Maintaining repertoire

[costicina]

Probably the issue have been already discussed in the forum...

The problem is, as  new pieces replace the ones I have finished, I tend to forget the latters. It’s very annoying: after all the time and the efforts I spent on them!!!
Bernhard used to say that if you  forget a piece, re-learn it from scratch and repeat the process three/four time, you’ll have it memorized for the rest of your life.
Did you ever tried this approach, and how does it work?
Marg

[pianoplayjl]

Lol, I've never done that before. And I've never heard Bernhard say this. God, only if he could come back..........
When it comes to playing grade 1-4 pieces I just only have to sight read it a few times and I'll get it (the 1st grade pieces I learnt), albeit that it sounds like a broken record when I play it, with pauses here and there.
Sometimes, abandoning a piece is something we hate to do and can't avoid, for the sake of learning new repertoire. Once I learnt the piece and then played it for the exam, I tend to forget it. As soon as I want to play it, I find myself playing awfully and staring at the same mistakes that I learnt from when I was in the learning process of the piece. Fast pieces I forget more easily and find it harder to learn again, while slower pieces, I find I can half sight read it and sometimes the finger memory kicks in.
Thanks for the tip that you brought up, and sorry that I posted nothing relevant to the question you posted.

JL

[49410enrique]

it sometimes cannot be avoided unless you're one of those freaks that learn it once and it's done for life (like they can learn an entire concerto in short order and it stays in their repertoire forever basically, rare but those mutants exist/existed).

if you have works you feel are worth keeping in rotation, try simply keeping them in the 'periphery' of repertoire, that is perhaps play through it ever few days, a couple times  a week give i a good ol college go and 'perform' it, once a week practice it,  give it a break for a week or two completely then use it as a daily warm up, etc.

just try playing around to see how little you can play it before it starts to fall apart then just barely inch back a bit on frequency so you're right at that line where it stays put together.

i liken the approach to what works well with ,you guessed it, exercise diet and leaness.  rather than trying to be stay ultra muscular and defined year round, i will peak, then just relax a bit (but not let it get out of control, that is i stay to where i can see my abdominals/six pack albeit not razor sharp), then i know i'm not more than a few weeks of slighltly tighter dieting to get back to where i was instead of months.

for piano, if i need a piece like that, i'll let it slide to where i know a few weeks of carefuly practice can bring it back in short order vs complete loss of the work (rare i have so much i want to play and i practice so much usually when a piece is done, it is DONE, like for years before i'll revisit).

sorry for tha chatty resp. there's probably something at least mildly useful in there somewhere.

[costicina]

Your advice makes a loto f sense to  me, Enrique. Since it’s far from easy to learn well a piece, and I’m not a pro, I too try to choose only the ones I’m really in love with, and that’s why I’d like to have them “written in stone” in my repertoire.
I mentioned the Bernhard solution beacause of my current experience: after more than a year of break, I have resumed Chopin Etude op 25/1, “Aeolian harp”. At first it was as if I’ve never seen it before. Then, sooner than I expected, it came back to my brain and muscular memory. Moreover, it seems to ave benefitted ot the other pieces I’ve practiced meanwhile (it’s true, somehow every piece helps the others).  So I was wonderig if, reapeating the processo of re-learning and forgetting, we  can at last reach the point where a given piece is permanently  fixed in our mind/memory....

[49410enrique]

...So I was wonderig if, reapeating the processo of re-learning and forgetting, we  can at last reach the point where a given piece is permanently  fixed in our mind/memory....

totally makes sense. i agree that coming back after along while and spending time with other works can do great things for pieces we haven't visted in some time when we get back.

good choice on the op 25 no 1, i have a 3rd japanese piece/chopin fusion that is written in that style and will probabably be my next fusion piece after i dump/complete the pirate and nausicaa chopin style arrangements i'm on right now.  i think it's onmy media fire, i'll check, me thinks you'll like it, i don'thave a score to send you just my book i imported and i have yet to archive it digitally (i need to...)

[danhuyle]

Would you practice hardest passages of a piece to maintain a piece? There really is no need to practice a piece repetitively to maintain it. I used to play a piece I learned repeatedly, then play it more times, only to find that I have to play it more times to not forget it.

I can't seem to re-learn some of the Beethoven and Mozart Sonatas I've played a few years ago. It's like I've never played the piece at all.

Here are some things that I believe prevent pianists from maintaining their repertoire, at least for me anyway
- inability to interpret
- technical capacity not high enough
- you believe you're not good enough to play the piece
- lack of control
- other people telling you you can't play it

I haven't played Liszt Sonata in 2 years, but I can get it back anytime I want. What I find that's stopping me from maintaining this is that my tempo is inconsistent, the inability to interpret and the clarity of rhythm. It's the syncopated rhythms that throw me off, bar 18-25 and 45-50.

If you're playing a piano sonata, some of them have harder recapitulation than exposition, so what I do is focus mainly on the recapitulation because that more or less takes care of most of the piece.

I'd say take care of the passage(s) that annoy you the most. It's those passages that ultimately stop a pianist from maintaining a piece.

To maintain a piece
- Have a connection with the piece
- Be passionate about what you're playing
- Stop caring about what other people think of your playing
- You don't have to practice it repetitiously to maintain it


I hope this answers the question about maintaining repertoire. I talk about this stuff on my piano blog if you want more information about building repertoire without losing previously learned pieces.

[costicina]

What I’m experiencing now, resuming Chopin 25/1, is that the passages for which I spend more time and work, practicing them very carefully, are the ones that come back to memory better and more easily, even improved...