How to train yourself not to repeat notes when you make a mistake

[ardi1230]

I just wanted to share a method I was taught the other day about how to stop yourself from repeating notes when you make a mistake. It's a bit unorthodox but it works.

First you need someone to stay with you at the piano, and when you start playing, that person will, at random times, pull one of your hands away from the piano, or push it down on to the keys. Your goal is to keep playing on the working hand regardless of the other hand and to return the other hand properly when the person lets go of it.
The way to look at it is that each time the person pulled your hand away, you made a mistake, and by returning it at the right time, you are recovering from the mistake .
So by playing on anyway, you train yourself to ignore any mistakes and to soldier on.

Any other methods that you use? or maybe comments or suggestions for this one?

Thanks

[pianoviolin]

oh wow! thanks for that!

I'm so going to get my little sister in and do that while I play.

she's gonna have so much fun doing that, because she's always like 'eer I can stuff you up, I can make you do a mistake' and it annoys the hell out of me!

great

[quantum]

Play and sight read chamber music or duets with another person.  The important part is there should be at least two people involved.  Your object is to stay on track with the music, despite any mistakes. 


Practice seamlessly jumping around the score.  For example: you stop at bar 24, beat 1.  You jump to beat 4 of bar 53, without stopping and interrupting the flow of the music.  Doesn't matter if you get weird harmonic changes or mid phrase breaks.  The point is to be able to jump at a moment's notice without breaking the flow of the music. 

[bachbrahmsschubert]

Eh...I don't know about this.

You're just practicing making mistakes, which I don't find to be a good habit at all. Mistakes will undoubtedly happen, but in practice, the process should be learning how to not make mistakes, not learning how to make mistakes and then move on from them.

I agree with Quantum's advice, as that is a more natural way of dealing with mistakes and learning the piece of music.

When I learn a piece, I initially break it down into large chunks. Then I take those chunks and break them down into small sections. A small section could include a page, 2 phrases, 2 notes or whatever else makes the most sense for the difficulty of the piece. As I study the piece, I learn each section which leads to learning large chunks; then work on putting the chunks together. Now that I can play the piece at the tempo I want, I'll practice from beginning to end without stopping, making sure I keep notes of which sections I make mistakes with. I then go back and work the most on those sections. I learn things much faster this way and with a limited number of mistakes.

Making mistakes on purpose to learn how to recover from mistakes seems backwards and a waste of time to me.

Best wishes,

[ardi1230]

I'm not going to start any arguments as to which methods are right or wrong, because different people like to learn differently. But what I will say though is that I find that this is more for mistakes during performances, not so much during practice, and for mistakes beyond your control. I do agree however that you should pay attention to mistakes you make when you practice and try to correct them, but again some mistakes are beyond your control and some people can get flustered and try to repeat it correctly. This can get annoying to the listener, since they may not like the constant stopping of the music.

I for one have this habit and have found that this has helped me a bit in solving it. But I will try quantum and bachbrahmsschubert's advice on this.

[nyiregyhazi]

I'm not going to start any arguments as to which methods are right or wrong, because different people like to learn differently. But what I will say though is that I find that this is more for mistakes during performances, not so much during practice, and for mistakes beyond your control.

Agreed. I'd recommend being in the general habit of stopping instantly upon wrong notes (not even going 1 note further) when practising. Then thinking, bridging the gap and finally going back and putting it into a larger chunk. I think this element is the most important one of all, in terms of development. Most students simply don't do anything to make proper corrections. Once the practise habits are in place, then you can complement them with more performance oriented practise that involves pressing forwards regardless of what might happen. I do like exercises like the one mentioned, but you have to be very careful not to get into the habit of being generally sloppy about detail and pressing on regardless.

[bachbrahmsschubert]

I'm not going to start any arguments as to which methods are right or wrong, because different people like to learn differently. But what I will say though is that I find that this is more for mistakes during performances, not so much during practice, and for mistakes beyond your control. I do agree however that you should pay attention to mistakes you make when you practice and try to correct them, but again some mistakes are beyond your control and some people can get flustered and try to repeat it correctly. This can get annoying to the listener, since they may not like the constant stopping of the music.

Please know I'm not trying to argue or convince you that I'm correct. You asked for other opinions, and this is my opinion.

My practice habits while I'm learning a piece and while I'm preparing a piece for a performance are completely different. I find that it is irresponsible to make mistakes while in the development stages of learning something then to ask "what would I do if that happened in a performance?" Everyone has different practice habits, and being a pragmatist I strongly believe that others should do what is best for them, however I don't find this to be a solution to moving on from mistakes.

I think sight reading is a great idea, as you get to kill two birds with one stone.

Best wishes,

[ardi1230]

I can't help but think that there is a bit of confusion. I agree that it is irresponsible to develop a piece, make a mistake and simply worry about it happening at a performance. I always aim to fix the mistakes I make when developing a piece, but it is very hard, in my opinion, to perform a piece perfectly every single time. The way I titled the thread and explained it may have caused some confusion, sorry about that, but I just want to say, like I did earlier, that this is for uncontrollable mistakes that can't really be corrected, such as a misstep. This was not intended to be used for when you are learning a piece, but only at the tail end when you are getting ready for a performance of any kind.

Also, I appreciate all of the mixed opinions of the other people here.