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How about this - what harm do you think it did? The next hour of the practice session seemed quite productive and comfortable. It certainly didn't seem a hindrance.

When looking at something like this, talking about what hard it "did" doesn't address it. We're not just talking about this video; we're talking about an approach, an attitude -- and so the real question is, what harm it could do; and I've mentioned a few things:

-- Create needless frustration. Frustration is unpleasant. Save your frustration for where it can do you more good.

-- Unhealthy for the fingers and hands to put excessive demands on them before you're warmed up enough to be at your fullest control. I realize that this might not apply to everyone, and from the replies here, it looks like it absolutely doesn't. For me it would, and I imagine it would for at least some others, if not most.

-- Poor preparation -- in fact, anti-preparation -- for the situation you described above. You mentioned situations where you have to just 'sit down and go.' If you accustom yourself to stopping right after you first begin because of crap coming out, that seems like the exact opposite of what would best train you to "sit down and go."

Kreisler, I watched parts of the video thinking there was a reason for watching it and something to be learned. I could see the logic of what she was doing, but not how to use it. You pointed out some things that boil down to practising with purpose and thought, taking one's time, and making sure that all parts of a piece are prepared. But that goes without saying. Or doesn't it? Maybe a child who is instructed, "Play this part 5 X every day." will rush through things mindlessly, but otherwise?

My main thought is that how we practise depends on what we're practising, when, and why. In this video there is a professional pianist who already has her repertoire. She is basically going through it, seeing what needs work and polishing. For someone at an earlier stage it looks too unstructured and rushed. But at this stage, it makes sense. If a brand new piece is being learned, the practising would have a different shape. If the person is a student still acquiring technique, it would be different again. So other than a very general picture I wasn't sure what to see.

I am about as far musically and pianistically from the player's situation as it is possible to be, but I found it very absorbing and watched the lot. It's just something rarely seen and a glimpse of a world I know little about. I didn't much like the actual pieces but that is irrelevant. All we usually see is a finished product, be it a performance, an improvisation or a composition. Work in progress, with warts and all, is very rarely revealed, but think of what we could learn if more good pianists, composers and improvisers did so. Thanks for posting this and good on the lady in question for sharing what is virtually never shared.

I think that if Mark hadn't mentioned the "oh no" incident at the beginning(where she stopped to replay a few notes) any other poster would have even noticed or mentioned it. She stopped because there was a problem or concern and she felt like stopping. So?

IMO discussing those few seconds is trivial/inconsequential and misses the forest for not a tree but a twig. The important things to notice in the first few minutes that I watched were ones like those Kreisler mentioned earlier(practicing the passages at a slow enough speed so she can play the notes mostly correctly, hands separate when reviewing the notes, looking for ways to find a pattern in the passage or concluding that Rachmaninov changed that pattern).

Was she practicing the Rachmaninov B minor Prelude cadenza in the opening few minutes? I couldn't be sure because she was breaking it up into tiny phrases.

Indeed, it's what my old professor used to refer to as "majoring in minor things".

I found the video quite illuminating. In particular, the part where she tries practicing in different rhythms in order to conquer a troublesome passage...that's a technique I should add to my arsenal.

Can you still play the piano at 110(according to your profile)?

It's one of the few areas where I'm actually improving with age...I think.

It was interesting for me (for the first 40 minutes or so that I watched) because she verbalized much of the kind of thing I do. I was surprised at how much I could identify with exactly what she was doing, and for me, that was a bit of a revelation, and one that I needed.

It was funny to realize I'd identified so much with it that when she didn't really quite get how to do the leggero bit in the Rachmaninoff, I was like yelling (in my mind, not literally) at the screen "lady, lighten it up, and you'll see what he had in mind for this passage".

My disorientation was that since it was posted I thought it was for the purpose of pointing out or teaching something. But it looked like dropping in on someone who is practising, except that they verbalize a few things, while others are just there. So maybe that's it. And on that level it's cool to watch people practice because you'll always pick up ideas. So I'm up to speed.

Yep, Op. 32#10

Surely taking one's time, practising toward goals, are simply good practising and not exclusive to professionals. The thing that makes me think she is a professional is that she already has the skills as well as the piece so that she can brush through things relatively quickly, in a manner that seems relatively unstructured.

I find it interesting that you see this is relatively unstructured practice. I find it very direct, to the point, and structured. She makes a plan on how to address the issues as she encounters them. IMO, it seemed very orderly and efficient.

I didn't write "unstructured" - I wrote "relatively unstructured". I have done similar shortly before a recital when I knew the piece well, had the technique intact, and needed to go over and polish it. But as a student acquire skills and learning new pieces, I need something more structured than what I see there, because of the kinds of goals that I need to pursue. The idea I was expressing in my first post, I think, was that the form of practice responds to the context, or something like that.

It's good to know what the "relatively" is referring to. Of course, there is no one tried-and-true way to practice a piece. I don't think the person in the video is saying that, either, for whatever that is worth. For me, the more ways I see people practice, the more I have in my arsenal for future reference when that does apply to my situation.