The Journey: Leaps and Plateaus

Written by Dottie Case
Published: January 15, 2014 at 2:30 AM [UTC]

Early on in my adult learner journey, I seemed to detect a pattern to my improvement levels. For a long time, it might seem as though I was staying at the same place, not getting noticeably better nor worse, and then, out of the blue, there would be a day when I'd think to myself, while practicing, "Wow...I'm sounding pretty good today!". (Good of course, being a highly relative term). Then I would practice the next day and it would be the same and I would realize that 'this' had become the 'new normal'. My progress all along the path was like that...if I were graphing it, it would be a relatively flat line, then a sudden jump, where I would then level off onto a new flat line. Like climbing a hill, then walking along a plateau for some length of time before the next climb.

Nineteen years into the journey, I'm delighted to realize that the same thing is still true. As I've written before, I have more time this semester than I've had in many years, and my focus (OK, perhaps obsession may be a more honest word) is violin....focused practicing like I've not had a chance to do in a decade. Or maybe ever, since I realize that I have so many more tools to bring to my practicing now.

This 'new' focus has really just been since the New Year, and I'm sort of stunned and delighted to have already hit a 'new normal'...and one that is blowing me away. There were times today when I'd play a passage and it sounded sort of amazing, and I found myself thinking, "Is this me and MY violin?", and then I'd play the passage over and over and over, just to wallow in the sound and the ease and the freedom.

There's more I could write but I want to bask in the happy for a while....

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