Help! I don't want to practice. Advice please?

[japanesepianist]

     I just finished up auditioning for LACHSA, and I've started new pieces. I started Haydn's Sonata Hob 16 No 36, and Chopin's Wrong Note Etude. I don't want to pracice either piece. I feel like there isn't any motivation to practice. I mean, I DO want to practice, but I just never want to, you know? I'm about 1/2 way through the Etude and 1/4 through the Sonata. I don't really want to play the Chopin Etude- while it is a beautiful piece, it's probably the hardest Etude out of the 24 for me. My teacher doesn't seem to understand that I want to switch out that etude with a different one and play the Wrong Note etude at a different time. With the Haydn sonata, I just have no motivation to practice, more so than the Etude. Does anyone hace any tips on how I can motivate myself to practice? Thanks in advance.

[lostinidlewonder]

Think of your situation with a different perspective. Of course we should study music which excites us and we enjoy to play but sometimes we need to be tested and do things we do not necessarily want to do. Treat it as a test, prove that you can get through any work even if it doesn't totally excite you. This will extend you as a musician being able to focus and go through things you do not want to do. That is life really, often we have to do things we don't want to do, if we are faced with these challenges we should try not do solve it by dragging ourselves through it.

[chopin2015]

Agreed, it is the hardest etude out of them all. I mean...oww! Why dont you try one of the 4 page ones from op 10? The 25/5 takes a variety of technique ....just do something equally as good,(an chopin etude is a chopin etude!)it will be easier right now(in this case because it is appropriate time, not too ambitious but still takes work) and agreed, u will have an easier time with wrong note later, following a shorter etude.

10 no 4?

Its really scary, and annoying to others when practiced, but its a really cool etude.

Haydn....have u done beethoven? You dont seem too into haydn right now. You should follow your instincts and study who you want. Then study haydn when you really genuinely like all classical music...haha

[pianist1976]

Difficulty is a relative issue... but for sure the OP 25 no. 5 (I really dislike that "wrong note" name) is not the hardest Chopin etude.

[birba]

"Wrong note etude"?!  What the...?!
I must be living in a bubble.  This is the first time I've ever heard such a ridiculous nickname for an etude...

[pianist1976]

"Wrong note etude"?!  What the...?!
I must be living in a bubble.  This is the first time I've ever heard such a ridiculous nickname for an etude...

Yes, such a stupid name for a wonderful music poem. I knew a few new nicknames for Chopin etudes thanks to the Internet, with such random names as "waterfall" or "ocean". Before that I only knew the few nicknames placed on discs ("tristesse" and so on). I wonder if these new ones exist due to the Wikipedia or what. Some people is dare enough even to name the two transcendental etudes that Liszt left unnamed (for instance, Transcendental Etude no. 2 is now "fusees"). Audacity (or maybe stupidity) doesn't seem to have limits  

fu·see also fu·zee

1. A friction match with a large head capable of burning in a wind.
2. A colored flare used as a warning signal for trucks and railroad trains.
3. A cone-shaped pulley with a spiral groove, used in a cord- or chain-winding clock to maintain even travel in the timekeeping mechanism as the force of the mainspring lessens in unwinding.
4. A combustible fuse for detonating explosives.
[From French fusée, spindle, rocket, flare, fuse, from Old French, spindleful of thread, from fus, spindle, from Latin fsus.]

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/fusee

[pianoman53]

It happens!
Simply don't practice for a few days. If you teacher asked why you didn't practice well that week, you can probably just said you got sick, if s/he wont understand that you "lost it".

Really, it happens to everyone I know. Some pushed through it, and some take a rest. Since it seems like you tried to push, maybe you should rest.

[japanesepianist]

"Wrong note etude"?!  What the...?!
I must be living in a bubble.  This is the first time I've ever heard such a ridiculous nickname for an etude...

     I'm sorry.....my teacher calls it that and she wants me to call it that.

[japanesepianist]

Think of your situation with a different perspective. Of course we should study music which excites us and we enjoy to play but sometimes we need to be tested and do things we do not necessarily want to do. Treat it as a test, prove that you can get through any work even if it doesn't totally excite you. This will extend you as a musician being able to focus and go through things you do not want to do. That is life really, often we have to do things we don't want to do, if we are faced with these challenges we should try not do solve it by dragging ourselves through it.

     what a good perspective! This is one great way of many to look at it. Maybe i'll try it out.

[japanesepianist]

Agreed, it is the hardest etude out of them all. I mean...oww! Why dont you try one of the 4 page ones from op 10? The 25/5 takes a variety of technique ....just do something equally as good,(an chopin etude is a chopin etude!)it will be easier right now(in this case because it is appropriate time, not too ambitious but still takes work) and agreed, u will have an easier time with wrong note later, following a shorter etude.

10 no 4?

I tried asking if I could switch during my lesson on Thursday, and she just doesn't seem to understand how difficult this one is for me. I wanted to play Op. 25 No. 7, and when I told her that, she said she already had had Op. 25 No.5 picked out for me. She doesn't want me playing Op. 10 No. 3, even though she agrees it would be good for me, because it is overplayed. And then....she thinks the Revolutionary Etude is WAY too hard for me. I mean.....I've proved her wrong so many time, like when I proved to her that I could play Fantaisie Impromptu she was  blown away. But I don't know how to prove her wrong this time. At all. THe Fantaisie Impromptu incident happened on coincidence because I was playing Nocturne Op. 72 and she asked me why my polyrhythms had improved, and I told her I had been sel-practicing Fantasie Impromptu. I really don't know how to prove her wrong this time....maybe it's time to switch. She told me that Sonatina MVT. 1 By Ravel was of way too difficulty for me. I play that at home by myself, too. I just don't know anymore.

[japanesepianist]

Difficulty is a relative issue... but for sure the OP 25 no. 5 (I really dislike that "wrong note" name) is not the hardest Chopin etude.

For me it is. The relaxation in the right hand, and the rolls in the left hand...perhaps my 2 greatest weaknesses. It makes me not want to practice this Etude anymore.