-
Recordings definitely help, but ultimately the better I get at listening to them, yet again I find more issues even faster making prioritizing is a challenge. I could try to always “pick 3” but if I’m in a polishing phase, all the big stuff (that I hear) is maybe basically fine. The remaining list of 10 things might all be relatively trivial if each one is looked at isolation and they only really become a problem when I try them all in combination — or layered on top of the excitement of a longer/full run-through that alone takes 5 minutes.
Or there might be a multi-level issue with one passage:
“yes keep up the energy up in this section of 16ths but don’t rush them, the articulation could be shaped better, the right hand is getting out of synch with of the left hand around fingers 3 and 4, and don’t tighten up so much worrying about all that you flub the trills”.
Is that 1 problem? 4 problems? And that’s in the dominant at the end of the exposition. The recap has exactly the same kind of stuff going on now in the tonic — and that’s towards the end with that pesky Bb back in so I’m a touch even-less-good there. Maybe I work this one issue in both sections? Or today/this-week just the exposition and tomorrow/next-week just the recap? Or if I’m pretty good at it, just polishing small details, is alternating between them a good “variable practice” idea?
If I’m just “working the Mozart for the next 15 or 30 minutes” I glance at my list of issues from time to time, mark them on score and just dive in until it all sounds/feels better. If I’m shooting for 5 minutes I’ve got to also consider from everything on my list what can I actually decide to do right now, how I’m going to go after it, go do it, and maybe come up with a bit of evaluation at the end — all in 5 minutes.
Which has me pretty much throwing “X minutes” out the window and replacing it with “pick smaller goals, come back to them a few times throughout the sitting”, if it’s taking too long, make the goals yet smaller, if you feel good about the goal after just 1 minute, nudge it a bit larger — If that makes sense? (and the 5-minute timer is just a yardstick helping me realize I’m pushing 10 -or 15 minutes on goal – probably too big)
I think one thing compounding it all is by focusing better on specific issues with explicit learning, I’m focusing better on practicing all around — and that’s more tiring in itself.
Maybe ultimately I’m finding “implicit learning” is maybe sometimes/most-times not as good “explicit learning”, but simply saying implicit=bad/explicit=good, stopping implicit and starting up explicit learning 100% is way too much, and I will probably never get to 100%. Shoot for 5 or 10% more explicit learning this week, see how it goes, if that’s good, maybe add another 5 or 10% next week or next month?
Perhaps at some level deciding absolutely everything about what I’m about to practice is like being one those people used as support for the argument that 99.99% of our decisions are emotion-based and only like .01% are actually thought out by “higher brain functions”. There are simply way too many decisions in the day (where should this NEXT step be placed? On what part of my foot? How fast do I lower down? Tense leg or relaxed?…..) and conscious thought for even .02% is simply impossible. Some anecdote I thought I’ve read about people with some kind of brain injury noted those who have lost the ability to feel emotions (which I correlate to implicit leaning/decision-making) apparently can’t decide anything. With pure logic you’ll never figure out if you should get Cheerios or Rice Krispies. Which is yummier? Which is cheaper? How much does taste matter vs cost? Which box is the more convenient size? How much does taste vs. cost vs. box size matter? Which is healthier? What does “healthier” mean? Less sugar? More “good” fat? Less “bad” fat? Which is more environmentally friendly? Without emotions stepping in and saying “I like the color of the Risk Krispies box. Get that!” you stand there forever, exhausting your brain and the decision never gets made.