Playing a full piece smoothly

[bernadette60614]

I'm at the point with my first piece that my teacher has asked that I concentrate on playing it smoothly all the way through.  Individual sections are proficient, but whenever I have to play it smoothly throughout those more difficult passages are ones where I seem to stall (like a horse balking at a gate...)

Any thoughts of achieving a smooth performance would be much appreciated.

[hfmadopter]

Slow everything down to the approximate speed of the difficult sections, the slowest difficut section actually. Meanwhile work on those sections individually and also the transition measure entering and leaving the difficult sections. If you work hard enough, really concentrate on those weak spots, they will become your strong spots eventually and then you can bring it up to speed.

However, in your very beginning pieces I wouldn't get too worked up over perfecting this because you will just gain so much out of doing that. Generally these aren't performance pieces, you need more to extract what you can from them, what you need from them and move on, IMO.

[brogers70]

I agree with hmfadopter, play slowly. In particular at the end of the practice session, play through the piece once just ridiculously slowly, unbearably slowly, so slowly you can't believe you can make yourself play it that slowly. Then leave the piece alone for the day.  Of course you can practice the whole thing up to speed, or practice the difficult parts, just be sure to finish every session by playing it all the way through, without stopping, painfully slowly. Do that every day at the end of practice for a week, and I'll bet you'll be able to play it through smoothly at tempo.

[bernadette60614]

Thank you both so much!

[keypeg]

I've learned something called "pyramiding".  Say your difficult part is measure 48.  You learn m. 48 first.  Then you play 47 into 48.  Then 46, and 46 into 47 and 48.  You create a larger section like that and eventually knit these larger sections together.  When you do this, you are always working toward something familiar, which becomes increasingly familiar.  You have also created that momentum toward what was once your most difficult part - which you practised the most, so it's the most familiar.

[slobone]

I agree with hmfadopter, play slowly. In particular at the end of the practice session, play through the piece once just ridiculously slowly, unbearably slowly, so slowly you can't believe you can make yourself play it that slowly. Then leave the piece alone for the day.  Of course you can practice the whole thing up to speed, or practice the difficult parts, just be sure to finish every session by playing it all the way through, without stopping, painfully slowly. Do that every day at the end of practice for a week, and I'll bet you'll be able to play it through smoothly at tempo.

My last teacher was a big advocate of that method, but I haven't done it in years. I think now maybe I'll try it again with the pieces I'm working on.