Guest guest Posted April 20, 2000 Report Share Posted April 20, 2000 I've been working on this very difficult piece of piano music -- it goes sooo fast, and your hands are running quickly all over the place. When anyone hears it, they think you've been playing forever. I've got over 3/4 of it practiced perfectly, which I learned quickly, but came to a standstill with this one part, that no matter how much I practiced, I could not get. Practice normally is very easy for me -- I just practice what I'm supposed to do with my left hand, then my right hand, and when I put them together -- voila! Music! But this one part had me baffled. No matter what I tried, it did not work. I've been practicing it for over a month now, to no avail. I finally surrendered to my piano guru and had him play it so I could observe. I realized I had been doing the left hand incorrectly! I was practicing a completely different tempo than my right, so it would be impossible to ever put together and get right. I went home, practiced 5 min., and had it down! LOL Now I'm working on perfecting it. I can now finish this piece, as all the rest is very simple and repetitive stuff I already know. I complained constantly "I just cannot get it no matter how much I practice!" Even when I thought positive ("I can do it!"), it didn't work. It was extremely difficult because I wasn't doing it right, which made it a terrible struggle for me. I could struggle the rest of my life with it, and never get it right! My point for mentioning this is, it made me realize (just like in other areas of my life that I struggle with) that I keep trying the same thing over and over, to no avail - just doesn't work. It will never work, because it does not match! It's not the same tempo in a sense. If this is true, then the struggle, which everyone usually says is great (!) (using the caterpiller/butterfly analogy), is really nothing more than things not matching together -- putting oil and water together, and it can't ever go together. Gotta know the right tempo that goes together, then viola! Instant beautiful music we can dance to... My 2cents on the struggle with others and situations in our life. Love,xxxtg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2000 Report Share Posted April 20, 2000 Dear xxxtg, MMmmmmmm! Thank you for sharing this!!! I've been exeriencing this in my career, and since the stakes seem so high, I keep returning over and over to the strategy that doesn't work, and it's very painful to have it not work over and over again. I do think that stopping to look again is the key. Thank you for expressing this so eloquently. It speaks so loudly to me because it is a description of your actual experience. Wow! I've often thought that the struggle is "good" mainly because it is tiring. When you really put your all into the struggle, eventually you fall to the ground, exhausted, and then there is the opportunity to look and resee the situation. So, the Buddha followed the path of aceticism until close to death, and then in his exhaustion, he saw the middle way, which turned out to be a fruitful path. We like to remember the successes of our saints and enlightened friends, and forget that they too were confused and tired at some point. Gives me hope... Thanks, Mark leteegee wrote: > > I've been working on this very difficult piece of piano music -- it > goes sooo > fast, and your hands are running quickly all over the place. When > anyone > hears it, they think you've been playing forever. I've got over 3/4 > of it > practiced perfectly, which I learned quickly, but came to a standstill > with > this one part, that no matter how much I practiced, I could not get. > Practice normally is very easy for me -- I just practice what I'm > supposed to > do with my left hand, then my right hand, and when I put them together > -- > voila! Music! But this one part had me baffled. No matter what I > tried, > it did not work. I've been practicing it for over a month now, to no > avail. > > I finally surrendered to my piano guru and had him play it so I could > observe. I realized I had been doing the left hand incorrectly! I > was > practicing a completely different tempo than my right, so it would be > impossible to ever put together and get right. I went home, > practiced 5 > min., and had it down! LOL Now I'm working on perfecting it. I > can now > finish this piece, as all the rest is very simple and repetitive stuff > I > already know. I complained constantly "I just cannot get it no > matter how > much I practice!" Even when I thought positive ("I can do it!"), it > didn't > work. It was extremely difficult because I wasn't doing it right, > which > made it a terrible struggle for me. I could struggle the rest of my > life > with it, and never get it right! > > My point for mentioning this is, it made me realize (just like in > other areas > of my life that I struggle with) that I keep trying the same thing > over and > over, to no avail - just doesn't work. It will never work, because it > does > not match! It's not the same tempo in a sense. > > If this is true, then the struggle, which everyone usually says is > great (!) > (using the caterpiller/butterfly analogy), is really nothing more than > things > not matching together -- putting oil and water together, and it can't > ever go > together. Gotta know the right tempo that goes together, then viola! > > Instant beautiful music we can dance to... > > My 2cents on the struggle with others and situations in our life. > > Love,xxxtg > ----- > > ----- > // > > All paths go somewhere. No path goes nowhere. Paths, places, sights, > perceptions, and indeed all experiences arise from and exist in and > subside back into the Space of Awareness. Like waves rising are not > different than the ocean, all things arising from Awareness are of the > nature of Awareness. Awareness does not come and go but is always > Present. It is Home. Home is where the Heart Is. Jnanis know the Heart > to be the Finality of Eternal Being. A true devotee relishes in the > Truth of Self-Knowledge, spontaneously arising from within into It > Self. Welcome all to a. > > To from this list, go to the ONElist web site, at > www., and select the User Center link > from the menu bar > on the left. This menu will also let you change > your subscription > between digest and normal mode. