Effortless Mastery, a book by pianist Kenny Werner, advocates among many other things, an approach which seems to resonate with practice-meme #2. Werner states: "I don't get my technique from studying technique. I get it from letting my hands and arms find their way without interference." I wish I could remember that. The practice-memes themselves should be keywords.
Actually, practice-meme #2 was derived from a tree-planting technique that I developed in which, instead of pushing harder, trying more, and indeed, fighting against the trees and the land, sometimes slowing down just a bit, concentrating on form, on relaxing, and on breathing are exactly what one needs to get back up to speed. As I was stretching today I was reminded of the same idea. Simply relaxing and "breathing into the stretch" was (I think) far more effective (and so, more enjoyable) than stretching with a frantic "Gotta stretch harder; Gotta be more flexible; Must get there!" approach. Not always clear when to apply practice-meme #2, mind you, since "Hurry hard!" does actually work sometimes. Hmmm . . .
(More on tree-planting xylo-analogies another time, by the way. More also on Effortless Mastery.)
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