That weak finger has been a hindrance
to many a fine passage and scale. That is better! Now I can put on my
tight gloves. Suppose I should put on the left glove on the way."
Well, my young ladies, how many hours do you think all those minutes
would make in a year? But I hear you say, "What is the use of worrying
to pick up all those stray minutes, like lost pins? We have a whole hour
to practise every day, when nothing prevents." Exactly, when nothing
prevents.
I will now tell you a few of my secrets for piano performers.
If in piano-playing, or in any art, you wish to attain success, you must
resolve to work every day, at least a little, on the technique. Sickness
and other unavoidable interruptions deprive you of days enough.
Practise always with unexhausted energy: the result will be tenfold. Do
you not frequently use the time for practising, when you have already
been at work studying for five or six hours? Have you then strength and
spirit enough to practise the necessary exercises for an hour or more,
and to study your music-pieces carefully and attentively, as your
teacher instructed you? Is not your mind exhausted, and are not your
hands and fingers tired and stiff with writing, so that you are tempted
to help out with your arms and elbows, which is worse than no practice
at all? But, my dear ladies, if you practise properly, several times
every day, ten minutes at a time, your strength and your patience are
usually sufficient for it; and, if you are obliged to omit your regular
"hour's practice," you have, at any rate, accomplished something with
your ten minutes before breakfast, or before dinner, or at any leisure
moment.
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