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Touch vs. Sight

When it comes to learning an instrument, the power of touch cannot be emphasized enough.  Consider how fast and sensitive touch is compared to another sense like sight.  If you touch a hot stove by accident you instantly pull away.  Your hand moves so fast that your skin does not even have time to burn.

By comparison, sight is much slower.  Has someone ever thrown something in your direction (a ball, car keys, etc...) and you are watching it fly through the air toward you yet you still don't react in time to catch the object?

A trademark of the Suzuki Method is that students learn to play without sheet music at first.  This is primarily to allow for the ear to develop.  But it's also to allow that sense of touch to mature.  Despite the sensitivity of touch (or perhaps because of?), it is the one sense that can easily get cancelled out by all the others.  As soon as the other senses are engaged, touch usually takes a back seat.

For example, as you read this blog, are you thinking about the feel of the chair you're sitting on or what your feet feel at this exact moment?

Playing an instrument well is not about having posture that looks right.  It has to feel right.  It has to feel natural, like the instrument has become an extension of the body and not some foreign object.

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