One Of The Things i am enjoying, now that our children have left home to make their own lives, is learning to play the piano. A while back, one of my assignments included some "easy" Beethoven. Although I practiced diligently for weeks, when I would go for my lesson, I could not play the music with any ease or continuity. I became somewhat frustrated and apologetic.
Undisturbed, my teacher countered with an incident from her own experience that has since been a source of great encouragement, not only in my continuing musical progress but more so in my spiritual growth. She told of attending a seminar in which a master teacher critiqued an advanced piano student. The young man played a piece that he had obviously practiced with great care for a long time. Now, before this teacher, he made a number of errors, particularly in one passage. The student apologized, but the master teacher wisely proffered in substance: "Practicing is an act of faith. One day, it seems, you play a piece perfectly; the next day when you play the same piece, it falls apart. Why? It is because your learning is not secure. Keep practicing, even a little every day, and all of a sudden you will have a breakthrough, genuine progress. You will find this kind of practice makes your learning secure. This security will have nothing to do with yesterday's failure or success, but will follow naturally because you have practiced consistently a little each day."
This teaching advice greatly allayed the discouragement I felt in my musical progress. Since then, and with consistent practice, I find I am playing Beethoven a little more easily!
