From failure to failure
- Utako Tanigawa
- Jun 6, 2020
- 1 min read
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. - This is one of my favorite quotes by Winston Churchill.
Since March, I decided to use this time to study some music that I've never thought I could play because of difficulties - technically , musically, requiring big hands, or complicated scores, etc. As I posted before, one of pieces is Chopin Etude Op. 25 No.11. For the last two months, I've been struggling with it a great deal. I think this piece requires somewhat athletic strength. As you know, I have "non athletic fingers" . Should I pat on the shoulder to say "You did good because at least you tried...." I'm losing my enthusiasm... I hope I can see the light at end of tunnel someday...
Utako - "From failure to failure":
I hear you. Just like an athlete, we all have limitations. Unfortunately, there's no guide or pre-exam to determine what those limitations are, whether we're talking about technical or workload limitations (I've had both). I had to face this recently with the Radiohead transcription I was trying to play. It does call for large hands, with extended 9ths and larger chords with inner voices- my solution was to roll just about all of the chords. After listening to a recording of my playing, I decided I had destroyed the essence of the piece. It didn't sound like the music I had fallen in love with. So I've walked away from it...until I possibly …