When to learn/practise?

[freakofnature]

Hi fellow pianists!

I've just skimmed through a book that deals with good strategies to prepare for exams. One point within it is that one should be learning in the evening before going to bed. The author explains it like this: By learning imprints are created in the memory, which are later (while sleeping) reinforced and consolidated. Now, if you are learning something early in the morning, the imprints in your memory will get weaker and partially overwritten by all the things you learn, see, hear and experience during the rest of the day, which will lead to a much weaker reinforcement of the learned stuff during the night (meaning you won't know as much of the learned stuff as if you had learned shortly before going to bed). I remember that I've already read about it in the past - the massive stimuli created by watching TV and playing computer games in the afternoon and evening were held partially guilty for unsuccessful learning of children in school, because through these stimuli a lot of the things the children had learned in school were partially or totally overwritten by the things they had seen in TV and so on...

I guess this can be adapted to learning and practising pieces at the piano - you might memorize a piece better and faster if you do it in the evening and maybe even 'technical exercises' may have a deeper impact when done later in the day. A year ago I had the habit to get out of bed earlier and do 2 or 3 practise sessions before going to work - and I had a much harder time with the pieces that I've learned this way than usual (I believe one of them was the first Spanish Dance by Granados - I've never managed to get it to a really good standard although going through all the practise steps that Bernhard and other people on this forum suggest).

Any thoughts/experiences? Maybe people could give it a try if it is possible time-management-wise...

Best regards,
FoN

[quasimodo]

Our God, Bernhard has already suggested that process, I think...

[freakofnature]

Did he? I must have overlooked that one...

[quasimodo]

Did he? I must have overlooked that one...

Well maybe not so directly, but he for sure told about the role of dreaming in ingraining knowledge as far as piano learning is concerned.

[freakofnature]

Yeah, this he did. But my text mainly deals with the best daytime to practise to ensure best results of the session, not with the fact that sleeping is essential for learning...

[quasimodo]

Yeah, this he did. But my text mainly deals with the best daytime to practise to ensure best results of the session, not with the fact that sleeping is essential for learning...

Sure! However the idea of dreaming of your practice suggests it's a good idea to do it not to long before you go to bed.
Alright that was an extrapolation of mine, but seriously that was my incoscious conclusion on that Bernhard suggestion.
Lol.

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

I concur the belief that you retain more information if you learn something before sleeping. Not just with music, but with other things as well. It is rather amazing actually, because I have alot more recall of things I learned or read the evening before I went to sleep. I think that overdoing things that can carry over the evening time and end up being studied at night will not have as much benefits. In fact, you might be more exhausted and listless, hence not being able to do your best and ending up wishing for a redo. Hope that doesn't happen to anyone.

[bella musica]

This sounds like it would make sense. 

Another thing I would suggest would be taking a short rest before beginning your practice, if you plan to practice in the evening.  That way you will come to the music fresher than if you came home from a long day at work and sat right down on the piano bench...   

What would be best of all would be not having to work or study or do anything but play the piano!  *Wishes*

[choykaiwen]

I was reading a book written by one Josef Hoffmann. In it, he touchs on some theories on practising, which includes,

practising in the morning, just after you wake up, citing mental freshness. I go so far as to say play away for an hour, or a half hour even, before breakfast.

never practise more then an hour, at most two. Then go do some stuff which is totally unrelated to music.

making short pauses every half an hour. Follow the example of the painter, who closes his eyes for a few moments in order to obtain upon reopening them a fresh colour impression.

don't practice systematically, eg. everyday at the same time, play the same sequences of the same studies/pieces.

The second tip helped me quite alot. Once I was struggling with a piece for like 2 hours with little success. I gave up and went to play video games for an hour. When I resume my study, it all came to me naturally.