Klarinet Archive - Posting 000417.txt from 2003/07

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Ignorance and competence
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 05:14:12 -0400

Claudia Zornow wrote:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > I do have to say, though, that my own quite wide experience of
> > students hasn't yet involved anyone with the degree of awareness of
> > how their playing fails to come up to scratch that you describe.
> >
> > And, though I would of course want to guard against contributing to
> > that sort of inappropriate preoccupation if I were to encounter such
> > a student, I think that the overwhelming tendency is in the opposite
> > direction -- and is certainly in the opposite direction on this
> > list.
>
> People may not have the same *degree* of awareness of their flaws as
> the character in the novel, but I've seen in other people, and
> certainly myself, an awareness of one's flaws and feelings of
> frustration and even hopelessness about them. Of course the healthy
> attitude would be, "I realize that in area <x> I'm not up to snuff; I
> shall practice more and improve." In reality it's easy to have the
> attitude, "I'll never be good enough and I may as well give up."

Perhaps we can never say anything that's both helpful and general about
all of this.

I suppose, looking at how you put it above, it all depends on what "give
up" means. You can give up on a particular passage or piece, you can
give up on a professional career, you can give up on the instrument
entirely. Any of those givings up might be appropriate or
inappropriate for someone, depending on the circumstances.

What is sure is that you can never succeed on any level, except perhaps
the very lowest, without holding for yourself in some shape or form both
what you aspire to and what you can currently do.

"A man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a Heaven for?"

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

.... The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to
reach it.

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