This question is particularly for professional pianists and teachers (with Kreisler, Brendan, Koji, etc in mind)

This morning I downloaded Chang's Fundamentals of piano practice. I was reading about a method of practicing:


"Many students use the following practice routine:

(1) First, practice scales or technical exercises until the fingers are limbered up. Continue this for 30 minutes or longer, if you have time, to improve technique, especially by using exercises such as the Hanon series.
(2) Then take a new piece of music and slowly read it for a page or two, carefully playing both hands together, starting from the beginning. This slow play is repeated until it can be performed reasonably well and then it is gradually speeded up until the final speed is attained. A metronome might be used for this gradual speed-up.
(3) At the end of a two hour practice, the fingers are flying, so the students can play as fast as they want and enjoy the experience before quitting. After all, they are tired of practicing so that they can relax, play their hearts out at full speed; this is the time to enjoy the music!
(4) On the day of the recital or lesson, they practice the piece at correct speed (or faster!) as many times as possible in order to make sure that they know it inside out and to keep it in top condition. This is the last chance; obviously, the more practice, the better.

EVERY STEP OF THIS PROCEDURE IS WRONG! The above will almost guarantee that the students will not progress beyond intermediate level even if they practice several hours daily." -Chang.

Ive realized that this is the method I have used and that (over the past month or two) my progress has been coming to a sudden hault. My wish is to have every hour of my practice be real QUALITY practice.

What do you professionals do to practice? Do you have a certain set of procedures or things you do?

I sat down this morning, did scales in thirds to warm up a bit, and started working through some fingering in a Bach piece I'm playing next month. Then I did a little work with the metronome on Berio, and after I'm done with my little email break, I'm going to do some work - probably a little under tempo - on Schumann.

Later today, I need to learn the 3rd movement of Bach (work out fingerings and coordination, get an idea of how the piece is put together, etc...)

I doubt I'll play much more than 16 measures in a row today in Berio and Schumann. I might run through some of Bach, and I should probably run through this piano and tape piece I'm doing to get the timings down right.

All of the above I'm doing because that's what I feel like I need to do. I don't really have much of a practice routine or procedure. Very few things in music are 'one size fits all'.

And FWIW, the Bach and Schumann are both accompaniments for a viola recital.

I've learned that a practice routine is very specialized and that it really depends on the person as to which method they prefer.

I personally practice a lot and go through a whole repetoire but yet still practice what I feel I'm lacking. Alot of people I know can't do that just because they don't find that that's the best way to learn. But this is my way.

You really have to experiment with different methods until you find one that works for you.

I'm just an amateur, but all the above makes sense. Boredom is the deathnell to playing.

Maybe a practice method is VARY your practice method. And a principle to keep in mind might be spend most (I didn't say all ] of your time on your weakest areas. My experience is it's hard to start on weaknesses because it's apparently discouraging. But I find I immediatley get pulled into solving the problem, and almost always come away growing in ability and musicality,which is the name of the game.

John