Retracing Former Pieces

[alzado]

It is not unusual that I will find at least one older piece and re-play it for the teacher.  Usually I have time for just three or four pieces, and one or two may be entirely new, while a few are pieces I have played for her at least a year or more in the past.

I do usually take pieces that are a bit too hard for me, or pieces where I have had trouble meeting her expectations in the past. 

I sometimes find I sort of "hit a wall" with a challenging piece.   Leaving it aside for a year or two, then dusting it off to try again, allows me to get further into the piece.  It is not unusual that the second -- or third or fourth -- time I tackle the piece, I am playing it better.

Some pieces, I have the wisdom to just put them aside for good.  I make a judgment that they are beyond me.

Here are a few examples of pieces I am likely to "retread" after a year or more.

Chopin Waltzes or the harder Preludes
Myra Hess transcription of "Jesu"
Early and easier Rachmaninoff solo pieces
Robert Schultz version of "Canon in D"
Certain sections of Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"

Every lesson I always try to include some entirely new material.

This is easy for me, since as a senior citizen I have boxes and drawers full of piano music -- so much of it that going out to keep finding new pieces is like "carrying coals to Newcastle."

Does anyone else have these experiences?

[dan101]

The piece that I revisited about 10 years after having begun it was the Ab Chopin Polonaise. I never learned it thoroughly in college, and finally completed it properly about a decade and a half ago.

[rachfan]

There is a piece I revisit every year, going into year 3 now--Scriabin's Etude Op. 42, No. 6 in D flat.  It's an absolute killer for the very best of pianists.  I still can't play it well, but every time I revisit it and come up with new practice techniques, I gain ground on it.  In 2007 I fought it to a draw.  So I'm hoping that this year I might be victorious...  but if not, there is always next year.