Klarinet Archive - Posting 000276.txt from 2003/03

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Better Rebecca
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 17:43:33 -0500

This is just to make a small but IMO very important point.

It is a triumph to be able to recognise *what* you think is better than
your current effort in somebody else's performance of something. Most
people's failure to improve is almost entirely to do with the fact that
they cannot do this, *in detail*.

If you're a good amateur, just beginning to notice those details will
help your playing. But if you seriously want to be a professional, you
*have* to get into the habit of comparing your performances with those
of others in this way.

The brilliant truth to remember is that valuing a detail of what 'they'
do above what you do at some point shows that what they do is *already
YOURS*, as one of your mental representations of excellence. (You
wouldn't have the apparatus to recognise it as 'better' if it wasn't
'yours':-)

On another tack, I thought the point of Rebecca's very honest post was
to tell us that she had found that coming up against someone else's
ability (was that what had happened? -- we never found out) had had some
other effects upon her, like making her angry and feel a failure.

In my view, it does her a disservice to tell her that she shouldn't feel
those feelings, if she feels them. Of course, I do know that doing her
a disservice was very far from anybody's intention. But my point is,
Rebecca's *trying not to feel them* might stop her discovering where
they come from, and thus mastering them.

Even if she never is entirely free of those feelings, "I'm angry I can't
do that!" isn't very far away from, "I'm damned well going to practise
that bit until I *can*!"

Note the *specificity* in all of this. What kills us is generalisation.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.

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