A beautiful sculpture

I often say to my students that learning to play the violin is like creating a beautiful sculpture. You chip away at one area, and then leave it be, chipping away at another area. You get right into the detail of the 'sculpture', honing, refining, chipping away at some aspect you want to perfect... then you stand right back (play the whole piece) and get a feeling for the whole thing. Inevitably you will keep returning to areas that you left be, with fresh perspective and an even more refined approach. There is no need to perfect everything at once. But there is an invitation to enjoy each step of the journey - the complete and the incomplete moments. The sculpture and the sculpting...

This is what I have been pondering a lot in my teaching these days. How to support my students to really enjoy the sculpting. X