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I have noticed that some of my pieces are a little sloppy, and I wanted to know if any of you followed a practice plan to eliminate flubs and that kind of thing. For example, hitting FCEbAb in a rolled (I forget the terminology) chord instead of hitting FCEbA. I would really like to make my playing more clean and precise. I was listening to Van Cliburn play Chopin's Heroic Polonaise and thought to my self 'Wow! Everything comes out so clearly!' What should I do?

Clearly, you should practice those parts over and over again and sloooowly. I have this problem sometimes and that's what my teacher makes me do.

there're always some spots in any piece i play having insecurity for me. my teacher said the same thing: practice the spots only, with slow tempo or varied rhythm practice. sometimes, you just have to repeat a passage 1000 times until the problem is finally vanished, but i usually don't have such patience or time to actually do it often.

You need to have very high standards and not allow mistakes to happen from day 1. Your memory does not know the difference between mistakes and corrections. Every time you do a 'flub' you are re-enforcing it's existence. Take an A4 piece of paper. Now fold it in half. Now open it. Can you get the crease out? At the moment your memory is full of creases. That's also why new teachers don't like to work with pieces you've done before. It's a whole can of worms.

keyboardklutz: That's great, and ideal I strive for when I start a new piece, but you don't stop writing in the middle of a novel because it isn't turning out the way you want it, nor do you throw out your paper when you make a stray line on your drawing. And you say my memory is full of creases, then how come if I remember an algorithm on the Rubik's cube wrong, I can correct that memory with a few day's work? Why if you learned something wrong in school can teachers replace the wrong information in your memory with new information? Yeah, I understand it's a nasty process to correct the memory, but it has to be done. Somewhere in the scheme of things, you look back and realized that you screwed it up. Does that mean you drop everything and abandon it as a lost cause?

signa and wisredz: I do think you're right about slow play, because I think the problem might be that I practice too fast (that and I went camping for two weeks and couldn't play). So, let me ask: How do you discipline yourself to play slow and moderate your fast play? This may sound like a stupid question, but I'll admit that I'm lucky brainwise, and I'll be in the top ten of my class after handing in assignments late and not really straining as much as most people do. So, my self-discipline stinks. I don't want a cure-all, I just want to know what you do when you feel the urge to play at full speed, or when you get lost in the music and a little carried away with your practice tempo? Thank you very much.

My teachers have often suggested the following for a passage that "refuses" to be polished.
Start with the last notes of the passage, as few as the last three notes of the passage.
Play them slowly, but in strict tempo and without making a single mistake; repeat seven times.
Then, adding a note, play the last four notes of the passage; repeat seven times.
Then, adding a note, play the last five notes of the passage; repeat seven times.
And so on until you have reached the beginning of the passage.

Now, start all over again at a slightly increased tempo.

It's painstaking work, but you've already proven to yourself that you can't get the passage right, so painstaking labour is probably the only solution to the problem. You have to work at the passage methodically, slowly, and at a tempo that will not allow you to make any mistakes.

My current teacher also says that any passages that I'm working on in this manner should never be done any more than seven times. Seven apparently is the magic number after which the brain's processing and the body's secure grasp on the material begin to diminish. However, if after seven times you add one more note, then it becomes a different passage, so you can continue with this reverse building for some considerable time.

Regards,

thepianist2008, you seem to be quite a bright spark. Shame your more hare than tortoise!

thepianist I can relate to that not-being able to play slow. Actually once a piece starts to have a musical meaning with a spesific tempo, I find it extremely hard to slow down. I don't think this is about being lucky brainwise, I could give the exact same examples from my childhood, but more about self-discipline. I was not self-disciplined at all when I wasn't playing the piano, I wouldn't fully devote myself to anything because even without giving my whole energy and brainpower to a certain task, I could do loads better than anyone. Than came piano and I set myself some goals, the competitions I will win etc. That did the trick on me, along with a thing my teacher said to me : "You can't play up to speed, unless you can play perfectly at slower speeds."

So my advice is that, try not to think of this as something that you do solely with your brain, but something that you do with you self-discipline. True, the melody may be absent when playing slowly. True, it can make you feel extremely bored (happens to me at least). But you have to work on evenness, on dynamics, fingerings, tone etc. and you have to practice slow for these things to be perfect. Self-discipline is the key. (Funny that I can't no matter how much I try gain that discipline in my college courses)

Keyboardklutz, that's a damn good analogy! thepianist, I can relate to that as well. When I was learning the first movement of a Clementi Sonatina, I wasn't paying close attention to details, I was only concerned about the melody. All the technical details were absent from my first sightreading of the piece. I didn't practise slow, didn't pay attention to dynamics, to hand positions etc. It took a looooong time to polish that one. But the third movement came along a lot better at the first try.

Like Bruce says, you have proved yourself that you can't play the passage as you hear it in your head, so you have to play slow to get it right.

I was almost finished memorizing a Scribian prelude when I realized I was counting wrong on many passages.
Because of this, I decided to put the music aside and learn another piece. After I learn the new piece, I will then go back to the prelude and re-learn it. I felt that it would help me here.

Peter

my teacher always says this, if you find a spot that you're weak at practise it slowly till you get it perfect and then practise it 10 more times. Once you get it perfect make it faster and practise it 10 more times. Make sure that you play it correctly otherwise repeat it again.

I tend to approach new pieces 3 separate times. The first time is to learn the notes, get a feel for the song, etc. Many times at this point I get the urge to start something new and put the old piece on the back burner for a while. Some time later, I pull it out again and tackle the rough spots with a renewed vigor. after another hiatus, I may elect to put the piece into full perfomance readiness.

Then again, I play strictly for my own enjoyment, I am not a professional or music student, and therefore have no time constraints to worry about.

i agree, it's about discipline, which i don't always do myself. i tend to play fast when practicing, unless i have technical trouble over some passages. my teacher asked me to practice a piece in slow tempo only, but after a few times of slow practice, i start to try fast pace. sometimes, it would be fine, depending on piece, but sometimes, when certain things are not quite settled in mind, slow practice is the only way to go for polishing a piece. in such a case, you just have to force yourself to do what is right or else live with the consequence - playing a never polished piece.

Love this tip!

metronome. Cruel and boring but surprisingly difficult not to outrace it when set at slow speed. Hence a good exercise in self-discipline.
Of course, you should not overdo it, use it only until your playing is accurate and even.

me too! Thanks for sharing, BruceD!