You’ve tried, you’ve really tried to play it right, but it’s just not happening. Your first reaction is to blame yourself; your lack of experience or your lack of talent. That’s not a good habit to have if you are trying to maintain any degree of confidence in yourself or your ability! Furthermore, knocking yourself down is not going to help you learn the part any better.
That’s a lose-lose situation; you feel bad and you still can’t play it right yet. The worst part is that it’s not even your lack of experience or talent that’s causing all this in the first place. It’s your lack of patience.
If you can’t play it right it means you haven’t played it enough times yet.That’s it. You simply have not played it enough times yet.
This may sound obvious, but it is a notoriously overlooked truth. There is a specific number of times that a musician must play something before it is mastered.
Of course, no one can tell you what that number is. It will be different for every musician and situation. But you will know when you get there because it will be right! If you’ve played it twenty-five times and it’s still wrong, maybe the number is thirty, or thirty-five, or forty. Keep going. You’ll find it.
Some passages may be so difficult that the number will be very high. That’s not unusual. In fact, it’s fairly common for even the best players to repeat a single passage hundreds of times, sometimes over a period of days, before they get it. Great musicians are notoriously tenacious; they don’t give up on something until it’s finished no matter how long it takes.
Just think how empowering it is to know that your success with a piece of music really is in your hands. It’s not a question of if you can get it. It’s a question of whether or not you can muster the patience to get it.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that you actually count the number of times you play your pieces! You don’t need to know the number, you simply have to keep going until you reach it. It’s like taking a cross-country car trip. You don’t have to know how many miles you need to drive to get from New York to California. You just keep heading west until you see the Welcome To California sign. Then you’ll know you’re there.
Another reason musicians give up on a piece is because they feel they shouldn’t have to play it so many times; that if they do there must be something wrong with them.
Actually, playing something many, many times is not an indication of lack of ability. It is simply how it’s done. In fact, it is how the greats get that way.
The next time you are stumped by a nasty part, don’t blame your lack of talent. Blame your lack of patience. Then ignore it and seek to discover the magic number.
“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow. That is patience.”
Anonymous
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