Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum FOYD - Focus On Your Domain

This is a well documented phenomenon in fact. I guess the more vocal or well known philosophy is towards sharing your goals to make yourself "accountable" but there is some pretty strong evidence to suggest that just saying what we plan to do gives us a false feeling of accomplishment that can prevent us actually following through. (eg http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Seifert_Michalski_When_Intentions_.pdf)


Other research suggests that goals are only motivating if you have a track record of achieving them (and, in a work context anyway, of benefiting from achieving them). So overambitious stretch goals are typically demotivating, since they set people up for a pattern of failing to meet over demanding goals. Smaller goals that are fairly easily obtainable, on the other hand, can set up a pattern of success which can be motivating.

Looking at what I wrote last time, I would say that mostly I described plans rather than goals. EG I said I would "work on the tricky rhythm section" in the Chopin. I didn't say "be able to play this error free at x tempo". I think the point of FOYD for me is to put some structure on what practice time I have. It's more about process than outcome. Not sure that's good or bad. I'll go with it, and if it works, then great, and if not, I'll adjust.

Looking at last week:



And this week, I plan to focus on:

• Schumann Op 68 #26: continue giving most focus to 2nd section so it is at the same level (accuracy/tempo) as the rest of the piece. Dynamics for the whole piece. Work on accuracy for the whole piece, observing where errors tend to occur.
• Schumann Op 68 Wintertime II: I've broken this into short sections, and I'm working the more difficult ones first. I'm onto my second such section, so plan for this week is to keep going with that, paying special attention to fingering.
• Irish Jig: continue to work on increasing tempo with accuracy and fluidity.
• Chopin: I find I lose this quickly when I don't play it, so 2 or 3 playthroughs of what I know, and work on an identified section from the last page.
• Sight reading: do some (yes, deliberately lacking specifics)

Here it is Thursday, and it has been such a busy week that I have not posted to FOYD this week yet! I try to do that on Monday. I am having a new garden plan installed, and that has taken more time than expected. I am having a good time watching it take shape though!

So, looking at my last week goals:

Exam pieces- The Handel Allemande is still not consistently accurate at speed, and I totally failed trying to play it from memory in my lesson. So, this week - more ultra slow practice and continue testing memorisation. The other pieces are fine.

Knecht Ruprecht - This is learned at a preliminary tempo. Keep working on the gnarly bits before speeding up.

Kuhlau - 1st movement is flowing well at tempo. The 2nd movement is working at 80 bpm. Stay there for another week and then start increasing. 3rd movement is HT at a preliminary tempo. Still sticky in the rapid arpeggios. Keep working to master those.

Bach Inv 14 - This one went on the back burner this week. I did not make any more progress. I have started HT for the 1st 1/2 and will continue HS for 2nd 1/2.

Beethoven Sonata Op 79 2nd movement - The first two phrases are flowing well. This week I will work on LHH arpeggio runs in the 2nd 1/2. I love this piece!

Technique - My arpeggios were deemed much improved, so my new assignment is to play them with my eyes closed! I played the four hardest scales (for me) Bb minor, F# minor, B minor, and C# minor contra in my lesson. I flunked, so they are on my "get it done this week!" list. For the exam I need to be able to play all 36 scales (major, minor harmonic, minor melodic) three octaves. I thought I was there, but these trouble makers are not.

Back to practicing!

Isn't it fun when this happens? We don't think about how much we're progressing, and then, bingo! It turns out we've come miles and miles! Congratulations.

FarmGirl - write whatever is useful for you. This is my favorite thread, and it's all been helpful to me - knowing how others approach their piano time, muddling thru on what I'm trying to work out. It'll be fun to see how it all works out for you, and I hope you love your new job to boot!

barbaram - process, yes I think that's a good description. For me, it's been a way to address my approach to piano, both practice and performing, and to deal with the issues that come up both places. I've learned a lot from just reading a lot of blogs on performance (which often focus on the prep for performance) and it's helped clarify a lot for me. For me it's made huge differences, in both my playing and my perceptions.

SwissMS - gardens are good. And how cool that you're hosting EPP next summer. I love reading your posts and following your progress.

