Practice Routine!

[hot_box_recordz]

Hey y'all

I would like to know what a good practice routine should consist of.

Should one warm up with scales/Hananon and then go on to technical exercises followed by pieces?

I find that I get stuck on my scales, which I can do thoroughly, but tend to over-practice them if there is any such a thing.

Suggestions of all sorts are welcome.

[quasimodo]

start there:

https://www.pianofundamentals.com/book

[hot_box_recordz]

Thank you.

I read as many posts as possible to get as broad a spectrum of knowledge on different approaches to problems that fellow musicians are experiencing and the solutions that are suggested.

You are the only one that replied.

Much appreciated.

[m19834]

How I currently practice is different than how I was practicing even a month ago.  And, how I am practicing this year is different than how I was practicing last year.  I suspect that I will probably continue changing in how I go about practicing.  However, right now, I currently feel that how we practice is a perfect mirror image of who we are and how we conceptualize music and piano playing. 

Right now, my main aim in my practicing is that of developing musical concept and the ability to fully articulate that concept.  I have some specifc things that I am aiming for in each piece, much of that being guided by my mentor.  Right now I have a couple of exercises that I include in my practice, as they are meant as specific preparations to what I am trying to achieve in my pieces.  Most of the time I start with one of those as an actual preparation for the piece(s) that they are meant to help me with, then I play those pieces, aiming for specific sounds and motions. 

Sometimes it's easy to get into a particular routine and go numb.  I seem to experience times of a renewed kind of awakening, or inspiration, where suddenly I find new ways to listen, and a whole new world becomes apparent.  This will inevitably change my practicing.  My main aim right now is that of intent listening and development of sound.  The other day I spent perhaps an hour on the subject in two voices of the fugue I am working on, as I was suddenly hearing in more detail and I felt I was exploring anew in trying to aim for specific, clear sounds.  It was a similar thing for the Rachmaninov prelude I am working on.  The next day, I found that my entire apparatus was functioning at a much different level altogether, and the text that I had studied the day before was familiar to me in an undeniable way.  The whole rest of the Prelude and Fugue, and even passages from other pieces were suddenly falling into place at a whole new level.  Incidentally, the work that I put into those passages affected everything about my musicianship, and there was a kind of instantaneous entire shift for me as a pianist.

The trick is to take the exploration still further then, and not let that shift and the explorations from the day before become numb.  My goal is to explore the sound and the motions anew still, for who I am today.  I may not spend the same amount of time and effort on those same passages, or on working toward the goal, but I realize that my ears can be probably infinitely sharpened, and that is one of the main goals in my time with the music I am working on.

Can you call it a 'routine' ?  I don't really think so.  Sometimes my practicing does involve "practice tricks," too, as I feel is needed.