h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: How to practise music - A2338616
Author: Recumbentman: perfect practice makes - U208656

Now we know how, only one thing remains . . .

Oh, the nightmares this all brings back.

I must confess haven't read every word yet, but generally looks a good entry. However, thought I'd just share this quote with you incase you want to add it in somewhere, if appropriate. I'll be back with more comments later.

An amatuer practices until they get it right; a professional practices until they never get it wrong.

Sorry, I do not know it's provenance.

Nice one Scrumph! It may or may not fit in (I'm getting fond of the way it looks already, having spent a few weeks at it . . )

One curious thing is, I put in some unordered lists and some ordered lists, but on my browser (Phoenix) they look the same -- no numbers, no bullets.

It's OK if you don't add it in - I can always add it as a conversation underneath

I see a mix of numbered and un-numbered lists (square bullets) here (browser: Safari). The code should be correct as it's all from the XML, which must be 'well-formed'. Are the lists indented at all for you? Do you see them on other sites?

Got you in!

Yes they are indented, and as such perfectly acceptable. Maybe I need to update my Phoenix.

Numbers and bullets all present and correct in Internet Exploder.

I'm finding this entry quite difficult to read - it doesn't flow very well and I've yet to get past 'Techniques'. The opening of it with all those lists is very disjointed... I don't see the purpose of them. And all those blockquotes break the flow too. Perhaps I should try to read it in Goo - entries are sometimes easier to read in that skin. Having played musical instruments for most of my schooldays, and then the piano for two years during the 90s, I ought to be able to get a handle on an entry about practice, but this one isn't doing it for me.


Scout
Back in the saddle again

I enjoyed this I found it well-written, well structured and I like the quotes in italics which both break up the text and give it an important personal perspective.

But did I miss something? Who is being quoted in the italics? At first I thought it was you, Recumbantman, but then I realised that it must be several people. Are the quotes from books, from friends, pupils???

I know all about the guilt thing: I spent 6 years in my childhood having a love-hate relationship with a piano, goaded by my mother, who hadn't learnt it as a child, so was desperate that I should!! Almost needless to say, I haven't played the piano since I was 14. But I can twiddle a good guitar


Frenchbean

The unordered/ordered lists look grand to me.

Throughout the entry, you can't make up your mind whether it is practice or practise.

The first sentence being a link and on a line on its own looks very strange. It looks like a header. Perhaps you could change the sentence and make only part of it a link, and follow on immediately with the next sentence rather than as a separate paragraph? Like this:

Are you _taking up a musical instrument_? Enjoy it...

Like Frenchbean, I find it odd that you provide so many quotations without saying where they come from. Even a comment to say that they were collected from various musician friends (or wherever) would help.

The phrase "to (my ears) a low standard" looks peculiar. If this is a Recumbentman quote, you might consider changing it. If not, you might change the punctuation.

"revise" is not always understood in America - Americans use the word to mean "to make a change". A footnote explaining that it means "review" might be worth adding.

The apostrophe at the end of "as the others'." is unnecessary and confusing because it looks like a closing quote.

Looking at the long list of contributors to this entry, I figure those are the people being quoted, in much the same way you find lots of quotes in collaborative entries instigated on the Front Page by the Italics.

Full marks to Gosho.

Gnomon is in detention for a week, studying the spelling of "pracice" (noun) and "practise" (verb). This will be uncomfortable for American readers, who have them the other way round. House Rules say "spell it in English English", so I have, and that was the only change I made to my fellow-contibutors' quotes, along with some punctuation. I deliberately left in "to (my ears)" because the meaning is perfectly clear and the correct grammar "to (to my ears)" is awkward.

Oh and Gnomon, the others' meant the other players' parts: listen to *your* part with the same detachment as you listen to theirs with; though the sense comes across all right without it (listen to your *part* with as much . . as the other parts). So I might change that. I also take on the starting suggestion.

This is a collaborative piece, I'm surprised it grew so big, but I can't see what to cut. I Asked the h2g2 Community and they came up with good stuff. Does it have to be spelt out where the quotes come from?

OK you're off detention on a technicality

And thanks for the warning about "revise".

I guess the Grapelli/Menuhin rant is not essential.

One thing I might like to add is the dreadful effects of exams. Once a piece has been labelled Grade III, will a child ever play it after walking out of the Grade III exam? Traditional musicians by contrast are always happy to play the first tune they ever learned. Many of the students who do exams have at any give time no repertoire -- what they haven't forgotten they aren't finished learning.

Is it Grapelli or Grappelli? I've been unable to find out by look at the web, and I threw out the only Grapelli/Reinhardt CD I had because the (sound reproduction) quality was so bad.

Looks like two ps; the places that sell CD like Amazon give that spelling; so does the highly-regarded () Wikipedia.

On mature reflection though I think it's a side-track, the entry would be better without him.

Tried my best to put internal links in; nothing in h2g2 (Edited) for Bing Crosby, Jehudi Menuhin, Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt . . . and only a Help Page on Douglas Adams for crying out loud. I'll look for some external lynx.

Got that spelling sorted Gno? (G O W D Z - E Y E - T S - E Y E)

A lot of reorganisation and a little cutting done.

More readable yet? Nope, didn't think so . . .

Well, I liked it already, but that's

A really great entry now


Frenchbean

Really Frenchbean we must stop meeting this way . . .

Lovely piece, Recumbentman.

I don't understand this bit:

'Before you do anything, don't do it. Practice is wasted if you rehearse your mistakes2.'

And somewhere whilst I was reading the entry, I saw 'peope' instead of 'people'.

Thanks Z!

The intention in that sentence is "look before you leap".

Too cryptic? I'll look into it.