"Close the Door Behind You" is a cyclical practice strategy. This method
described is not a technique but rather an overall approach - a
strategy. The strategy organises our practicing into three clearly
different 'rooms', with each its own focus, purpose and mindset. The
three rooms are: The Laboratory, The Gym and The Concert Hall. This book
describes the three very different approaches to practicing, and it
argues that we should only enter the next room of practicing, when we
can safely close the door behind us to the previous room. If we follow
this strategy, we will achieve a much more efficient and personal
workflow. When we have passed all three rooms, completed the turn, a new
circular movement begins - but obviously from a more advanced starting
point, just as when we ascend a spiral staircase. On top of this the
book suggests a lot of concrete tips and tricks for practicing in all
the three rooms. It also suggests original ways in general of
understanding the world of classical musicians. Morten Zeuthen's
background for writing the book Close the Door Behind You is a long
career, both as an international performer as cello-soloist, as chamber
musician, and as a solo cellist in the leading Danish symphony
orchestras. However, the ideas he describes owe more to his status as a
central figure in Danish cello teaching - as the professional success of
his students surely attests.