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2000 Report Share Posted April 20, 2000 At 10:58 AM 4/20/00 -0400, you wrote: >ta know the right tempo that goes together, then viola! >> >> Instant beautiful music we can dance to... >> >> My 2cents on the struggle with others and situations in our life. >> >> Love,xxxtg A hug to you, tg, for your happy posts this morning, I feel your happy mood and it makes me smile. I am glad you are here. Jill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 20, 2000 Report Share Posted April 20, 2000 In a message dated 4/20/00 6:56:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time, leteegee writes: << My point for mentioning this is, it made me realize (just like in other areas of my life that I struggle with) that I keep trying the same thing over and over, to no avail - just doesn't work. It will never work, because it does not match! It's not the same tempo in a sense. If this is true, then the struggle, which everyone usually says is great (!) (using the caterpiller/butterfly analogy), is really nothing more than things not matching together -- putting oil and water together, and it can't ever go together. Gotta know the right tempo that goes together, then viola! Instant beautiful music we can dance to... >> lt's always nice to hear from you, TG. (BTW, meant to tell you how much l liked your Sri Hitler post.) l didn't know you played piano -- hearing you compare your struggle with that to "the" struggle reminded me of a few things. l used to toil away at the keyboard too -- played 4 to 8 hrs a day (all classical for me -- what do you like to play?). lt was my passion, my life: total immersion in the world of Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin. Then l got an incurable case of elbow tendonitis and had to let go of it. lncredibly, it was over. My relationship with music was broken. lt created a huge void, which led me to turn to hatha yoga. Then a year into that, working with an lyengar instructor, l'd wrecked my back and other areas, so that caused me to stop hatha and turn to meditation. That caused the k experience, and l thought "Finally ....this is where it was all leading ....great." Little did l know, ha ha. The frustrations weren't over, but only just beginning. So, hope l'm not sounding self indulgent here, but your little parable took me back to this. Have l had the wrong tempo all this time? ls this the reason why so many great adventures have turned into disappointing struggles? l've wondered from time to time, as l've been struck by recurring patterns and have wished l'd done some things differently. But l've settled more into the belief that each disappointment, each loss was my destiny -- that each one has forced me to go deeper into myself, to look higher in my quest. Maybe l've chosen to believe this because it's what l've needed to believe, it's enabled me to go on. Or maybe both of the above are true. Hey, who says the struggle is great? l don't use that word -- rewarding, maybe ...sometimes. Thanks for a great post. :) love, jerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2000 Report Share Posted April 25, 2000 At 19:11 20/04/00 EDT, you wrote: Hi Jerry, snip> l used to toil away at the keyboard too -- >played 4 to 8 hrs a day (all classical for me -- what do you like to play?). >lt was my passion, my life: total immersion in the world of Beethoven, >Schumann, Chopin. Then l got an incurable case of elbow tendonitis and had to >let go of it. lncredibly, it was over. My relationship with music was broken. > lt created a huge void, which led me to turn to hatha yoga. Then a year into >that, working with an lyengar instructor, l'd wrecked my back and other >areas, so that caused me to stop hatha and turn to meditation. That caused >the k experience, and l thought "Finally ....this is where it was all leading >...great." Little did l know, ha ha. The frustrations weren't over, but only >just beginning. Wow, Jerry, that is quite a story of frustration. Have you thought of making music on a computer? It's much more accessible than it used to be. > So, hope l'm not sounding self indulgent here, >but your little parable took me back to this. Have l had the wrong tempo all >this time? ls this the reason why so many great adventures have turned into >disappointing struggles? l've wondered from time to time, as l've been >struck by recurring patterns and have wished l'd done some things >differently. But l've settled more into the belief that each disappointment, >each loss was my destiny -- that each one has forced me to go deeper into >myself, to look higher in my quest. Maybe l've chosen to believe this >because it's what l've needed to believe, it's enabled me to go on. Or maybe >both of the above are true. Like the music teacher at my old school said to me, "if you're going to make a mistake, make a BIG one!" ) I'm available for tuition in making big mistakes, btw, any (un)reasonable donations welcome. ) Love Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.