Improving my attention/concentration span

[bernadette60614]

I'm focusing on slow practice to spot the "rough" spots, to improve them and to increase speed in the long run.

I find my concentration wandering.

Any tips on how to increase it?

Thanks!

[hfmadopter]

The way I do this is as soon as I recognize that my attention is starting to fade on a given spot I simply either stop or move on to another spot. Return in a few minutes to a few hours and try again. Sometimes on the return you can gain some more time.

I just did that in fact, it's why I'm on here at the moment. I worked on a rough spot before supper and stopped because it was starting to fall apart. After supper I went back, it went along fairly well. Then I worked on another piece entirely. right now I've had enough, mind started to fog out, so I'm on here for a bit. I'll pick that work up tomorrow now.

[cliffy]

Hi Bernadette,

Losing focus is one of the big problems we all face. It happens to everyone at times. There are several ways it can manifest itself: You could lose interest in playing the parts of the piece you don't play well, and so go repeat the parts you do play well instead; you could lose interest in the piece altogether, and so go play something else; or you could lose interest in practicing entirely, and start thinking about something else. Each of these would have different solutions. Perhaps if you were to share what piece(s) it is you're having these problems with, and of what variety they are, if would be easier to recommend a specific solution.

One thing I will talk about specifically is slow practice. If you're slowly repeating the same passage for more than about 10 minutes, you're bound to start having your mind wander. Are you sure you're at the stage where slow practice will give you proper results in a reasonable time period? Do you already have both hand's movement patterns figured out? Are you always using the same fingering? If the rough spots are HT, could you play the spots HS at speed? Most importantly, do you have a clear mental picture of exactly how you want the passage to sound when you play it? All of these things are, in my mind, prerequisites for slow practice to really be effective. If one part isn't fully ready, I'd recommend going back and doing that first for your rough spot. It should take much less time and may solve your problems in itself, particularly if it's an undefined movement pattern or aural image.

Finally, have a look at this thread a from a certain teacher a thousand years ago, which contains some interesting information:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,2082.msg17230.html
(how to concentrate)

All the best,
Cliffy

[brogers70]

What are you thinking about while you practice slowly? You can pay close attention to how everything feels, check relaxation, posture, the position of all the relevant joints, etc. Or you can mentally anticipate what's coming next, or name the harmonies and chord progressions as they are coming up, you can just listen very carefully to the sound and decay of each note you play. I find you can get into a sort of altered mental state where you don't feel the time pass at all.

But as HMF said, if you just can't concentrate, take a break.

[4greatkeyboards]

I have an idea for you, it's not mine, I discovered it a month ago, it has supercharged my study.

https://kantsmusictuition.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-on-how-to-practice.html

On reading, this method made sense to me so I started/resurected a piece (Rachmaninoff's 3rd) and started a practice journal. I am now a fan of Mr. Kant and enthusiastically recommend his method.

[bronnestam]

I have an idea for you, it's not mine, I discovered it a month ago, it has supercharged my study.

https://kantsmusictuition.blogspot.com/2007/09/secret-on-how-to-practice.html

On reading, this method made sense to me so I started/resurected a piece (Rachmaninoff's 3rd) and started a practice journal. I am now a fan of Mr. Kant and enthusiastically recommend his method.

Oh yes, I tried that one too; it worked really well ...
... but I must add that you may not always need "one night's sleep" between sessions. If you practice something in the morning, you can do it in the evening too (sometimes) if you have had plenty of mental rest inbetween - that is, you have focused on other things than playing the piano.
But don't expect to stay focused on the same tedious task for more than 10-20 minutes. Then forget about it.
I just came to the computer after my usual 1-hour-practice session. I do a lot of things during these sessions, but nevertheless I have discovered that I cannot sit at the piano for more than one hour at a time, it is nearly impossible for me. I get tired! I must rise and do something else. And then my day often is filled with other things, so I'm happy to get this hour.

For concentration in general, I have to agree with other posters here that planning and analyzing are essential. Playing a whole piece through in veeery slow tempo is killing; don't do that. Play just sections. Before you start moving your hands to play for real, you should play mentally in your head, really plan how you want it to sound and feel, every single note. Then you play. Then you evaluate the result for a while, and then you do it all again. In this way you will be more active, FAR more effective, and you will not have the time to think of something else. You lose concentration because you let your hands work by themselves and you "allow" yourself to think of something else.
So, if you realize that you are not focused, stop playing. Let your hands rest in you lap for a while, play mentally again, or analyze the mistakes you just made. Even analyze your loss of concentration.

[indianajo]

I have a long attention span so perhaps I shouldn't say much. But the goal of slow practice IMHO is to train the movements of the difficult passage into the lower brain, the part that does things without concious thought.  So I count the mistakes of a passage (I have them all marked in pencil) and the right answer at the end of a repetition is zero. If the mistake count > zero, I slow down some more.  At some point, the movements start sticking down there, they become automatic, and you can let the concious part free run.  Only after the mistake count is zero.  Once the passage is on "autoplay" with the lower brain, I can start thinking of the beauty of the piece again and how it sounded on the record by the professionals, or something else entirely.  If I don't like the piece, I can daydream while speeding it up again, the routine is down there on autopilot and I just have to start it at the right time, I don't have to manage it. The exception is if mistakes start happening again; perhaps there is a better way to  finger it or some other hand position trick or something. then I slow down, write down the new fingering or something, and learn it all over again.  But once the mistake count is zero, then the concious mind is free to wander again while you string this passage with all the other perfect ones, or work on emotional expression, or some other goal.  
I might point out I am rather emotionless about mistakes when I start a piece.  They are going to happen, it just takes more repetitions slower to get it right. There is a tricky measure in a JS Bach piece I have been working on a couple of years.  It has three finger crossovers in one measure.  I can't seem to come back to the piece cold and get that down yet, but I am not emotional about it. It is my favorite piece in the world, I am not an idiot, and someday that fingering will come naturally the first time. Then I will start speeding it up, and later add the other hand, and later the feet. Not until I can play the passage completely correctly, however.  The teacher (who doesn't play the piece) did say I could help the right hand with the left if I need to. However, my hands aren't all that big and if you help the right with the left on an organ with different sounds on different manuals, the sounds of the counterpoint jump around instead of being smooth. So I'll press on- at least keyboard is easier for me than crossword puzzles involving names of sports and media stars.  

[castrojs]

Sounds like Mr. Richard Kant has absorbed the 7x20 rule posted by that certain teacher a thousand years ago very well indeed.

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=12590.0

JoeC.

[lina22]

I also noticed the same. Please, compare:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=2083.msg17227#msg17227

https://kantsmusictuition.blogspot.com/2007/09/memorizing-techniques.html

Kant = Bernard?  I doubt it. I've been reading through wonderful and tremendously useful Berdard's posts for a long time and I am so grateful for them.