Something Random I'd Like to Share

[chopinfan_22]

So I sat down at the piano this morning... and... was figuring what I'd like to accomplish. Thoughts of bring the tempo of Invention No. 1 by Bach up to speed sounded good, working a little bit on that Clementi Sonatina, and the Satie Gymnopedie No. 3... Okay. Did that. But then I took a look at the first Gnossienne by Satie, looked over the score for a few minutes, then sight-read the entire piece almost perfectly.

"Hmm. That was easy. I'm going to do that again. I kind of like this piece!" So I did that again, playing it... oh... four or five times over and over, all in all, about... 30 - 45 minutes of playing. Now I have it memorized. Wow. I just learned an entire piece in basically an hour of practicing, with absolutely no expectation or intention of doing so. I'm kind of feeling good about myself for that. Now if I could only do that for my other pieces!!

Anybody else ever have experiences like this?

[iroveashe]

I went on vacations a few days ago, just for 3 days. Since I couldn't practice while being away, I pretended I was practicing. I focused on Bach's 4th Two-part Invention. I couldn't do it hands together so I practiced by sections hands separated, but not just moving my fingers, I focused on what note should each finger be playing, really slowly at first since I suck. So by the third day I could play without "mistakes". When I came back home it wasn't like "Omg, my fingers are on fire *sightreads Chopin's Ocean Etude* " but after warming up a little I could play the Invention at a decent speed, hands together and with almost no mistakes 

[xpjamiexd]

Yeah I did that with the Gnossienne (: It's so simple but soundsamazing (:

[ara9100]

I have had an expireance like this too. I was at home school had finished and i decided to try and learn Mozart's piano concerto No. 15. So i start working on the notes and i managed to memorise it and bring it to a fairly good standard in just 5 days. The concerto was over 30 pages long. My teacher was complely astounded. ( So was I )

[richard black]

Yes, sometimes a piece just clicks and one can learn it incredibly fast. I learned and memorised Brahms Rhapsody Op. 79 No. 2 in about 3 days of not trying very hard when I was about 15, and I can still play it from memory 30 years later. It's about the only bit of solo Brahms I've ever played, which makes it even stranger.

[learner of liszt]

I did something similar recently. I was asked to perform something patriotic, and had four days to prepare. So I found an old recording, transcribed, and learned at a concert level, the Horowitz transcription of "The Stars and Stripes Forever". And the funny thing is, after that performance, I went home and tried to play it again, and it was nearly completely gone. I haven't been able to play it well since.

[lontano]

Yes, sometimes a piece just clicks and one can learn it incredibly fast. I learned and memorised Brahms Rhapsody Op. 79 No. 2 in about 3 days of not trying very hard when I was about 15, and I can still play it from memory 30 years later. It's about the only bit of solo Brahms I've ever played, which makes it even stranger.

While not quite the surprise you experienced with this piece, I learned to play this piece reasonably well in a fairly short time as well, and I think it's because it is very pianistic, creating the desired musical effect with a minimum of effort, relatively speaking. I had a similar experience with the Khachaturian Toccata in B-flat minor. For a purely amateur pianist, I found both works easy to learn and memorize (and memorization has always been very difficult for me). Personally, I feel the Brahms is the better of the 2 works, musically.