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Imitation before Understanding before Innovation

• DoingIsLearning 6y ago
  As someone with a toddler that really resonated. Thanks.
  • Viliam1234 6y ago
    With a toddler, you don't have much of a choice. Explaining won't work, and immitation is an instinct. Question is whether this remains true in older age. Curious people are going to think about things anyway, so the choice is not between explanation and mindless repetition, but between correct explanation and random misunderstandings. Seems better to provide the correct one (and of course then do as much repetition as necessary).
• jancsika 6y ago
  There is a problem I can think of in music that fits that cliche-- pianists who imitate the interpretation of others. There are some who are amazingly adept at imitation, and often the downside is a difficulty in coming up with their own interpretation. The problem I'm describing is different. By college I already had a set of skills that I made my own. I also already had an idea about how I wanted the music to sound. The problem was mainly that I had no idea that the skills I had already learned got me part of the way toward playing a melody with greater lyricism. Worse, I had no idea to what extent I could execute that better, or what it would feel like to execute it. It took a few years of trusting that someone wiser might know things I don't to put those things together.