Getting too frustrated, too quickly

[exigence]

I'm sure everyone's had this happen at some point or another.

In trying to learn a new piece, no matter your skill level or its "difficulty," what did you do when you found yourself getting completely fed up due to what appeared to be little to no progression?  I mean, sure, you can go to something else and relax, but when you return to the piece, the same problems are going to be there.

For me, the case in point is the Bbm scherzo - it's not like it's the most difficult thing in the world, but it's amazing just how badly it's going, in my opinion.

[m1469]

I actually used to be much better about this than I am now, and my conscience is convicting me as I write this.  Whenever I would get to that point, what lay just around the corner (if I could push through) was inevitabley a healthy break-through.  I may not have been consciously aware of this in the moment, but I think somewhere within I was. 

I would take a step back from what I was doing.  Sometimes I would walk outside just to have a change of environment, but I would always know it was just a matter of going deeper, within myself and the piece.  I would realize that there was perhaps a piece to the puzzle that I just had not quite found yet and that all the answers were right there whether I knew them or not.  I would be willing to look with different eyes and would sometimes just let go of my current conceptions about the piece, and the work I was doing with it.  I would be willing to release the concept of "struggling me", if that makes any sense at all.

Without fail, some new insight would come to me.  I would return to the music and work more to listen within than to command.  Some answer would ALWAYS come and it would be just what I would need to make a move forward.

Sometimes it was just a matter of literally looking at the sheet of music differently... for example, instead of notes, chords and such, I would try to take in a larger panorama of the page without emotional attachment to it and maybe contours would suddenly stand out to me in ways I had not noticed before.  I suppose it is an explorers attitude.

he he... I am guilty, guilty, guilty...

m1469

[rc]

I'm getting better at handling my frustration...

So far as I can tell my main source of frustration is I'm trying to go too fast. Either I'm literally trying to play a section too fast, just beyond my speed threshold for that passage even... Even though everything else will be at the right tempo, when I get to the hard part I try to play it as fast as possible. It's strange.

Or, more likely I'm trying to learn the piece too quicky and haven't gone through it thoroughly before moving on, as a result the whole piece... falls to pieces and I get frustrated.

So for me, the answer is usually to slow down... Be more patient.

Looking back, it seems to be part of a larger cycle: When I get my routine down pat and get learning things very smoothly and rapidly I get the urge to take bigger and bigger bites, before long every bite I take is more than I can chew and I choke myself.

Try playing through with a metronome to check for how evenly you're playing (if you're speeding up certain spots and not knowing it)... Slower than what you're aiming for, up to what your aiming for and even a little faster than what you want... Maybe it's just certain sections stumping ya and you've just gotta iron those spots out.

[lostinidlewonder]

Usually you can get impatient when the brain has to make an effort to learn something unknown to it. It likes to stay still and not have to do work and it does this by making you annoyed with your work and make you think you are pathetic and working super slow and should give up! Push through that, if you are thinking this while you are practicing you are not practicing, you've trapped yourself. It has to be pushed out of the mind. You have to make small goals, have lots of small victories and you will be fine then you offer yourself no chance to get annoyed because you watch the progress.

Learn to take BABY STEPS, and not get too annoyed if one line takes one day. That is if you don't care about your efficiency. If you contintially choose more difficult music for yourself you must expect difficulties, especially if you are forcing yourself to handle pieces which you cannot draw experience from to tackle.

You learn a lot from tough music music, but there is 2 taxes you have to pay, this annoyance with your difficulties that you may develop (some people like it, i find it aesthetic pleasing to see crazy sheet music and trying insane things on the piano) and also a decrease in your efficiency (I personally cannot stand this, not enough time on this earth so I want to do as much as I can, and that means maximise efficiency).

[Floristan]

I'm getting better at handling my frustration...

So far as I can tell my main source of frustration is I'm trying to go too fast. Either I'm literally trying to play a section too fast, just beyond my speed threshold for that passage even... Even though everything else will be at the right tempo, when I get to the hard part I try to play it as fast as possible. It's strange.

Or, more likely I'm trying to learn the piece too quicky and haven't gone through it thoroughly before moving on, as a result the whole piece... falls to pieces and I get frustrated.

So for me, the answer is usually to slow down... Be more patient.

Looking back, it seems to be part of a larger cycle: When I get my routine down pat and get learning things very smoothly and rapidly I get the urge to take bigger and bigger bites, before long every bite I take is more than I can chew and I choke myself.

Try playing through with a metronome to check for how evenly you're playing (if you're speeding up certain spots and not knowing it)... Slower than what you're aiming for, up to what your aiming for and even a little faster than what you want... Maybe it's just certain sections stumping ya and you've just gotta iron those spots out.

Good post, rc.  I identify completely with what you said.   

[Bouter Boogie]

I bet every pianist has the same problem! Guess it's a part of our world  I've got the same problem with Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody nr. 10, argh 

[rhapsody in orange]

Yep I just experienced that actually. Was kinda irritated when i was progressing slowly (was still in the stage of learning notes). And then what I did was to play the previous parts of the piece (which I've already learnt) to work as some kinda morale booster. Told myself that I've managed to do x amount of this piece, so why not go a little at a time, sooner or later that part which I'm learning will turn out manageable too. Don't be over ambitious to wanna achieve too much in too short a time-frame, but rather practise in smaller sections then chances of getting fed up will be much smaller.
Also, I've realised that when I'm getting frustrated with something it's time for me to move off somewhere else (pianoforum, the tele, outdoors) before I come back to the piece again.
Just my 0.02 =)