Learning in Bits

OCT 26, 2012:     Another way of learning or relearning is to learn in small bits---either short phrases or portions of phrases.  You'll noitice patterns on the printed page of your piano music.  That should give you a clue as to where the bits start and stop.  You don't need to learn a whole phrase as one bit if that phrase is long and winding.


Another thing to consider is where you can easily start playing.  If you have a bit that is hard to start playing, that means that your mind doesn't make sense of that as a starting place.  Find the place that your mind can get into.  This is crucial for the practical situation of finding your way if you lose it during an actual performance.  These "landmarks" are critical to your getting back on track during a live performance.


Once you have learned one bit---starting slow and increasing tempo---you can learn another and then add it on.  Remember that music is a bunch of small bits put together.  You can try memorizing the small bits before you work on them, or memorize them as you're learning.  After a while, the bits will connect and you can clearly see the strucutres built into the music.

Resting

OCT 23, 2012:  How much rest do you need during a practice session?  I would say the first thing is to find out how long it takes before your mind gets tired.  That may not be as easy as it sounds since your mind tends to be on autopilot more than you may think

I always find that if I can find it the first time---approximately how long---then I can use that as an indicator for the rest of the session.  If 45 minutes is my limit for the day, I use that as the standard.  It might be higher or lower the next time.

Mainly, knowing when to stop and rest will help you to get more done regardless of how much actual time you put in on a given day.

Really Slow

OCT 16:  When you practice a passage so slowly that it fails to make sense as music, you are really learning where the muscles need to go in order to make the passage work.  At faster speeds, you may need to change the fingering---- but you'll still have the basics with really slow practicing

The problem is that it becomes more difficult to do it really slow, usually, than doing it at a moderately slowed down tempo.  Your memory has to strain for the details, because the details are now distorted to the point where the natural flow of the piece is lost.

But as you take the passage gradually faster, you find the going easier because now everything is more in context.  That's why context is so important.  And that's why music is not just a bunch of notes strung together.  It all fits somewhere.  Really slow practicing shows some things about the music that aren't obvious at normal speeds.

Starting From Tempo

OCT 11, 2012:   Another way of re-learning a piece of piano music is starting from the original tempo and going slower.  Allow yourself to make all the mistakes you want at tempo, just to find out where they are.  Then go one notch slower and one notch slower, etc. until you reach a performable tempo.  This is where you can prractice, slowly, the really difficult spots.  After they are worked on individually, you can try again, at tempo.

It's not the ideal way to re-learn, but if you've got a deadline, it might be a faster way to get started re-learning, at any rate.

Being Able to Play It

OCT 6, 2012:  I think it's important that when you're practicing something on the piano, you can play and hear it all---all the pitches and rhythms and markings.  When it all starts to get a little beyond your grasp, not only does it discourage you; you sometimes start to get less skilled at the piece you're learning.  I've discussed all this before.  But how do you get the desire to not press on when you know you've reached your limit? And also----if you don't stretch yourself, how will you be able to advance (get it faster)?

Usually sheer repetition will get you more proficient in a particular passage and it will become easier and easier with repeated playings---even if you just take it in one tempo.  But if you've reached your limit and there has been no progress for several days, your best bet might be to take it one or two metronome clicks past where you are now and just deal with the mistakes---then go back to a comfortable tempo and try again.  It may not work the first few times, but usually after a while you can advance one notch or so and still be able to play the passage.

The entire process begins to lose its potency with each hour and day of not practicing it----unless you know it so well and have played it so many times it's really deep down in there.  But sometimes after weeks of getting no further, you start to make progress.  That's why it's important to hang in there and keep working.

Over-Smooth

OCT 2, 2012:  If you practice something for an extended period with great attention to detail and finger motion, you may just get the piece of piano music you are learning too smooth.  By that I mean that everything will sound a little uniform as well as ultra-polished.  That may make you as a performer feel good about your skill level, but it may be too much smoothness for the particular work you are learning.

How do you regress that smoothness so that you get a little more rough edges?  One thing you can definitely do is scale back your practicing on this piece.  That will automatically get it rougher.

Another idea would be to take the smoothness you've got and add some deliberate edges to it.  Try a different touch or play with the dynamics or the timing a little.  Any of those things will give the performance some added variety.

Smoothness is good.  But if it's overdone, if it's too uniform or too uninteresting, there are many ways you can spice it up.  You don't need to settle for over-smoothness in your performance--no matter how hard you worked to get it.