Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Staying relaxed during scales and Hanons

thats good thing to know. seeking the burn is probably from my Military training. I will start trying it your way and see if its better for me. thanks

That "burn" you're feeling is lactic acid build-up. It's not harmful, but it does mean that you are on the verge of over-exertion. It's a natural defense mechanism to keep you from damaging the muscles; the buildup of lactate slows down the systems at the point that there is a risk of injuring yourself. Don't play through it.

You should listen to what Barenboim has to say about practicing. He does not play a single note without devoting all of his attention to it. Regardless of whether its a piece or if its a scale or if its just a random note that he plays on the piano. The results show. I'm guessing most concert pianists will tell you a similar story. I doubt you're getting maximal benefit from the hours you put in on the technical exercises. Some muscle memory, maybe. Not much else, is my guess. So the only issue with this would be in generalizing whatever technical study you've done, to a situation where you need to apply the skill learned (supposedly), to a "real" piece of music. Muscle memory will not be of too much help unless the passage you need to play is exactly the same as the technical exercise done. Do you see my point?

Actually, my piano teacher told me that it's better to retain technique subconsciously. Muscle memory is not a left brain thing, it's a right brain thing. When I practice scales while I'm reading or watching a movie, I give my left brain something to do so I can focus my right brain on the scales. So far, I haven't experienced any problems with my technique. When I am playing 'real' pieces, though, I devote all my attention and care to each note and will go over passages for hours at a time to get them "exactly right". So I guess, no, I don't see what you mean.

Does your piano teacher have a higher degree in Neuroscience? I discuss the brain and its neurons every day with Professors doing cutting edge research in this area. I know for a fact that no task is done by a small part of the brain with a limited set of neurons. Your piano teacher seems to be sure of something that even the best Neuroscientists are not. Have you bothered to ask for a reference? He/She owes it to you. If you are happy taking your piano teacher's word for it, that's fine but do remember that some guy on some anonymous forum told you to be careful of this assumption, maybe you'll come to realize it later. I'll say no more about this.

The reason you don't experience "problems" with your technique is completely fine with me. I never said you would experience problems. I only said that you are not deriving maximum benefit from all the hours that you're putting in on the technical exercises. When you practice difficult passages that appear in "real" music hundreds of hours, that constitutes sufficient technical practice and so you'll be just fine (so you would experience the same benefits even if you didn't devote even a single hour to all those technical exercises that you do while reading and watching tv). All I'm saying is that if you did the technical exercises with the same attentional levels that you do your pieces, you will observe something different. I have tried it both ways and so I know for myself that's true. If you need to know, you would need to try it out. If you don't care to know, that's fine too.

Ok, now I see your point. Thanks for the clarification. But I think I'm still going to practice technique while watching TV because that's the only way my parents will let me watch at all...

That explains it.:D

If you must watch TV while practicing (technique or whatever) then you may as well not bother sitting at the piano at all...just go watch your show. Liszt85, is right that we need to focus all our attention on everything we do...that's the whole point of practice! I CAN watch TV, or read, or whatever while playing through something, but I'd be doing nothing more than ripping off notes, which anyone can do. Thinking musically while practising even the most mundane technical exercises does carry over and it's how we all should attempt to shape all our practise.

Liszt in his younger days would have been the first to practice while watching TV.

+1 vote for Stores and liszt85.

Practicing while watching TV has got to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard of.
Kick the vile TV addiction and learn how to practice!

chobeethaninoff....are you about 13 or 14 years old, by any chance?

I just practice technique while reading or watching a movie never my pieces and its not like I sit there for hours, I watch/read while practicing scales for only around an hour....and, yes, I know it's a very, very, very bad habit and I'm trying to kick it.

I do a lot of practise while listening to podcasts. What I'd say is that it's very useful if you do very slow practise with particular attention to quality of movement and even tone. However, I think it's a waste of time to just run your fingers.

I am preparing for a solo concert and my concerto debut and so I always practice my program twice slow and once fast for around 2 hours and then I spend about 2 hours on details (and I do not practice that in front of the TV) with around an 1 hour of technique (and yes, I must admit that that's with a book or a movie on).

hmm. well, it sounds like you're capable of making your own decisions on these matters. I apologize for the tone of my previous post. Still, mindless scales are hard on the body's playing mechanism. Once you know the scale patterns of the major and minor keys, you know them for life. I do not see the need to constantly reinforce the same old same old motoric patterns.

I almost never practice scales-and when I do, they are not major or minor. I prefer to improvise my own scales on the spot-much better for the brain and the fingers than doing the same bloody scales all the time-what good can that possibly serve?

I liken it to walking. I know how to walk. I don't need to practice walking, or remind myself of how to walk every day.

What concerto you doing?

Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto for this year (concerto debut and national competition)
Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto for this year (competitions) and next year (performance)

the only scales I really practice are the blues scales. about half the time I am playing while I have jazz playing in the back ground. I'm not exactly playing with the music, but definitely in the same key as the song. other than that I never play while other things are distracting me, other than my kids doing their kid things.