learning new piece

[drazh]

hi every body
what is your preferred approach to learning new pieces.do you practice one bar many times to become expert and then gotothe next bar or memorize whole piece and  then improve your skill?
sincerely yours

[thalbergmad]

One of the first things i always do is to get a piece in my head before i try to get it into my fingers. I therefore read through a piece a few times until it is reasonably memorized. This is usually done rather quickly for me as i have a good memory and rarely play anything beyond 15 minutes or so.

Next would be to pencil in the fingerings onto the score. Then i start to play it through slowly. I tend to do page by page instead of bar by bar, which i find tedious.

Then i get the piece up to speed, add in a few personal touches so i don't sound like Hamelin and there it is.

Thal

[go12_3]

I am more of an audio learner of a piece.  I play HT through the piece first thing.  And then
I listen for similar voice patterns and harmonies.  Then I go page by page with the RH and make sure the fingering is how I want it to be.  I think finger patterns are important to be aware of.
The left hand comes later after I get familiar with the RH.  Then I get the finger pattern down for the LH.  After a while I practice with RH alone and then LH, later on, do HT.  By then , the piece is in my mind and I don't do much memorizing like I used to when I was a piano performance major. Some parts come into memory, like in the Chopin's Etude 10/1, which is helpful for the arpeggios going up and down.  But  life is gets busy with others things and I'd rather play piano for enjoyment now.   

best wishes,

go12_3

[allthumbs]

Then i get the piece up to speed, add in a few personal touches so i don't sound like Hamelin and there it is.

Thal

Hahaha, that's the solution I use to the same problem as well.

[thalbergmad]

Hahaha, that's the solution I use to the same problem as well.

I hope it works for you better than it does for me

Before i personalise a piece, i like to be able to play it exactly as the score dictates. Then i will begin to take liberties.

Perhaps like a sculptor, i gradually chip away until i have the desired shape.

Thal

[allthumbs]

Perhaps like a sculptor, i gradually chip away until i have the desired shape.

Thal

I like the analogy, however my result often resembles a Mad Magazine caricature.

[communist]

I have never felt comfortable with playing it very slowly with hands together. I get the first 5 or so measures in my fingers with one hand than with the other and I continue like that until the whole piece is in my fingers with both hands. Than I just keepp practicing it to get it more at my fingers and I can play it at the tempo I want.

[omar_roy]

I've found that the method in which you learn a piece is highly independent in regards to that specific piece.  However, there is a very vague process by which I learn a piece:

Touch - Before I even start learning the notes, I form a mental audio-byte of how I want it to sound, and I'll play a couple notes until I get exactly the type of sound/touch I want.
Notes - After I've decided on tone, I learn the notes.  Some people like to sight-read through a piece until it becomes fluent, some people like to learn hands separately then put them together.  Some people like to learn phrases, starting at the end of a phrase and working backwards to the beginning of that phrase.  Others work in sections and pieces the sections together like a puzzle.  How you learn the notes is completely up to you.
Music - After I can play the notes fluently and have most of the technical kinks worked out, I try to make sense out of it all.  Of course, this can also be done while learning the notes, however I feel that it's easier and more prudent to be able to follow the score exactly before you start to make it flourish. 

I memorize very easily so pieces are ingrained into my ears, hands, and mind very quickly, but this is to make up for me being a terrible sight reader.  Memorization is best done in sections.  You can test your memory by trying to start at any measure in the piece.  Having mental checkpoints helps in case you have a memory slip during a performance.

Slow practice is good for you if done correctly.

A rule of thumb:
If you can't play slow, perfectly, and in strict tempo, then you have no business playing it fast.

It's much harder and more taxing to play a piece maddeningly slowly and in strict time than it is to let muscle memory take over and just breeze through it without thinking.  Being able to play it at a turtle's pace as well as at performance tempo means you have a good grasp on the notes. 

[perfect_pitch]

For me... I listen to a recording of the piece to pick out melodic lines and counterpoint and to get a general idea of how the piece goes... however since I have incredibly brilliant aural skills, I usually try and memorise the melodies note for note, work out which key each section is in etc...

Then... I slowly begin to practice the piece at a quarter of the performance speed both hands together and add in fingerings, markings as I go along. Hopefully within a week or two I've gone through the entire piece and added in fingering, and notes to help me practice and then try and subdivide my week so I can practice... So far I do this...

Monday: Bach - Partita No. 1
Tuesday: Beethoven - Sonata Op 109
Wednesday & Thursday: (Alternate between) Brahms Paganini Variations & Stravinsky's Petrouchka
Friday: Whatever piece I didn't play on Wed & Thu

I try and practice each day for at least 4 hours, trying to do 6 for some days.

I also try and work slowly through the entire piece as soon as possible to memorise the notes, dynamics and articulation.

[omar_roy]

I wouldn't recommend doing more than 4 hours a day.  If you're struggling to finish up a piece for a jury because you slacked off during the term (I know the feeling) that may be a different story, but it's generally not beneficial to work past 4 hours.  The best bodybuilders in the world don't work out for more than an hour and a half (two 45min workouts in a day) because the effect becomes negative.  The same goes for practicing piano.  You practice too much and you start to burn your mind out and it becomes harder to recover.

In fact, most of us can get away with 2 hours of practice, even those of us who are studying piano to become a professional.  Because in the 4-6 hours that we say we practice, a lot of that time is just spent mindlessly playing through things and such.  It's not really 4-6 hours of truly intense and focused practice as we would like to think it is.

Bottom line is that you would be better off improving your practice methods to practice more efficiently rather than toiling away for 6 hours.  I used to do about 4-6 hours a day towards the beginning of my first year of college, but after the first term I realized that I couldn't fit it all together with school, so I was forced to improve my practice methods and cut down to 3-4 hours a day, and maybe 5 if I was really in the zone and felt really good mentally after 4 hours.  Better to be more efficient and practice for less time than to dawdle and practice all day.

Not that you do, but just as a generalization.  I will even admit that not all of my practice is focused and intense.

[musicismylifeee26]

In other words... Focus on the big picture, then narrow in on the details....

[omar_roy]

Someone once said that the most simple of ideas will be worded in the most complex manner.

[ljohns]

My preferred method is to listen to a recording of the piece while reading the manuscript and visualizing how I would play it.  By doing this several times, I become very familiar with the piece.  Then I play my way through it and work out the fingering.  The rest is just practice.
ljohns

[appassionata91]

i make sure i put the song on my iTunes and onto my iPod so i can listen to it. I listen to it until i can hum it without hearing it. I just listen over and over. Then i keep my iPod with me at my piano and if i get stuck, i put my earphones on and listen to the part i'm stuck on. I prefer to learn bar by bar because that's just my way. Everyone is different. but it is important to make sure you REALLY know the song. Don't just listen to it one or two times and then try to play it. Memorize in your head. Set it as a ringtone. It really helps.