xvimbi is right.
But let us ellaborate a bit on it:
You said that an big error many students do when practicing a piece bar-by-bar (section by section) is to choose a section that it's to big
So, the solution is to know what is the appropriate lenght of a section that our brain can handle easily
So ones repeat a section 7 times and if after 7 times it is not memorized it means that the section should be shorter (maybe half the chosen section)
By doing this one doesn't practice actually but just figure out the right section lenght for practice
You do not need to necessarily memorise. The main point is that if after seven repeats you are still stuck, then make the section smaller. On the other hand, you may repeat a section seven times and find out that you can play it perfectly. In which case do not waste time practising it. Move on.
However there are sections that although you may have learned in seven repeats, you know that it is far from perfect and secured. These are the sections you need to practise, and sometimes you will have to practise them for a very long time, even when you are already performing your piece.
So let's say that with the "seven ripetitions approach" I find out that the section I practice shouldn't be larger than a bar
Not let's say that the piece I've to practice is 100 bars
So these are my doubts
1) Only the hard, tecnique demanding sections should be practiced
So if in my 100 bars piece the only problem is with a 7 bars chromatic scale I just practice it
But what if every section of my piece is hard, tecnique demanding and need serious practice ?
The right lenght of the section I should practice is 1 bar, 15-20 minute per bar ... well I would need 2000 minutes daily so that is 33 hours out of 12
So how does one resolve this problem ?
I mean you find out that the proper lenght of your practice section is 1 bar and you have 100 bars to practice, none of them is harder or more tecnique demanding ... all of them demanding the aquiring of new tecnique
You are thinking too much! You are reasoning about this. Your doubts and reservations spring from your imagination and thinking, not from actually getting to the piano and trying it out. This is the typical intellectual approach: “What if?”.
Just try it.
However I will indulge you.
I doubt very much that there is a piece in the whole piano repertory in which all the bars are exactly the same level of difficulty. Typically, a couple of bars (or passages, or sections) will be far more difficult than the rest of the piece. Usually a single passage is the most difficult.
Start with this passage. No matter how much time it will take you, stick with it until you master it, because
all the technique you need to master a full piece will be contained in its most difficult passage. So after you master the most difficult passage(s), your perception of the difficulty of the piece will change dramatically. All those 100 bars that you thought impossible will turn out to be quite easy
after you mastered the most difficult bar. So your whole time calculation will turn out to be an imaginary problem, that has no real existence.
Beginners have the following problem at this point: they are in no position to judge which is the most difficult passage. To them it is all equally difficult. Which is why beginners really need a teacher. However, with a good teacher, after a few months the student starts to realise what is going on and becomes more and more independent of the teacher to organise his learning schedule.
2) Let's say instead that out of 100 bars only 10 are problematic and I practice only them
So what am I supposed to do with the other 90 bars ?
You should play them straight away and concentrate on solving musicality/memorisation problems.
Should I not practice them ?
Why should you? Do you practise walking? Do you practise running? Do you practise riding on a bicycle? Of course not. (But one day you did!) You already know how to do this stuff, therefore you just do it!
Should I practice them in a different way ?
Should I just practice them by playing the whole piece ?
Once you get your whole piece ready, you should stop “practising” it and perform it! As often as possible.
Aren't I supposed to practice, use tricks and variations only on those hard sections ?
Yes, practice tricks, hands separate, etc. are done for a very limited time only for the purpose of thoroughly learning and ingraining the movements. Once you get that, you simply
play and enjoy the piece. Practising is a temporary process to be get rid of as soon as possible. Consider learning a new language. Are you going to keep practising it forever? Of course not. You practise the bare minimum to allow you to start
using the language. After that usage replaces practice. In music usage is performance. As soon as you can perform, perform it. That is it! You got there!
So how do I memorize, play smoothly and flawlessly the other "less hard/non hard" sections I haven't practice them ?
The other day, a student came with a CD to the lesson and said he wanted to learn a piece from the CD. It was a piece by Shostakovitch called “Dance of the dolls no.6”. On the CD it sounded pretty impressive. However it was a ridiculously easy piece he probably wrote for children. However it was fast and dazzling. The kind of piece that sounds far more difficult than it actually is. So I sat at the piano and sight read through it. There was some tricky fingering here and there. It was just one page long. Six minutes later I had it perfect and memorised. That was it. However it will take perhaps a full month for this student to master it, and he will need to use a lot of practice tricks.
What else can I tell you? From your posts I imagine you are reasonably advanced. Get a simple piece (for you), say , the second movement of Mozart’s K545. I am willing to bet that you could learn the first part of the second movement just by sightreading through it, without having to resort to practise tricks or section by section learning.
These methods are restricted to pieces you do not even know how to begin. With experience such pieces become less and less common, until you get to the point of a Richter who could memorise a full concerto from the score in a couple of hours, go to the piano and give a flawless performance. The point is, he was not born like that. He had to work a lot to get to that point.
I hope this helps. But above all, do not get lost in thought: try it out! All these methods are powerful, but they all have limitations and situations where they will fall apart. The only way to find out is trying them out.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Daniel
Topic: Questions about Bernhard's approach