about practicing

[ry10500]

if anyone has read and still remembers, i posted my last post months ago and have yet to figure out how to upload an avchd(?) file without waiting days.
so i am now embarking on quite an ambitious musical project of mine which is due in 3 months time. i will be playing a great selection of bach works which i have known for at least years now, but have yet to play each and every one of them properly. what i find most impeding towards my improvement is inconsistency. i may be able to play a passage properly one or a few times one moment, then the very next day new mistakes will turn up and i end up endeavoring at correcting them in vain. what error is this most likely to be on my part? is it a technical, posture, mental issue or any other kind? i am able to remain for longer attempting to practice one single piece, albeit in vain. what kinds of problems does everybody encounter in striving for a clean performance free of unusual mistakes?

[j_menz]

What kind of errors? Musical ones or basic ones like hitting the wrong notes?  What are the pieces? Do they occur in the same places or just randomly?  After ten years, you should have the notes well and truly in your fingers. Musical perfection in Bach is, of course, a lifetime quest, but you should have the general gist correct. What other pieces do you play, and how often do you practice?

Sorry if this is more a new list of questions than an answer, but can't see what useful I could say just from the information given.

[ry10500]

What kind of errors? Musical ones or basic ones like hitting the wrong notes?  What are the pieces? Do they occur in the same places or just randomly?  After ten years, you should have the notes well and truly in your fingers. Musical perfection in Bach is, of course, a lifetime quest, but you should have the general gist correct. What other pieces do you play, and how often do you practice?

Sorry if this is more a new list of questions than an answer, but can't see what useful I could say just from the information given.

basically instability, lack of even-ness, making new mistakes when i've just corrected old ones. and i don't play much other than bach too. been this way for years now and naturally u'd expect that to mean at least a few pieces mastered already but thats not the case.

[j_menz]

Try some Mozart, Haydn, CPE Bach or Clementi and see if the same troubles persist.

[ry10500]

Try some Mozart, Haydn, CPE Bach or Clementi and see if the same troubles persist.

How would playing compositions of theirs help?

[j_menz]

How would playing compositions of theirs help?

They will build some technique useful for Bach, will provide you with a broader repertoire, solve some difficulties in a more straightforward fashion and enable you to identify (and work on) the weaknesses that are causing you problems more easily.  You may even find them fun and charming to play.

[krajcher]

I think you can remain in Bach.

When you play this music you have to remember that musical playing is the most important, not concentrating in playing correct notes (of course it is important too ).

Listen to the recordings of what you play, it will definitely help you.

What pieces of Bach are you currently practising?

[ry10500]

yeah i have tried mozart haydn beethoven schumann before but i lost interested in mozart and haydn immediately save for one of the latter's last sonatas, and i also have not really practiced further, for that matter. beethoven i consistently played when i was younger, always playing the same way hoping to improve somehow. don't know if this philosophy has somehow carried over to the present.
i am not too sure about concentrating on playing the right notes because i have done that before and became just like a caterpillar who got asked which leg it moved and got all paralyzed thinking about it. on the other hand it has also helped me on certain occasions. so another dilemma again.