Playing a piece to death

[ada]

Ok, you hear a piece for the first time and fall in love with it. You think, if I can ever master that piece I will have achieved everything I could hope for. Once I can play that piece I can die.

You work at that piece for days, weeks, months, years. It's never good enough; you can't leave it alone; it can always be better.

Three years down the track you can do it - you can play the piece by memory, your fingers fall into place without effort or even consciousness. Playing it has become like breathing.

But suddenly, it doesn't sound so good anymore. It's become too familiar. Could it be that in your quest for perfection you've sucked the life out of it? Or have your ears just become so accustomed to it that it no longer holds the magic it once did?

How do you deal with this? I suppose the logical thing to do is to leave it for a few weeks and then return - but will this cost your ability to play it? How do you "perfect" a piece without killing it in the process?

Is this just me, or has anyone else experienced it? How do you keep a piece you love "alive"?

[zheer]

Is this just me, or has anyone else experienced it? How do you keep a piece you love "alive"?

  Well here is the difference of playing a piece for ones own pleasure and playing for other. Generally speaking once a piece of music is learnt,that piece could remain with the pianist for life, this is why pianists are always working towards developing their repertoire.So when the listner hears it for the first time it is fresh to their ears ,though very familier to the performer.
   What i do is, return to the piece months , days or years later, but with the added
advantage that the piece is already learnt, though sounding new and great once again.It is a great idea to revisit old piece, especially if one is serious about performing music for others.

  I hope that helps.

[mike_lang]

   What i do is, return to the piece months , days or years later, but with the added
advantage that the piece is already learnt, though sounding new and great once again.It is a great idea to revisit old piece, especially if one is serious about performing music for others.

I agree with you.  In my experience, the most enjoyment has come to me from pieces that I revisit from a year or even several years ago.  For example, I have programmed in my recital the second Prokofiev sonata, which I studied two or three years ago for the first time, but which now is served by a greater understanding of the composer, a firmer grasp of harmonic language, and more than this, the fruits of the "marination" period in which the piece matures in the subconscious and merges with the performer.  My teacher encourages the revisitation of old pieces in addition to the learning of new repertoire, saying that in order to present the piece most fully, the performer must "be the piece."  Also, as a former teacher said to me in refutation of the dogma that late Beethoven is to be untouched until the thirtieth or fortieth year, the sonatas "are like a fine wine; they must age inside of you."

I hope, ada, that this gives you some inspiration to persevere with these pieces that you have spent so long in learning and growing with.

Best,
ML

[amelialw]

well, for me, if I love a piece that much, I will be able to go on practising it no matter what

[pianowolfi]

That reminds me of my relationship with Rach's first sonata. I practiced it for years and of course, it's in a certain sense the love of my life, since I heard the first three notes of it, played live by Konstantin Scherbakov. A piece that changed my life. Why did it change my life? Also because it was the first piece ever that I could *not* practice to death. It's still a new experience every single practice session, to me, even if that practice session lasts just 4 minutes. Something changes within me during practicing. That makes practicing very tiring and very intense. And it prolongs the practice process, sometimes endlessly, as it seems. It *seems*. It just seems. After all, somehow I know that I will come to terms with it, some day

Look for the pieces of your life, the most beloved pieces. And play them to life

[allthumbs]

I would also suggest looking at the piece in a different way, perhaps discovering other inner voices within the piece to accent or changing the mood of the piece slightly.

Some changes in rubato, if not too extreme, can make the piece sound different as well.

Listening to the great pianists' version of the piece can give you some ideas as well.

As ada stated, you can always leave it for a while then come back to it. I always found it made it fresh again.


Cheers

allthumbs

[shingo]

In addition to what others have stated, although an annoying phenomenon, I find it useful to tire of a piece after completion and the numerous times played afterwards in pure satisfaction as it allows me to focus and 'fall in love' with another piece.
Often this also makes coming back to it (whilst practicing a new piece) all the more enjoyable.

[mattgreenecomposer]

This is one of the main reasons I don't practice any piece for more than a week.  It loses its magic.  And there are pieces that I REALLY REALLY like that I won't play at all.  I don't want to know whats "behind the curtain" so to speak.  I just pop in my Horowitz when I want to listen to it and enjoy.

[schubertiad]

"Behind the curtain" I really like that description. There are certainly some pieces which seem like magic, and some of that can be lost when you know how the trick is done. On the other hand, the best way to understand many works is to dive in and have a go.

[shingo]

"Behind the curtain" I really like that description. There are certainly some pieces which seem like magic, and some of that can be lost when you know how the trick is done. On the other hand, the best way to understand many works is to dive in and have a go.

I really liked that description also and 100% agree that it can spoil the magic when you know how its done.

[cmg]

How do you keep a piece you love "alive"?

VERY curious question, and precisely why I want to get to know Down Under better!

But, I digress.

Personally, I keep many pieces rotating throughout my practice schedule.  When I start to miss the magic in any piece, it's because my playing of it has become no longer mindful.  I take my mastery of it for granted, and I play it without presence.  In other words, I play it without newness.

Technical/musical mastery of a piece is not the end point.  It's only the first freedom.  Yes, now I can play this.  Now, I must give it life.  Mine.  That takes a deeper engagement.  And at that point, re-creation simulates creation. 

The composer, alas, is still God.  Be we are all noble supplicants.

[rc]

I often just play easier pieces that I won't have to spend too much time working out technical challenges.

[n_n]

well, sorry about going off topic, but one cannot keep the sparks or the burning passion of love forever... How many married couples with kids still have their heart beating faster when looking into each others' eyes?

OR maybe... they simply stopped looking into each other's eyes... now I'm not really off topic...

[leahcim]

How many married couples with kids still have their heart beating faster when looking into each others' eyes?

It'll depend on how much opportunity they have to get pissed again.

[alzado]

I am with mattgreenco.  I can't play a piece for more than a week.  I do practice hourly every day, so at the end of the week I may have played the piece 75 times.

What I DO do, however, is go back to pieces that need more work a year or two years later.

But the price is that my pieces for my weekly lesson are not entirely polished.

So be it.