Klarinet Archive - Posting 001048.txt from 1997/02

From: Martin Marks <mmarks@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: practicing
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 21:32:26 -0500

At 04:25 PM 2/28/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Fred Jacobowitz writes:
>>professionals practice quite a
>>bit less than students because, among other reasons, a) we have
>>already learned much of the repertoire we need, b) our technique is set
>>and much of our practicing is just maintenance and not actively learning
>>new techniques (which takes much more time), c) We have other stuff to do
>>(such as families) which often cannot take second place to practicing,
>>unlike students whose main priority is learning (practicing). So we learn
>>to budget time wisely (we hope) and to prepare in advance for killer
>>weeks.
>
>Hm, interesting. I'm by no means a professional (until a couple months ago,
>I was a lapsed amateur, now I'm back up to amateur status). But I recall
>that there was a study in the last couple months that surveyed the
>practicing habits of professional classical piano players as they age. Older
>players (60+?), even though their general cognitive and motor skills were
>measurably declined, were judged to be just as good as their younger
>counterparts. But this was only true of those players that practiced _more_
>than when they were younger. The theory was that as players lost brain cells
>to the aging process, the extra processing was needed to shift the old
>learned reflexes and memories to new parts of the brain.
>
>At least, that's what I remember of the study. Please correct me if I'm
>wrong, anyone...
>
> -Harlan
>
>--
>Harlan Harris Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>hharris@-----.edu (217) 244-5974
>
>I read the same article. It also said that some of these artists(Horowitz,
Rubenstein) played into their late 80's and early 90's but their skills were
only
maintained because they never let up on their practice.
Marty