How do you know what to play?

[cfortunato]

This may sound dumb,  but I am having a hard time deciding what to play, because I have way too many choices. 

I'm intermediate, and have a ton of pieces that I HALF know.  Lots of Beethoven and Schumann, and a good sampling of everybody else.  There really aren't many pieces that I have polished to perfection.

And when I sit down to play, I have no idea what to do.  I'd like to learn ALL of Kinderszenen, and learn it well - not just sort of half know every piece in it except for a few.  I'd like to learn Pictures at an Exhibition well enough to pay publicly.  And a few full Beethoven Sonatas.  Etc.

How do you guys do this?  How do you keep pieces polished without revisiting the same ones forever and ever?  When you polish a piece do you play it again?  Do you go back to it on a regular schedule?  Or just let it atrophy?  Do you ever sit down and play your whole repertoire, just to make sure you still can?

I'm wading through about 9 books at this point.

[ramseytheii]

This may sound dumb,  but I am having a hard time deciding what to play, because I have way too many choices. 

I'm intermediate, and have a ton of pieces that I HALF know.  Lots of Beethoven and Schumann, and a good sampling of everybody else.  There really aren't many pieces that I have polished to perfection.

And when I sit down to play, I have no idea what to do.  I'd like to learn ALL of Kinderszenen, and learn it well - not just sort of half know every piece in it except for a few.  I'd like to learn Pictures at an Exhibition well enough to pay publicly.  And a few full Beethoven Sonatas.  Etc.

How do you guys do this?  How do you keep pieces polished without revisiting the same ones forever and ever?  When you polish a piece do you play it again?  Do you go back to it on a regular schedule?  Or just let it atrophy?  Do you ever sit down and play your whole repertoire, just to make sure you still can?

I'm wading through about 9 books at this point.

This quote from Neuhaus may help you:

"The example of Godowsky is memorable for me.  I sometimes happened to be at his home when he was preparing for a recital.  Pieces that he had played dozens and perhaps hundreds of times he would again and again check against the score, he compared the different versions of various editions (of Chopin alone he had seventeen editions at the time!); in other words in the shortest possible time he again went through the work he had done long ago.  An example of artistic honesty worthy of being followed."

I would urge you to consider that skimming, while it may seem like you are doing a lot, will not yield lasting, strong results.  It may seem to take more time to delve deeply into one piece, but actually in the long run it takes less. 

Take a few of these pieces, that have different characters and require different technical tools, and see what it takes to really learn them in depth.  Find universal rules for learning music, and categorize passages into what technical tools are required.  What tools do you need to solve for example a passage of double octaves?  Of rapid thirds?  Of long, sustained tones against moving ones? 

Set yourself a goal: this weekend, you will play the first three pieces of Kinderszenen for some person, or people.  Then play them.  See how it goes, and you may discover that you have the appetite and the ability to spend longer time on the pieces.  Not just on the initial preparation, but also, on fixing all the multitude of problems you noticed during the performance.

I noticed teaching that many students who came to me already knowing how to play piano, and read music, would want to play a piece, and would mess up a lot, and not be able to identify their errors .  It is so important to say, this was bad because I played this wrong note (and always identify the right one!), or, I missed the timing, or it was too loud, in other words, what was wrong?  If you know what is wrong, you know what is right.  And knowing what is right in a piece is permanent, and you can come back to it and discover what is right again and again.

I was looking the other day at some scores of mine from a while ago, when I was with a previous teacher.  There were comments such as, "don't rush," or, "timing!", or, "sounds too thin."  But those comments were not helpful to me now.  It is not helpful in general, I think, to leave permanently negative comments, such as "don't" do this.  Then every time you reach that passage, you try "not" to do something.  Instead of those comments, now, when I study music, I mark myself the opposites, such as, "ben in tempo," "rit. al meno mosso," or, "accel. al tempo", or "espressivo."  Those are positive aims, something you can try to reach every time, not a negative comment that really only reflected one passing moment of error.  Why enshrine one passing moment of error in ink or lead for all of posterity?  Why not rather inscribe your ideas about the piece? 

My point is: if you want to learn a piece thoroughly, and to be able to come back to it after a long time and still know it, write in the damn score.  Damn it, write in the score.  Write how it should sound, write the fingerings, analyze the polyphony, everything.  Find what is essential in every piece.  Then you will never want to learn anything halfway ever again.

Walter Ramsey

[cfortunato]

Thanks for the advice.  I like the idea of playing the first three pieces from Kinderszenen publicly.  And you know what?  I KNOW that writing in the score works, because it has worked when I've done it, but for some reason I've stopped doing it.  Thanks for the advice.  This is very helpful.

[infectedmushroom]

If you want to learn a piece completely and perfect it, you just need the right motivation and also, don't give up!

What was the reason why you gave up on all those pieces you only half know? Was it because you got bored of the pieces, or did it had an other reason?

What I do when I want to learn a new piece, I first make sure that I'm in the right mood for learning. Then I mostly listen to a lot of recordings, from pieces of all kinda composers and then I pick the piece wich I really want to learn. I first take a close look at the sheet music, see what the most difficult parts are etc. After that, it's just a matter of time and the right motivation to learn it and perfect it.


And yes, I do play my whole repertoire, most of the time once a week. I didn't learn all those pieces for nothing and after all the effort I spended on learning the piece, it would be stupid of me to forget about the piece. Of course, some days you may find it boring to play a piece again, wich you played so many times. Though, on some other days you might think; "isn't it great that I learned that piece!?"


Good luck on picking new pieces to learn. I know it's hard to make a choice sometimes, but just pick one, perfect it and then go to the next piece to learn.

[alzado]

I don't so much pick an individual piece as a composer.

I was on Edward MacDowell for several months.  Then lately I have been a couple of months on Chopin.  Another time it was the Bach Inventions.   I would not anguish over trying to find a single piece.  It is just better to go with a composer.  Stay with the same composer for enough time to begin developing some understanding of that composer.

also --  Sometimes it is good to go back and revisit something that you played before, but never really played well enough.

Ramsey's advice is very thoughtful and wise.

[nedgerhart]

I just do what makes most sense to me.

You know what to play when you know who you are.

Ned

[cfortunato]

Thanks all.  I am taking Ramsey's excellent advice and beating my head against Kinderszenen.  And putting aside a practice session a week to just revisit the tuff I already know, and ignoring the other "half known" stuff.