Learning Repertoire Quickly

[pianoperfmajor]

I'm a junior in college, a piano performance major, and I'm finding that I'm really not learning music as fast as I should be.  I think a lot of it has to do with my poor practice routine.  Last year I really didn't learn much new music, as I was preparing for competition at the end of the year, so this year it's almost like I've forgotten how to learn music quickly.  My teacher is very disappointed with my progress thus far.  Ugh...


I know this topic has been beaten to death in the past, but how do you all approach a difficult piece of music, minimizing errors in learning, fingering, notes, etc. and learning it as quickly and smoothly as possible?

[zheer]

I dont know.

[sarahlein]

Have a look here:


https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5701.msg55639.html#msg55639
(3 principles for fast & efficient learning)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,5453.msg53807.html#msg53807
(3 important practise tricks)

kindly provided by Bernhard 

[Dazzer]

i half expected bernhard to post that

but yes... alot of technique does go into your practising style. An optimal practising technique does wonders to speed learning.

[cnelson23]

What I do is pretend every time you sit down and practice is like you're practicing the day of your lesson.  That makes me concentrate and practice everything very near perfectly, as I would play it for a lesson.   

[practicingnow]

What I do is pretend every time you sit down and practice is like you're practicing the day of your lesson.  That makes me concentrate and practice everything very near perfectly, as I would play it for a lesson.   

That's a good idea.
When you learn, don't sight-read through the entire piece over and over - bite off small bits and memorize them perfectly before going on - sometimes just a line or two.  It takes discipline to do that - you must resist the temptation to go on and play the rest.

[BoliverAllmon]

my teacher says that he plays through a section in such a way that after three times of playing it, the section is perfect. Slow, but perfect. He knows this and therefore concentrates with all of his might to make sure it happens. it really cuts down on the time needed to learn pieces.

boliver

[Jacey1973]

You know - i don't think you can learn repertoire reeally quickly (unless you find it easy to play int he first place). I prepare pieces so thoroughly and spend so much time on them simply because i feel like i'm slow compared to everyone else at learning pieces so i feel i need to work harder.

Some pieces you just have to live with for a long time to understand the piece on so many different levels.

[darkthrone666]

I agree you should learn by small bits. But then after you know the piece fairly well go to the end and start at the last measure, perfect that.  Then perfect the 2nd to last measure.  Then perfect them together...and so on through the entire piece. This was actually advice I got when I was still taking classical guitar.  I like doing this because it prevents you from playing the beginning of the piece over and over, which i always find myself doing. 

But of course I learn slowly too.....

[lau]

Bernhard thinks he knows EVERYTHING!!!!!   

Probably because he does

Best Wishes,

Lau

[pianoperfmajor]

That's a good idea.
When you learn, don't sight-read through the entire piece over and over - bite off small bits and memorize them perfectly before going on - sometimes just a line or two.  It takes discipline to do that - you must resist the temptation to go on and play the rest.

Yeah, that resonates for me.  In my practicing I usually feel like I'm just sight-reading passages over and over, without much improvement from day to day.  But per the advice in this thread I'm trying to memorize and perfect small sections at a time, which I'm finding is actually working quite well.  I just need to practice practicing--if that makes sense--and find the optimum method of learning for me.

[musicsdarkangel]

well, there are a few things that I emphasize.


1.  MEMORIZE first.  This means don't keep playing through the piece.  Take it small section by small section, and don't keep playing from the beginning.  Even if it's no where up to speed or sloppy, memorize it.  This way, you will have both the note/theoretical memory and will aquire muscle memory anyway, and just relying on muscle memory is a trainwreck waiting to happen. 
If you memorize first, the speed of learning will increase 100X

2.  Don't just memorize, try to phrase as you memorize.  Balance the voices the way they should be balanced, to get a professional sound.  After all, it is music.

3.  Practice at multiple speeds.  Liszt once said "To master a piece, you must be able to play it at four speeds".  I would agree with this.  Not only practice at different speeds, but practice in all combinations of speed and volume.  Practice slowly, loud, slowly with regular dynamics (hands close to keys etc), practice quickly both ways as well.

Variation in practice really helps.


By the way, if you think you suck at memorizing, you are wrong.  A lot of people do, but they just don't take the time to do it.  I thought I did until last year, now I have gained much confidence and have made a ****load of improvement.  That's what I stress the most.


while doing all of this, make sure your shoulders are down, that you're relaxed, and that you're not thinking of movements, but rather the sound.  If you anticipate sound rather than movement,  you will be more relaxed and it will sound much better.  This is what I've been concentrating on this year, and it's helped.

[thalbergmad]

Not entirely on topic, but i have just finished reading a book on John Ogdon, written by his wife.

Apparently, John learned the Franck Symphonic Variations in 1 day, when he agreed to stand in for another pianist. He then played it with no problems without the score.

[Tash]

What I do is pretend every time you sit down and practice is like you're practicing the day of your lesson. That makes me concentrate and practice everything very near perfectly, as I would play it for a lesson.

ha well if that were me i'd never practice cos i don't practice the day of my lesson!! (due to being at uni andnot just being a lazy bum)


anywayi was reading the posts bybernhard sarahlein put up and the thing that i have just learnt,like in the past few weeks was doing the whole practicing for short periods of time. we had to play a prepared orchestral score (first 24 bars or so of the mendelssohn violin concert 2nd movement) for a keyboard assessment and had 2 weeks to do so, so the best way was to memorise it. so what i did was play it only a couple of times every morning and then slightly increased that towards the end, and in the end i had it perfect with not a huge amount ofpractice, so i was quite impressed!
then i've just started learning a couple of new pieces in the past 2 weeks, and have gone to keeping the music on my keyboard as well as with mypiano, so when i'm randomly bored i'll just go sit at my keyboard and practice a little bit of some random part of the music, and i'm seriously impressed by how quickly i'm learning these pieces (debussy toccata and beethoven sonata op.31 no.3), maybe their just easy to learn i don't know, but i'm feeling that my random short procrastination practices are good for me.

so that's my advice, practice little bits when you're bored, especially the bits that you are having major issues with

i also agree with what musicdarkangel said, and everyone else that has said it (chang etc.) with the speed thing. i know it's scary at first attempting to play itup to speed but it does help in establishing hand movements for the right tempo. and memorising- i always memorise all my pieces because as soon as i can play from memory they start sounding 5000 times better.

ahh yeah, that's my amateur advice, i'm just gradually working this out for myself, so if i sound like i'm making things up i very well could be...

[cfortunato]

My way of doing things:

One hand at a time.  Take out a pen and work out the fingering immediately, before you play it twice. 

Do each section - usually about 8 bars.  Each hand six times, then both hands six times.

Do the thing right from the beginning, with all dynamics and fingering intact.  Don't learn the notes first and add the dynamics later.

Then isolate problem spots, and play them over and over and over.  Even if it's just two notes.