I was talking to Michael last night about expectations.  Suzuki learners are supposed to listen a lot, so I do.  A CD comes with the books, and when I’ve purchased a new one I’ve listened to them quite a bit, to the point that the tunes are familiar and I can hum along with them.  So months prior to engaging with a piece by playing it, I’m engaged by listening to it.

All this listening enables me to develop some expectations – I identify songs I think I’m going to love, or on the other side, songs that I’m not too excited about.  What I’ve come to notice is that playing music is different than listening to it; there are often surprises I learn about in learning to play the music that can make the songs I don’t get too excited about at first blush some of my favorites upon starting to play them.

When I started listening to my current Gavotte, for example, it was sandwiched in between Dvorak’s Humoresque and a Bach piece that sounds quite interesting, so I never really much looked forward to this piece.  But now that I’m engaged with the Becker Gavotte I’m finding it challenging and that it offers me lots of room to grow.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan