Standards of Practice

[gregh]

Hi, everyone. New member here: New to piano, adult student, using Alfred, no teacher yet. (I want to finish some projects and let my finances settle down. If I think I can afford it and can put in regular practice time to get something from lesson to lesson, then I'll look for a teacher.)

I'm never really sure how well I should master a piece in my method book before I move on to other things. There's a part of my brain that says I should be able to play it beautifully. And there's another part of my brain that says that if I insist on that standard I'll be spending two years on page 5. I've been spending enough time on a piece to extract the lesson that the piece means to teach (e.g. I know where the B-flat is now), I can mostly hit all of the keys in the right order, and even do it pretty well once in a while. I'm sure there is some benefit to really mastering, say, "Blow the Man Down", but I figure things like muscle memory and comfort with chord changes could come from pages further down just as well as from the page I'm on right now.

What are your opinions on that?

[Bob]

Spend a reasonable amount of time on things.  Depends how important the piece is to you.

There is something to be said for going through more music too.  If you spend gobs of time perfecting a few pieces, you can't adapt to new pieces as quickly.

[bronnestam]

Try working with several projects in parallel, that's my best advice, coming from own experience. Different pieces "help" each other, actually, even if some are easy and some difficult. When you find pieces that you love and want to play perfectly, even for an audience, you will never abandon them, but keep on working with them for the rest of your piano career.

I don't know much about this Alfred book of yours, except that many praise it, but I suggest you work with several pieces there in parallel. It has been discussed here in other threads that it is no use working with the same details for more than 15-20 minutes, sometimes even less. After that, you must move on to another section of the piece, or another piece. (Even if you take a break first.) The next day you restart working with that first section and so on ... You will find that you learn how to learn quicker and quicker and that practicing feels more interesting this way. Or, you will find - like I did - that you start to spend hours at the piano every day, instead of minutes ... 

[gregh]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I do-- I work on about three things in Alfred (unless time is short). When the first one seems "good enough" I stop working much with it and start a new one-- that might take me about a week.

I'm not far enough along to have a performance repertoire or pieces to work on for the rest of my career. I picked up a beginner jazz book, had trouble figuring out the fingering for song #1, read the note that it's meant to be used with the Jazzabilities series, and picked up the first of that and I've been working on the first two exercises in there.

It takes a while to get anywhere, but I guess I'm not in a big hurry. In late summer I should be able to clear up some more time.

[indespair]

This post and the replies probably saved my life. Thank you very much.

[timothy42b]

I would suggest your present practice of moving on when you feel like it is fine for now.

You could spend a huge amount of time "perfecting" each piece, and later find you've missed the main technique point anyway, without a teacher to guide you. 

But I'd add one element.  With each piece, pick one phrase, or maybe even just one measure, and drill that small chunk until it is dead solid perfect and fluent.  Learn that discipline now.  Later you may apply it to entire pieces.  Or not, depends on your goals.

[ladychopin]

But I'd add one element.  With each piece, pick one phrase, or maybe even just one measure, and drill that small chunk until it is dead solid perfect and fluent.  Learn that discipline now.  Later you may apply it to entire pieces.  Or not, depends on your goals.

True. I wish someone has told me that in the past. Do that even if it's boring, tiring and oppressive.
BELIEVE ME it will pay off.

[pianoplunker]

Hi, everyone. New member here: New to piano, adult student, using Alfred, no teacher yet. (I want to finish some projects and let my finances settle down. If I think I can afford it and can put in regular practice time to get something from lesson to lesson, then I'll look for a teacher.)

I'm never really sure how well I should master a piece in my method book before I move on to other things. There's a part of my brain that says I should be able to play it beautifully. And there's another part of my brain that says that if I insist on that standard I'll be spending two years on page 5.

Or maybe even more than two years on page 5.  It is always good to take things out of the oven and let it rest for a while. In the meantime you seek out a different page and at some point revisit page 5 if you thought you liked it. If you really didnt like it no problem. Knowing Bb is very cool though.