Piano Forum

Topic: Average time...  (Read 1456 times)

Offline gmori

  • PS Silver Member
  • Newbie
  • ***
  • Posts: 4
Average time...
on: July 04, 2013, 12:43:29 PM
.

Offline brogers70

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1750
Re: Average time per piece
Reply #1 on: July 04, 2013, 01:04:46 PM
I'm an amateur, but I do practice a lot, 3-4 hours/day. Here are times to learn pieces as I remember them.

Bach P&F in G major WTC 1 - 4 months to learn the notes, memorize and get up to tempo.
Beethoven Sonata in E major Opus 14, all movements - about 3 months
Brahms Op 117 Intermezzo in C# minor, 2 months to learn the notes, another 2 to make sense of the piece
Chopin Revolutionary Etude - 6 months to learn the notes, memorize and get to 70% of target speed.

I work on several pieces at once, so I might spend 20-40 minutes per piece per day.

Maybe that helps. I also wish I could learn pieces faster, but slow is better than not at all.

Offline rmbarbosa

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 453
Re: Average time per piece
Reply #2 on: July 05, 2013, 03:31:48 PM
I know a professional pianist who had spent one year (1) only to study (not to play) the Goldberg Variations of Bach. After that year, he began at the keyboard. So, if a great performer does this, why may be different with us?

Also, a piece never becomes "perfect", even if one play it very well. I know another great performer who spent <> 5 hours playing only 3 bars of one concert, experimenting fingers+ pedals, untill he acquired a "exquise" quality sound for that phrase. And when I told him how I was surprised with the quality of his performing, he said: "really? I`m not satisfied... there will be another way...".

And my old piano teacher, many years ago, when I played Bach, allways said to me: perhaps there will be another way, more perfect, but we will never know because Bach is Bach...

Hope this may help you :)))
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert