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

jotur - I think it is really exciting that you are back in a band. It sounds like a lot of fun. Figuring out chords and fills on the fly sounds quite challenging!

I dropped out of this thread last summer when we started the "move to Spain" in June and I stopped piano lessons. We are mostly settled now, and I have a new teacher. So, I want to join you guys in FOYD again to have a weekly "how am I doing" check! I will take the grade 7 ABRSM this year, and my teacher and I will decide whether it will be in May/June or Nov/Dec in the next couple of weeks.

Technical work: Scales a third apart - consistent at 64, start increasing tempo 2 clicks per week. Contra scales - focus on Ab/G#m this week until at tempo (80). arps (tonic 1st inv,M7)- slow down and line up fingers evenly, fast thumb tuck.

Exam pieces (all learned, in polishing phase):
Bonso - WillyWaggle Sticks Walkabout- Finish memorizing initial record.
Chopin - Nocturne in C#m. Focus on trills and runs. Section runs into one beat sections and play deep legato and light staccato.
Scarlatti - Sonata in B Minor - work runs in two note, four note sections. Practice piece at 60, then at 80. Do trill exercises.

Other pieces (learning phase)
Faure - Pavane: Through m26 for next lesson.
Beethoven - Sonata 49.2 - Play through error free at 60.
Fiocco - Suite in G Major 1-1 Focus on m16 through end

40 piece challenge:
Czerny - Study in Ab Major 139.51 - Record this week
Mendelssohn - 30.6 Venetian Boat Song - This is relearned repertoire - preliminary record this week
Kabalevsky - Etude 27.3 - Have the piece solid at 80, then increase by 2.

Stubbie asked me a question and suggested I move the answer from AOTW to this thread, so here goes!

The question is, what do I mean by "figuring it out" rather than "practicing". This is my teacher's new mantra. He's preparing for a recital himself, and is trying to make very focussed use of his time, while I have made some, but not as much as either one of us wished, progress in 2016, on the goal of making practice result in something that "sticks".

What we noticed was that when we worked slowly through a few measures in my lesson, the difficulties would untangle themselves and stay untangled. So what did this mean about my solo practice - why couldn't I do the same thing then. It seemed to boil down to taking on more notes at a time than was right for me - I could blame it on not having a lot of free time, or wanting to indulge myself in getting through something, whatever - but the result was clearly not optimal, because the fumbles stayed there instead of getting better, regardless of how much time I put into it on my own.

Sometime in September I got frustrated, and began limiting myself to what we called "snippets" - a few measures of something wonderful (first 4 measures of Deux Arabesques, first 6 measures of a Chopin Nocturne, etc.) but only those few measures - I even made copies of only the measures I wanted, so I wouldn't get tempted to spend unfocussed time on the rest. Kind of took myself off into the weeds for a couple of months to work on getting the limited music in front of me to feel secure and sound like what I wanted.

I don't think this is that different from some of the great hints I've read here (and thank you again for all of them!) - go slowly, spend a lot of time on hands separately, sing each line it to give yourself a better chance to anticipate the next note the hand is supposed to go to, memorize the line (easier when there are only a few measures to worry about) so you can watch your hand and see exactly where the fumble is, move the hand side-to-side rather than twisting. Play the line with 1 finger to lay down the notes outside of physical memory.

The difference is more in the mindset - more focus on enjoying the chance to watch the passage build itself in front of you. I guess I am trying to give myself the chance to do a thorough job - "make haste slowly".

One pleasant surprise is that when you give it a chance, the passage builds itself more quickly than you would think.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me was that it actually didn't feel limiting, because we had picked some lovely little bits - beautiful enough to justify spending a week on. It has also, I hope, jolted me out of the bad habit of "playing through" and never going back to fix the fumbles. Not that playing through is a bad thing - as many have noted, in performance you have to do that - but not in the "passage building" stage.

That sounds like excellent advice, Medved1! I received similar advice from a previous teacher. Although I was practicing in sections, I was practicing in too large of sections and not perfecting them. He also suggested that I limit myself to as little as one measure until I could play it flawlessly every time, and then move on. Although at the time it seemed like glacially slow progress, It actually took less time to perfect the piece overall and prevented mindless play throughs.

Thanks Medved1...same frustration last year for me...I have sloooooooowed down too, and won't move on until I can play at consistent initial tempo at 55, e.g. It meant I reaaaally had to use the metronome, which I have feared for years. Plus, I am refocusing on scales and arpeggios with goal at 100 bpm. My teacher is happy, as I now see the light 🤓.

I don't feel so alone on this journey!

