Saturday, December 22, 2007

Not Doing

In nursing, after a while on the job you don't really get to "practice" anymore. A certain level of perfection is expected in your work performance. Sure, you might miss an intravenous stick once in a while, but generally speaking everything you do has to be done just right the first time, every time.

It's not that big a deal if you just happen to be an obsessive-compulsive, triple-checking-everything, wash-your-hands-ninety-eight-times-a-day kind of person to begin with.

Maybe it's a little bit like driving a car. Even though it is a part of your everyday routine, you do it perfectly. Or else. You are past the learning curve. You don't get any do-overs.



This is the first etude in the Segovia collection of twenty guitar studies written by Fernando Sor. All guitarists meet these early on.

It's good to practice. Even etudes that I can play note-perfect are not "done," because there are other elements of musical study, like relaxing.

That's what scales are for. Not to play the notes nicely. That's just rudimentary. It's about settling the hands, letting the shoulders drop into position, breathing, listening, and drawing out phrases. It's about trying, not doing.