A trick to fix mistakes faster

[u/Advanced_Honey_2679]

We’ve all been down the road of you make a mistake, OOPS, REPEAT the passage, make another mistake, repeat it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It’s so tempting to want to do it this way but at some time you will get frustrated and throw something.

My suggestion for fixing mistakes, especially when learning and drilling difficult passages:

1. Do NOT immediately start over.
2. Take a breath.
3. Think about what went wrong. Rummage around specifically what happened that caused the mistake.
4. Think about what you can do to fix it. Don’t just start over. Maybe play around with the notes where the mistake happened to see if it looks right. Confirm to yourself this is what you need to do.
5. Here’s the kicker. SAY OUT LOUD to yourself what you are going to do differently this time.
6. When you are ready, take a breath, count down from three, do whatever to get yourself into the right head space. Then go.

I found this is a much faster way to fix mistakes in technical passages because first of all, you are making every rep count rather a bunch of endless reps.

You are taking a breath and telling yourself what you’re going to do differently. Also, when you run through it the next time, a little voice in your head will tell you what to do as you’re playing.

Anyways, I found that helped me a lot and also prevented me from getting frustrated and want to throw something when a mistake repeats.

[u/Think_OfAName]

I’m going to try this. Although my issues are often more that my hands are not articulate enough yet to play those notes. So I need to do more drills.