My new 1/2 time job is busyness personified. The person just before me left almost 2 months of stuff literally not done. So, in order to get it done so that life can go on for the client I'm obviously going to have to put in extra time. I don't mind the time, actually, but keeping the balance between "work head" and "piano head" is proving to be a challenge. I really don't want to approach it the way I did when I was 30, or 40, but it's an easy habit to get back in to. At that time being a robot wasn't quite so obstructing, or at least I didn't know that it was Now I'd like to be able to put the focus in to my work without it draining everything else, or just blocking everything else. I'm glad I'm 68 - I have more awareness and tools to deal with it now than I did 30 years ago. Hey FarmGirl! Give me some other hints!

Saying that, piano was amazing today (I'm in tune with Richard, here). I played/practiced with much more whumpf (no wimpiness) than I've been accustomed to. And last month I let a couple of gigs slip by, so today I made sure I called 3 of my assisted living places to either schedule or let them know where they can call me in the mornings if they want to schedule. So I think I can out smart the "work head"

Cathy

Hi Cathy
Thanks for the kind
It's nice to know I can be myself.
I'm working on the Schubert piece that I play in the master class tomorrow.
Slow practice to re-associate note to piano keys. Also trying to describe what's going on in the piece in my own words.
Wish me luck please. I would like to play to my satisfaction.
My new job is a really interesting one. Use different sorts of creativity from piano.
I will start on sept 15.

"different sorts of creativity" - that's a hint for balance, I think. I'll work on it.

I have not, this year, put in the kind of time I did the previous 3 years. Maybe just a routine change of pace. But the time I'm putting in is still more "quality" than I did several years ago.

But I had a gig yesterday that pointed up the good and the drawbacks. I've been spending my time at the piano doing some variations-on-the-fly on several pieces, and working on octaves in three of them, and pretty much neglecting review of most of my repertoire. Yet yesterday I could still pretty much draw up an hour's gig out of my hat. I played several of the current try out improv pieces, and they worked pretty well, and I even noticed that I wanted to try more variations, and to use variations from piece in another. So I think that's good. I'm not fluent but I think it says my mind-set is getting there. I was also pleased that I could play so much of my repertoire off-hand. And it was interesting to see which pieces I felt comfortable doing that with. But, the drawback is that, as JimF said in another thread, there was sloppiness creeping in on those I hadn't played in awhile. Altho I could feel myself trying to do some kinds of improv that I haven't tried before.

So there's obviously some work to do on integrating the improv and the learned-by-the-sheet pieces, and I wouldn't want this quality of a gig at, say, the 4-hour one I did a month ago. But, the assisted living gigs are good for trying stuff out and learning what's been working and what needs review.

It is clear that I need to get back to spending more time, that I am currently at a higher level of recovering from blowing it than I have been before, but that if I want a higher level yet I need to put in the time.

So we'll see.

Cathy

I've settled on some Dvorak, two pieces, for the next ABF Recital that I learnt early last year. I had problems restoring some passages, making huge mistakes in parts that felt quite familiar and still in memory but I've worked through them now and I'm settling back down into them.

I've divided them up into manageable sections and I'll take them independently for a while. It's so easy to introduce errors when you have to speed up the difficult sections to maintain tempo that it's best to keep them separate until they're all matching in tempo.

I'm alternating between the last two or three pieces I learnt in my Bach, Scarlatti and classical groups instead of learning new material while I pour a lot of energy into the Schumann recital. I need to get a lot of groundwork done early on so that the fingers are settled by recording time. As is my wont, I'm getting every phrase just so before I move on to the next one. I've already done the bar-by-bar fingering and distribution work on two pieces - which is really heavy with a lot of Schumann's stuff - and I think I know what the hardest parts are in each piece for determining work order.

Schumann was a great admirer of Bach and he gets a lot of counterpoint and melodies going separately that have to be picked out carefully. Along with awkward fingering and note distribution issues you need to maintain two or three different dynamic levels so you can make it clear what voice each note belongs to.

With Bach the separate voices tend to have roughly equal weight and they maintain distinction on the staff most of the time but Schumann's intertwine and cross over more and each phrase has a wider dynamic variability. It's difficult to handle, not so much to reach the notes or even interpret them but controlling the different dynamic levels as they pass from hand to hand and still keep the separate melody lines clear.

