How well do you know your process of learning a piece ?

[m1469]

I am just curious how many people feel they know their own process of learning so well that you could actually predict how long it will take you to learn a new piece of music up to your standard ? 

Please elaborate as you would like to .

Thanks,
m1469

[pianowolfi]

I never know how long it takes me to learn a piece. Even if it's a so called "easy" one. Something would most of the times get in the way of my plans. So I gave it up to think about it. I just practice whatever I feel like wanting to practice. And some of the pieces stay with me over the years (like for instance the 4 Chopin Scherzos which I plan to finish since ten years or more ), others not.

[dan101]

The older you get, the easier it gets, provided you are still in touch with your technical capabilities. Assuming I have uninterupted practice sessions, I can easily predict how long it will take me to learn a long or short work.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the more responsibilities I have outside of music. That makes uninterupted practice more difficult... with interruptions, its hard to predict how long it will take to learn a piece. That's life, I guess.

[Kassaa]

When I'm studying a piece, each day there is an other unforeseen problem that slows the progress, there are things that go easier than expected. Most of the time this is not a 'technical' problem, but a problem of understanding the work, structure, musical lines, voices. But when a date is set for performing the work I can play it and work to it, skip things that cost time and don't give a lot of effect.

[counterpoint]

It's unpredictable. I do not even know, in which part of the journey I am at the status quo. Every day there are new questions and new aspects of the piece I learn. Most of it is not about difficulty, but about a better and deeper understanding of what is the meaning of the piece, and there seems to be no limit for deeper understanding.

The first steps of learning are very fast, then - after some days - the learning process turns in a sort of meditation. Then it gets interesting 

[shingo]

The first steps of learning are very fast, then - after some days - the learning process turns in a sort of meditation. Then it gets interesting  Smiley

     Yeah I experience this too. Unfortunately I do not know my learning capabilities well enough yet to predict the time needed for a given piece as my learning tends to be rather sporadic, big leaps some days, smaller (but still important) steps others.
     Although this is a slight draw-back I do not often have to practice for a serious deadline and so this  coupled with the ambiguity of completion time keeps me wanting to practice and see how far I get, how well I pick it up, how well I recall yesterdays and adds a little adventurous quality to it.