Hitting "The Wall"

[jjernigan]

Wasn't sure if this would be of interest to any of the students or not...
After well over two decades of not playing consistently (for 10 years not at all), about four months ago I started playing again.  When I was young, I played constantly, at a fairly high level, but I started over at an elementary level.  In those four months, I went from elementary to playing at an intermediate level, almost advanced intermediate.

My teacher assigned me a Chopin Mazurka, which I memorized and played fairly well, though needed work on the dynamics a bit.  It took some real work and dedication to get it rigeasy ht.   When I went to my lesson, my teacher didn't even have me play it through-just was unhappy with the dynamics, said "work on it," and assigned another piece.  This piece is supposed to be easier, but I'm finding it harder, and she also introduced a lot of theory at that lesson.  She also gave me an  easier piece to play as an alternative.

So I'm floundering a bit to get the two hands working together, even though individually the hands, for a section of this are memorized (I'm taking little chunks at a time out of a six page piece).  After spending several hours trying to put them together, I have found myself unmotivated, though I love this piece. 

It seems it's normal to hit a wall and I found this forum to have good advice.  I'm 53 years old and am in the same boat as the older folk, whose comments you'll see towards the end of this forum.  I'm going to take the advice given and slow down.

Just thought it might be useful:

https://www.abrsm.org/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t42536.html

Any more advice on "hitting the wall" is gratefully received.  I haven't put it into practice yet and am still procrastinating though my lesson is two days away.  It's been two days since I've been able to convince myself to practice.

[indianajo]

I don't know about that teacher.  My long retired teacher would listen to pieces all the way through, pencil in hand.  If she heard something she didn't like, she would circle it or write something on the score. All the way through the score.   None of this "work on it" vagueness.  Now that I am emotionally mature, I might not agree with her interpretation, but I certainly could better emulate what she wanted if she wrote down what she wanted like my teacher did.  those old books with the pencil still in them is a valuable reminder of those lessons 40 years ago.   
You might have trouble with the technique of playing softly (harder than loudly) or something.  Working the exercise books is what is correct for technique.  I did Edna May Berman exercises, still for sale in the music stores I saw in March.  I also did Czerny method one, although when I bought Czerny two a few years ago, I see why my teacher didn't assign it to me.  Playing softly, accentuating different notes, connecting or separating different notes, are all techniques worthy of study. Playing with the same strength on all fingers if required, finger crossovers without being able to hear it, raising and lowering the wrist when rolling arpeggios, all those old piano tricks need study.   Doing all that on a Mazurka with tempo changes etc may be too much all at once IMHO. 

[jjernigan]

Thank you for your response!  Actually I can play quite softly, but I was missing a couple accents in "part A" which I've corrected on my own.  It goes with reason that I don't play it completely correctly but I wouldn't mind more constructive criticism from my teach on my progress on this piece. 

Part of me is wondering whether there is some teaching theory that says "give a new assignment every week?"    Is this standard procedure?  It makes more sense to me to ensure a student really understands a piece, but then I'm not an instructor (though I am an engineer and one doesn't progress to another subject until the first one is completely understood). Perhaps it's to ensure a student is kept interested?  That I can understand, but wouldn't that apply more in the case of a younger person?  While I've no desire to perform, my goal is to play as if I could...
 

Another frustration is that my teacher's piano is so out of tune-including sticky keys-that it's hard to go from my piano to hers.  It may be her frustration also, I don't know.  She lives with her parents and they may dictate the expenses, so she may not be able to insist on maintenance.


Just meandering in my thoughts.

Thanks again-I'll look up those Edna May Berman exercises!

[indianajo]

I certainly was not assigned a new piece every week.  I have a long attention span, so giving me the goal of the 6 to 10 pieces for the spring Guild recital and having me work on them for 3 or 4 months worked fine for me.  Absolute beginners, certainly those Schaum 1 and pre books were just used for 2 or three weeks, but by book 3 even the Schaum pieces took several weeks.  I did some child method for some kids in the church junior choir once. Those modern starter books were also designed for the kid to get through a piece in 2 or 3 weeks. If they actually practiced, which none of those students ever did.  Singing is so easy compared to piano.    
The exercises out of the Berman books went much faster than the Guild recital repretoire, no more than 2 or 3 weeks for each one.  Piano exercises  very much need the involvement of a teacher. The mechanics of how to do those hand/finger techniques are best taught live, The cool thing about the exercises, if at an appropriate level for your skill the teaching point can be learned in one to three weeks.  I was practicing 30 minutes 6 times a week books pre to 2, an hour 6 days a week after that. 

[jjernigan]

LOL-it just occurred to me that when I decided to start playing again a few months ago, sans teacher at the time, I'd gone to the local music store to pick out exercises.

Edna May Berman exercises-I have a book of those and they're fantastic!  My  teacher wasn't impressed with them-I think she's more the Hanon set.  I have a book of those that I got at the same time-and really don't like them.

Back to Edna's books... Thanks! :-)