I stumbled across the following quote while scrolling through my Facebook news feed and I think it fits the process of learning a musical instrument perfectly.
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
- Louise Hay
(Side note: Louise Hay is a wonderful author and an incredibly inspirational person whose works have had - and are still having - a great impact on my life. I highly recommend her!)
Let's read that quote again. Read it slowly to yourself. Read it out loud. See if anything speaks to you in particular or jumps out.
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
Often, as violinists and as people, we want to rush to the end result. We have an image in our imagination of us standing in front of an orchestra playing our favorite concerto, or sitting in the concertmaster seat of a professional orchestra. And that image doesn't fit with our reality, which is that our teacher has asked us to play a G Major scale three times a day, with a tall violin and a curved bow thumb. Right? We want to play the Tchaikovsky (or Mendelssohn, or Brahms, or Sibelius, or Beethoven...or all of them) concerto, but we don't want to put in three or four hours of practice every day for ten years. We want the goal, but we have neglected to factor in the process that will lead us to our goal.
When we are impatient, and we think more about getting to the next step or to our ultimate goal rather than focusing on what we are accomplishing in the present moment, we actually hinder our own learning. Someone who talks about how much they want to get to the next piece in the Suzuki book but who has neglected to learn the correct bowings or to memorize the final piece in the book they're in is actually making it harder for themselves! Someone who persists in playing through the next piece in the book without fixing their bowhold is only teaching themselves bad bow habits. We might get depressed because we're not "there" yet, wherever "there" is. We might spend time talking about how much we want to be a violin soloist - and spend more time talking and thinking about it than actually practicing!
The truth is that the path to any one of those major concertos, or to being a successful soloist, or concertmaster, or to being a fulfilled and happy amateur musician, or to doing anything that involves playing the violin starts with that first violin lesson, and learning to name the parts of the instrument. It starts with learning how to hold the violin, and practicing that over and over, every day, until it is natural and balanced and free.
The fastest way to get to where you want to go is to live fully in each moment of your practice sessions. Be aware of those little (or big) adjustments your teacher is making in your playing. My students always have exercises to help develop some skill or another. Practice your exercises consciously and consistently. Talk to your teacher about your goals and ask them to work with you to create a plan to reach them. And then live fully in each step of that plan, mastering the violin one small step at a time.
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
- Louise Hay
(Side note: Louise Hay is a wonderful author and an incredibly inspirational person whose works have had - and are still having - a great impact on my life. I highly recommend her!)
Let's read that quote again. Read it slowly to yourself. Read it out loud. See if anything speaks to you in particular or jumps out.
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
Often, as violinists and as people, we want to rush to the end result. We have an image in our imagination of us standing in front of an orchestra playing our favorite concerto, or sitting in the concertmaster seat of a professional orchestra. And that image doesn't fit with our reality, which is that our teacher has asked us to play a G Major scale three times a day, with a tall violin and a curved bow thumb. Right? We want to play the Tchaikovsky (or Mendelssohn, or Brahms, or Sibelius, or Beethoven...or all of them) concerto, but we don't want to put in three or four hours of practice every day for ten years. We want the goal, but we have neglected to factor in the process that will lead us to our goal.
When we are impatient, and we think more about getting to the next step or to our ultimate goal rather than focusing on what we are accomplishing in the present moment, we actually hinder our own learning. Someone who talks about how much they want to get to the next piece in the Suzuki book but who has neglected to learn the correct bowings or to memorize the final piece in the book they're in is actually making it harder for themselves! Someone who persists in playing through the next piece in the book without fixing their bowhold is only teaching themselves bad bow habits. We might get depressed because we're not "there" yet, wherever "there" is. We might spend time talking about how much we want to be a violin soloist - and spend more time talking and thinking about it than actually practicing!
The truth is that the path to any one of those major concertos, or to being a successful soloist, or concertmaster, or to being a fulfilled and happy amateur musician, or to doing anything that involves playing the violin starts with that first violin lesson, and learning to name the parts of the instrument. It starts with learning how to hold the violin, and practicing that over and over, every day, until it is natural and balanced and free.
The fastest way to get to where you want to go is to live fully in each moment of your practice sessions. Be aware of those little (or big) adjustments your teacher is making in your playing. My students always have exercises to help develop some skill or another. Practice your exercises consciously and consistently. Talk to your teacher about your goals and ask them to work with you to create a plan to reach them. And then live fully in each step of that plan, mastering the violin one small step at a time.
"Impatience is only resistance to learning. It means we want the goal without going through the process. We need to let ourselves learn, step by step. It will get easier as we go along."
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