Retraining experience

[cinnamon21]

Has anyone ever get to a point where the bad technique and habits you've accumulated since young age can't musically serve you anymore? I'm currently in this 'retraining' period due to some irresponsible teaching and cluelessness..and I'm interested in the stories of those who have been through this before. How did you cope with it?

Thanks

[keypeg]

Has anyone ever get to a point where the bad technique and habits you've accumulated since young age can't musically serve you anymore? I'm currently in this 'retraining' period due to some irresponsible teaching and cluelessness..and I'm interested in the stories of those who have been through this before. How did you cope with it?

Like eating an elephant - one bite at a time. 

I'm in this situation for two instruments.  Piano - When I was young I self-taught.  When I returned 35 years later I knew the importance of technique and also saw the many places where I've been stuck.  Here I managed to have a teacher.  We got at some basic principles, and it's been a matter of replacing a basic poor habit with a good one.  You can't decide "not" to do something; you have to know what "to" do.  And sometimes you leave other things while concentrating on the most essential thing, and maybe avoid music that asks for things you still need to work on.

The other instrument is one where I took lessons from day one.  A lot of things went wrong.  I've sort of restarted it tentatively, and I'm looking at really fundamental things.  I haven't gone as far as a teacher and lessons, though I've gotten some feedback informally.  One thing that has happened is if I am solving something like a habit of squeezing the hand, and I remember the exact exercise I was given which created that habit, or something I wasn't told, there can be a moment of anger.  Rather than quashing it, I let myself feel it, and then move forward past it.  I think you can be angry at whoever taught you, or angry at yourself for the stupid things you did and I think that acknowledging it rather than feeling guilty about it may be the best route.

[dogperson]

I really would define my early musical training as 'responsible':  repertoire was one lesson per week and theory/ear training was a separate lesson per week..., but that being said, there are certainly skill gaps, and the bad habit of holding my right shoulder with tension, that am  I working through with my adult teacher.  Some things I am just sure I have forgotten in an over 40 yr gap.   I try not to ask 'why I don't know'  as that is not helpful to me at all.. but just to recognize that I don't know, for whatever reason.

Keypeg is right_- one day at a time or one bite of the elephant at a time.  I try to always ask questions during my lessons when there is something new so that I can apply to other situations.  Sometimes the question is as simple as "Does this ever change based on the period of music?" or where else would you see/practice this?  

New or forgotten concepts, ways to practice, exercises that might help, really occur every week.  We have now expanded the length of my lesson to 1.5 hrs so there time for all of this.

I do independent reading and listening and come to class with questions.  Right now, we are working on pedaling, as I was taught as a child a very limited perspective that did not include half and flutter pedaling.  I am reading, then discussing with my teacher.  She will ask me 'Where would you pedal and how in this section' and we discuss.  It is a brand-new world, as I had no idea of even the possibilities to explore other than 'up' or 'down'.

Being an adult student, IMHO, is much better -- we can analyze and discuss. ..things not really done during child training.  It is like a bigger world to explore.-- but yes, often frustrating --- so one day at a time, with a lot of patience, is all we can do.  Patience is key-- as we can't skip steps or skills just because something else is appealing or kick-in adult 'stubbornness', that our way is better.   It does sometimes mean making one skill issue a priority over everything else. Learning and progress are fluid.

Cope?  I went through a very discouraging period about a month ago, but I am the 'other side' of that right now. .. even though I know it will reappear... to be dealt with again.  I relied on my music buddies at the height of my frustration and I am sure I will need that support again.

[visitor]

Like eating an elephant - one bite at a time. 

.

i love that analogy and i've used it a few times here before..

...i chunk things into more manageable segements then piece it together
like they say , you eat an elephant one bite at a time :-)

@op i agree w both above. Just acknowledge and identify the problem area and set about the business of correcting for it and overcoming it.  You can get mad or you can get about the business of improving. I had a similar situation and still work through aspects of your scenario myself.

it's a marathon not a sprint, so first order of business is to stop training and practicing the bad habits so you don't continue to slide backwards, then take a couple humility pills and set about the business of doodling w/ works that my not challenge you as much, but don't go on autopilot and identiy when you start to revert to old habits. Get int he habit of recording yourself all the time, do not trust your own awareness , it will fool you.

death by a thousand cuts, keep at it.
for motivation (mad props points to those that get what i'm getting at)

[bernadette60614]

Sure.  I don't want to get too terribly philosophical about this, but I think that is kind of the cycle of life in general...you pick up bad relationship habits in the home in which you were raised, blow a lot of relationships because of them, and with any lucky, develop good relationship habits which allow you to sustain relationships as an adult.

I took lessons from 12 to 18 with a lovely teacher who taught no theory, and was happy if you could play loud.  Group piano lessons, individual lessons in the last 3 years. Now, with a new teacher and our goal is to take me back to the beginning and build good technique and skills.  This may take years, but those years are going to pass anyway, so I"m more excited than frustrated.