JunkyT

Hey Jason!

I remember you because of the name, of course. Actually, I was frightened listening to the end of your lesson, because as I remember you were playing chromatics up above the staff. I was relieved when my hour was over and I had only played above a middle C three times!

MJ - just bring a tape recorder and your best attitude. Laurie will take care of the rest. With me, she had me play 3 different chromatic scales to start, and then knew exactly what I needed to work on. She seemed disinterested in the other things I was doing, but still encouraged me to continue with my routine and try to add her stuff to it. Over time, she said, I'll figure out what's working and what's not.

I taped the lesson (Laurie had no problem with this, except right after a rather off-color joke that she made me swear never to reveal! ;>)) and am so glad I did. I've gone back over it when I've had a question about how a particular exercise is supposed to be executed, or just for inspiration. I found that the things she SAID were just as important as the things se played or had me play.

For instance, two things keep coming back to me. The first is an idea that is by no means new to Laurie, but one that is good to keep in mind. She told me that there are three stages we go through when trying to learn anything. First stage is that we want to be able to do it but can't. The second stage is when we try and suck. Third stage is when we finally learn to do it. The important point here is that no one has ever gone from the first stage to the third stage without sucking! All of our heroes and teachers sucked at the things we suck at now at one point or another. The way they got good is by doing it over and over until they had it internalized. So don't be afraid to suck!

The second thing she told me that really stuck is that unless you have a solid and relatively stable foundation in the lower registers, the higher registers will never be solid and stable. The work that I did in my lesson, and the work I've been doing since, is 80% below middle C.

Take advantage of Laurie's expertise if you can...like Janell said, she's worth every penny you'll give her (and it won't be just a few!).