+2

Thanks, Medved. It can be SO easy to practice too large of a chunk. I do it and it's a hard habit to break. I know my practice would be a lot more efficient if I broke things down into very small chunks--chunklets, if you will. I am currently learning several new pieces and those would be a good place to make the several measures I'm practicing at a time even smaller.

:-)

****returns to Chunklets*****

My focus just changed a bit, because I now have an exam deadline! I am dropping the Faure for the moment.

So assignments after my lesson for this week:

Technical:

Bb - M, mh, mm: parallel 4 octaves, a third apart 4 octaves, contra two octaves. Arpeggios in root, 1st, 2nd inversion. plus Dominant 7 four octaves.

Contra chromatics from F# and C + legato thirds.

Pieces -
Scarlatti -B minor Sonata - play two note sections of runs X4, then 4 note sections. Play piece at 60 and then 80 until error free at 80. Then increase tempo
Chopin -Nocturne in C# minor - Continue practicing runs in sections both legato and staccato. Focus on trills.
Bonsor - Willy - Play and count the smallest note value to improve rhythmic precision. 25X counting alternating with 25X performance tempo.

Sight read 20 minutes/day.

Practice AuralBook aural daily.

Other pieces: (learning phase)
Beethoven - Sonata 49.2 - Memorize by section.

40 piece challenge:
Fiocco - Suite in G Major 1-1 Focus on sections with metro.
Mendelssohn - 30.6 Venetian Boat Song - Record
Kabalevsky - Etude 27.3 - Concentrate on standing up on the fingers!

I'm always interested in what/how you guys are working on, and how committed you are to it.

But, oh dear, the band I haven't bothered with contradance tempos for a couple of years now, and - oh dear. I'm having trouble bringing even the comp back up to speed. Partly because I'm trying to play some different kinds of comps, but even straight basic oom-pahs are a struggle. And this band's tempo is a little slower than we were aiming for before. It's often a "habit" to both play, and "hear" so one can play, at dance tempo. And I'm out of the habit. So it's obvious again that even 1 hour a day, when it's spread between gig and band music, isn't really enough. Or even when it's one or the other. So SwissMS's 3 or so hours a day looks good.

And then I was reviving Weeping Willow and it didn't just "come right back" so I counted how many different days over the last couple of years I had practiced it, and it was only 30. No wonder I can't remember it straight off. And I think most of my repertoire is like that - I only play it when I'm reviving it for a gig. It's no wonder I don't just have it in my finger tips. But since i have more than 40 pieces - I play gig pieces from memory and would like to play band pieces that way - time (and efficiency, tho I've improved a lot in that - yep, chunklets FTW!) is of the essence. So I'm trying to figure out how to create more time. Although it's not really creating more time, I think the time is there - like right now I'm posting on PW!

What it is for me, is finding a way to focus for either longer periods of time or more pieces of time. Part of that may be more variety in my chunklets. Maybe going from chunklets of gig pieces to chunklets of band pieces and back. I do notice that often if I'm engrossed a half hour doesn't leave me "focused out". It's, instead, refreshing. So I'm going to have to experiment with that. At least I think I'm motivated enough to do that, because I really want to do well for the band, and the band is just such fun, and I really want to figure out how to keep my gig pieces at my finger tips and make it easier to add pieces. (I actually have many more than 40 pieces in my repertoire, but some are from the old by-ear 40 piece challenge and I just don't use them because I'd rather have more fully developed pieces, so this year I'm focusing on refreshing the by-heart pieces. There has to be some connection, no?)

One of the things I'm doing more often is playing pieces in my head when I'm just doing things around the house, or walking to work or doing chores, or trying to sleep It's pretty obvious to me that helps. And I'm trying to find what I hear in my head on the piano in my head. I can't believe how much harder it is for me to translate "hearing" to piano to "seeing" to piano, even tho I've spent some time doing that. It's not the melodies - I can translate melodies alone pretty well - it's the comp and the fills and harmonies and variations and stuff. That comes from being much more at home on my piano than I am, and more deeply at home.

I know for some people that means having spent more time on just practicing arpeggios or scales or chord changes or whatever. But for me, the prime motivator is gigs and bands, so I add those things when my gigs and bands tunes are at a place where i want to do those things. I wouldn't be playing piano if I wasn't giging and banding There are a couple of folks on the forums, tho not on FOYD I don't think, who would be appalled at my "getting ahead of myself" but it's what works for me. Let's totter on the edge!

Having said all that, I had a fun time in the memory care and the assisted living venues this week. I even played 3 or 4 tunes with the sheet music sitting there as an assist if I needed it. But I went in figuring I was just going to go practice I had also been practicing on my digital by making sure every key went to the bed and there was no gliding over, because one of the pianos is quite a bit stiffer than mine, so I was also playing louder than usual. And it all worked! I wasn't worried about anything, I was focused (because, after all, this is practice, and I'm used to practicing with focus), I sounded more confident (partly because I was louder), and we just had a great time - lots of applause. The memory care unit has a director that actually cares that I'm there so she has folks lined up and they love it, and for some reason the assisted living folks turned out - not just the one who is regular, but 5 or 6 more! So I madr sure I noticed all of them at the end of pieces, and talked to most of them afterwards because I really appreciate them being there.

And that's my novel for the day. I'm going to be aware of the times I have for getting to the piano, and try to be more engrossed/refreshed, and at some point I'm going to see if I can find an awareness of how to spend more time with pieces than just when I'm reviving for a gig. Hm. I'll have to look at Richard's practice schedules more closely.

Happy Birthday jotur/Cathy! Have a fun, musical day!!

Thanks, SwissMS

Happy Birthday, Cathy.

Happy Birthday Cathy!!

Cathy, Happy Birthday! Kudos to you for getting out there and playing, and playing the music your audience wants to hear and that you yourself enjoy as well.


No practice for me this week. I was out of state, visiting my mother (who will soon be 96). She kept me busy busy busy. Plus no piano to practice on. I did have my music with me and showed it to her. She played when she was younger and even gave some piano lessons. She said my teacher must be good if I was playing what I showed her. Then she caught herself and said I must be a quick learner, too.

Thanks again, you guys. I'm off to dance -

Hi everybody
this is my first post in this thread. I would like to participate in FOYD and I think it will help me a lot

ok, tomorrow is first day of the week and i want to specify my goals:
1- i would try to practice 6 hours (this is progress for me. i am used to practice 4 hours a week)
2- i would practice lesson 43 and 44 of czerny op 599, until Tuesday (14 Feb). i have to play them for my teacher at that date
3- i am practicing a piece. i try to record it this week

i think this is enough for fist week.
i will say the report on Friday 17 feb

Ha!

They change all the time, Cathy, but less so as the routines become established. I have pieces spread over several groups. Group 1 is the top two dozen or so pieces in my current repertoire that can be played well without practise. Most of these are in long term memory and will survive a decade without practise (and many have done). A few of them have been worked on so much over the last twelve months or so that they're just there, ready. I play one or two of these pieces five or six days of the current week and cycle all of them two to four times a year.

I work twelve weeks and take a week off each quarter so I tend to work in dozens, typically one piece every twelve weeks, four weeks a year. Sometimes, when I have little work to do on these pieces, I substitute scale and arpeggio work.

Group 1 pieces tend to start my day or finish it and are often played through, complete, two or three times a week though mostly I focus on the weakest passage.

Group 2 pieces are the twelve pieces currently in short term memory and being put into long term memory, mostly all divided into two to four sections. Few of them are ever played complete more than once or twice in any week though they might be enjoyed the odd weekend in performance mode. Mostly it's slow but easy work, one section per day. These are all pieces that I can play or have played each phrase of from memory but not so readily in larger sections without refreshing the memory first. I work one of these pieces for one week each quarter.

Group 3 is my current recital work for the coming twelve months. The closer they are to the recital date, the more consecutive weeks they stay in my practice. This is probably the hardest work of the day and always follows or precedes a short break. I'll do two or three of these each day but cover all of them at least once every week.

Group 4 is may main material that isn't scheduled for a recital. I keep a group of twelve of these also and usually work two or three of them each day. Some may be in two or three sections and stay current one week for each section, others are being tackled one phrase at a time and stay current for many weeks but only one phrase per week.

As with my Group 3 pieces, I work in phrases getting each one up to performance level (get it to boiling point) before moving onto the next phrase. I can't get a whole piece to boiling point in a short enough time to prevent the piece become a chore, a frustration or showing a lack of progress. And if I don't get the phrase up to temperature my cake never gets baked, as it were.

Group 5 is my piece of the week, sight-reading or quick study material that'll only stick around for a short while to exercise my reading, analysis, fingering, and problem solving skills on new material. This is the lowest priority work of all my groups but I'm careful to include more of it if I've been neglecting it through the week.

My intention is to work each group between two and fifteen minutes each day. In practise it's more like five to thirty but I seldom stay at the piano more than 60 minutes a day, in short bursts, and any extra time (rare there days) is playing stuff I already know or can play from the score outside my main working groups.

The main intention is to work on several activities each day (analysis, audiation, reading unfamiliar material, learning new material, memorising and polishing) instead filling a time period. I seldom play my main pieces through (as part of my practise) preferring to work one phrase slowly and carefully two to four times each day (with each repetition alternating with other phrases from other pieces to encourage conscious involvement with each repetition) until it's easy then start repeating it several times a day until it's up to tempo and memorised then leave it for a few weeks while it develops subconsciously before chaining adjacent phrases into sections.

