...Fourteen years ago we were tromping through the jungle in South America wearing tall rubber boots to not get bitten by tarantulas (I saw 'em!). Our front guy was whacking the thickly growing crazy vines with his machete and we were trying to follow. We crossed streams by foot, sometimes finding the easiest way was just to wade through the stream because there were not so many plants there! We had a destination, but my point lies in the fact that we were all of us tromping over some faintly traced path that appeared (at least at first) to only exist in the mind of our guide.
That's like looking at a new page of music. Just a jungle. The mind has no aural or tactile experience with the new notes.
He slashed at vines effortlessly with a long sharp, very effective tool that made us think about putting our hands around out own necks, a blade probably illegal in most places.
That's like the first step of sight-reading. It's the first impression. It's very important to try to get this one right. (Kind of like a job interview, too. You only have one chance for a perfect first impression.)
Then we all followed, our feet making the path, one after another of us. When we were done, you could see a path behind us. You wouldn't have wanted to follow it barefoot or anything, but you would know where we has been.
That's like repeating the music until you start remembering it. Because the brain looking at a new piece of music is like an untraced jungle of potential: you have to beat down a path to follow. Actually, in music, the path has already been laid, so our job is to learn where it is. This is a good explanation to kids who have play something right again and again.
"But I got it! I played it perfectly." (I had that shot- I'm vaccinated!)
"Once! Yes! good job! But hey- how many times did it take you not so perfectly to get it there?"
"Um... seventeen?"
"OK! Yes! So in performance, you're going to do it the way you practiced it the most. Do you think you'll play it the way you really want to if your first time perfectly was your only time? Maybe not. So we do this bit lots of times, today and tomorrow" [that's important] "to make sure it stays."
Our trail in the jungle- it's probably completely grown over, invisible, unless people kept travelling it. The Oregon trail- in some places you can still see it over a hundred years later.
The paths music leaves in the mind are some of the most permanent, staying with many Alzheimer's patients long after they cease to recognize their loved ones.
This is all about the nerves making paths in our brain. Connections! I really like seeing kids learn. I really like handing them a mental machete and watching the trailblazing begin.
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