Now that the kids are back in school I'm getting a lot less practice time than before. It makes the FOYD all the more useful to give me focus, but also it's a bit frustrating!

Since last time:

• Schumann Op 68 #26: progressing nicely. I plan to record this shortly, then put it aside and revisit it closer to recital time.
• Schumann Op 68 Wintertime II: this one's much more challenging but satisfying to work on. Still on the second short section, and doing some analysis of fingering and HS work on the section that I'll do next.
  Richard, your observations on Schumann above are spot on even for these much more basic pieces. It feels like solving a puzzle sometimes. I certainly find I have done more analysis on these (esp the second one) than is usual for me, and I think it's essential in order to understand how to play the piece,
• Irish Jig: I still can't play this anything like as fast as I'd like without losing accuracy, but it's getting better. I *can* play it accurately at slower tempo, so that's something
• Chopin: neglected in favour of the Einaudi piece that I will probably submit for the next ABF. I had thought I could have the Chopin ready but that's not realistic.
• Sight reading: only did a little

And for next week, it's the same plan really.

• Polish 1st Schumann piece.
• 2nd Schumann piece section by section
• Einaudi polishing: Pedalling, even tempo (I tend to speed up in certain sections), decide exactly how I want to apply dynamics, rubato, etc
• Irish jig: it's the last 4 bars (and one spot in particular) which are mainly the sticking point for increasing the tempo, so give some extra focus there.
• Do some sight reading

There are some other bits and pieces I'd like to do if time allows, but the above is all that I am officially putting on my to-do list

It sounds like Schumann is doing a good job of challenging everyone. I love these themed recitals to introduce me to new music I might have otherwise not tried! I was not that familiar with much Schumann other than Traumerei, but I have listened to a lot since the recital was announced.

So- My Schumann pieces: Knight Rupert is learned and is working at a slow tempo. My focus right now is getting the phrasing and dynamics working. Speed will come later. Op 118 Sonata in G, 2nd movement: I have just begun this one. There is a lot of finger pedalling and some voicing challenges. I am beginning this one HS.

Exam pieces: I have completely changed Samba Lele, and I am much happier with it. It seems in good shape. "To a Wild Rose" is also well memorised and I am happy with my interpretation. Handel "Allemande in A minor" is not in as good shape. I can play it at home error free, at tempo, but I fall apart in my lesson. So, my teacher suggested I let the left hand (secondary voice) lead. That seems to work better, so I need to spend this week confirming that. I will perform all three at a piano party on the 27th.

Kuhlau 88 3: 1st and 2nd movements are in the polishing stage. The third movement still has some fractures to fix. I will work with different rhythms on the fast arpeggios this week to try to improve them.

Beethoven 79 Andante: This has some tricky finger work to maintain legato. This week my goal with it is to combine HT on the first section, memorise the LH arpeggios for the 2nd section, and work out the polyrhythms the 2nd section.

Bach Inv. 14: I need to memorise each voice separately.

For the first time, at a gig this week, as I was playing I thought to myself "these folks are getting what they came for" - not just a nice person coming in to tinkle away at the piano, but a person coming in to play the piano. Getting to be an accomplished amateur. Wow. Haven't been there before.

On one of my regular gigs I actually got set up on the baby grand downstairs in the cocktail lounge. But nobody came so I was moved back upstairs to my regular rec room piano. But I still only had 2 listeners. I think if the staff doesn't chivvy most of them there they don't have the energy - or the memory - to come. So I think the staff will do better next time. They also paid me more money! That's a wowser. I've never gotten a raise for playing piano before.

But again it became obvious that I need to spend more time, and to review much of repertoire regularly. There's only about 1/2 of them I can really pull out of a hat, and I really don't want to use the same tunes over and over and over. So when I came home I put together a set list of less-used rep to use for next Fri's gig. I can practice variations in basses on the fly in some of those, and octaves in a couple of them. But the variety has kind of freshened me up the last couple of days. Always good for making putting in more time easier.

