Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Do you still practice your pieces after you've performed them?

When I started lessons a few months ago I was given 3 pieces to practice. I played a couple of them in a recital recently, but I continue to play these pieces once through every day or so, just so I don't forget them. It's pretty easy to fit it in whenever you've got a few seconds to spare. I guess this is the start of my repotiore.

It's kind of cool to be able to play a few bars when you're at a music store or a party, anywhere where there's a piano. So do you continue to keep your pieces in rotation after you've performed them?

I used to try to keep everything memorized and ready to play. Then, finally, after a couple of years I had learned so many pieces that it was impossible to keep them all fresh. So now I have a different strategy: When I learn a piece, my goal is to get it in good enough shape to make a recording (which I compile on an annual CD I burn to give to family). Then, if I love the piece, I'll attempt to keep it memorized by playing it at least once a week. But if it's one I'm not as crazy about then I'll let it fall out of my repertoire. At any given time I probably have approximately 1 1/2 hours' worth of music memorized. I do like the idea of being able to sit down at a piano anywhere and rattle some music off.

Well that's my problem, I move to other pieces and forget the old one. Last spring I learned Moonlight sonata and today I can't play it without sheet music.

One day I will probably stop learning new piece and build a repertoire.

Serge

Ken,

Great question. I usually keep a "top 10" list in my current repertoire of memorized tunes. This way, I have more tunes to play at a moments notice than anyone is willing to listen to so I am covered!.

If I learn a tune I like better than one that is in my top 10 list, something gets bumped to make room for my new piece.

I also have a list of pieces I like and can also play but need my *notes* to be able to make it through since I don't play them often.

I think it's a shame to "lose" a piece due to not playing it for a while. Unfortunately, I am very guilty of this myself. since I tend to improvise a piece so heavily, it becomes very difficult to duplicate what I've played before since I'm making most of it up on the fly.

That's okay however because many times when I re-learn a piece, it ends up becoming an entirely new and different version which always keeps things fresh and new.

1 1/2 hours, that's impressive . Another thing I was thinking was to have 12 pieces in rotation, each one in a different key, so you practise playing in different keys.

I'm still new at this (about 1.5 yrs of lessons),
but I try to keep "my favorite 4 so far" (rep pieces) in good shape (play them once at least every other practice).

that's in addition to "the latest thangs".
another 2-4 songs I'm in the process of learning.

Sometimes one of the "latest things" replaces one of the "favorite 4 so far".
Sometimes (more often than not) it doesn't.

But that way I've got about 4 solid songs I can play and another 2-4 that I can SOMETIMEs make it through to the end on.

Oh, and also it's good to RECORD a song before you decide it won't go into your rep.
Trying to play it perfectly just isn't gonna happen sometimes, so I'll just play it 5 times and pick the best one keeping a midi file and a .WAV file of it.

Also, adding fingering notes to the sheet music is VERY valuable when it comes time to relearn a piece you've already done. Make a photocopy, and write on it while practicing, then store that. (Or add the fingering notation to your midi file or something.)

If you have too many pieces then maybe you can try to keep up with some of the more difficult sections. You could then practice the less difficult parts less often and have time for a larger set of memorized pieces.

Of course, this comes from someone who only knows two entire pieces at this point.

I try to keep a repertoire of about ten pieces. Some of them are "fresh", i.e. recently learned and finished, some are older. These are good material when I want to finish a practice session by playing something for my enjoyment. Some are so well memorized that I could play them anytime, some show gaps now and then so I have to repeat and rework sections.
These ten are my favourites, so if I learn something I prefer, I find it will slowly replace one of the others.

I try to keep a few of my favorites in good condition for the inevitable "oh, you MUST play something!" when someone is visiting, and also because I just take great joy in sitting down and playing them so that the music captures me, as opposed to the 'working' I need to do on pieces that are just coming along. I always have new(ish) ones that are in varying states of being learned or polished but I try to keep up a few real favorites, and among these I try to keep some variety. Personally I gravitate toward the big, lush pieces usually in minor keys, but I will try to also have something fluffier and smaller in my back pocket as well, for variey. I certainly could not keep up all the pieces I have performed, there aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week.

I'm with Stephen on this one. I keep about 4 that I play every other day or every 3 days to keep them in repertoir. If I have something newer that I like more I drop one for the other.

On fridays which is the day after my class, I take out about 4 pieces that I learned well at one time and I play those as well. I call those my back up repertoir

For me that's the problem with memorizing a piece rather than improving my reading ability. I learn mostly through muscle memory and imagery so if I let a work go for too long it can take me a very long while to get it back. If I was a better reader I could just plop the music down and go through it. It took me years to learn Chopin's fantasia Impromptu but after not playing it for three or four months I dread going back to it.

I've learned several pieces in my short learning history of 7 months but memory is the problem. If I haven't played a piece for a while, I'll forget. This is frustrating. If I want to keep any piece fresh, then I need to practice frequently. Unfortunately, it's hard finding time to do this. I'm currently learning from a progressive studies book and it's still taking me some time to learn any given piece. I look forward to the day when the process of reading and playing music becomes more fluid.

Chalk me up as another proponent of the rotating repertoire concept. I try to keep approx 20 pieces memorized, for roughly an hour of play. As new ones join the list, I reluctantly drop old ones. Only problem is I hate to see my little birdies leave the nest, so I'm presently at about 24 pieces and facing a Sophie's Choice (anyone remember that?) over which I should drop next.

I do play my recital pcs once a week. I also have copies of a couple favorites from Book 1 and 2 that I continue to play... and travel around with