The Same Mistakes Repeated (and Repeated...)

    Do you find yourself playing the same part of the music over and over again, only to be unsatisfied with the result? Here's a great way to solve any problem you have.

Step 1 What's the problem?

When I'm trying to perfect a piece of music which may have thousands and thousands of notes, I first play through the piece from beginning to end without stopping to fix anything. Then I start at the beginning again and play until I make a mistake. At the point of the mistake I figure out why I made the mistake. Did I play the wrong note? Why? Did my fingers want to go to D instead of B? Was the rhythm wrong? What about the articulation or the dynamics? Did my note crack up or down and sound bad?
 
Step 2 How do I fix it?

Do I need to use more air to keep the high E from cracking down to the middle A? Do I need to use thumb Bb instead of 1 and 1? Is my right hand ring finger late? Once I know what the mistake is, for example I played a wrong note, I play the note before the mistake and the wrong note, making sure the fingering is perfect. If the mistake is hitting the note too low, like a high E sounding like a middle A, I work on the note before the mistake and the mistake note, making sure I have enough air and embouchure support to get the high E in the right place.

Step 3 Just do it.

From there, I start adding more notes around the problem note, playing two, then three then more notes before and after the problem to incorporate the now correct note into the music. All of this is done slowly, to make sure my fingers, embouchure and brain are doing the right thing.

I also use this technique in other parts of my life when I get stuck on a problem. I figure out I have a problem, I think about how I go about fixing it, then I start working on it until I have the problem solved.

Try it out and see if it works for you. Let me know if it works.