Do It Again
Excerpt from a violin lesson
(I recently found recordings of my childhood violin lessons. This is an excerpt from one of them.)
Student (me) plays a scale. Three octaves, fast.
Teacher: “No vibrato!”
“I guess my hand just wants to do it by itself?”
“Ok. But your hand has to get used to the way it feels without. Do it till your hand remembers and you can do it right the first time.”
Does it again.
“That’s how I want to see it the first time you do it! If it means doing it two-hundred times a day till your hand gets used to the way it feels, do it. This happens every single time you play for me. First one is always the worst one.”
“It’s that way at home too.”
“Well? So do it enough times so your hand remembers! Don’t just do it till you get it once.”
“I don’t.”
“You do and I can tell that you do. You’re stubborn, you argue and you don’t follow through. I know you can do better.”
“Okay.”
“Do it till you get it many many many more times than you don’t get it. You do it twenty times wrong and five times right. What are your chances of getting it right? Not so good. Just do it till your hand remembers. Do it again.”
Starts to do it.
“Don’t test! You have to do it like you know that you’ve got it.”
Starts to do it.
“Don’t test! Try & remember. Get the memory in your hand.”
Does it right.
“What does that feel like? Remember what that feels like. Now play an arpeggio. Ok. Good.”
“Why did you have me do the arpeggio?”
“Why? So that your hand would do something else in between. I don’t want it to forget. OK— see —it’s just not that hard. Do it again!”
Does it.
“Again. No vibrato.”
Starts to play.
“Really try hard not to vibrate here. I know it’s hard, but please.”
Plays.
“Don’t vibrate!”
Plays.
“Don’t vibrate. All this extra motion interferes.”
Plays.
“Do it slowly if you have to!”
Does it.
“You can do it even slower. Do it again.”
Does it again.
“Don’t vibrate!”
“Again.”
“Again!”
“Don’t vibrate!”
“OK. Faster.”
“A little faster.”
“Faster!”
“Don’t vibrate.”
“Again!”
“Better.”
This is an audio excerpt from a different lesson around the same time. At the end of a couple of hours of dragging me through the coals, my teacher would just let me perform, and confine herself to shouting comments like “Sing!” “More!” “Energy!” and “Don’t let up!”
It was the best.
There is a special, necessary madness you get with the right teacher. Beautiful!
...thank you