doing exercises

[vaiva]

hello, people!
do you like playing gamuts or other exercises?
do you think it is usefull for every pianist?
how long it should take exercising per day?

[Goldberg]

I believe there is a certain time when a pianist can benefit greatly from exercises--and I'm not talking about just myself here, I've heard it from several other sources--but after that, after a certain "individual peak" is reached (that is, as far as the pianist is willing to go) then exercises can serve no real purpose. For me, using the Liszt book was just a way to get my mind and fingers back on track after screwing around for a few months, and I learned a lot by practicing much more than an hour a day with them.

Now, however, I ignore them completely.

[ted]

The fifteen minutes or so a day I do on my practice clavier consitutes my only exercise as such.

[musicsdarkangel]

Goldberg, I totally agree.


These Liszt exersizes are building up my technique bigtime.... When I do practice over a couple hours a day, I will spend an hour to an hour on a half on them.


They really are jems.


Eventually, I will stop them.

[Goldberg]

Yes, I have stated so several times on the forum and on others, but I used the Liszt exercises for about 3 months, and virtually little else, and practiced for quite some time each day! I believe the only piece I learned along with it was the 6th Hungarian Rhapsody.

But, really, I honestly used the exercises in a way that worked for me and helped me improve overall. It's great to hear of someone else with similarly positive opinions on the Liszt exercises, particularly in a forum in which exercises in general are immediately disregarded as mindless and harmful.

[xvimbi]

But, really, I honestly used the exercises in a way that worked for me and helped me improve overall. It's great to hear of someone else with similarly positive opinions on the Liszt exercises, particularly in a forum in which exercises in general are immediately disregarded as mindless and harmful.

Ha, I think I am one of those Exercises are not mindless by themselves; they only invite people to be mindless. They are also potentially harmful, when not executed correctly. But, hey, one has to be pragmatic. One should do whatever works to solve a particular problem. Happy playing!

[Goldberg]

Yes, of course you are correct, xvimbi, and people who disagree with you should definitely not attempt the Liszt exercises. One should allot as much focus and energy on the exercises--assuming he wants to--as on regular pieces, and play them with the utmost carefulness.

Of course I also say that once the pianist plays each exercise with 100% correctness and accuracy (a good indicator of this for me is to be able and play each exercise at a slightly upbeat moderato tempo without strain or tension, both of which the pianist *should* be capable of identifying), the exercises become relatively useless. Now of course I didn't get quite up to that level myself, but that's probably because my technical ambitions are low compared to my desire to perform, for the time being. Besides, college is coming up quickly and I'm not majoring in music so...I'll let that speak for itself!

[pianowelsh]

Exercizes CAN be very useful when building a technique. I would say they are probably most useful at the intermediate stage when you can aquire new skills in a really concentrated form and build your overall technique in essense much quicker than by studying repertory. However i think there is a time where most people back off them a bit (usually at the very advanced stage) when your technique has essentially been formed. For many they then become simply refreshers or the morning limber up before lauching into etudes (for those that say its harmful to do them - consider that its more harmful to launch into a virtuoso etude from cold- which many pianists do at their own risk!). I personally find that they can still be of use for working at a particular area of technique in isolated detail (ie thirds or a particular finger pattern etc) but i largely use repertoire ie Bach preludes and fugues or inventions or Mozart pieces as my mental/phsical warm ups now before working on etude literature.