A good reason to start small
Posted by ServoR6 on sportbikes.net 

I  keep seeing this topic come up, so I thought I would take some time and contribute my thoughts on the matter.

Being a professional musician and music professor, I am well versed in the concepts of muscle memory and how the body learns to do certain activities. When I have a beginner student, they don't start off learning Bach. They start with simple exercises...individual movements designed to teach proper TECHNIQUE. Good technique is defined as the ability to execute a certain movement with the minimal amount of muscle contractions needed..i.e. the most efficient way possible.

When the brain learns to do a new activity, it retains the information indiscriminately... meaning it doesn't differentiate between good technique and bad technique. For example if a student is repeatedly missing the same note, the brain is in effect LEARNING the mistake. The only way to correct that is to isolate the movement, and do it very slowly. As you repeat a muscle movement, the brain remembers it. Then you progress to more complex movements, and more complex music. But the proper technique cannot be learned if the piece itself is beyond a student's current ability.