TPIN,
        Right about the time I quit the TPIN list (because I had too much homework to find the time to read email), I was about 2 months into the Spaulding book "Double High C in 37 Weeks." I said I would post once I had some results to speak of. Well, for those of you who don't know, the book says to play nothing else for maximum results, so I had been playing only that book since I started my comeback (after 3 years of not playing).

        Anyway, just after I quit the TPIN list, I also quit the Spaulding book. I tried playing out of a hymnal and a melody out of the back of Arban's, and I realized that I couldn't play anything except the Spaulding exercises. My chops couldn't make it through a single phrase of a real melody, so I quit the book, but I wanted to continue trying his theory that playing every other day (instead of every day) makes the chops stronger.

        So I started playing hymns and Arban's stuff every other day, and after about a month, I realized that I wasn't getting any better. That was a couple of weeks ago. Then I started playing every day. I started out only being able to play for about 15 or 20 minutes before I was too worn out to continue. But in only a couple of weeks I'm already to the point that today I was able to play for 45 minutes without a break.

        The moral of the story is: STAY AWAY FROM SPAULDING. And: PRACTICE (or, for our international friends: PRACTISE) EVERY DAY.

        I should listen to you guys more often (a lot of folks on here said the book was a bad thing).

Ben McDaniel
benmcd@ukans.edu

Credo.