And it's funny, but I've been thinking more about posture and mobility again the last couple of weeks, probably because 20 hrs/wk solving puzzles at the new job leaves me feeling constricted. So I've been doing more exercise, and paying attention to eating better, too, and I think all that makes a difference.

Cathy

jotur- I am already amazed at the repertoire you have at your finger tips, and it sounds like your are adding even more! And you have paying gigs! Very cool.

I have a piano party this weekend, so polishing pieces for that will be my primary focus this week. I will likely play the three exam pieces plus the first movement of the Kuhlau. The pieces are all going pretty well now, so I feel relatively confident. I recorded yesterday, and I will do try to do it again before Saturday, just for the performance pressure and to really listen to how they are sounding. We will have 6 people playing this time, ranging from very experienced to beginner. It should be fun!

Piano Parties - way too much fun. Hope it went well, SwissMS. And the mountain top party being planned sounds like a great get together. There's a piano party in Denver next week - less altitude than Santa Fe, but still - the Mile High City! I'm looking forward to it.

I played a memorial service today for a woman I knew several years ago. All hymns. Fortunately all in the Quaker hymnal so I didn't have to go looking for them thru the Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, whatever hymnals I have. It was one of those mixed Quaker/other services, with no "leader" or sermon, but people speaking as the spirit moved them. Except that if people don't have familiarity/comfort with silent meetings there's not much silence. So I played a 15-minute prelude - 5 or 6 hymns - and then 3 during the service, and 3 afterwards.

But during the service a friend of mine and I were just supposed to figure out when it was time for a hymn, then I'd play a whole verse, and then they'd sing 3 or 4 verses. It worked out, but it was pretty funny to figure out how much silence and if anyone was going to pop up to speak just as I started to play. I would love to have left 10 minutes between any speaker and the start of a hymn, but it was pretty obvious that wasn't going to happen

In the end it was pretty well-paced, and a friend of mine said that was the first singable, in terms of tempo, Amazing Grace he'd heard in 10 years. I told him we had talked about the hymns dragging, but I assured them I'm an old Baptist and we don't drag anything

The tunes came together in a couple of weeks, so I was pleased with that. I've played hymns all my life but not for a service. I, of course, bobbled a couple of places, but I think nothing noticeable - well, maybe once. I've decided that, after spending the last year or so working on not bobbling, or bobbling much less, is that what it comes down to is the way it's always been for me - the key is not to not bobble, the key is to recover fast and make it not noticeable. It's just that I can, as the focus and practice I've done in the past years proves, do that at a much higher and, for me, satisfactory level So I was really quite pleased with this, and people were very appreciative.

Now let's see if the piano party works!

Cathy

I've been away from posting here for ages -

Richard - belated thanks for the coaching on the double thirds - they are coming along a bit better. I've tried to pick out more pieces that have them so I can have lots of opportunities to practice!

Jotur - I loved reading about your paying gig complete with train whistles and flashing lights! Good for you! You're an inspiration!


I'm working at reviving some of my older pieces to have the repertoire that I didn't collect last year.
I have been working on my Fughetta - trying to bring some interesting contrasts between left and right hand, and to really nail the last few bars. All too often I have a flub of sorts in it and it drives me nuts.

I've picked my pieces for the November recital -one Sarabande and one Pastorale, and I've started on a new Sonatina.
I'm also doing some Czerny exercises (including one for double thirds).
Slow slow progress with my Schumann piece for March.

I'm back with my teacher now and loving every minute.

Work is picking up tremendously and posting time is proportionately reduced - I do try and read and congratulate everyone on their focus!

jotur - Have fun with the Piano Party!! They are always fun. Mine went pretty well last weekend. Everyone had a great time.

Casinitaly- Welcome back to the thread! It sounds like you have quite a few pieces going, and a very tight professional schedule as well! I am sure it feels good to get back to weekly lessons. Double thirds are hard! Getting them even takes a lot of work. I am working on a piece full of them right now too.

