An awkward situation....

[casparma]

This is what I experience in this few weeks...

As I practice new pieces, I subconciously memorise them, and play without pieces, but look to my hands, since the pieces involve quite a few jumps...

However, as there are lots of new pieces, I certainly cant remember them all... the problem is, as there are jumps, I cant fix my head reading the score while I play....

So, in the mean time, I generally memorise the piece so I play without looking at the score but to my hands....


however, is it better to play with hand positioning memorised, then looking at the score, or the other way around? ie, play with score memorised, then looking at the hands?


please help

[donjuan]

Grand pianos are good for this sort of thing because the music rack is high above the hands, thus making it hard for you to keep switching from sheetmusic to hands and back and forth..  Eventually, you learn to see both at the same time.  There are many blind pianists who manage just fine, through feeling the keys.  The tough part is harnessing this power.

Sometimes I find it helpful to write down the harmony above the staff and just memorize that.  If you have the chords in mind, it wont take you too long to look at the notes and say "oh, yes of course" in your mind.

Sorry for not really giving a tangible answer to your question, but in my opinon, you need to learn to do both at the same time more or less

[casparma]

Ok..thanks

well, sometimes, there are some jumps in several measures, and when I need to quickly take a glance at the score, you know what, it takes abit of time to find where I actually am......

what is you people's way of doing any way?  Just completely memorise the piece, or completely memorise  hand positioning?

[Tash]

i can totally relate to that- i'm always looking at my hands and have recently decided that this is no good because maybe it's encouraging me to hit wrong notes or something, so i'm starting to play not looking at my hands, like either at the music, but i hate that so in an attempt to memorise, then when i have got it from memory maybe i'll try with my eyes closed, like with jumps and stuff.
but what donjuan said about writing the chords down and looking at that- i tried that the other week and it was really good because i found that all i needed to do was know what the bass note was and i knew what i was playing, you just need to space it all out well so you know what part of the music the chord names are referring to.

you could try memorising parts of the piece where the jumps are before you start playing it, so you know where you're going and then you don't need to look at the music...

[bernhard]

however, is it better to play with hand positioning memorised, then looking at the score, or the other way around? ie, play with score memorised, then looking at the hands?


please help

Do both.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[casparma]

thanks for the tips