Welcome Explorers!
Habitual Error
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Dear Friend,
I wrote about this in my other blog My Simple Thought. After a while, I now thinking of closing that blog and re-post some of the content in Letter from A Friend series. Having two blogs at the same time is a little bit too much for me. So I just want to focus back with Stories of Picture.
Just like any other Christian, I went to Sunday Service. Since my church located near my house, it’s been a habit for me to go “just on time”. But sometime this “just on time” time was turned to be “not on time”. Even though I’m fully aware with this and try to change my “just on time” to “came earlier”, it’s a really hard thing to do when it became a habit already.
While in some way a habit is very useful and good for us (I like to think habit as a code in human complex script of automation), some habit may give us a misleading guide. I call this kind of habit as an Habitual Error and I found this habitual error in this morning Sunday Service.
Using a slide to help the congregation follow the liturgy in my church has been applied for some years now. I don’t remember the exact date, but I believe it’s been more than two years at least. When the first time we use the slide for lyrics and bible reading, it was alright with us to have some mistakes ran by the operator. As you might have guess, it’s very hard to use recorded timing for the slide because of the dynamic of the services. Thus, we decided to hire an operator to run the slide. His job was simple, to follow the service from the beginning till the end, and change the slide accordingly.
After several times of practice, we finally give the operator a chance run the slide in our Sunday Service. At that time, he sometime miss the lyric or display the slide in advance. Even this kind of ‘distract’ occurance may disturb the whole service, we still feel that he just try to adapt. But as the time passed by, we all now being adapted with his error (instead of him adapted with us). And just like my habit of going ‘just in time’ to attend Sunday Service, this adapted congregation in my church also made this kind of slide error as common thing. No one is willing to told the operator!
While I’m not satisfied with the slide, I remember this word told by my piano teacher for the first time. She didn’t tell me the term ‘habitual error’ exactly, but the context still the same. It was when she taught to play the pieces (or songs that we play in piano) correctly from the first time, otherwise I will be accustom to always play the false notes. It’s true! After several practices, I found myself always did the same error in the same place. And it’s not happen only for that pieces, but happen in my other pieces… it seems that I must made a mistake whenever I play a piano, just like the operator in my church. He seems to made the same error unconsciously no matter how hard he tried.
This habitual error is just like another type of habit. It really hard to change. That’s why I always try to remind myself whenever I teach my students that it’s important to play each piece correctly since the beginning. In piano, it’s as simple as one two three, read the part carefully, play it in slow tempo without any mistake, then gradually play it “in tempo” as written in the part. While for the operator case, I believe we must find a way to eliminate his habitual error.
The habitual error might not be detected by us in earlier stage, but gradually it will mislead us to something that we don’t want it happen for the rest of our life. My advise to prevent this are:
1. Always find a mentor even when you think you are an autodidact person, and
2. Good practice made perfect, bad practice made perfect error
Have yourself a habitual-error-free of life!
With love,
Your new friend
I wrote about this in my other blog My Simple Thought. After a while, I now thinking of closing that blog and re-post some of the content in Letter from A Friend series. Having two blogs at the same time is a little bit too much for me. So I just want to focus back with Stories of Picture.
Just like any other Christian, I went to Sunday Service. Since my church located near my house, it’s been a habit for me to go “just on time”. But sometime this “just on time” time was turned to be “not on time”. Even though I’m fully aware with this and try to change my “just on time” to “came earlier”, it’s a really hard thing to do when it became a habit already.
While in some way a habit is very useful and good for us (I like to think habit as a code in human complex script of automation), some habit may give us a misleading guide. I call this kind of habit as an Habitual Error and I found this habitual error in this morning Sunday Service.
Using a slide to help the congregation follow the liturgy in my church has been applied for some years now. I don’t remember the exact date, but I believe it’s been more than two years at least. When the first time we use the slide for lyrics and bible reading, it was alright with us to have some mistakes ran by the operator. As you might have guess, it’s very hard to use recorded timing for the slide because of the dynamic of the services. Thus, we decided to hire an operator to run the slide. His job was simple, to follow the service from the beginning till the end, and change the slide accordingly.
After several times of practice, we finally give the operator a chance run the slide in our Sunday Service. At that time, he sometime miss the lyric or display the slide in advance. Even this kind of ‘distract’ occurance may disturb the whole service, we still feel that he just try to adapt. But as the time passed by, we all now being adapted with his error (instead of him adapted with us). And just like my habit of going ‘just in time’ to attend Sunday Service, this adapted congregation in my church also made this kind of slide error as common thing. No one is willing to told the operator!
While I’m not satisfied with the slide, I remember this word told by my piano teacher for the first time. She didn’t tell me the term ‘habitual error’ exactly, but the context still the same. It was when she taught to play the pieces (or songs that we play in piano) correctly from the first time, otherwise I will be accustom to always play the false notes. It’s true! After several practices, I found myself always did the same error in the same place. And it’s not happen only for that pieces, but happen in my other pieces… it seems that I must made a mistake whenever I play a piano, just like the operator in my church. He seems to made the same error unconsciously no matter how hard he tried.
This habitual error is just like another type of habit. It really hard to change. That’s why I always try to remind myself whenever I teach my students that it’s important to play each piece correctly since the beginning. In piano, it’s as simple as one two three, read the part carefully, play it in slow tempo without any mistake, then gradually play it “in tempo” as written in the part. While for the operator case, I believe we must find a way to eliminate his habitual error.
The habitual error might not be detected by us in earlier stage, but gradually it will mislead us to something that we don’t want it happen for the rest of our life. My advise to prevent this are:
1. Always find a mentor even when you think you are an autodidact person, and
2. Good practice made perfect, bad practice made perfect error
Have yourself a habitual-error-free of life!
With love,
Your new friend
2
comments
Hamdani Amin
said...
To change an existing habit would not be an easy task. A lot of work need to be done not to mentioned the constant practice.
Aldhis
said...
Agree Hamdani, that's why it is important to show our young generation the right and good habit since their early age.
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