"folks who have that play-alone preference, and the trouble they have when they start wanting to play with others and all their practice experience has been solitary, sometimes with overly-detailed playing and sometimes with various poor habits deeply ingrained."

"A person who learns and plays alone is at a serious disadvantage (even if only briefly) when it comes to playing with others. If nothing else, one tends to develop bad habits; it is easy to be too forgiving of oneself."

I have previously mentioned here the very sad tale of the keen solitary (classically trained) violinist, who may dad claimed was the only violinist he had ever come across who could slide a note played on an open string.... :-)


"I don't understand why at one time I could not hear chords, and I can't understand why I can do it now."

Training of the mind thru 'practice'.


"She started coming to practices"

Ah - that word again...

Did you realise that the most important parts of the body to train during 'practice' is the listening and analysis part of the brain<>?