Near Repetition

AUG 27, 2012:  Some of the most difficult passages to learn involve what I call "near-repetition."  That means that it's almost exactly the same---with a few small changes by the composer.  In a literal repeat, the near-repetition could be the second ending.  It's critical to make the difference in your mind between the first and second endings, because if you should slide into the second ending before you performed the first ending, you could shorten the composition by a great deal.  And if you repeat the first ending, you'll probably need to go all the way back to the repeat sign---and go through it all over again.

In the case of first and second endings, assuming the section repeated is small enough, it might be good to take the whole thing as one unit.  Play the first ending, go back and then play the second---at half tempo.  And slowly increase your speed until you get up to tempo.

But sometimes the near-repetition doesn't involve repeat signs, because the changes the composer made are too elaborate to be able to use a repeat sign. Then the danger is that in actual performance you will mentally jump to a similar section rather than the one the composer indicated on the score page.

If two sections are totally different, there's no problem in sequencing them correctly.  But when they're similar, and particularly when they are nearly alike except for some small details, it's hard to tell them apart if you haven't looked at the music for a while---or even if you have.

Looking at the score away from the piano may help.  Or it could be that slow practice on the similar sections is needed.  Whatever it is you have to do, make sure you find some way to distinguish one section from the other.