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The Most Valuable Lesson I Learned from Playing the Violin
| Jul 28, 2012
The seemingly obvious lesson that only took me twenty-three years to learn.
You have probably heard the old joke about the tourist who asks a cab driver how to get to Carnegie Hall, only to be told: "Practice, practice, practice!"
I began playing the violin at age two, and for as long as I can remember, there was one question which haunted me every day.
Am I practicing enough?
What Do Performers Say?
I scoured books and interviews with great artists, looking for a consensus on practice time that would ease my conscience. I read an interview with Rubinstein, in which he stated that nobody should have to practice more than four hours a day. He explained that if you needed that much time, you probably weren&t doing it right.
And then there was violinist Nathan Milstein who once
how many hours a day he should be practicing. Auer responded by saying &Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1 1/2 hours.&
Even Heifetz indicated that he , and that excessive practice is &just as bad as practicing too little!& He claimed that he practiced no more than three hours per day on average, and that he didn&t practice at all on Sundays.
It seemed that four hours should be enough. So I breathed easy for a bit. And then I learned about the work of Dr. K. Anders Ericsson.
What Do Psychologists Say?
When it comes to understanding expertise and expert performance, psychologist Dr. Ericsson is perhaps the world&s leading authority.
is the basis for the &10,000-hour rule& which suggests that it requires at least ten years and/or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve an expert level of performance in any given domain & and in the case of musicians, more like 15-25 years in order to attain an elite international level.
Those are some pretty big numbers. So large, that at first I missed the most important factor in the equation.
Deliberate practice.
Meaning, that there is a specific type of practice that facilitates the attainment of an elite level of performance. And then there's the other kind of practice that most of us are more familiar with.
Mindless Practice
Have you ever observed a musician (or athlete, actor, trial attorney) engage in practice?
You'll notice that most practice resembles one of the following distinct patterns.
1. Broken record method
This is where we simply repeat the same thing over and over. Same tennis serve. Same passage on the piano. Same powerpoint presentation. From a distance it might look like practice, but much of it is simply mindless repetition.
2. Autopilot method
This is where we activate our autopilot system and coast. Recite our sales pitch three times. Play a round of golf. Run through a piece from beginning to end.
3. Hybrid method
Then there's the combined approach. For most of my life, practicing meant playing through a piece until I heard something I didn't like, at which point I'd stop, repeat the passage over and over until it started to sound better, and then resume playing until I heard the next thing I wasn't pleased with, at which point I'd repeat the whole process over again.
Three Problems
Unfortunately, there are three problems with practicing this way.
1. It is a waste of time
Why? For one, very little productive learning takes place when we practice this way. This is why you can "practice" something for hours, days, or weeks, and still not improve all that much. Even worse, you are actually digging yourself a hole, because what this model of practicing does is strengthen undesirable habits and errors, increasing the likelihood of more consistently inconsistent performances.
This also makes it more difficult to clean up these bad habits as time goes on & so you are essentially adding to the amount of future practice time you will need in order to eliminate these undesirable tendencies. To quote a saxophone professor I once worked with: &Practice doesn&t make perfect, practice makes permanent.&
2. It makes you less confident
In addition, practicing mindlessly lowers your confidence, as a part of you realizes you don&t really know how to produce the results you are looking for. Even if you have a fairly high success rate in the most difficult passages, there's a sense of uncertainty deep down that just won't go away.
Real on-stage confidence comes from (a) being able to nail it consistently, (b) knowing that this isn&t a coincidence but that you can do it the correct way on demand, because (c) you know precisely why you nail it or miss it & i.e. you have identified the key technical or mechanical factors that are necessary to play the passage perfectly every time.
3. It is mind-numbingly dull
Practicing mindlessly is a chore. We&ve all had well-meaning parents and teachers tell us to go home and practice a certain passage x number of times, or to practice x number of hours, right? But why are we measuring success in units of practice time? What we need are more specific results-oriented outcome goals & such as, practice this passage until it sounds like XYZ, or practice this passage until you can figure out how to make it sound like ABC.
Deliberate Practice
So what is the alternative? Deliberate, or mindful practice is a systematic and highly structured activity, that is, for lack of a better word, more scientific. Instead of mindless trial and error, it is an active and thoughtful process of hypothesis testing where we relentlessly seek solutions to clearly defined problems.