My teacher and I had something of a heart to heart about the direction we need to go with my playing. She sees potential, but she also sees problems that are not getting better. We had some tense moments, but we have come up with a plan. I am probably going to delay the ABRSM exam until spring, and do some remedial work to improve centering and get the tension out of my thumbs. She felt the fast scale work I have been doing is making things worse. Hence the delay in the exam. So---

I have set a couple of pieces aside, and I am working through the Celebration Series 6 books (equivalent to ABRSM 5) to have the opportunity to keep learning new pieces with correct technique, until I have ingrained the needed changes. It is kind of refreshing to have pieces I can learn in a couple of weeks instead of months. She thinks once we get through this, I should be able to move on quickly. I am disappointed, but I know this is the right course for me right now. If I am not really ready for doing scales and arpeggios in a relaxed manner at the required tempo, then I am not really for the exam.

This weeks plan:

HS practice of two pieces watching the hands for centering, preparation, and relaxation. (Winter Scene & Good Humor)

Kuhlau 88-3 - My bottle neck here is still those pesky arpeggios. 15 seconds out of a 8 minute piece. We worked on a new choreography to play them at speed, and I believe I will get there. My goal is to play the entire Sonatina for both the November recital and my live recital.

Beethoven - this goes on the back burner for a while. It will be back in November.

Knight Rupert - Slow practice HT the entire piece. Increase speed when my teacher thinks it is ready.

Grade 5 Pieces. 7X through daily without errors. I will probably choose new ones, but I want to keep these ready.

Scales and arpeggios - dead slow with good centring, preparation, and smooth thumb crosses. Arm leads the hand.

I'm off to CO. My new job has really put a damper on time/motivation to play piano after a long day. So I'm going to try listening a lot more, and have stocked the car with cds. I don't want to fall behind on piano, but I have no idea what else to do. A very little every day, more work on varying stuff I already know. But something to keep the focus up while not playing as much as I want. So we'll see -

Keep up the good work, everyone.

Cathy

jotur - I hope the piano party went well. It sounds like your job is taking a lot of energy. It is tough to not be able to play as much as you like. I hope you are enjoying your job though.

My new approach on correcting some technique issues seems molasses slow, but I can already seem somethings improving. My teacher is away this week, so I am sort of on hold until she gets back. So, my total practice time is down, but I am making sure the practicing that I do is correct. Sometime patience pays off. I hope!

SwissMS - I read about your goal for playing at a level with a university graduate. Good for you. Those kinds of personal challenges are so motivating.

The piano party was great. We had, I think, 5 PWers and 4 other Denverites. It's always so great to hear so many different players and kinds of music. I did 4 or 5 pieces I think, and afterwards it occurred to me they were all pieces I'd done some variations on, some different bass lines on the fly, or a little honky-tonk, or just had studied the chord progresssions in particular. So I think that was good.

But two more of my assisted living places are getting iffy. One just had a change of recreation directors and the new one hasn't called me back yet, and the other was recently bought and is going thru a lot of renovations and the recreation director is currently haphazard. She's been forgetting to call and let me know if/when I've been scheduled and Fri I called and she had apparently had me scheduled a week ago without telling me. So she said how about today, she usually schedules me on Sat? Except that she usually schedules me on Sunday. And when I showed up they were playing bingo.

So, I think I'll take a sabbatical for awhile, and play by ear and make up basses and frills and ornaments and variations. I've wanted to have time for that for a long time, and with the new job my total piano time has been cut down. So it'd be nice to spend it all learning something new. And when I go back - maybe I'll ask to be paid

The 3rd place is also under new management and is kind of in transition, but that's where I just got a raise, and she wants to talk to me about some ideas she has. So that might be promising.

I think the new job will be super busy thru the end of the year with catching up from the mess I walked in to (the the May bank statement balanced yesterday!), and Jan is usually my really busy time, but starting in Feb I'll call the above places back, and maybe some more, and the Artisan's market and some other commercial kinds of places, and get back in to that aspect of it.

But I've got to record my Nov recital piece next!

Cathy

This place has become rather quiet of late. I assume most people are focussed on their recital pieces! I have a pretty good recording already, but my piano is getting tuned on Nov. 4, so I may make another one. I had hoped to be able to record all three movements of the Kuhlau Sonatina in A Minor, but the Burlesco just isn't confirmed at performance tempo. So, it will probably only be the first two movements. A pity. The third movement is my favourite! Oh well, there is always February.

