Technical upkeep

[pianowelsh]

in relation to the question about being a performer who teachers..how do those of you who perform regularly go about maintaining and for me most importantly INCREASINg your abilities in and around a tight teaching schedule...are there special excercises and or pieces that you find are most efficient for keeping you in tip top condition AND how do you cope learning new repertoire and maintaininf concert programmes and concerti...whats the secret?!?!

[pianistimo]

as i don't publicly perform regularly - i shall attempt to speak for my teacher.  i noticed that he practices in between students - and occasionally makes us wait (or did make us) until the end of a passage or phrase to open the door.  maximizing all potential time.

also, i asked him if he ever went on pianoforum and he said he didn't have time.  hmm.  probably something to remember.  i will start this focused effort in august. 

[m1469]

also, i asked him if he ever went on pianoforum and he said he didn't have time.  hmm.

he's lying -- and even if it were true, it still doesn't answer the question 

[pianistimo]

if he went on this forum in july - he'd have been either in moscow or in the hospital on a laptop.  now, he has a baby. i doubt he's on the forum with teaching and a new baby. 

seriously, that is my advise.  time-management.  most artists are extremely disciplined.  that's all.  they just do what others can't do because they are more disciplined.  richter (as a youth) used to get up at 6 am and practice half the day - take a break - and practice some more (unless he was studying theory/counterpoint and history, etc).  but, the thing is - once you get to be very good - some of the practice is listening in your head to the scores and marking it like you want to hear it.  i'm not at this point yet - but attempting.  also, the number of hours isn't important to your technique - because you already HAVe it.  but, the thing is - that you can lose it if you skip several days or weeks - so you have to constantly make yourself do things (practice) when you don't want to.  that's what i gather.  i don't do this. if i don't feel like it - and i can't put feelings into it - i simply don't.  and, i don't look at the scores to bide my time.  i go on pianoforum.  this will change in august.  hopefully.

[amelialw]

I will start my performing career next year but i'll say what my teacher does. At one point by teacher taught about 28 students a week, I asked her how she practised because besides teaching she did yearly concerts. She said that she used to get up early and practise the piano or on those days that she had students in the morning to practise between the morning and afternoon gap. She told me also that she would practise after she got home.

[ramseytheii]

I don't think it is possible with a major teaching schedule.  Most of the teachers I have heard playing, either prepare a very limited amount of appearances; play only in the non-teaching season; or play badly.  Or, they have a very limited amount of students.

Walter Ramsey

[stevehopwood]

in relation to the question about being a performer who teachers..how do those of you who perform regularly go about maintaining and for me most importantly INCREASINg your abilities in and around a tight teaching schedule...

I used to do that by working every hour there was to work - 4-5 hours a day practise and roughly the same spent teaching.

I was a young man when I worked like that. Now aged 56, I cannot maintain that sort of schedule.  All that work left me with a technique that copes with anything thrown at it, along with a depth of musical experience that takes a lifetime to acquire.

As to specific pieces, take selections from the Bach 48, Beethoven sonatas and Chopin Etudes and you will not go far wrong.

 

[m1469]

Mental prax. 


*during teaching, during showering, during eating, during ... you know, everything*

[pianowolfi]

Mental prax. 


*during teaching, during showering, during eating, during ... you know, everything*

Very much seconded and I add "during bicycling" hee hee (*off for pasta dinner*)

[franzliszt2]

I sometimes go through very busy phases where I can't practice, because of traveling and random sother stupid things. I always manage to get some practice, usually early in morning, or late at night. But I use the time efficiently and practice only what I really need to. You have to decide very efficiently what needs work, and what can be done away from piano. You ned to be perfectly comfortable in knowing what your weaknesses are and confront them. My teacher once told me...the hardest things to practice are the things you really cannot do. And that is very true!

Mental practice is good to. But hard if you are traveling on trains and stuff with annying people near you. 

[pianowelsh]

True I was always told 'practice what you cant do not what you can - dont waste time!'
Trouble is im so hypercrytical of myself I dont think I can do anything well so I can spend as long on an easy bar as a very complex one!!  I think all pianists are different some take longer to cook things than others?!?!?