Thank you very much for sharing your experience and know-how.
How interesting the analogy to the mirror and the idea of
recording
phrases.
I use a number of practice techniques that I have picked up
over the years.
Difficult pieces I practice backwards; isolating the cadences
and playing the last measure, then the penultimate measure to
the end;
then the measure before; and any mistake stops me in my
process until
it is perfect. In this way one might be tentative at the
beginning of a piece,
but as each measure is played I am more confident and the
ending cadence
is assured to be perfect.
This doesn't really fit into using the recorder in practice
sessions; unless
one uses it just for those difficult passages as you suggest.
I'm attempting
to discover a technique of incorporating the recorder into my
practicing and
your suggestions are very helpful.
A while back you contributed a great deal to the discussion of
recording
equipment and I copied all that information as an aide
memoire. But
for now I'm very happy with my ZOOM for its' simplicity and
ease of use.
Equipment is not the most important thing after all.
Damian
When I was starting to play recital (think 70s) I used the
recorder
(in this case, tape) occasionally as a reality
check--horrible as it may be--
and also as a way to learn pieces for concerts.
I would memorize the piece, which is absolutely essential as
a
paradigm--that is, you need to know one piece in each
genre--the
recording would tell me honestly if I could really play it.
After you have learnt the paradigm, when you play from
music, the
internal gears are engaged.
In the renaissance, the saying was, let the mirror be your
guide. So
it is sort of a musical mirror,
In the renaissance, they used caves and wells, which
apparently works
perfectly, but only for short phrases. So to learn it
historically,
learn phrases, record them, and play them back.
It is a different feeling than doing the whole piece.
Incidentally, I recommend the Fostex FR2LE. It is a
professional recorder.
Best
dt
At 11:37 AM 9/19/2008, you wrote:
Thanks David and Rob, I really find your comments very
useful and
encouraging. The first thing I must do is to find a chair
that doesn't squeak!
Damian
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