Deliberate practice is often slow, and involves repetition of small and very specific sections of a skill instead of just playing through. For example, if you were a musician, you might work on just the opening note of a solo to make sure that it &speaks& exactly the way you want, instead of playing the entire opening phrase.
Deliberate practice also involves monitoring one&s performance - in real-time and via recordings - continually looking for new ways to improve. This means being observant and keenly aware of what happens, so that you can tell yourself exactly what went wrong. For instance, was the first note note sharp? Flat? Too loud? Too soft? Too harsh? Too short? Too long?
Let&s say that the note was too sharp and too long with not enough of an attack to begin the note. Well, how sharp was it? A little? A lot? How much longer was the note than you wanted it to be? How much more of an attack did you want?
Ok, the note was a little sharp, just a hair too long, and required a much clearer attack in order to be consistent with the marked articulation and dynamics. So, why was the note sharp? What did you do? What do you need to do instead to make sure the note is perfectly in tune every time? How do you ensure that the length is just as you want it to be, and how do you get a consistently clean and clear attack to begin the note so it begins in the right character?
Now, let&s imagine you recorded each trial repetition, and could listen back to the last attempt. Does that combination of ingredients give you the desired result? Does that combination of elements convey the mood or character you want to communicate to the listener as effectively as you thought it would? Does it help the listener experience what you want them to feel?
If this sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. Which might explain why few take the time to practice this way. To stop, analyze what went wrong, why it happened, and how they can produce different results the next time.
Simple though it may sound, it took me years to figure this out. Yet it remains the most valuable and enduring lesson I learned&from my 23 years of training. In the dozen or so years since I put down my violin, the principles of deliberate practice have remained relevant no matter what skill I must learn next. Be it the practice of psychology, building an audience for a blog, parenting, or making the perfect smoothie, how I spend my practice time remains more important than how much time I spend practicing.
How to Accelerate Skill Development
Here are the five principles I would want to share with a younger version of myself. I hope you find something of value on this list as well.
1. Focus is everything

Keep practice sessions limited to a duration that allows you to stay focused. This may be as short as 10-20 minutes, and as long as 45-60+ minutes.
2. Timing is everything, too

Keep track of times during the day when you tend to have the most energy. This may be first thing in the morning, or right before lunch. Try to do your practicing during these naturally productive periods, when you are able to focus and think most clearly. What to do in your naturally unproductive times? I say take a guilt-free .
3. Don't trust your memory
Use a practice notebook. Plan out your practice, and keep track of your practice goals and what you discover during your practice sessions. The key to getting into
when practicing is to constantly strive for clarity of intention. Have a crystal clear idea of what you want (e.g. the sound you want to produce, or particular phrasing you&d like to try, or specific articulation, intonation, etc. that you&d like to be able to execute consistently), and be relentless in your search for ever better solutions.
When you stumble onto a new insight or discover a solution to a problem, write it down! As you practice more mindfully, you'll began making so many micro-discoveries that you will need written reminders to remember them all.&
4. Smarter, not harder
When things aren't working, sometimes we simply have to practice more. And then there are times when it means we have to go in a different direction.
I remember struggling with the left-hand pizzicato variation in Paganini&s 24th Caprice when I was studying at Juilliard. I kept trying harder and harder to make the notes speak, but all I got was sore fingers, a couple of which actually started to bleed (well, just a tiny bit).
Instead of stubbornly persisting with a strategy that clearly wasn&t working, I forced myself to stop. I brainstormed solutions to the problem for a day or two, and wrote down ideas as they occurred to me. When I had a list of some promising solutions, I started experimenting.
I eventually came up with a solution that worked, and the next time I played for my teacher, he actually asked me to show him how I made the notes speak so clearly!
5. Stay on target with a problem-solving model

It's extraordinarily easy to drift into mindless practice mode. Keep yourself on task using the 6-step problem solving model below.
1. Define the problem (What result did I just get? What do I want this note/phrase to sound like instead?)
2. Analyze the problem (What is causing it to sound like this?)
3. Identify potential solutions (What can I tweak to make it sound more like I want?)
4. Test the potential solutions and select the most effective one (What tweaks seem to work best?)
5. Implement the best solution (Reinforce these tweaks to make the changes permanent)
6. Monitor implementation (Do these changes continue to produce the results I&m looking for?)
Or simpler yet, try out this model from &s excellent book The Talent Code.
