This book was written for every music student, young or old, who has ever felt stuck practicing the same piece over and over, wondering if it will ever be finished.
As a music teacher, specifically a harp teacher, I can attest that the most difficult part of teaching is watching a student struggle. When you know that the student is practicing, that they are truly putting in the effort, and that effort is not yielding results, both teacher and student can quickly become mired in a quicksand of frustration. It's a frustration that grabs hold of the soul and eventually leads even talented students to give it up altogether.
The cause of the frustration is plain enough: the piece is going nowhere. But why is that? Why isn't the student's practice moving the music forward? Or why is the progress so slow?
Over the years, I came to discover that most people, not just my students, didn't really understand HOW to practice. Everyone knew the WHAT, or thought they did. But most people describe practice with phrases like these:
- lots of repetition
- correct repetition
- playing it a hundred times correctly
- doing it over and over again until it becomes habit
Those descriptions are accurate as far as they go, but they certainly seem boring and unmusical. What if there were a better way to look at practice, one that focused on these things instead?
- efficient use of time
- practicing musically
- practicing with the "finish" in mind
- focusing on results, not repetition
What follows in this book is the product of my work with my students to help them finish what they start. Whether a student is learning a piece for public performance or just personal pleasure, he needs to take a piece to that final stage of completion. That's where the joy in playing music is found: in actually PLAYING MUSIC.
And that is the aim of my Kaleidoscope Practice System. In your practice you will substitute focused work for hours of practice time, intention for repetition, quality for quantity. You will learn the power inherent in having a broader and deeper understanding of the music you play, and you will find freedom from the tyranny of the notes. You will practice, not striving for perfection, but rather focusing on the distinct skills that will make it possible for you to play a piece well from beginning to end.