ABSTRACT
I’m a pretty good intermediate skier . . . I can get down just about any slope, but it won’t always be pretty. I’ll work my way slowly and deliberately, with a great deal of effort, down a tough trail. Several years ago I hired a ski instructor to help me learn how to ski moguls, those “bumps” on the trail that the pros navigate so effortlessly, but which I’d never been able to master. The instructor watched me ski slowly and painfully down the trail before making a comment that resounded with me as a musician. “Every mountain has its own speed or tempo. If you ski too fast, you’ll wipe out. But if you ski too slow, you won’t get enough speed to be able to connect the turns and create momentum.”
