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Sometimes frustration and annoyance can lead to very useful discoveries. And for me, the best aha! discoveries are when a pattern reveals itself to me.
Okay, so there I am sitting at the keyboard with my pandemic resolution to learn some scales on the piano. Seems like a doable and worthwhile goal, right? Wrong! Worthwhile, yes. Doable, embarrassingly, no. I really don't want to tell you how long I sat there trying to play the simplest of all scales, the all-white-key C scale, with both hands, up and down two octaves. It was totally demoralizing. I mean, isn't this the first thing little kids learn to play on the piano? It should not be this hard!
Well, fortunately, along came a pattern to the rescue. It was like magic. As soon as I saw the symmetry of the fingering I could play the scale instantly. It was like night and day.
Very often, our focus on the details of what we are doing blocks us from mastery. When we take a step back and open ourselves to a perception of the pattern, everything falls into place. It reminds me of those 3D images where you have to let your eyes go out of focus in order to see the third dimension. Sometimes we have to let go of our tight focus in order to see the big picture.
It definitely worked for me in a miraculous way with those piano scales. In fact, I was so blown away by how instant the transformation was in my ability to play scales that I decided to teach my method. If you want to find out more about that, head on over to
http://e-jamm.com
Whether or not piano scales are on your mind, I want to offer you this quick thought. When you feel frustrated, stuck in a rut, or blocked from moving forward in any way, take a step back, go a little out of focus, and see if a pattern reveals itself to you. You might just have a mini miracle.
