Step Away from The Music Stand

Or at least a particular piece of music.

I've been working my way through Frederick the Great's 100 Daily Exercises one exercise per week. Last week's was #11. For some reason I just could not get through it without making mistakes. I'd work on a trouble spot and then bobble another place where I had no previous trouble. Never the same mistake in the same place two times running. No matter what I did, I'd fumble something in the two line exercise. Yet I kept working on it, trying to get through whatever it was that kept tripping me up.

I told Jonathan about the irksome exercise during one of our conversations about playing and practicing, and he said, "Maybe it's time to leave Frederick alone for a while." At first I thought, no, I just need to move on to the next exercise come Monday. But after pondering his comment, I figured maybe he had a point, so today I pulled out the Berbiguier Etudes that Lise assigned to our class when I was in college and began working on #1.

Sometimes you need to step away from something, to take a break. It allows you to approach it later with a new perspective and a new energy. It's why we take vacations--or ought to.

Of course, that means contemplating change, and that's something many of us have trouble with. Even a minor change in a routine can throw you off your pace. But without change there is no learning. Without learning we stagnate. That isn't good for us as musicians. It isn't good for us as human beings.