Mind getting dulled with practice

[Bob]

I have some choral music accompaniment to prepare.


I want to get it down well under my fingers, so I do a few repetitions on sections.  3-5.

After awhile that just seems to zone me out though.

Any ideas on how to engrain the music quickly and not zone out from it? 



Taking a break, then coming back
Stopping the sound so it's not a constant drone
Willing it.  Forcing the mind to focus in
Getting better rest.  It doesn't help to be tired, but that's how it is for now.
Picking on thing to focus the mind on, like ease or voicing or shaping the phrases.


Any more?

[viking]

Drink coffee.

[Bob]

Mmm.. yes.  Moche cappa.. double shoot esspreso... made with java water...


Maybe it's just the way my mind works.  Too much drone going on for me. 

[franzliszt2]

Finger every note, and invent methods to practice it. Practice slowly all the time and carefully. Then you'll never get bored or zone out

[Bob]

Finger every notes?  I'm not following.  What do you mean?


Slow will still do it.  I was doing that.  I think it has something to do with the sound, the drone.  Gets annoying as heck afterward.  During the moment it's just a gently lulling off.  It does seem to dull the mind though.  I can still feel it. 

Unless you mean play the lines with just one finger.  To focus on the melody that way. 

This is just functional music.  I don't care much about except not screwing it up.  I can just drill it into the fingers.  I don't want to be scrambling having to pay attention to reading it.  It does work.  Straight repetition basically and things will iron themselves out in a few days.  I know I could do more reps too.  It's just the dulling of the mind thing.


Coffee yes.  The caffieine only works so much for so long.  And there is the crash.  I'm not sure I like the long term effects though. 

[guendola]

I sounds like you aren't very happy with this music. Try to be a bit more excited, give it more love. It is a matter of will. Seriously, one can get excited about anything! And it also makes learning much easier.

[rc]

About 2 weeks ago I sat down to practice after two cups of coffee and I noticed it'd made my hands a little jittery and my mind was having troubles focusing.  It was frustrating.  Now I think that caffine is a poor substitute for sleep, no good for practice.

[Bob]

Yes.  I has become work.  I can't say I'm enjoying it much at all.  But it is still satisfying though too, to achieve something more.  

True about the ca"fiend."  It can jolt things going again though.  Sometimes it works really well.  It just keeps taking more and more though.  Sleep is very good, but time consuming. 

[Karli]

In general, mere repetition (and the concept of it) can be incredibly boring !  If this is the concept of practicing that people are facing when they think about playing the piano, it's going to be really tough to want to do it, and even tougher to get anything of true value out of it.  Learning is discovery, not mindless motion.  If the concept of practice is boring, the concept needs to be tweaked because boredom is an indication that a process has somehow drifted away from being a discovery/learning experience.  Actual learning is not boring at all and is even an adventure (and if it seems that it can be boring, it has become boring only in concept and the concept being linked to meaningless repetition and motion -- so challenge your concept !) !   

The main aim with each repetition is to learn something new every time you play it.  There are so many different ways to hear it, so many different ways to see it, so many different ways to feel it, so many different ways to conceptualize it -- involve your entire person !  When I approach a new piece of music, my goal in learning it is not just to learn IT, my goal is to learn as much as I can FROM it -- and I think there can be a very big difference in there ! 

What kind of specific skills do I want to get better at as a musician ?  How can I glean from the music-study that I am doing these types of improvements in my musicianship that I am looking for ?

Of course, the type of music a person is learning from is going to have a lot to do with how much they learn !  Something like a Bach's invention, for example, has copious amounts of learning opportunities, whereas some pieces of music do not.  Discovering the difference between music that offers substantial learning opportunities and music that does not, is also a skill worth developing.  This is how we actually discover what our "tastes" in music are and one way to decide how we are going to be spending our time in study.  Once we discover these things, there is really no excuse for boredom because we have the power/knowledge to control that !

The concept of "energy" does play a role, too.  I think we all face this !  One thing I have noticed though, is that learning, actual discovery, brings inspiration and energy to a process and it feeds itself.  As it turns out, it is much, much more difficult and energy-consuming to resign ourselves to mindless repetition and drag ourselves through time, than it is to act on the decision to learn as much as we can in an allotted time-frame.  The decision is our own !

Best wishes,
Karli

[guendola]

Karly, I definitely second your first  and last paragraph here! I even third it ^^
And the rest is worth reading as well.

[slobone]

Well... we are talking about choral accompaniment here. As a (former) choral accompanist myself, I can assure you that nobody will notice if you leave out a note here or there, or even a lot of notes here, there, and everywhere. The essential thing is to keep a steady beat going no matter what happens. That, and be ready at a split second to give any section their starting pitch at any point in the piece.

[Bob]

Yeah, I just wanted to play it as written and not have to put a huge amount of effort into it.  Just drill it into the fingers and be done with it.

Which does works.  It did in this case.  I just don't like that dulling effect of it.

I simplified part of it, but I hate doing that.  I wanted it as written.  Not that anyone will probably notice or care but me.  And it wasn't exactly written for pianist hands.  This is a paid thing, so sometimes I'm worrying that someone is going to call me on it.  Actually, I think it sounds better with some of the things I did.  Easier for the singers.

[slobone]

And it wasn't exactly written for pianist hands.  This is a paid thing, so sometimes I'm worrying that someone is going to call me on it.  Actually, I think it sounds better with some of the things I did.  Easier for the singers.

If it's a transcription of an orchestral piece, there's nothing particularly sacred about the notes. If you just want to do a good job, your priority should be getting the general idea of the music at the right tempo. And if there are passages where you're playing by yourself, work on those a little more cause that's the only time anybody will be listening to you...