourself that, somehow, this cannot be all "gone".  With each painful practice, one becomes stronger and better player after...

These days, I realized with great horror that I played (left hand) a little too on my nails...  and that one of my bow finger was 1 mm out of the place it should be...  I showed this to my teacher and also how I wanted to fix the problem. She agreed and said that even with super good musicians, when they changed the slightest detail, they play more crappy for a while. I was kind of depress about it but she said 1000 times that she prefered a student that plays not so well for a few lessons but who realizes her problems and work to fix them.   But the good new is that it doesn't last forever!  But I do know how bad it feels when your practices go wrong and I'm sure this happens with everyone.  Well, it is to everyone to find its reciepies to get out of this lol 

Anne-Marie

at least you realize it. I'm convinced some students don't even care when they play "not at their best" and just do nothing about it... perhaps don't even realize it???

Several of these are related to the "Inner Game" practices.  Freeing  your attention from the minutiae to experience the entirety of an action.  Concentrating on an image that is an analogy for what you want to create.  Focussing on the results of whatever you do, rather than on what you are trying to do.  I think they are valuable exercises.

What you mention at the begining... YES!  It happens and I carry this dread that I'm going to mess up my hard earned efforts and get stuck wasting time having to undo a birds-nest!  But your tips and the statement that playing the violin in relation to ones state of mind then quoting Drew...... That was a shot in my arm!

Got to Love them Prunes!

Thanks Maestro Hong!

Brian you are such a freaking genius!  I was practicing yesterday and it was about two or three measures in the Mozart that were just melting, like I had never played it before.

 

Thanks so much for your amazing words.

great post, brian! and very helpful...i'm bookmarking this post for those times i tend to get frustrated w/ my playing.

i love what you had to say about going back to basics. many times, it's something so small and simple which needs to be adjusted, but when i'm frustrated at my playing, i tend to automatically assume i'm doing something REALLY wrong or simply can't play a particular piece...when really, it's as simple as adjusting the position in which you sit, moving a music stand slightly, or concentrating on basic finger positioning and bow hold (all things that i think once we learn to play, are easy to take for granted at times!).

really insightful, thanks again for posting!

 Brian, I loved your suggestion of envisioning a laser extending out from the fingerboard, and I definitely agree about how we violinists tend to complicate things in our practice.

While reading your post, I kept thinking about Yoda's words to Luke Skywalker that he had to unlearn what he had learned (from The Empire Strikes Back). I thought that could just as easily apply to our thinking about practice. ;)