Dreaded Endless Loop Memory Slip

I've warned my students that they need to practice repeats. Most
were surprised that they still had little slips at those exact points.
None have had the dreaded endless loop (so far) and that is mostly
because I made sure they worked those repeats during lessons before
performances.

IIRC, studies indicate we all will naturally start at phrase
beginnings and endings when asked to start a piece at random points.
This tendency to break pieces into phrases will mean that the
transitions between phrases are not given as much study when in fact
they need more study since they are major points of confusion.

I also read that some players (I think Bream?) will finger the part
just before the second repeat differently to avoid this problem.

In some pieces the transitions between sections can be very tricky
and require much more attention during performance. I think the idea
of fingering the second repeat differently before the transition can
help us mentally focus before we hit the hairpin turn that is so often
found at repeats.

It's this shift in focus that seems to be something most students
are not aware they do. Nobody maintains the same level of focus from
beginning to end during performance but during the most difficult
parts we need more focus to play them.

Once during a gig I was playing and someone said something that I
replied to as I played. He said he knew I was good because I could do
that. I explained that if I was playing a Bach Fugue I could not talk
as I played.

The idea of automatic playing is related to the idea of attention
at the transitions since we often go back and forth between these two
mental states during performance. What often happens is the
transitions catch us napping in the sections that are on automatic or
we tense up just before them. Sometimes we relax too much after a
difficult section and blow it in something that was on total
automatic.

The ability to monitor attention over time this way seems to be
unique to music studies. I can tell if the student slips attention for
even a moment and, more importantly, the student can feel it as it
happens.

Now I have to get back to that piece where I keep forgetting...

... which repeat am I on????.... (:-0


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