When is the piece done?

[Bob]

How do you know when you're finished?

If you've fixed everything you can think of and everything anyone else can think of?


I don't really think there is ever an end, but...  how do you know when to stop working on a piece?

[mmro]

I say never. The matter's not fixing everything, because once fixed you'll always have a way to improve. And you can't  stop improving your performance, there's never an end. Just my opinion

[lazlo]

I think he gets that...

You can say you can work on 1 piece you're whole life, but the fact is you don't... So at what point do you move on from a piece of music, and why?

[Bob]

haha... I suppose I answered my own question -- You're done when everything is fixed.

But then what?  A performance?  A recording?  Keep it "on file" in your repertoire for a future performance?  I suppose.

[rc]

If you've fixed everything you can think of and everything anyone else can think of?

That sounds good, after I run out of ideas on how to improve the piece.  Which is about the same time I start getting bored with it, and that might also be the same time where an interpretation starts to become fixed - always playing it the same, not really adding anything to it.  Going through the motions.

Or burnout, when I've still got ideas on how to improve the piece but am losing my mind trying to realize those ideas in my playing - the technique is a bit beyond my threshold at the time.

There isn't really any set criteria now that I think of it.  Basically I get tired of the piece for one reason or another and would better spend my practice time on something new.

[rc]

But then what?  A performance?  A recording?  Keep it "on file" in your repertoire for a future performance?  I suppose.

I like the idea of recording the piece before shelfing it, that would be interesting to look back on, a record of progress.  I'd been meaning to start doing this for a while, but I just got lazy, heh

[phil13]

Gould once said, after a performance, "It wasn't my best. I've only played it 30 times." (I'm paraphrasing here but you get my drift.)

The point is, a piece is never "done". Oh, you can perfect it, but when you come back to it 10, 20 years from now, do you really think you'll play it the same way?

More experience in life and music will change your opinion of how a piece should be played. Vladimir Horowitz probably never, ever played the Chopin Ballade 1 the same way twice throughout his life.

Phil

[pianowolfi]

It can be done for the day. Sometimes perfectly. But the next day you might want to play it differently...