By Laurie Niles: When asked why he continued to play Bach cello suites on a daily basis when he was well into his 90s, the great cellist Pablo Casals famously responded, "Because I think Im making progress.
Good heavens, if one of the most accomplished cellists of the 20th century still still needed to "make progress" after practicing Bach for the better part of a century, what about the rest of us? Can we ever say we are "finished" with a piece?
![performer]()
Perhaps not, yet if we want a full repertoire and full experience as musicians, we must at least "move on" and learn other pieces, even if we might well come back to perfecting certain pieces that we've already learned in the future.
The question for this week is: at what point do you "move on," after you have been studying a piece? Do you feel you must perform it, in order to be ready to move on? To memorize it? Do you rely on your teacher to make that call? Do you move on when you lose interest in a piece? Perhaps you have a fairly standard amount of time, after which you move on?
Please answer this week's poll, then share your thoughts about when to "move on" in the comments below.
You might also like:
