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Hi, all,

I'm a fourth year student, and I've done two recitals a year most years. I also play monthly in group class, and I'll play for family and friends who are willing to listen. I've encountered a problem with my playing, and I hope you can help.

I am consistently inconsistent.

I can have a particular piece all worked up and memorized and thoroughly practiced, and there is just no way I can play the whole thing without a significant number of significant errors. I can usually keep going because my memorization is solid, although occasionally the error is so devastating that I'll have to break tempo or go back and repeat the problem area. This seems to be the case even if my piece is relatively easy, or if I ease up on the tempo.

The frustrating thing is that I can't attribute this to nerves. It happens when I'm alone -- if I tell myself I'm going to record myself playing my piece, I'll still botch something. If someone told me they'd pay me a million dollars if I could play my piece correctly right now, I would not get the check.

Can anyone advise here? I'm starting to think that consistency is just something you're born with and there's no hope here.

Cindy -- tired of botching things she knows she can play, and who is supposed to perform at recital a Chopin Polinaise in A Flat in two weeks, and who hasn't been able to play it perfectly from start to finish yet

I'll be curious to see what others have to say, but one thing that pops out at me is the requirement to play it perfectly. I don't know if I could accurately say my full name if I was thinking "don't screw up!" all the time.

So, maybe if you try to concentrate on something else about the playing... making a particular tone, or dynamics, phrasing, etc. It will stop you from thinking about the notes as much. I know that if I have some easier (as in no big jumps) pieces memorized, I can literally have a conversation with my kids while playing and not miss a note. ("Time for school! Get your lunch!", etc.) It doesn't sound too hot, but the notes are all there. I guess my point is that if a piece is well-memorized, it might actually liberate you from worrying about the notes... let your mind go somewhere else.

Or maybe a glass of good merlot before your performance??

Nina

Cindy, consistency isn't a goal, it's a result. What I mean is, if you spend quality time practicing and you really understand your music, consistency will naturally follow. Try to think to yourself when practicing, where do you make the errors? Are there specific sections that always give you problems? What about motivation, do you have the discipline to motivate yourself day after day? Do you tend to practice each piece like a performance, from beginning to end? If so, break the piece into sections and play *only* that section until you've mastered it. Do you tend to practice at performance tempo? Again, if so, try practicing at a slower tempo.

And memorization, what kind of memorization: touch memory or brain memory? The best is a combination of both. Do an exercise, before a performance, actually *write* out the piece (note by note) you are about to perform. Most people can't do it 100%, but it's a great memory test.

Thanks, so much, everyone!

I did some experimenting last night, and maybe I'm getting somewhere. I tried talking while I played (couldn't do it) versus thinking only of dynamics. The latter worked well -- and sounded pretty good too. I think my problem is being afraid to make mistakes, so focusing on dynamics gave me something else to focus on.

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. It is amazing that the kids in the recital always seem to nail their pieces, and it is the adult students who are most likely to flame out.

Cindy

that's mostly due to nerves. Kids don't feel any pressure (or they don't mind it), adults feel they need to show everyone they're competent (or at least better than the kids) and they get all sorts of bad thoughts in their head before a performance.

Cindy, I was dealing with a similar problem not too long ago, and my teacher guessed (correctly) that I was 'playing' too much instead of practicing. So, I will second what Mikester said above about playing at a slower tempo. I used to play at or near performance tempo a majority of the time (once I was able to), and after switching to playing slowly most of the time, there was a noticeable difference in my playing consistency.

Hi Cindy, I've had the same problem to some degree; I've played 1-2 recitals a year for about 3 years now, and haven't played any of the pieces without botching it quite noticeably in one or two or more places during each recital. Very frustrating indeed! But there are a couple of consolations: first, most people in the audience didn't notice the mistakes or only noticed the most egregious one(s), so to them it wasn't a big deal; second, the accomplishment of being able to interpret the music and more importantly convey some feeling and emotion to the audience greatly outweighs the few mistakes that I made, so it's still very satisfying for me doing the recitals, even though each time I've thought I could do better.

One thing I tried before my last couple of recitals was to get where I could play through each piece say, 5 times in a row and only hit a wrong note in 1-2 of the 5 times. But in retrospect I'm not sure if it was a good idea to practice this way, since as squatmaster pointed out, performing the piece too much may do more harm than good; practicing slowly (even v-e-r-y slowly), and performing maybe once a day leading up to a recital, can be a more beneficial way to prepare.

But Mikester's and others' suggestions are good ones, and I'll add one more -- I improve my "finger/muscle memory" by practicing a piece without looking at the keyboard (I'm also a very good touch typist, so maybe I have an unfair advantage?) This helps my hands/fingers automatically "know" where each note is, and it seems to take some of the pressure off during a recital.

Can you play alone *without* the recorder and not make any mistakes? If so, that's a starting point. Maybe turn on the recorder and practice slowly and/or perform the piece a few times until you forget the recorder is there, that might help you relax. One thing that has happened a lot in my lessons when preparing for a recital is, my teacher will have me perform a piece as I would for the upcoming recital, and the first time I play it at the start of a lesson I often don't do very well -- the problem is that I'm concentrating on playing it "perfectly" and especially on not hitting any wrong notes, so what happens? Of course I still hit a few wrong notes, and the performance also sounds strained or lifeless. But once the pressure of that "performance" is off, I can play it a 2nd time and not give a ****, and of course I play with more emotion, better musicality and usually even fewer wrong notes. So maybe the trick is to relax and focus on what you want to "say" musically and let your brain semi-subconsciously take care of playing the right notes?

Hope that helps... good luck and let us know how the practicing & recital go!

"Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Wow!

I did what you guys suggested (lots of painfully slow practice), and I had my lesson today. I walked in and played it at performance tempo more securely than ever. My teacher tested me with various starting places, which were no trouble. She had me play left hand alone; no trouble. Right hand alone, no trouble. She was impressed!

Recital rehearsal is on Saturday, with the recital the following Sunday. Maybe, just maybe, I'll *finally* nail a recital!

Stay tuned, and *thanks!*

Cindy

Great:)
A probably good idea is to keep playing when you mess up. Keep the groove, try to make something nice out of it untill you find your way back into the sheet music.
I used to do these small music school performances when I was a kid and I was always very confident because I knew that if I made a mistake no one would notice. I would make something up.
Most of the time it went perfectly allright because I wasn't that focussed on the notes, just on finishing something without a strange break in it.
And think ahead when you read the music. That's the most important thing.

slow practise is good too. Most of the time the little things cause the trouble. Take pauses when you practise. Drink lots of black coffee.

Cindy,

This thread was so interesting for me, because my inconsistency problem is much like yours.

I've about concluded that to play a piece without any errors is (a) very hard to do; and (b) almost irrelevant! The key for me is to be able to recover from the inevitable (hopefully small) glitches.

In Madeleine Bruser's great book on Practicing the Piano, a friend of hers says (paraphrased), "Know your pieces really well, NOT so you'll play them error-free; but so that when mistakes occur, you'll be able to keep going effectively." This has proved to be most helpful for me, and perhaps for you too.