Sports don't turn up often here. And when they do, they're about individual sports. Recall what we can learn from the tennis crowd in my Federer Moment post of 3-20-07. Here's something new, from a NY Times piece on an amateur receiving coaching from an Olympic medalist (7-07):
"The best time to fight old habits and make corrections is when you're going smooth and slow. Really think about what you're doing during warm-up or warm-down or easy swims between hard sets. But when you're doing hard sets or racing, turn the brain off and just let your body go on its own."
This is what the swimming pros do. It's also what the piano pros do. If you're not doing it, you should. One caveat. You have to have done some spade work first. Abruptly changing the metaphor, you have to put black on the boots before you can start polishing them.
2 comments:
That is so true. It's particularly a challenge with my intermediate ("easy") pieces. It's tempting to play them quickly because the notes are easy enough to play. But if I want to play it with the same musicality that I dream of using with the more difficult pieces ... I need to go slow and steady, even on these easier pieces, and really dig into and internalize the music.
In my return from my piano sabbatical, I've begun practicing my C#-major prelude at an agonizingly slow pace (in "real life," it's a pretty fast piece, and my fingers are capable of hitting the notes as something like the recommended tempo, but "hitting the notes" is about all they do at that speed). If I can work out the nuances at the slow pace, when not depending on the wonderful brilliant sound of the piece played fast, then those nuances will come through when I up the tempo and put my hands on autopilot.
Very good comparison. I'll even forgive you for the abrupt metaphor shift at the end of your post. :)
Glad it was of some use, Waterfall! You put it well, that w/o slow practice, hitting the notes is about all one can get. Of course, there are some Pros who do that too. As for that metaphor. Ahem. One of the great things about writing as part of my real world job is that...since I know the rules I get to break them. With abandon :).
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