Comments

This sounds a lot like meditation, or "mindfulness." Observing the thoughts and where they go. The meditation book I was reading compared the mind to an elephant's trunk: if you just let it flail around willy-nilly it will knock things over, but if you give the elephant something to hold onto, like a stick or some Yost exercises, it focuses and moves gracefully. That's a very good description, Karen. Emily,

I like your analysis and it is beautifully written. To me the notes are "little people" all with a duty to perform the best they can and the fingers are dancers legs gently or powerfully placing, sweeping, sliding and leaping to the notes.

Have a Blessed Christmas!

Whew--I use to drink a lot of coffee--for a long long time. I hear ya.... I like your images of shifting too... Ditto Drew sorta.

I'm not very advanced shifting yet, but there's just something au'natural going on with my placement for some reason at this point. Must be guitar/spatial/aiming for the center of the fret kind of thing.

You've motivated me though--thanks.

Emily - have a good holiday with your family and a well-earned rest. As always, your blog is fascinating; you have a great imagination. For those of us not familiar with Yost, is there a particular volume of sheet music? Is there someplace one can even get the Yost exercises anymore? I've seen them mentioned over and over, and they're out of print?

Great blog as always, Emily. Have a good holiday.

Nope, they're out of print. Mine is a copy from Steve Redrobe. I do my Yost exercises EVERY DAY and found that I actually LIKE them. This is saying alot. I love your imagry on these exercises!

Unfortunately Yost is not in print anymore. My "copy" is a few penciled in excercises in my scales book. But once you understand the theory behind the exercise, you really don't need the book to do them.

Emily - can you scan the Yost and make it available?