1. Pick a target
2. Reach for it
3. Evaluate the gap between the target and the reach
4. Return to step one
Make Your Time Count
It doesn&t matter if we are talking about perfecting violin technique, , , , or .
Life is short. Time is our most valuable commodity. If you're going to practice, you might as well do it right.
Adapted from an article that originally appeared at .
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Noa Kageyama, Ph.D.
Performance psychologist Dr. Noa Kageyama serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the New World Symphony, where he specializes in teaching performing artists how to utilize sport...
& 2015 The Creativity Post. All Rights Reserved.dear i just love you翻译中文是什么意思
dear i just love you翻译中文是什么意思
09-10-04 &匿名提问 发布
1.To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world对于世界而言，你可能只是一个人；但是对于某个人，你确是他的整个世界。2.i love you not because of who you are , but because of who i am when i am with you我爱你，不是因为你是一个怎样的人，而是因为我喜欢和你在一起的感觉
God send you down from heaven above.You make me pant and rock my world.All through the day I feel your love.It feels my heart and soul.
You are my destiny, I want to stay with you forever, till the end of the world, and sun don't shine. I will bring you the spring flower, summer breeze, autumn fruits and winter warms. To share both the happiness and tears is the greatest wish in my life.
Precious things are very few——That must be why there's just one for you.可贵的东西世间稀少——这正是为什么属于你的只有我一个。I love you more than I can say.我真不知该如何表达我对你的爱。Thinking of you still makes my heart beat fastest!想到你依然叫我心跳骤然加快！You are in my thoughts every minute of the day, in my dream every hour of the night.白天，每分每秒我都在想念你，夜晚，每时每刻我都在梦见你。Think of me sometimes while Alps and ocean divide us, but they ever will, unless you wish it. (Byron)长相思，天涯海角；情不断，山水难隔。（——拜伦）You're everything to me.你是我的一切。12星座英文情話__________________________火象星座__________________________牡羊座(3.21-4.20)Baby, will you be my valentine ? I will make you the happiest girl on earth.寶貝，當我的情人吧？我將使你成為世上最快樂的女孩。獅子座(7.24-8.23)That's the most romantic thing that anyone has ever done for me or said tome…你所為我作的事與對我說的話都是我經歷過最浪漫的…射手座(11.23-12.22)If you need me, I am here for you. I am on your side.如果你需要我，我會在這等候，我跟你是一國的。__________________________水象星座__________________________巨蟹座(6.22-7.23)I will wait for you to come home to eat.等你回家吃飯哦！天蠍座(10.24-11.22)To me, you are irreplaceable, because you are one of a kind.對我而言你是無法代替的，因為你是獨一無二的。雙魚座(2.20-3.20)Okay. Let us try to be the luckiest couple on earth.好！讓我們試著成為世上最幸運的一對。__________________________土象星座__________________________金牛座(4.21-5.21)Would you like to go to movies, KTV, or just have a chat over a good meal ata nice restaurant ?你喜歡去看電影、唱KTV或是去餐廳聊聊天吃美食呢?處女座(8.24-9.23)I love everything about you, especially the way you made me feel how specialI am.我喜歡所有的你，尤其是你如何讓我覺得我自己是多麼特別的。魔羯座(12.23-1.20)Oh, dear. I want you to know that being with you, it's as good as it gets.親愛的，世上沒有比跟你在一起更幸福的了。__________________________風象星座__________________________雙子座(5.22-6.21)I can think of nothing else but your dazzling smile.我的腦海中除了你那迷人的微笑甚麼都沒有。天秤座(9.24-10.23)I love your tender kisses and charming smiles.我愛上你那溫柔的吻和迷人的微笑。水瓶座(1.21-2.19)You are the one I have been looking for.你就是我一直在追尋的幸福。