My recital pieces, once submitted, go into my holding group - usually revisited at weekends - until they can fit into Group 2 (long term memorisation) and ex-Group 1 pieces go into my graveyard for exhumation at some undefined future point though few are actually left there for more than a couple of years.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and belated birthday wishes, Cathy! May you have many more of them.

Richard, thank you so much. I was late getting back to this because I'm in a heavy work period, but I printed out the above post for some guidelines. My pieces are all short, so likely they correspond to sections of some of your longer pieces, so this can be quite helpful. I really appreciate you taking time to do this for me!

As for my focus -

I just learned an easy piece - Happy Days are Here Again - for which the sheet music uses a common arrangement for old popular music - octave "oom" and "pah" and a little variation in the left hand, and the off-beats and syncopation in the right hand. I've been looking for little things like that to use in other pieces. So I went thru the tunes I did by ear in the 40 piece challenge a couple of years ago for which I had used very simplified made-up arrangements, and lo and behold I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover is perfect for this type of arrangement. So now I can put that tune back in my regular repertoire with the simple arrangement first and the fuller (but still simple) arrangement second and not feel like I'm cheating my listeners .

I've been re-working my long-time repertoire so that the second or maybe even the third time thru aren't just repeats of the written arrangements I learned years ago (I did this with It Had to Be You a couple of years ago) so now I've added chords in the right hand along with the melody on Tuxedo Junction, and can do it 3x thru, once with just the melody in the RH, once doing variations on vamping in the RH, and a third time kind of finale with chords and new runs in the left hand. To me it makes a much more interesting piece than just twice thru the same way each time and every time I do with a piece it makes other pieces easier, and I begin to spontaneously add stuff to pieces, so I'm more flexible. It's kind of a long haul, but it worked with comping to fiddle tunes, and it seems it's working here. So that's a reward for the trying. 4-Leaf was really pretty easy after Happy Days, and I'm looking forward to a new, improved, old repertoire!

Again, thank you to everyone who keeps this thread going. I learn more here than anywhere else on the internet.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Cathy! It is really helpful, but lately I have not had much time for posting! We are still in transition, hoping to move in by the end of March.

My practice week:
Exam pieces: These are all learned, and are in the seemingly endless polishing stage. Most of the trouble spots are tamed, now it is just ingraining them for perfection, and working on interpretation. Most of my practice on these pieces is at a slow to moderate tempo, hands separate as well as together.

Technical work: Bring scales a third apart and contra scales up to required tempo. Start doing in random order.

Bach French Suite - Minuet- Bring second half up to preliminary tempo.

Beethoven 49.2 - Play in chunks from the end, bringing each section up to the preliminary tempo (72). This one has been languishing on the back burner.

Sight reading- Do harmonic and rhythm analysis of the assigned pieces, then play HT.

Aural - Play the accompaniment and sight-sing the piece.

40 piece Challenge - Jazz impressions - Denis Alexander, Sad Story - Kabelevsky

It has been ages since I posted here!

I have a students recital coming Saturday. I'm fairly confident that I will not make too many mistakes and have the interpretation pretty solid in my fingers. I will play the Appassionata 1st mvmnt and the accompaniment for Melody by Gluck with cello. Beautiful piece:
[video:youtube]4YzhYYIbCpc[/video]

First the recital was planned for January, but due to circumstances it was cancelled. Maybe for the better, because I needed the extra time. But now I play the appassionata 1st mvmnt for a very long time and it's time to move on. After the recital I can finally get started with the other movements and also work on repertoire since I almost neglected the rest of what I'm studying.

But there's a problem. We tried the piano at the place where the recital is. The grand is absolutely terrible! It's a small grand (I think little more than 5') and the action is like pressing thumbnails in wood. There's hardly room for dynamics and speedy stuff is almost impossible... Using the right pedal is creating a garble of sound. The treble keys are weak and die immediately after striking, etc.

So I have to adjust my playing: slower, less pedal, more extremes in the dynamic department and use my muscles

But everybody that will play is in the same boat and we all agreed that this will be the first and last time playing on that piano and location. A shame really since it is a nice church from the 13th or 14th century.
We talked about renting a piano for the occasion, but decided against it.

Wish me luck!

The other pieces I'm working on:
- Rachmaninov prelude op23 no4. Wow this is an amazing piece. Truly gorgeous.
- Chopin Etude op10 no4. A killer and never thought I could play this. It's coming along nicely, but stil a lot of work needed.