how to practice well??

[mozartgonebad]

Bach: Prelude and Fuge in Dm
Chopin: Etude op. 10 no. 1
Schubert: Sonata in Am op. posth
Rachmaninoff: Elegie op. 3 no. 1
Bartok: Suite op. 14
Kabalevsky: Sonata no. 3
Filipenko: Tocatta

I have been practicing these for quite a while at the same time and none of them seem to be improving that much...

I just wanted to know if you guys would have any practicing tips...I am attending a piano camp in a week so any response will be very very much appreciated.  

-mozartgonebad

[Motrax]

Is that Bach Prelude/Fugue from Book II? He did write a lot of Preludes and Fugues in D minor, y'know.  

[mozartgonebad]

yes it is

[janice]

I think you are working on too much at one time--just MY opinion.  Try to drop one or two(preferrably) for the time being, and I bet that the others will improve, because you were able to spend MORE time with each piece.  THEN add the others.  I wish you had more than a week to do this, though.

[Motrax]

Janice is right, but if you HAVE to learn them all, I can only give advice on the Bach, since that's the only one I've played from that list.

The prelude shouldn't give you too much trouble, I hope. It's straightforward enough. For the fugue, it really helps to practice seperate voices once you've generally learned the piece. It's very important to be precise and present all the voices in an equal manner, so practicing them seperately will make it easier for you to do this. I guess that's the same advice one would give for any Fugue, though. Works well enough here, anyway.

[argerich_smitten]

Perhaps your choice of pieces is not appropriate?  I am not acquainted with the majority of those pieces, but maybe they are too difficult.  That chopin etude is really really hard; if you don't already have a strong technique, it's going to improve quite slowly.  

[Swan]

I have been practicing these for quite a while at the same time and none of them seem to be improving that much...

How do you practise them at the moment?  Do you play through them just once, and then move onto the next?

I would take one at a time, study them away from the piano, dividing them into their forms, highlighting important motifs etc.  Then play these sections, left hand, then right hand, AT LEAST five times each, starting slow, and increasing in tempo time.  If you find you are making certain mistakes, take just the bar before and the bar after, and really slow everything down.  Once you;ve got everything right, do it again another three times.

Gradually put the pieces together again like a jigsaw puzzle.

Playing through pieces in their entirety doesn't always make for progress.

But, it's hard to give specific tips without knowing exactly what you're doing first.

Anyway, let us know how your piano camp goes.

[Shagdac]

There are SO many different practice techniques that vary according to individuals. However, it may be helpful as much over time as been written on different practice tips on this forum, to do a search. I would look under this topic, as well as the Students topic using the search word practice. You can also search using the name of each piece to pull up information on each individual one. There have been so many tips that I persnally have found helpful, it would be impossible to remember or list them all. You should be able to obtain a great deal of helpful information this way.

Hope this helps, and good luck at camp!

S

[mozartgonebad]

Sometimes to me...practicing is quite boring
I need some ways to make practicing more fun.
Like when I practice slowly, I kinda start daydreaming and stop focusing on my practice and when I get to my lesson I get scolded from not practicing right.

Any ways to make practicing more fun, or "funner"?

-mozartgonebad

[argerich_smitten]

I think the single most important thing for motivation is practicing material that you love.  For me, there is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing than working on something that excites me.  You just want to have a little discipline to actaully work on it instead of just playing it.  If you feel like you should be practicing, but get tired even of your favorite piece, start glancing through another one of your favorite pieces.  Perhaps you should do some passage work:  this will bolster your technique, and you will learn some material that you won't have to when you actaully start working on the piece 'for real'.

[dlu]

REPETITION IS THE KEY
I find that using a metronome and increasing the speed very, very slowly helps to increase precision and accuracy to near perfection. This also promotes very strong finger memory.

[jbmajor]

I agree with others here as well.  Practice half of them diligently, while only playing the others as often as you need to keep them fresh in you head, so as not to forget them.  And remember to take small breaks/deep breaths if you find yourself getting too worked up over certain difficult parts.  I find that it is easy to play the same passage over and over and keep messing it up, and getting frustrated because you're not allowing you mind to recompose and correct what you're doing wrong.  

It is important to ease tension, which helps your mind work more freely.

[heldig]

There is an excellent book about how to practice. It is free and available on-line at:
https://members.aol.com/cc88m/PianoBook.html

[DarkWind]

I adore the Bartok Suite Op. 14. It's not very difficult. What I reccomend, is practice the rythm until its molded perfectly into your head. The left hand can be very tricky, as you might think you should hit a note on the first beat, but instead is a rest and sometimes you might accidently hit it.

[Bob]

Make sure you know what your goals are.  Otherwise, you wander with your practicing.  Having a goal can help you concentrate your efforts and help you to see your progress.

Make sure you know where your challeneges are and which ones you can actually overcome.


Bernhard had a really good post (I think) about setting goals somewhere on here...

[bernhard]

Bernhard had a really good post (I think) about setting goals somewhere on here...

Is this the thread?

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=perf;action=display;num=1079229883

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[mozartgonebad]

Thank you soooo much, everyone, the piano camp is almost over and I somehow managed to play in a master class with Dan Zhao Yi, (Yundi Li, winner of 2000 International Chopin Competition), it was awesome!