I just read a book about how to learn to sing. The author suggested you get a singing teacher and you spend about 30 minutes a day at a minimum, practicing.
As a non-singer, I was shocked! The book says to practice, just like you would practice guitar or practice Spanish if you were learning the language. I ddn't know singers had to practice. I thought they were just some other, awesome species with a natural gift.
Don't be so surprised at my reaction. This is what ignorance looks like. (At our house, we say that God loves stupid people - look how many He made!)
And, I read another book recently, about a musician, who described the hours spent playing scales when he was a kid. That took me back down memory lane to my time spent pounding scales on the piano. My son took Suzuki piano, and his teacher had amazing students. She insisted on about 15 minutes a day, every single day, of practice (and practicing wisely). I didn't think my kid could learn piano in so few minutes, but the secret was practicing every single day, not skipping a couple of days and then doing an hour with Mom as The Enforcer. Fifteen minutes was easy for a little kid to do, and he didn't mind. (He played beautifully, and went on to other instruments later.)
When you learn by doing a little every day, your mind continues to assimilate the decipher the information the rest of the day.
There's something incredibly powerful about every day discipline. It works in other areas of life, too; for instance, if you were trying to lose weight, you'd track your food intake daily.
Naturally, I can't help but apply this powerful concept to machine knitting. Perhaps you can't find a whole weekend to spend at a knitting seminar, but you could learn like crazy in a few minutes a day.
Oh, beginners, I want 30 minutes of your life, every single day! For years, many people have treated machine knitting as if it's the sort of hobby that works well if you dust the old machine off every six months and then whip out a gorgeous jacket. Nuh-uh. That is another example what ignorance looks like. You need to try to knit a little every day while you are learning. If you don't have 30 minutes a day, how about 15 minutes, with Sundays off?
In 30 minutes, you can view and do just about any of my video lessons. All my YouTube videos, as a matter of fact, are 10 minutes or less, and the knitting doesn't take a whole lot longer than the viewing. In a few months, you will run out of lessons, and you'll be ready to teach other people.
Click here to get to the free video lessons:
If you want to purchase the full-screen, high-definition DVDs, go here: http://www.dianaknits.com/ and find my products for sale.
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It is really easy to think that way about singers---after all, they're "just" using their voice, something we all have. As a university trained musician, I know all to well the value of daily practice--though we would usually practice up to three hours a day.
ReplyDeleteI can also relate this to sewing. Last summer I got a serger and did a lot of sewing. But in December I had to pack up while we reno the basement. Recently I wanted to work on some stuff (since I lost weight after sewing all that stuff last summer!). I felt like a total serger newbie again! I could feel faint glimmers of familiarity, but not nearly enough. Of course, I don't want to go back to the "learning" stage, LOL.
OK, Diana ... I'll take your 30 minute daily challenge. I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks.
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