To help me progress, I have been watching tutorials from experienced musicians - two by Nick Carpenter, a former principal clarinetist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra have been particularly useful. The first was on warming up. I like many music students am always busy, it is so easy to rush into a practise session and go straight into the music without taking time to warm up. Such preparation when you do take time pays dividends. There's a lesson there about adequate preparation and being in tune with the instrument.
A second video was about practise and how it isn't enough to just practise regularly, it has to be the right practise. When we identify passages that are more difficult, we slow right down and practise the notes at the speed of no mistakes before gradually increasing the tempo to normal. It's all about establishing the right habits. Practise scales or pieces with recurring mistakes and they will become habitual mistakes.
By putting those two tutorials into practice, I have been able to improve quite dramatically. The experience got me thinking about my spiritual journey. It's so easy to rush through life without taking enough time to prepare ourselves. It's easy to rush through life and not spend time getting our lives in tune with God. We need to take time, we need to go into each day at the speed of no mistakes and make sure what we are doing is what God would have us do.
A clarinet is just a wooden tube with metal keywork on it until a skilled musician picks it up and starts to play it. In the same way, we cannot reach our true potential unless God's Spirit is breathed upon us and directs us. It means being open to the will of God. Until that becomes habit - we must set out at the speed of no mistakes and allow God to transform us into the people he would have us be.
