I’ve written before that one of the intentions I set when I resolved to become a more public musician was to learn a small but varied repertoire of music which I could perform at any piano at the drop of hat. In addition to some Chopin pieces which were part of my High School repertoire, I’ve decided to add Franz Schubert’s Impromptu in Eb Major, Op. 90, No. 2 to my repertoire. It’s a fun and popular piece, but one which I never learned before so I thought it would be interesting to see how I would learn classical music now with my new attitude towards music. So far, I’ve had two realizations. One, which I hope to elaborate on in a later post, is that I am learning much faster than I used to because my internal “judge” is quieter than it used to be. The second, is that learning pieces backwards, that is from the end to the beginning, is much more fun!

Just to be clear, I’m not turning the music upside down and learning all the notes in reverse order. It would be closer to the truth to say that I’m learning the musical phrases of the piece in reverse order. For example, first I practice the last eight measures, then I practice the last sixteen, then the last twenty-four and so on. The practical result of this is that as I run through the segment of the piece which I’m learning, it gets easier and easier for me as I get closer to the last measure because I’ve practiced the end more than the beginning.

This new way of learning is in direct contrast to how I always learned pieces before. Previously, I would start learning from the beginning of a piece and progressed to the end. Naturally, as I began each practice session, it would be fun because I’m confident about the earlier measures, but it would gradually become more frustrating as the piece would fall apart when I got to the measures I hadn’t learned as well.

Learning the music from the end to the beginning should have practical implications for performance as well. I can often become nervous as I perform a piece that I learned, especially if a mistake breaks my concentration. I predict that this method of learning the music will help me to stay on track even if I make a mistake, because I will feel more confident about the later sections of the piece.

Apart from standing conventional wisdom on its head (rather literally), I found this method of learning interesting because it reminded me of how Jung and I are trying to live. We have been trying to look consciously at where we want to go so that we know how to make the best choices we can right now. We ask ourselves questions such as, “What kind of family do we want?”, “What kind of composer do I want to be?”, and “What kind of birthday do you want?” It’s difficult to find your way if you don’t know where you’re going!

Similarly, when you “fake it until you make it,” you decide on how you really want to be, and act as if you have already become that way until it becomes real. I even learned to love myself this way.

For any of this to work, however, you have to be willing to stand convention on its head. You need to be willing to believe in your dream rather than conventional wisdom. You need to have faith that your creative power can drown out the voices which say, “That’s just the way it is.”

Over the course of the last 110 days in our Soul Play Family 365 Experiment, we have examined and rejected many assumptions which we had internalized over the course of our lives, and in their place proclaimed our faith in the power of being sensitive, the importance of authenticity, the revelation of dreams, the potential of our country, and the truth in intuition, to name a few. Many more examples can be found in our archive!

If you’re feeling stuck, or unsure of where your next step is, then stop looking for a moment. Close your eyes, and allow yourself to imagine what would really bring you alive. Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there, all you need to know is where it is you’re going.

Imagine what it would be like to live that way, then turn in that direction, and take a step. Voilà! Now you’re that much closer to where you want to be, and that much further from the naysayers of conventional wisdom. In my experience, practicing life this way is much more fun and fruitful!