我喜欢你我想永远和你在一起陪你到天涯海角I like that feeling when I miss of you, you always emotive  me when I saw your eyes. In your eyes, I could see your pulsatiled heart ,and also I could see my heart in your heart pulsatiled together. I saw a piece hope of sky in you r eyes. I would love to stay with you under that piece hope of sky with my whole life. I would love stay with you forever ,walk around the ends of the earth never leave you alone我喜欢那种感觉--当我想你的时候,当我看你的眼睛时，你总是让我感动。在你的眼睛中，我看到了你跳动的心，也看到了我的心在和你的心一起跳动。在那里我看到了一片希望的天空，我愿用我的一生和你一起呆在那天空下共享未来，我愿和你一起，走遍天涯海角永不分离。
My life has become a sunny dawn because of you
n.e.p.a.l. 尼泊尔never ever part as lovers.像情人一样永不分开i.n.d.i.a. 印度i nearly died in adoration.我差点在狂爱中死去h.o.l.l.a.n.d.荷兰hope our love lasts and never dies.愿我们的爱永远不变
1.I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you. 爱一个人不是因为他（她）是谁，重要的是和他（她）在一起有感觉。 2. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside him knowing you can't have him. 思念的痛苦在于他就在你身边，你却不能拥有他。 3. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile. 即使情绪很低落，也不要皱眉，想想爱你的人是如何着迷与你的笑容。 4. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world. 对于世界来说，你是渺小的；但他（她）却把你视为独一无二的珍宝。 5. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened. 不要因为爱而伤心落泪，曾经拥有才是最重要的。
I want to stay with you forever whenever what happen.我想和你在一起无论发生什么。嗬嗬！本人英语能力有限帮不了许多。我认为简洁易懂才是最重要的，不要咬文嚼字哦！
I want to be with you for the rest of my life.我想与你共度余生All I want is to be your life-long partner.我只想成为你的伴侣.I want to share my life with you.我想和你在一起.I will follow and love you no matter what happened.无论发生什麽我都将爱你并与你在一起.I will love you to the end of my life.我会爱你直到死.
自己选吧！   Where there is great love, there are always miracles. 哪里有真爱存在，哪里就有奇迹。 Love is like a butterfly. It goes where it pleases and it pleases where it goes. 爱情就像一只蝴蝶，它喜欢飞到哪里，就把欢乐带到哪里。 If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. 假如每次想起你我都会得到一朵鲜花，那么我将永远在花丛中徜徉。 Within you I lose myself, without you I find myself wanting to be lost again. 有了你，我迷失了自我。失去你，我多么希望自己再度迷失。 At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. 每一个沐浴在爱河中的人都是诗人。 Look into my eyes - you will see what you mean to me. 看看我的眼睛，你会发现你对我而言意味着什么。 Distance makes the hearts grow fonder. 距离使两颗心靠得更近。 I need him like I need the air to breathe. 我需要他，正如我需要呼吸空气。 If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving be me. 如果没有相等的爱，那就让我爱多一些吧。 Love is a vine that grows into our hearts. 爱是长在我们心里的藤蔓。 If I know what love is, it is because of you. 因为你，我懂得了爱。 Love is the greatest refreshment in life. 爱情是生活最好的提神剂。 Love never dies. 爱情永不死。 The darkness is no darkness with thee. 有了你，黑暗不再是黑暗。 We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us. 如果没有人爱我们，我们也就不会再爱自己了。 There is no remedy for love but to love more. 治疗爱的创伤唯有加倍地去爱。 When love is not madness, it is not love. 如果爱不疯狂就不是爱了。 A heart that loves is always young. 有爱的心永远年轻。 Love is blind. 爱情是盲目的。 Love is like the moon, when it does not increase, it decreases. 爱情就像月亮，不增则减。 The soul cannot live without love. 灵魂不能没有爱而存在。 Brief is life, but love is long. 生命虽短，爱却绵长。 Who travels for love finds a thousand miles not longer than one. 在爱人眼里，一千里的旅程不过一里。 Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak. 爱比大衣更能驱走寒冷。 Take away love, and our earth is a tomb. 没有了爱，地球便成了坟墓。 My heart is with you. 我的爱与你同在。 I miss you so much already and I haven‘t even left yet! 尽管还不曾离开，我已对你朝思暮想！ I‘ll think of you every step of the way. 我会想你，在漫漫长路的每一步。 Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you. 无论你身在何处，无论你为何忙碌，我都会在此守候。 