limiting time spent on "lesser" music

[Bob]

While doing some accompanying I find myself spending more time on the music than it makes sense to do for what I'm getting paid.  It's always going to be like that but still... It does also interfere with other things I'm practicing.

What do you do to limit how much time you spend on music that really isn't so important -- music that's just "pay to play?"   I've been running through it a set number of times and drilling a few spot a set number of times.  If it's not perfect for the performance, so what -- No one will probably notice and it's not that important to me.  It's probably more of a nerves thing for some of the stuff I'm working on -- Ingrain it so the performance goes flawlessly and you relax -- But that takes a lot of effort.

Some of the music is really simple enough to just sight-read for the actual performance.  I've done that a few times when I had to but I don't like it.  It's nerve racking to play through something as the performance the very first time you've played through it, even with all the sight-reading ideas I've gotten.  On the other hand, it's a nervous kind of high to do that and from the financial side it's the very least amount of practice time possible -- No time, just a little looking, studying, mentally playing through beforehand.

I'm just curious what other people do.  If I've got months to work on the music, then I spend months.  It's probably not worth months though, esp if I start adding up the time compared to the pay.

[ask_why]

The amount of time you need to spend preparing is directly proportionate to your piano skills and your ability to perform under whatever pressure you feel, so I can't imagine any advice that would change those... just the tried and true "practice, practice, practice" to improve your technique and confidence.  If nerves are still a big factor after you've been doing these sorts of gigs for a while, maybe it would be worth learning some methods for coping with performance anxiety?  Or you could just do what everyone else seems to be doing these days: go to a psychiatrist and get some anti-anxiety medication    Really, it seems like every week another one of my friends is on medication for anxiety issues... lol

This kinda reminds me of something my IST professors always say about project management:  "Better, faster, cheaper -- you can only pick two."  Unfortunately, piano isn't like the IT business where you can just spend a ton of $$$ to get the same results in a shorter time period.  Your only options are 'better' or 'faster', it seems.

[Bob]

This kinda reminds me of something my IST professors always say about project management:  "Better, faster, cheaper -- you can only pick two."  Unfortunately, piano isn't like the IT business where you can just spend a ton of $$$ to get the same results in a shorter time period.  Your only options are 'better' or 'faster', it seems.

Interesting ideas here.