Recover From Mistakes
Next to him who makes no mistakes, is he who recovers from and disguises
the errors. At best a performance full of errors of pitch, word, tone
and quality is but a patched garment. Apply the mind to eradicating
every error. Perhaps the most common thing for students to do is to try
over again, while at practice, the music in which the error has been
made, but doing it without thought. It is far better to think what the
error is, what caused it, how it should be removed, and then begin the
practice which will remove it. Oh, if the hours of wasteful practice
could only be gathered up into useful hours, how much better off the
whole would be! The least wasteful thing is to stop practice and
think.