Grad School Anticipation
I'm really excited about going back to school. I am probably without a doubt one of those people who would be a professional student (if such a profession existed). I mean, I absolutely loved college. Yes, at times things were stressful, and it's not like I enjoyed every moment, but over all, I really miss it. I was so happy when I was a student. Actually the main thing I disliked about school (and this may seem odd especially since i was a music major), were my piano lessons.
Pre-college piano lessons were one of the highlights of my week. I absorbed as much as possible and always came away from them feeling awesome, almost like a natural high. Now I'm not the greatest piano player, I had to practice very hard no matter what I was playing (which is still true today). But i also think that's what makes me such an effective teacher... when I was learning piano, it was tough for me, most of the time people want you to just keep repeating passages until by some miracle you play it right. That may work for some people, but it certainly didnt work for me. So I'd create all these "alternate" ways to learn and for the most part they worked really well. For instance... if there was a passage where I consistently made the same mistake instead of just playing it over and over again wishing that I'd get it right eventually, I'd play it wrong on purpose. I'd intentionally hit the wrong note or rhythm or fingering or whatever, but while doing this I would be thinking something along the line of "okay jessica, you are never going to play this wrong note again, get a good feel for it, because this is the last time it will ever happen." And then immediately after that I'd concentrate very intenesly on playing the same passage very slowly but correctly, 3 times in a row (or 10 times in a row depending on how old I was... the older I got, the more repititions were necessary). And usually after that I was cured! I use this technique with nearly all of my students, and it works great. Though I usually get a weird look the first time I ask them to play something wrong on purpose. One of my other favorite tricks is to play an entire piece staccato. This is great for making sure your hands are working together perfectly. If they are out of synch just a little bit it will definitely show (and is easily corrected). But anyway, I have tons of little tricks that I've developed over time. But to get back on track, I loved my lessons pre-college.
Then came college... and that was very different. Perhaps the difference was that piano changed from a fun hobby to a serious career, perhaps it was the fact that I had more performances than I was used to (or wanted), perhaps it was because I now had the pressure of being graded on it or perhaps it was the fact that practice had to consume nearly every minute of my free time (which required me to sacrifice nearly all of my other interests). Whatever it was, I grew to hate playing piano in college. My piano teacher was great. She is a very accomplished soloist and chamber musician, and I really think that there isnt a song on earth that she cant play (or even sight read her way through). And I did learn a lot from her (especially that it is FAR easier to play when all your muscles are relaxed, than it is to play tense), but she totally sucked the joy out of it. In fact, sometimes I think she had a goal of trying to make her students break down during the lesson (as a way of showing them how much harder they needed to work... not the most effective technique to use on me). Anyway, needless to say, when I graduated I honestly considered never playing again. That's how much I hated it. And I took some time off (which was also due to an overuse injury I was trying to heal... and still am). But after a few weeks I noticed that I missed playing. So I picked up some old music that I hadnt gone over in years and played it. And just like that, I found my love for piano again. (just for clarification, I ABSOLUTELY loved the "academic"--as in non-playing-- music classes)
So now I'm going back to school. And this time I wont have the performance pressure i had in my undergrad experience. So I'm interested to see how I'll feel this time around. Though I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what to expect out of library school. I mean, when I look at the courses I have to choose from, most of them are things like "Information Organization" "Information Access", "Knowledge Management" and other ambiguous titles, and I really cant even begin to guess what they actually mean. But despite that, I'm excited, and I'm really looking forward to starting classes. In fact, i wish I could start immediately... but I still have a few months before that happens.
Pre-college piano lessons were one of the highlights of my week. I absorbed as much as possible and always came away from them feeling awesome, almost like a natural high. Now I'm not the greatest piano player, I had to practice very hard no matter what I was playing (which is still true today). But i also think that's what makes me such an effective teacher... when I was learning piano, it was tough for me, most of the time people want you to just keep repeating passages until by some miracle you play it right. That may work for some people, but it certainly didnt work for me. So I'd create all these "alternate" ways to learn and for the most part they worked really well. For instance... if there was a passage where I consistently made the same mistake instead of just playing it over and over again wishing that I'd get it right eventually, I'd play it wrong on purpose. I'd intentionally hit the wrong note or rhythm or fingering or whatever, but while doing this I would be thinking something along the line of "okay jessica, you are never going to play this wrong note again, get a good feel for it, because this is the last time it will ever happen." And then immediately after that I'd concentrate very intenesly on playing the same passage very slowly but correctly, 3 times in a row (or 10 times in a row depending on how old I was... the older I got, the more repititions were necessary). And usually after that I was cured! I use this technique with nearly all of my students, and it works great. Though I usually get a weird look the first time I ask them to play something wrong on purpose. One of my other favorite tricks is to play an entire piece staccato. This is great for making sure your hands are working together perfectly. If they are out of synch just a little bit it will definitely show (and is easily corrected). But anyway, I have tons of little tricks that I've developed over time. But to get back on track, I loved my lessons pre-college.
Then came college... and that was very different. Perhaps the difference was that piano changed from a fun hobby to a serious career, perhaps it was the fact that I had more performances than I was used to (or wanted), perhaps it was because I now had the pressure of being graded on it or perhaps it was the fact that practice had to consume nearly every minute of my free time (which required me to sacrifice nearly all of my other interests). Whatever it was, I grew to hate playing piano in college. My piano teacher was great. She is a very accomplished soloist and chamber musician, and I really think that there isnt a song on earth that she cant play (or even sight read her way through). And I did learn a lot from her (especially that it is FAR easier to play when all your muscles are relaxed, than it is to play tense), but she totally sucked the joy out of it. In fact, sometimes I think she had a goal of trying to make her students break down during the lesson (as a way of showing them how much harder they needed to work... not the most effective technique to use on me). Anyway, needless to say, when I graduated I honestly considered never playing again. That's how much I hated it. And I took some time off (which was also due to an overuse injury I was trying to heal... and still am). But after a few weeks I noticed that I missed playing. So I picked up some old music that I hadnt gone over in years and played it. And just like that, I found my love for piano again. (just for clarification, I ABSOLUTELY loved the "academic"--as in non-playing-- music classes)
So now I'm going back to school. And this time I wont have the performance pressure i had in my undergrad experience. So I'm interested to see how I'll feel this time around. Though I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what to expect out of library school. I mean, when I look at the courses I have to choose from, most of them are things like "Information Organization" "Information Access", "Knowledge Management" and other ambiguous titles, and I really cant even begin to guess what they actually mean. But despite that, I'm excited, and I'm really looking forward to starting classes. In fact, i wish I could start immediately... but I still have a few months before that happens.
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