Practicing Tips

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

Sometimes, I get stuck on practicing. This is where we can discuss what else in a peice to practice

[Honey Hawthorne]

When I am practicing a really hard song for a long time it helps me to stop in the middle and take a five minute break. Maybe I play some chords or something for a little then go back to the piece.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

What do you do once you've pretty much mastered a peice except for the occational mistake, in random spots? how do you eliminate that?

[Ella]

i repeat that section over and over, but be carful that you don't eliminate another section entirely. I accidently did that once, and it cost me the top rating.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

But the mistakes are random, like they occur in various different places, never consistently...

[Ella]

Is this a song for competition?

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

Yeah... It actually happens to almost all my songs

[Ella]

It happens to me too

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

The best thing that someone's recommended to me is to really think about what I'm playing, when I perform, 'cause sometimes i get so caught up worrying or thinking or in the music, that I forget

[Jeanne]

Two things that should help are overlearning the song and then discovering where to keep your concentration when you're performing. If you're concentrating on individual notes, I think this would mean you haven't yet overlearned the song. If you have committed the song to muscle memory, I think your concentration would be on phrasing and expression. Does this make sense? It's just my opinion and I'm open to hearing other voices on this.

[Ella]

When I start a song, i focus only on the notes, then the rythems, then the dynamics.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

I've been playing this song for 2 months and it's memorized. It's not that I can't play it. It is that I constantly get lost with the passion of it!

[Jeanne]

Wow, that's interesting! I wonder if your mind races ahead instead of staying in the moment? I think emotion is good, so I wouldn't want to discourage it. Maybe this is a case for super-training your muscle memory so your fingers just go for it and you can pour yourself into the interpretation. What does your teacher say about it?

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

I just changed teachers

[Ella]

i agree, that is a very interesting reason, i don't know what to say...

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

My teacher doesn't know that well yet

[Ella]

oh

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

oops, I meant that my teacher doesn't know me that well yet...

[Ella]

oh, that makes more sence...

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

sorry... I was kinda in a hurry then.

[Ella]

it's ok

[Hannah]

I heard from someone that starting from the end of the song helps the learning process. Or maybe it was they do it. I don't know how true that is or whatnot. Just a random tidbit

[Michelle]

I remember when I was having trouble getting a sonata back in prime condition after I hadn't played it for a while my piano teacher had me practice from the end of the song. We never actually went over it, but she did think of it, so I'm sure it helps somehow.

[Hannah]

Yeah I think that's because you always play the first part the most since it's the first thing you practice, so maybe if you play the end the most it's helps or something like that............

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

Yes, hannah, that's the main point. but also, when you start from the end, you won't just keep going. It forces you to work piece by piece. When I start from the beginning, I tend to just keep playing, even if I make mistakes. Which is why, when learning, or re-learning a piece, my teacher tells me to start from the end. Plus, some of the hardest parts are at the end. How long does it take for you to "forget" a piece?

[Honey Hawthorne]

For me it takes about a three weeks of not practicing it before I forget a piece. Then I would have to relearn it, but the second time it is always easier.

[Jeanne]

Wow, Honey, that's a really good reason to keep reviewing pieces you've already learned.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

hm, For me it takes about 2 months of total abandonment

[Honey Hawthorne]

Really? lucky.....


It stinks when I learn a piece for a recital a few months earlier and then I can't abandon it or else I would forget it. Then I get sick of the piece and it's not fun anymore.

[Ingrid]

It takes me maybe three or four weeks.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

I have noticed that if I leave a piece alone for approx. one month, and then I go back to it, it A)sounds alot nicer, because I hadn't been playing it 24/7, and B) improves internally, like I can play it nicer or with more expression. This works most of the time, but not always. it happened to me with Fur Elise.

[Hannah]

Same here...roughly

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

How many pieces do you normally prepare for the piano competition season? I normally have one, but I've found that the kids that win often have at least 3 ready.

[Ella]

I prepare one for each competition I am entering, at at least one for reciatal.

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

how many total this year?

[Ella]

two, a solo, and a duet. I'm exited about the duet beacuse the girl I'm playing with, is my friend's friend, and we are o seperate pianos.

[Hannah]

That's really awesome.

HAve any of you played 'Waltz in A flat'?

[Ella]

I'm not sure...
Right now I'm working on memorizing, which I am not good at.

[Emily]

I'm not that good at memorizing, either.

Who's the composer, Hannah?

[Hannah]

Uh..Brahams

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

I don't think I've ever played it, but I've heard it before. My teacher likes to choose unusual songs, so that the judges can't compare me to someone like Barenboim

[Ella]

yeah, I don't think I've played any Brahams...

[Jeanne]

How about Brahm's Lullaby?

[Michelle]

Hannah wrote: "That's really awesome.

HAve any of you played 'Waltz in A flat'?"

Waltz in A-flat major by Brahms? Yes. But I never finished learning it. I was going to learn it for a talent show, and I was about halfway done with it, but someone asked me to do a duet with them in the talent show and I couldn't say no. Unfortunately, you can only be in one act in the show so I wasn't able to do the solo as well. Maybe I'll go back to it. I liked it :)

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

I think everyone knows Brahm's Lullaby. I just played an arrangement of it by Lorie Line. It's beautifully simple

[Ella]

Jeanne wrote: "How about Brahm's Lullaby?"

It was at the end of one of my lesson books a few years ago.

[Zoë]

Something I find to be really helpful is just taking your piece and playing it at an unbearingly slow speed. It is pretty painful, but if you do that and slowly increase your tempo, it really helps. This also works before competitions, performances, and especially when you first start a piece,because its getting the memorizing and actually learning the notes down at once. I know it's hard, but I swear it works!

[Katerina, Just realized she has a mod title. Yay!]

IKR? it does, alot, but I have issues with slow pieces. For example, in band, I started falling asleep in O Magnum Mysterium. Look it up. Slow, but beautiful...

[Honey Hawthorne]

My teacher already makes me learn the piece slowly. She shouts when I speed up...

[Honey Hawthorne]

Another thing my teacher does before every lesson is play ((at least)) the first part of the song for me. It helps because you can hear the song then try to replicate it by speeding up certain places, slowing down other places. It also gets the song stuck in your head which prevents you from starting to play other songs. One time I was practicing the Waltz, but thinking about Lean on Me, and I began playing Lean on Me. I didn't notice for so long.