My favorite one was where you play whatever you want to play, but as soon as you miss a note, you have to go back to the very beginning. It sounds punishing, but it actually gets pretty fascinating. The stakes definitely increase as you get towards the bottom of the page, but you can't start to get careful. As soon as you try to be careful, that's when you're going to miss one. You have to be pretty brave and just let it fly. I found it really changed my perspective on what it takes to be accurate. Also, just philosophically, I figure it's better to say "hit that note" than "don't miss that note". I think it makes your brain work better. Ralph's answer reminded me that Louis Stout used to have a particular etude, I wish I could remember exactly which one, but I think it was one of the Muellers. Anyway, he'd lay a 10 dollar bill on the stand and challenge you to play it perfectly. Well somebody heard me practicing it during the week and tipped me off about the 10 bucks (that was like 100,000 bucks to me at the time) so I practiced extra hard. When it came time to play it, I chipped one note. Louis calmly took back the 10 spot and handed me a 5. Yesss! No Ramens that week, Mac and Cheeeese baby!
- Steve Mumford _______________________________________________ post: horn@memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
