u/Few_Entertainer_1636

put it on expecting to follow it the way i could follow kind of blue. couldn't find a way in — it felt dense, almost confrontational. closed my laptop and actually sat with it on the second listen and something cracked open. it's not music you understand, it's music you eventually surrender to. took me four listens before i stopped trying to analyze it and just let it happen. after that i couldn't stop.

thought i had a piece in decent shape. recorded it to send to someone. listened back and heard three things i didn't know i was doing wrong — uneven dynamics in the left hand, rushing through a specific transition, a note i was consistently clipping. you can't hear yourself accurately while you're playing. your brain fills in what it expects to hear. the recording doesn't lie and that's exactly why it's uncomfortable and exactly why you should do it constantly.