Passionate love is a quenchless thirst. 热烈的爱情是不可抑制的渴望。 The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman‘s heart. 在这个世界上，男人最珍贵的财产就是一个女人的心。 One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life.That word is love. 有一个词可以让我们摆脱生活中所有的负担和痛苦，那就是&爱情&。 Every day without you is like a book without pages. 没有你的日子就像一本没有书页的书。 Love is hard to get into, but harder to get out of. 爱很难投入，但一旦投入，便更难走出。 Love is a light that never dims. 爱是一盏永不昏暗的明灯。 May your love soar on the wings of a dove in flight. 愿你的爱乘着飞翔的白鸽，展翅高飞。 She who has never loved, has never lived. 人活着总要爱一回。 Life is the flower for which love is the honey. 生命如花，爱情是蜜。 No words are necessary between two loving hearts. 两颗相爱的心之间不需要言语。 Precious things are very few in this world. That is the reason there is just one you. 在这世上珍贵的东西总是罕有，所以这世上只有一个你。 You make my heart smile. 我的心因你而笑。 The road to a lover‘s house is never long. 通往爱人家里的路总不会漫长。 Why do the good girls, always want the bad boys? 为何好女孩总喜欢坏男孩？ Being with you is like walking on a very clear morning. 和你在一起就像在一个清爽的早晨漫步。 It is never too late to fall in love. 爱永远不会嫌晚。 To the world you may be just one person. To the person you may be the world. 对于世界，你可能只是一个人，但对于某个人，你却是整个世界。 Where there is love, there are always wishes. 哪里有爱，哪里就有希望。 You don‘t love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her. 你不会因为美丽去爱一个女人，但她却会因为你的爱而变得美丽。 Love
the aspect may change, but not the essence. 爱是永恒的，外表可能改变，但本质永远不变。 Love is not a matter of counting the days. It‘s making the days count. 爱情不是数着日子过去，它让每个日子都变得有意义。 With the wonder of your love, the sun above always shines. 拥有你美丽的爱情，太阳就永远明媚。 Love is a fabric that nature wove and fantasy embroidered. 爱情是一方织巾，用自然编织，用幻想点缀。 First love is unforgettable all one‘s life. 初恋是永生难忘的。 In the very smallest cot there is room enough for a loving pair. 哪怕是最小的茅舍，对一对恋人来说都有足够的空间。 Love without end hath no end. 情绵绵，爱无边。 Love‘s tongue is in the eyes. 爱情的话语全在双眼之中。 In love folly is always sweet. 恋爱中，干傻事总是让人感到十分美妙。 There is no hiding from lover‘s eyes. 什么也瞒不过恋人的眼睛。 The only present love demands is love. 爱所祈求的唯一礼物就是爱。 The heart that once truly loves never forgets. 真挚恋爱过的心永不忘却。 Love warms more than a thousand fires. 爱情的炽热胜过千万团的火。 Your smiling at me is my daily dose of magic. 你嫣然的微笑是我每日享受到的魅力。 Your kiss still burns on my lips, everyday of mine is so beautiful. 你的吻还在我的唇上发烫，从此我的日子变得如此美丽。 L it needs no talk. 相爱的心息息相通，无需用言语倾诉。 Love me little and love me long. 不求情意绵绵，但求天长地久。 First impression of you is most lasting. 对你最初的印象，久久难以忘怀。 When the words &I love you& were said by you for the first time, my world blossoms. 第一次听到你对我说&我爱你&，我的世界一瞬间鲜花绽开。 Tell me you are mine. I‘ll be yours through all the years, till the end of time. 请告诉我你是我的。岁岁年年，我都属于你，永远永远。 Love is a fire which burns unseen. 爱情是无形燃烧的火焰。 I feel happy at times we have had angry words but these have been kissed away. 我们生气争执时，爱的双唇把它们吻得无影无踪，我的心也顿觉甜蜜。 You cannot appreciate happiness unless you have known sadness too. 不知道什么是忧伤，就不会真正感激幸福。 But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, all losses are restored, and sorrows end. 只要我一想起你，亲爱的人，所有的失落和遗憾烟消云散.
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翻译：亲爱的，我只是爱你。
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亲爱的我只爱你
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亲爱的，我就是爱你。（给人感觉好像没有理由一样的爱着你，说不出为什么）爱心世家 原创，复制可耻！
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