How do you go about tackling a new piece? Memorization?

[pianobee]

Hello!
What is the thought process like for you as you begin to tackle a new piece of music?
I will try to listen to it as much as possible in the car.
Then I will sightread through it.
Then I will sometimes not even start at the beginning.  I will work on very small sections at a time.

Another issue I am thinking about is memorization.  I am playing a  lot of Bach and I am starting to memorize it as I learn it.
I don't know if this is a very good habit.  I am learning extremely small bits at a time, and memorizing as I go along. 

[tea cup]

One page at a time. Luckily for me, my ability to sight read is incredible, haha. I can sight read all of the slow movements from Mozart's sonatas!

Anyway! One page at a time for me. If I can play the page without making more than two mistakes, I continue to the next page until I can do the same. As soon as I go through all of the pages, I go back to page one and work my way through again, to refine all the details. And voilà!

[lostinidlewonder]

Listen to the piece with the sheet music in front of you, then use a pencil to section out on the sheet music when new section occur (when the sound of the piece changes) I usually put large [ ] brackets around the section and label it at the [ with a big capital letter enclosed in a square. If say the piece starts with an A, then later on it does A again but a little different I will put A', if then there is more variations of A I will put A'' and A''' as required. You may also highlight tricky sections and contrasting elements of the piece (loud, soft, fast slow, sad happy, climax points etc).

[john11inc]

Going out of your way to memorize a piece you're still working on is typically considered a bad idea.

[richard black]

Going out of your way to memorize a piece you're still working on is typically considered a bad idea.

By whom? Plenty of players and teachers I know reckon that memorising as early as possible can only be a good thing. (No real comment from personal experience since, as an accompanist, I very rarely memorise anything except by accident.) Depends what you mean by 'going out of your way', I suppose.

[jbmorel78]

Going out of your way to memorize a piece you're still working on is typically considered a bad idea.

By whom?  And what do you mean by going out of the way?

EDIT: Sorry, Richard - didn't see your post directly above mine.  Consider my post to be in support of what you said...

[jbmorel78]

The most direct and effective process (for me, at least) is the following:

1) Sight read through the piece two or three times to get a sense of the whole, see how phrases fit together, identify trouble spots, etc.

2) Divide the piece into sections (the size of the section, of course, depends on the size of the piece, density of texture, time available before the piece must be performed, and so forth)

3) Practice section by section, observing and hearing EVERYTHING: start and end of each phrase, shapes of phrases, harmonies, interaction of voices, textural changes, intervals, arrival points...  Leave no stone unturned.  Ascertain the best fingering for your hand, the most efficient motions, redistributions as necessary, and solve the technical problems (once they are solved, you will repeat in order to ingrain the new motion).

When you know the piece, you will be able to play it from memory, and not until then - memorization is a natural result of proper and thorough study. 

FURTHER SECURING of the memory for performance, on the other hand, may call for additional strategies, but these are NOT a part of the initial learning process.

Best,
Jean-Baptiste Morel

[john11inc]

By whom?

Every piano teacher I've ever had.

[jgallag]

I firmly support JB Morel's post. However, it may require some elaboration. Might I suggest heading up to the search box at the top of the page and typing in 'bernhard'. He's devoted quite a lot of time and energy into expanding upon the learning process.

For starters, look at these links:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9159.msg92755.html#msg92755
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,5767.msg56133.html#msg56133

The first of these is m1469's index to the forum. An invaluable resource. The second is bernhard's own compilation of his writings on these forums. Those two links will give you plenty to start.

[nia_kurniati]

One page at a time. Luckily for me, my ability to sight read is incredible, haha. I can sight read all of the slow movements from Mozart's sonatas!

Anyway! One page at a time for me. If I can play the page without making more than two mistakes, I continue to the next page until I can do the same. As soon as I go through all of the pages, I go back to page one and work my way through again, to refine all the details. And voilà!

What a SO lucky guy 

[nanabush]

I love looking through the whole thing, to actually experience what will be difficult and what won't be in the piece.  I'll usually listen to the piece once to get an idea, then just try to play through some of the different parts.  Then I section off the clear different parts, and usually just work my way through from the beginning. 

I can't help but just try to play all the really neat parts in a new piece.  I know it's kind of like reading the end of a book before starting it, but sometimes you just can't help it.    once I've satisfied my craving to just try and play the 'cool parts' I'll sit down and actually start working on it from scratch.  I'll usually only spend like 10-15 minutes kind of messing around with it.

The worst thing to do would be constantly playing through the entire piece at about 60% decency, and getting used to it at a mediocre/sloppy level.  I used to do that because I felt it was a race learning something, but if you spend more time on smaller sections, you will end up playing it at a much better level in probably roughly the same time.  Playing it sloppy for 3 months is MUCH worse than finally getting through it at a good level at the end of the third month in my opinion.

[simonjp90]

I love looking through the whole thing, to actually experience what will be difficult and what won't be in the piece.  I'll usually listen to the piece once to get an idea, then just try to play through some of the different parts.  Then I section off the clear different parts, and usually just work my way through from the beginning. 

absolutely spot on

[hviolette]

As a former piano teacher myself, I always had my students memorize correctly as soon as possible, but I would have to echo that memorizing mistakes is really bad news; it's much harder to unlearn poor memorization than to learn and memorize correctly from the beginning.  But alas, it is so exciting to race through something; it takes a great deal of discipline to slow down and do it right; even as a professional, I have a love-hate relationship with my metronome.