Like knowing where your fingers are supposed to go. A teeny bit up or down and not good. Then there's timing...you all know about my whole rhythm ridiculousness...well, I think I figured something out.
My teacher explained it to me again, for the tenth time, maybe twentieth, and I think I understand, kind of.
In my book there was a little section when I started learning eighth notes that had 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & underneath the score. And it said I should count those out loud while playing. Well, I didn't. I had enough trouble just counting 1 2 3 4. I thought I couldn't add the &, too. And still learn the crazy-backwards-but-not-really G string. So I kept kinda counting 1 2 3 4. What difference would it make and why clutter up the simple tap, tap, tap, tap of 1 2 3 4? And, of course, I didn't ask my teacher. Though I'm sure he appreciated that there was one thing I didn't ask him to explain again. He probably assumed that though I'm slow, I was still trying to obey the basic, iron clad rules.
Now. I maybe got away with this for a bit. There were the few times he nailed me for not actually counting because he could tell by my note issues that I was a bit off. He can tell by my behavior issues that I'm a lot off, but that's another story.
Turns out, that 1, 2, 3, 4 isn't necessarily how I was supposed to be counting. I'm supposed to count the lowest denominator of notes. So if a piece has eighth, quarter and half notes, I need to count 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 because the eighth notes follow that pattern and nail number and & and the quarter notes hit on the number and play through the &. Hello!
So life lesson. Little things do matter. They add up and make the musical score that follows us through life. I don't want to screech or be three clicks forward or two clicks behind all the folks playing alongside of me. For reals.
