Practice preferences

[stormx]

What do you enjoy the most from your piano practice?

1- learning a new piece
2- polishing a piece (dinamics, tempo, etc)
3- playing repertoire pieces (already polished)

Of course, all are necessary 

[alzado]

I rarely learn things to a high degree of polish. 

Usually I learn things well enough to keep up the tempo and flow, and to minimize mistakes.  Two weeks is about all I spend on a piece.  If it is a short or simple piece, perhaps not even that.

I like to bring things home.  I enjoy searching through the clearance bin at the music store, purchasing sheet music at a discount, and looking for lesser-known composers.

Recently I have been spending a lot of time on Edward MacDowell and Erik Satie.  But I will move on, I am sure.  I always do.

Good luck with your piano playing--

[celticqt]

Definitely #1.  I love the challenge of learning something new, and it takes a lot more discipline for me to take it to the polished, ready-to-perform stage.  I tend to get bored after a few months with the same piece; I've been playing one of the Brahms rhapsodies for about 4 months, and now I only play it every other day or so, to keep it in my memory.

[kghayesh]

1- I think learning a new piece is the most tiring process. You need to be familiar with the fingering in both hands and the technique, not to mention the sight reading and memorization involved. But, on the other hand, after practicing, this is the most psychologically releaving thing (that you memorized x bars from piece y and you are getting nearer and nearer to memorizing all of it) .

2- Polishing a piece is the most artistic process of all of them. You add your own interpretation to what you've memorized. But, it is the most technincally demanding part where you get the thing up to speed.
The thing that i don't like most about polishing is that when you try to polish something and you don't think you are progressing, u feel so bad about it (although you could be progressing but so slowly).

3- I play repretoire pieces for fun or for warming up. I play them nearly without thinking coz my fingers have memorized the exact location of the keys (but that is after playing them for like zillion times). Here i listen to the music as if i am listening to a recording, not as if i am practicing, which gives me much more space and imagination to interpret the music better and better.

[joachimf]

Definately #2... To me that stage is the most tiring and challenging part of learning a piece. But also very fun especially if you record yourself in the process. Many times when I don't feel like I've really improved, I record myself and compare that to the recording I made just after finishing #1, and usually I get amazed of how much I've actually improved, but it also happens of course, that I play worse, and that's not good.. .lol:P I use most time on #2; my teacher almost expect #1 to be in place pretty quick, so we can start working on #2 as quickly as possible. Polishing is as said by kgayesh the artistic process of the three, and, in lack of better words: I like that.. =P

[m1469]

Well, I have been thinking about this question quite a bit.  And, really, I cannot answer the question in the way it is posed.  I do think that all are necessary, as you have said.  But, I don't think I really like or prefer one over the other. 

I most definitely prefer all of them happening at once.  I find that the proper balance between them forms my most preferred state of practice.  In other words, if I only had one or the other, I would be much less satisfied and probably achieve less (though I am not really too sure what exactly I am actually achieving at the moment).  That is my preferred practice because I find that in this way, I experience the "perfect" amount of tension and release, inspiration, stimulation and gratification.  Whenever I need more of one, I add more of that to my proportions, and that keeps the "perfection".

In the end, whatever keeps me challenged, curious, inquisitive, and in love with the music and the instrument, is what I most prefer.


m1469

[yamaha]

No 1 Definately!  I LOVE learning a new piece   

[Waldszenen]

Most satisfying is No. 3, playing masterfully something you've put loads of difficult work into.

Most interesting, or basically what encourages me to practise that extra bit longer, is No. 1, being able to learn something I've never seen before.

[bearzinthehood]

No 1 Definately!  I LOVE learning a new piece   

ditto

[pianolearner]

What do you enjoy the most from your piano practice?

1- learning a new piece
2- polishing a piece (dinamics, tempo, etc)
3- playing repertoire pieces (already polished)

Of course, all are necessary 

In order of enjoyment:

1) 2
2) 3
3) 1