{"id":61372,"date":"2019-10-18T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/?p=61372"},"modified":"2024-07-22T23:23:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T06:23:16","slug":"better-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/better-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Play Better at Home, and Play Poorly for Others"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does this scenario sound familiar:<br \/>\nYou practice well all week at home. You get your music sounding clean and consistent.<\/p>\n<p>Then, when you play for a teacher or for family and friends, things go wrong. There are more mistakes. Memory slips and finger fumbles abound.<\/p>\n<p>Why do we play better at home than we do for other people? Is it nerves? Or is it more than that?<\/p>\n<p class=\"centerc\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0tzkEPyEhE4?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0&amp;autohide=1\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Comparison Point Makes All the Difference<\/h2>\n<p>It may seem like a mystery why we play better alone. But actually it\u2019s an illusion. In fact, we don\u2019t play better at home. We don\u2019t play better alone. (Or not much better, allowing for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/stage-fright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nerves<\/a> and adrenaline.)<\/p>\n<p>But wait! I DO make more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/no-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mistakes<\/a> playing for others!<\/p>\n<p>The answer here lies in the point of comparison. Normally, when we play for others, we play our music through just once. One take. One shot to get it right or wrong.<\/p>\n<p>But at home, we play the same bit over and over. And we gauge our level of competence by the last one. After we\u2019ve fully reminded ourselves of all the \u201cins and outs\u201d, twists and turns.<\/p>\n<p>So we compare our first run-through at our lesson or performance to our 20th run-through at home.<\/p>\n<p>No wonder we play it better at home &#8211; We had 19 \u201cpractice throws\u201d!<\/p>\n<p>What would we hear if we recorded our very first play-through at home? Chances are it would sound very much like it does in the lesson or performance.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">How to Play Better at Home AND for Others<\/h2>\n<p>So knowing this, how do we get our music to sound good the first time? What should we do in practice to get the first play-through up to the level we want it to be?<\/p>\n<p>This is the whole <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/musical-memory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">game<\/a> of practice. We practice with this as one of the main goals.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, we need to practice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/positive-agenda\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">accuracy<\/a> and precision with every note. And we need to do this right from the beginning of our practice. And this often means that we need to play more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/slow-practice-classical-guitar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slowly<\/a> than we may feel compelled to.<\/p>\n<p>We also can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/listen-to-music\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">listen<\/a> to the quality of each note. (Correct: Each <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/problem-solving-classical-guitar-polishing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">individual note<\/a>, even though there are a lot of them.) We can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/video-yourself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">video or record<\/a> our playing often to get a more objective listen.<\/p>\n<p>And lastly for now, we can adjust our expectations. We can expect things to take longer than we thing they should. And we can expect that to play cleanly and consistently will take far more focus and attention than we previously thought.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Good News<\/h2>\n<p>The good news here is that nothing is wrong with you. You don\u2019t have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/quiet-inner-dialog-performance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">faulty wiring<\/a> or loose screws.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, you can see more of reality and meet your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarshed.com\/8-tips-for-a-better-performance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">performances<\/a> with a measure of compassion.<\/p>\n<p>And more, you can see the direct link between how you practice at home, and how you play for others. With this insight, you can practice with more intention, and see more positive results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does this scenario sound familiar: You practice well all week at home. You get your music sounding clean and consistent. Then, when you play for a teacher or for family and friends, things go wrong. There are more mistakes. Memory slips and finger fumbles abound. Why do we play better at home than we do for other people? Is it &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/better-at-home\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,434,20],"tags":[34,353,352,384,133,52],"class_list":["post-61372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-main-content-parent","category-practicing","tag-performance","tag-performance-anxiety","tag-performance-practice","tag-practice-concepts","tag-practice-philosophy","tag-practice-skills"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why We Play Better Alone, and Poorly for Others<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why do we play better at home? 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