Comments

dont mind if i do
belch Indeed. I have been reflecting on my preparation of Grade 7 exam lately and thought that I have spent 1-3 hours everyday playing the same thing over and over again, taking almost a year to bring it up to exam standards. Sure I learned the notes very quickly, but that didn’t mean I learned the “music” quickly. In fact, if I had a more effective practising method and have a clear objective of what I want to tackle and accomplish for that day/week/month, it would have taken me a lot less time while able to accomplish more. After reading your blogs, I started to question myself what I wanted to accomplish at the end of every practice session and in what way I would play a certain passages differently to improve (instead of repeating 1,000 times the same way).

I’m quite happy realising that even though the exam may be over, that doesn’t mean I’ve “finished” learning the pieces. Once in a while, I returned to playing old exam pieces (even going back to Suzuki book 3 and 4) to see how else I could improve the playing, interpret the music differently, or shape the phrasing more interestingly etc, after being a bit more advanced. It’s also quite encouraging being able to play something easily where I thought was quite impossible back then. It’s like realising that although it is impossible to play Paganini Carprices now, it is absolutely possible in a few years time if I keep practising and advancing.

Keep on blogging. I (and I think many others) are quite benefited from reading.

Buri (and William), I'll drink to that. : )