Starting from Scratch

[timayer]

I've mentioned in a couple posts that about a year ago I took up the lute. I've had a blast learning it, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a completely different musical experience than playing tuba. And even if you don't play, I would recommend listening to some of it on Youtube. The musicianship of the top players is absolutely staggering.

One of the side benefits of the past year, though, has been reminding me just how little beginners know about playing instruments. The most jarring thing to me has been that I've taken for granted just how much trust I have in my body when playing the tuba. If I see a low C in an etude, there is no question to me that a low C is going to come out of the bell. I go right after it, and I play it.

I don't have that trust when playing the lute. In lessons and the one masterclass I have done, I've been surprised at how little trust I have in myself. Even a piece I've practiced countless times, I'll come to a fingering that I've done right in my basement more often than not, and I have an unconscious hesitation - I have no idea if I'm about to do it right. So I hesitate and pause even before I can stop myself. It also means I can't even start thinking musically while I play - I don't have the physical control of the instrument to produce the sounds in my head. I'm still feeling it out.

I had forgotten what that felt like, but something in the back of my head triggered, and I was brought back to that same hesitation and lack of trust I had on the tuba in middle school through early high school.

The other conclusion I've come to is that it is something that will only go away with repetition. And not just through exercises, but playing the notes in context and being able to get to them from every which way. I.e., it just takes time.

All that to say, it is something I very obviously forgot that I went through 20 years ago when first learning tuba. And I wonder how much more effective I could have been as a teacher over the last several years if I hadn't forgotten it and could better relate to my students' mindset as I was teaching them.

[Donn]

Interesting subject. I pick up new instruments once in a while, usually without any real commitment to getting into public performance shape; that may slow the acquisition of skills, or may not. The main difference is probably that ear playing comes first. I learn to play by ear, and then to read music only when I know I'm going to need it, so for me it's when I "hear" low C, there's no question a low C is going to come out of the bell. Don't know how much difference that makes, maybe not much.

Anyway, I was just recently noticing the inverse situation, where on my latest major project - the accordion, which is quite unlike anything I ever learned to play - I occasionally have a slight feeling of mastery. It has been a lot of trouble, and it has brought me to reflect on the different mental faculties involved.

I feel like there's a conscious process that can be used to select a note -- and that conscious process is almost always wrong, certainly not much better than random choice. And another process that is unconscious, in the sense that I don't have any awareness of any choice, I simply find myself playing the note -- the right note. When I lack confidence, the conscious side leaps in, and I make errors. Maybe it is that the unconscious faculty is stumped, and invokes the conscious one. Anyway, like you I'm sure that the unconscious faculty is a result of much repetition. That feeling of mastery is when the unconscious faculty is able to confidently assume control, and suddenly there's a feeling of sustained, integral, interpretive musical performance. However fleeting.

Anyway, I know someone who picked up the concertina, for public performance, in a few weeks (like accordion but diatonic and apparently random arrangement of keys.) For only one rather simple tune, but while singing, solo ... I often wonder if she could do that because her mind is wired different (she is indeed awesome), or it's only a matter of getting the repetition training in a more productive fashion.

[MaryAnn]

Re the concertina, I would guess she has really good pitch recognition and was able to apply that to what happened physically.

My current form of self torture is back to learning the oboe....which for me is much easier than the (french) horn, meaning I get a decent sound and play in tune without having to mess around very much; it's the hands that need the training, which is being accomplished via scales and arpeggios in all keys, plus a lot of playing by ear. Don't know why it is so much easier than horn, but I suspect decent instruction was a factor. But with brass, yeah, you just think of what note you want to come out (and you better be able to hear it in your head first or you are going to be duck soup) and it does. I would classify that as a right brained activity because you don't "think" about it. If you're still "thinking" about it, it has not yet become a right brained activity that your body just does when you ask it to.

[Donn]

Don't know why it is so much easier than horn

I suppose part of the challenge with brass instruments is that you're doing two very different things at the same time - you have to run the valves, and also coordinate that with some much trickier stuff with breath and embouchure. Maybe ideal instruction would be to start kids on the bugle. Woodwinds need some breath & embouchure too, but not nearly as complicated.

[timayer]

tubas use all four limbs and the mouth...

- One limb mashes buttons.
- One limb (depending on make/model) desperately yanks on slides.
- One limb keeps time.
- One limb keeps the player from falling out of their chair, while holding an epically top-heavy noisemaker.

This is my new favorite description of tuba playing.

[Levaix]

Confidence is an applied skill. The easiest way to master it is through experience in the subject you need to apply it to. HOWEVER... If you can learn to "trick" yourself into having confidence above your experience you can cheat out a performance above your skill level. This applies to many things beyond music and is not always necessarily used ethically. It's a big reason you see so many utterly mediocre people placed in positions of authority. Obviously the end goal should be to improve yourself, but UNTIL you've reached the next level you can push forward this way.

My best teachers were the ones who didn't show me the notes and technicalities, but helped me get past the "how" and see the music for itself. The students who struggle the most (including myself at times) are the ones who aren't able to get past the first part.

[Levaix]

yeah...A shortcut to confidence is for a person to convince themselves that they don't care, and to laugh at random mistakes - rather than fret over them.
Obviously, repeated mistakes (as - in reality - there is concern/caring) call for a different tack.

The "longcut" to confidence (as we all already know) is something called "practice".

I mean, yes and no. I'm talking about the same thing that prompts people to take beta blockers. If you're nervous for a performance, I don't know about you, but I tend to make more mistakes. In this case my lack of confidence (which is somewhat subjective) has an OBJECTIVE impact on my performance level. So I guess another way to say it is confidence can be learned/applied independently of the skill it applies to. As I already stated, this isn't necessarily a good thing. But... neither is it always a bad thing.

[Donn]

Sure. If confidence is the feeling that you're going to be good enough, and at some point, the primary factor in how good you're actually going to be is that feeling itself ... however you get there, it's better than not getting there.