1,000 Days of Piano - Day 104: In Between

I’m in such an awkward place. My pieces are halfway memorized. I can’t play them without the music, but I don’t need the music most of the time. In between, I can look at my hands until the music in my head runs out. Then I look up, and I’ve lost my place. So I keep my eyes on the music until the difficult spot that I must memorize to play properly. I’m floating somewhere between STOP-PREPARE and working the metronome at half tempo. I’m in a mental musical no-man’s-land of notes and keys, almost trapped, but not quite. Patience is my only escape. In my zeal to learn the music quickly, I have not taken the time to learn slowly, measure by measure. I haven’t been wasting my time. I just know that it’s time to take my own learning to the next level.