JEFF MANCHUR: PIANIST
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Now Happening
  • Pianist
    • Mozart in a Month
    • Choosing Joy
    • Audio and Video
    • Repertoire
  • Blogger
  • Teacher
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Now Happening
  • Pianist
    • Mozart in a Month
    • Choosing Joy
    • Audio and Video
    • Repertoire
  • Blogger
  • Teacher
  • Contact
Search

Dangerous goals

5/16/2018

Comments

 
Many learning strategies include setting goals. There's lofty goals like winning an international piano competition and landing a full-time University teaching gig in 7 years. Or one might look more at the short term. A piano major at the beginning of a university semester might set the goal of performing a senior recital in 8 months time with a certain set of repertoire. Then working backwards, they decide what progress needs to be made and at what point in time. 

I did this with preparation of my Choosing Joy Recital. A few months out, I decided how many complete run-throughs from memory I'd like to do in the weeks leading up to the first performance. I decided which pieces or even which sections of pieces would be most difficult to memorize. I decided where the most pressing technical challenges were and I made set goals of when to manage these goals. I thought intently about how much time I needed to solve the most difficult sections, but also how I could spread these out so that any one or two weeks wouldn't feel overwhelmed with work. 

In the end, I had a week by week list, and in some cases, day by day breakdowns, of what practice accomplishments I needed to make. And I didn't follow any of it. 

Really by the second week, I was off track. Inevitably something got in the way, and probably something legitimate. I didn't practice when I wanted to, I didn't get done all that I wanted, and soon my schedule was worthless. 

This article helps explain why.  It states what's perhaps on obvious trap (but one we always fall into) which is that unreasonable goals are so easy to make. You can decide on a goal to become a millionaire in 5 years, even break it down into smaller savings goals of $30,000 every two months, you're still probably not any closer to reaching your goal.

I'm lucky that my failure to reach my goals never made me unhappy. In fact, while perhaps a little behind, I was well prepared for my recital, and it went off rather well. This is likely because I followed the suggestions in this article, namely that I set rules, and enjoyed the process.

I'm very keen on a keeping a set schedule (I'll probably write about some of my routines in a future post). As I prepared this program, I had set days and hours that I practiced. I tested myself regularly (see Monday's post), and I adopted daily or weekly goals based on those results.

The work got done, and I enjoyed myself. I didn't feel guilty about not setting an arbitrary schedule which had no flexibility for life to get in the way. The older and more advanced a performer you become, the better to trust your instincts. Have deadlines, and have routines in which the work can get done. Work, and let the results happen on a smaller scale. 
Comments

    Subscribe to my mailing list for updates on my activities and special access to my recordings and performances.

    * indicates required


    ​"Modern performers seem to regard their performances as texts rather than acts, and to prepare for them with the same goal as present-day textual editors: to clear away accretions. Not that this is not a laudable and necessary step; but what is an ultimate step for an editor should be only a first step for a performer, as the very temporal relationship between the functions of editing and performing already suggests." -Richard Taruskin, 
    ​Text and Act

    Archives

    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    June 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    Alex Ross
    Amy Beach
    Artistic Messages
    Artistry
    Audio
    Bach
    Best Practices
    Boring
    Chamber Music
    Chiara
    Chopin
    Clapping
    Cliburn Competition Report
    Competitions
    Concert Reflections
    Contemporary Music
    Creativity
    Enjoying
    Extraordinary Recordings
    Glenn Gould
    Influential Books
    Intellectual
    Learning
    Listening
    Liszt
    Messiaen
    Mozart In A Month
    Nature
    Performance Practice
    Performance Traditions
    Pianistic Intentions
    Piano Business
    Practicing
    Richard Dare
    Richard Taruskin
    Rising Stars
    Serialism
    Subjectivity
    Teacher Sayings
    Teaching
    Textual Fidelity
    Time
    Video

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Now Happening
  • Pianist
    • Mozart in a Month
    • Choosing Joy
    • Audio and Video
    • Repertoire
  • Blogger
  • Teacher
  • Contact