So - my Focus for this week-

-Ultra slow practice of two RCM grade 6 pieces, assuring preparation, relaxation of all non-playing fingers, and dropping weight into the keys. This is tedious, slow work, but it is paying off. It allows me watch my movements and eliminate tension.

-Scales and arpeggios- I have an envelope with all of these in it, and I pull them out in random order and perform them. I still have a couple of problem children (darn that C#m contra) but they are coming along.

-Sight-reading - I am spending 1/2 hour daily on reading from RCM 4 & 5, Sight Reading Success, and the grade 6 sight-reading specimen book.

-Kuhlau Sonatina A minor - Slow practice of runs in the 1st movement, finish memorising the third movement, practice performing the entire piece at once.

-Grade 5 pieces - These are ready now, and need to by maintained for a month. That means alternating performance playing, slow playing, HS playing. It also means finding willing audiences to perform for!

Well, I practised less than an hour a day in October - that's the first time in 3 years. so I can't say I've been keeping up. I listened to all my old recital pieces after I'd recorded this one and the quality of most of them ranges from cringe-worthy to boring :\ There's a couple of good ones, of course, because I'd used them to get that Artists Mkt job. But, sigh.

So focusing isn't going so well. Another small job came along and said they needed to have a bunch of stuff done by the end of the year - oh dear. So now I'm even busier.

So I think just staying in place is going to be an accomplishment. I've been reworking some old stuff, trying to figure out why I still have problems and what to do about them. Getting a Joplin piece ready. Trying to play with ease, to get further along to that place where it feels free. A ways to go, eh?

I stayed home from a dance camp this weekend and played some, and I've played some today (tho I have to work this eve). It's a struggle to not just veg out and read in order to ignore the tension. But I'm working on it.

I think I'll record more to see if I can't rid of that boring part. Hm. My "focus" has changed every week, which, I guess, goes to show how scattered I am. I'll just muddle thru and eventually things will change. I just don't want to go backwards.

Good luck on all your exams, SwissMS! And good for you for having the character to go back and do some basics better than you've done them before. I have great faith in you -

Cathy

I enjoy reading this thread--and it had dropped back several pages--so here goes with my contribution.

Diabelli, Op. 151, no. 1. First movement: concentrate on getting the left hand triplets sounding like LH triplets. The staccato triplets in the right hand further along will need some RH only practice. Second movement: Need to buckle down and get the RH crossing over the LH notes in perfect synchrony. Not there yet. Third movement: just starting serious work on this one. Goal: get the notes under my fingers. Separate practice of the ending several measures.

I hinted to my teacher that I didn't like this piece. She told me all the more incentive to get through it, bless her heart!

Kuhlau, Op. 55, no. 1. We worked on expression at my lesson. Key words: phrasing, make it sing.

Brahms, Waltz in A Major, Op. 39, no. 15. Goal for this week is to continue working on the "waltz touch," i.e. consistent control of the firm light light waltz rhytm. Second goal is getting the right hand triplets at the end both accurate and up to speed. My accuracy has improved over the last week, but now I need to speed them up.

Dussek, Op. 20, no. 1. Newly assigned. Goal for the week is to play through HS to make sure of fingering, then do some very slow HT. I will stick to first movement only this week. [Hadn't played anything by Dussek (1760-1812) and was not familiar with his work. I looked him up on Wiki and, my goodness. He performed in public, composed, and for a time had a publishing company in London. He took off for France when the publishing company went belly up and left his partners to be sent to debtor's prison. He married at 32; his wife was 15 years younger than he. It was not a happy marriage. In his last years, he had to stop his piano performances because he had grown too large to reach the piano keyboard.]

I love this thread. Practice with a purpose is the way to go!

Mozart's D Minor Concerto has been stuck in my head. So I decided to browse through. I found a piano solo version on IMSLP as well as the concerto version. Since I don’t have an orchestra in my back pocket, I am planning to work on the solo version with some tweaks here and there. Orchestra transcription can be awkward at times.

My goal for the week is to learn the first two pages.

I did a read through yesterday (audio recording). Hopefully at the end of the week I can have something that's a lot smoother.

Here's the first 3 lines after practice session #1: Recording. A little smoother, one measure at a time.