Either my ears are horribly trained compared to everyone else's, or Rachmaninov needs his symphony (No.2) to be studied first before one can fully appreciate them. I think it's absolutely impossible to spot all the themes and recurrences on first listening unless you're musically talented. Which I'm not. Or if I am, only a bit. All progress so far has been due to hard work and the guidance of many others.


On a side note, would you consider a cellist to be practising if he went over to his neighbour's house and knocked every half an hour?


There is a good reason for everything, and knowledge is power. He who does not know why he is doing what he is doing is heading for trouble in my opinion.


On another note, if don't know why you're practising, how on earth do you know if you're practising the wrong stuff? No, wait, without the reason, practice becomes totally pointless and the right and wrong ways go out the window. For any who are the tiniest fraction of self-reliant.