Ability Surge?

After weeks of playing my heart out with seemingly no realy progress, this morning I sat down and after listening to a couple of stride and blues pieces, I closed all of my sheet music and put it away, and then began running through blues in Cm, chording with my left and arpeggiating it as much as I could, and with my right, I was trying to lock my fingers for playing octaves and 'flutters,' (whatever the real name for that technique is...), and running up and down the blues scale in C. I was throwing together fifths, fourths, thirds and seconds, and the whole thing was so effortless. (Not to say that it wasn't without its mistakes...) But the amazing thing is, I know that I was playing far beyond my previous ability. (Which may not be saying much, but to me, it's pretty amazing.) I don't know if my ability has surged, or if it's been improving imperceptibly all this time and today it was just finally noticeable... Thoughts?

It probably means you've been practicing, and practicing right. These moments of 'enlightenment' are for me one of the best parts of being a musician. All the work one does for months on end comes together so perfectly once in a while. The frustrating part is those times are usually few and far between, as it takes a lot of practicing a new skill in order to dominate it. But I find they happen when we are about to despair because our practicing goes nowhere, kind of like an enticement to not give up just yet.

Obviously those things you thought were beyond your ability no longer are. You can now keep developing this ability (just because it happened once doesn't mean it will happen every time unless you keep working at it) and to begin focusing on the next rung on the ladder.

You've just motivated me to practice on an extremely unmotivating day. Thank you!

Elena www.concertpianist.com

Thank you. I appreciate the advice, too. I'm taking a break from practicing right now because my hands are aching, but later this afternoon, I'll be back at it again.

Ever Onward,

- - /****************************************************** **************** * Gary M. Letchinger * San Diego, California * Reply to the newsgroup only ******************************************************* ***************/

Thanks, Gary. I've experienced this with other things. I've noticed in the short time that I've been playing piano, that there are some days when I can really tear it up, and other days, I can hardly play a note. I just try to keep hanging in there and rolling with the punches... If it's good, I'll play a cheerful waltz. If it's bad, I'll play the blues. <G>

All The Best,

A cool piece to learn how to 'lock' your hands is The Sunken Cathedral (La Cathedrale Engloutie) from the Debussy Preludes. Check this one out, Frank.

I'm listening to an MP3 of it right now. (F#) Debussy was ahead of his time! What an amazing piece of music! I have a Debussy CD at work. Tomorrow, I'll see if this recording is on the CD. If not, I'll seek it out and buy it. Thanks!

There is a 4-cd boxed set of Geiseking playing Debussy's complete piano music (with the exception of a few pieces that were unpublished at the time he was recording). Geiseking is a standard recommendation in Debussy, but these are older recordings, so if sound quality is an issue you may want to get something else. I've heard some of Michelangeli's and Neuhaus' Preludes (which are both very good). The Neuhaus is OOP, though. I haven't heard Paul Jacobs in the Preludes yet, but you may want to look for those. They are more recent recordings and several people whom I trust have had good things to say about these.

Thanks, Milton. I've saved up a little pocket money, so it's off to the music store, next weekend. I've got a bunch of jazz CDs that I want, as well. (Man, nothing beats listening to jazz on vinyl, though...) :-/

Everyone sums it up well here. The key I think is to not get discouraged if you seem to regress a bit as someone said. It's only because you were very excited and feeling it todays as it came together. You have reached a level and will soon start moving to the next. When that happens, you will not be turned on as much by what you have done in the past and you may feel you are slipping. You are not - I go through this all of the time. There have been days when I felt like Art Tatum and the next day I felt like I couldn't play one decent thing. It's the insanity of music!

Sterling.

Thank you! The main thing I've noticed so far, is that at home, I can play my heart out, all over the keys, flying through chord changes, arpeggiating, and coming up with cool little riffs, but the minute I sit down at the bench in front of my teacher's piano, I draw a blank and my fingers turn to wood. Argh... I think this is performance anxiety, or else maybe I'm having a hard time fitting into the discipline of lessons... Whatever this is, I've got to figure it out and get over it, or else the only time I'll ever be able to play is when I'm by myself. Playing with myself is fun, but it's more fun to do it with someone else. <G>