Note 4-Tuning into some Goals

March 4, 2008 at 6:26 PM

The piano tuner is here working on my Upright piano.
This gives me some time to think about this week's Goal.
My challenge this week is to have my 55 measures memorized.
The degree by which this is attained or not attained is yet to be determined however,this goal has 3 measurable components:
1) To play the entire piece without looking at the music
2) To play the piece with correct bow directions
4) To play each note as written with correct tone.
This goal will be reached if I do this 100% correct OR I could give myself some room by setting standards for each component.
#1--Look at the music once--Give up 5 points out of 100
Look at it twice---Give up 10 points
Look at it 3 times ----Give up 15 points
#2 Incorrect bowing corrected again once--5 points
Incorrect bowing corrected again ---10 points
Incorrect bowing 3rd time or not corrected--15 points
#3 Tone problems--This can be corrected later and will not apply to loss of points at this time.
I could set the standard high with zero loss of points, allow no more than 20 or be generous and allow one "do over." If I get more than 30 points off then I have not achieved the goal.
My teacher has outlined the plan for memorization and if I have followed his prescription then I should be in line for success.

From William Wolcott
Posted on March 4, 2008 at 7:46 PM

55, 100, 95.....

Wow. That's a lot of numbers! :)

Now, let's see....

how many sections are there to memorize?

I counted about 7. That's maybe one relatively short section.

Memorize one relatively short section a day, and in about a week you'll have it memorized.

Right now it seems your brain is seeing a big mountain. Our brains like to play tricks on us sometimes. lol Luckily, we're more than our brain!

Convince yourself that the challenge of memorizing 7 relatively short sections in about a week (or so) is really just one more step in the process of learning the piece.

Don't worry so much about bow direction and point totals for now. Let me help you with that after you've memorized about 7 relatively short sections of the piece. Even if you don't have it all memorized by tomorrow, that's ok.

We'll work on it in the lesson.

The brain doesn't like 100+ problems. It deals much better with one problem at a time. One section a day....or so. Then the next, and so on.

Once it's memorized, then we'll go to the next step. It is only the beginning!

See you tomorrow! :)

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