[Tango-L] Effective Practice

[Jeff Gaynor]

Chris, UK wrote:

>Jeff wrote:
>
>  
>
>>You must repeat patterns a great deal to cause growth in the neural
>>pathways until you can internalize the movement.
>>One of the most effective things you can do it think thoroughly about
>>whatever movement you are doing
>>    
>>
>
>'Internalise the movement' and 'think thoroughly' are not a solution. They 
>are a big part of the problem. 
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>
Dude....

I think the fundamental issue here is whether instruction is a valid 
source of information. You imply strongly that it is not. My hobby is 
taking budding  athletes and turning them into supermen/superwomen. I 
know I can do it because I've done several hundred times. You would be 
seriously flabbergasted to see what I can do as well as what I can get 
my students to do. Part of the irritating parallel with both tango and 
martial arts is the decidedly anti-rational approach to it. Since people 
want it to be something transcendental they work hard at putting on the 
blinders to keep it truly beyond comprehension. Sorry, nope doesn't work 
for me but you are welcomed to do so if you like. Just a thought

"War is work, not mystery"

-- old Spartan saying

or more politically incorrect, a quote from Nadia Boulanger, who was 
Piazzola's teacher:

"Art loves chains"

meaning that to truly bend art to your will requires profound control. 
She said that to counter the myth that music just sort of happens. 
Couldn't agree more. (FYI She was a famously ruthless teacher who 
counted Stravinsky, Copeland and a horde of other folks you've heard of 
as her pupils.)

>What makes a tango movement work is that you share it completely with your 
>partner - you externalise rather than internalise it. 
>
Did I state any place you don't practice with a partner? You stuck that 
in and chewed me out for it. Tsk tsk. Now that you mention it, 
individual practice can be ok but for certain activities it promotes 
more bad habits than it fixes (ever see a wrestler do a lot of solo 
practice? Screws up their timing something fierce.)

>And this can't be 
>done by thinking, thoroughly or otherwise, because thought doesn't 
>communicate across the embrace. The only thing that does is feeling. 
>Kinaesthetic feeling.
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Not sure what this means.

>Not telepathy. Telempathy.
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Even less so.

Jeff