Friday, September 30, 2011

The "Ah-Ha" Moment


I wanted to get this little post written before I forgot about it. This is the "ah-ha" moment. I was talking on Thursday to my 430 student Alex Cooke about it when his lesson ended and my next student, Steve Champlin, over heard and actually named this piece for me. The "ah-ha" moment is when something you have been working on and trying to figure out finally comes to you and you get it. You finally understand it and go "Ah-Ha", I got it!. Lots of things we will go over in lessons you wont fully understand until way after we have parted ways. The same thing happened to me. In all of my musical education I had when I was younger I had lots of things I did not get until way way after my schooling was done. One of the big things I never got was modes. I just could not grasp what they did or how to use them , how they worked or any of it when I was getting taught them. I was driving in my car one day many years after having been taught them, not even thinking about them or even music when it finally dawned on me what they did and how to get to them easy. The whole time in between my "ah-ha" moment and the time I was taught them I still did work with them. Still did all my "homework" over and over to try and understand them. It was the countless work I did with them that finally paid off so that I could understand them in an "ah-ha" moment. I had Alex Cooke finally have an "ah-ha" moment in lessons Thursday. We have been working on various licks, changing their keys and "milking" them over and over. We have been doing this for around 4-5 months now. He finally got it in that last lesson. Everyone of you students are going to have these "ah-ha" moments for the entire life of your musical endeavour. You got to keep pushing with "the drive" to keep wanting to get something and understand it. It might take a month or two or even years for you to finally get it. You keep on truckin until you do though. Keep working until that "Ah_Ha" moment occurs.

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