if you practice, you will get better.

So, somehow I came across, again more and more responses to Amy Chua's article. I don't actually want to address her article but some of the rebuttals. One them was that, "some children are just naturally gifted at music", and pushing others that weren't would just be useless. Apart from people that actually have some form of amusia (which is, by reports, actually very rare), I'm pretty sure that most people have the capacity to be decent, if not insanely wonderful musicians. You (or, I do!) hear a lot of people talk about music as if it is this crazy inborn talent people have that was given to them by magical fairies.

No, it is not.

You see, the people who are wonderful musicians do this thing: practice. And they have done it a LOT. And they practice the right way, which is, often, working on things that they failed at before and can't do now. It isn't playing the easy stuff over and over. Well, there are entire books and schools of thought on how to practice the right way, but let me suffice to say: practice, it makes the difference. (AND it makes a different HOW you practice)

Now, I'm not saying there isn't natural talent and so forth. But even people with natural talent need to practice, especially to attain a high level of musicianship. That goes for composers and songwriters, too. They practice; they (we) do it a lot.

So, yes, I believe that 100% of developmentally normal kids would be awesome pianists (or whatever) if they practiced three or more hours a day since the time they were five. (and if you want to be a professional, you'd better double those hours when you get older) Of course, among those kids, some will be better than others, and even then it'd be hard to say whether its nature or nurture... Usually, it requires self-motivation and intense love of music/playing and probably ambition, not a parent looking over your shoulder, but it is practice practice practice that makes the difference.

Crossposted on facebook. Yes, facebook.

grad school trauma and more more more

So, I am on the waiting list for Florida University and I'm on the waiting list for a Teaching Assistantship at ASU. Blah. I mean, I think that means I'm probably an admit for ASU, but my funding is the thing up in the air. But I don't know since I haven't gotten notice of an acceptance... I'm waiting list girl. Still, this is better than how I was doing at this point last year, but I still feel pretty depressed about everything. Still waiting for my dream school, I guess... which I think I have a chance at since I was waiting list there last year, but I still have a pretty good change of NOT getting in. BLAH. Think I'm getting a reject from Brown sometime this week (yuck) and frankly... I'm wondering if I actually have a chance at UCSD. That would be weird.

I want UVA though. SO bad. FLA would not be bad either -- Paul Koonce is there, plus in the South. I hear Gainsville is funky/cool. So, those are my first choices (UVA is by far where I want to go...)...but ASU might be fun... even if Arizona seems like a totally bizarre place for me to live. On the up side, I checked and there's a contact improvisation jam there. I still need to check for the tango scene. (Charlottesville has a tango society and it is close enough to DC... but no local contact improv, but could go to either DC or Richmond one...(in theory) or maybe UVA has one that's not on the list). It is depressing how little dance places other than NYC have. Like, people! Go out dancing guys!

In other news, Justin & I got into the ExiTrip thing and I went and got the ExiTrips. Now I'm gonna start booking things bc I have to. Argh. Hate hate hate booking. Got a dancer from another project I'm working on interested in it... The couple doing the ExiTrip thingy were very nice, and after I left I wondered if I came off as either crazy and/or completely pretentious / contentious. For some reason I went off against multiple speakers and etc. Which, while yes, I'm totally skeptical about, why was I ranting about this and being negative etc. to nice people I had just met. I need like, a wristband that shocks me when I start to get inappropriate.

In other news, I finally am starting to feel like I am actually getting better at accordion due to the insane amount of practicing I've been doing. Still... I always feel like maybe I'm not practicing enough. I'm going to practice post-rehearsal tonight since today was a wash -- have done nothing. Will probably study Spanish on the way there.

My robot has stalled, though I have the solenoids, I just need to experiment. I needz to book something, I think. Gah. Maybe tomorrow I will take a few hours and send emails out, finally.

Btw, my roommate & I's I-Park project proposal was kickass. The most kickass proposal evah. So, there.