Increasing stamina and independence in learning

[samjiyon23]

Hello everyone!

I have been playing piano for almost ten years now, though it was not until I switched teachers a couple of years ago that I started to improve and take it more seriously. I would like to be practicing fairly difficult modern pieces three hours a day, but I cannot even come close to this -- it is difficult for me to concentrate on piano for even a full hour, and most days I don't practice at all.

On top of this, I'm not even sure if I'm practicing well... my teacher has hinted that he is trying to demonstrate methods of practicing, but he never actually explicitly spells them out, so I find myself just sitting at the piano working on the piece with no conscious direction.

So, does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance ^_^

[brogers70]

Here's a link to a lot of posts with good advice about practicing.

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,5767.0.html

I find it helpful to break up practice into small pieces of time, 15-20 minutes, with a small, achievable goal for that period of time, maybe learning x measures of a piece hands separate. I do each little chunk and then move to something else. I do about 4 hours a day in lots of little 15-20 minutes increments, and take a break when I can't concentrate.

[samjiyon23]

That's a good idea -- thank you!

[indianajo]

I really like the pieces I chose to play now, so I can focus on them for an hour or two.  But in the beginning it is one hand alone, very slowly so I make no mistakes.  Any mistake I make twice, I circle it, or write the note name next to it if it is above or below the staff.  Or write the flat or sharp next to the note I miss.in case I have forgotten it from the key signature.  I make photocopies now of stuff I learn, so this messy stuff doesn't mess up the book.  
Once I've got one hand alone down without mistakes, a whole passage, then I slow down again and try to put the hands together.  By this time I've started sort of memorizing it so I don't have to watch the page all tha closely.  Then when passages are mistake free, I start speeding up.  
I find aerobic exercises  (walking, exercycle, bicycle) and strength training (some pilates, some of Army daily dozen) build up general strength and stamina, something no music teacher ever taught me. The teachers  should have taught me the taught me the conditioning. I learned the benefits in the Army after I was 18 and had wasted 6 years making wimpy low pressure noises with my bassoon (but still got in the TMEA All-state band).  School gym was useless, all they did was ignore me when I couldn't reach their standard. They had no plan for kids that could't do one situp or one chin-up.  The Army had remedial training that was actually doable and improved my strength and condition, instead of being impossible and making me feel incompetent.  
Now at the start of most practice sessions I play 3 Scott Joplin rags, which are very physical, and stretch my hands out so I do octave jumps without thinking too hard.  When I was a beginner my mother made me do Schmitt exercises in the Schirmer book, which are especially good for building up the fourth and fifth fingers.  Then the paid teacher made me do Edne Mae Berman exercises at the beginning of each practice, then Czerny book one.  I don't do these exercises anymore, I have enough control to play things I like, but I did exercise book practice for the teacher for 6 years.  
At my age, about 2 hours practice is my limit, or my tendons start causing pain.  but I'm 63 years old.  A teenager or twenty year old should be able to build up to 2 hours practice easily, with three to six occuring when you get advanced repretoire in your sixth to eighth year.   What I actually did was one hour a day of piano and 1/2 an hour of bassoon, until I quit the piano age 16 to concentrate on the bassoon loaned to me from the school band.  Bassoon involved practicing with girls, and going on road trips in a bus! In band we were playing stuff like Bernstein and Grainger suites and Shostakovich symphonies, besides the circus marches and pop songs for football games. Piano now fits my  days alone better. On piano now I'm finishing up Pictures at an Exhibition and am starting on the original 2 piano arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue. On Hammond organ I'm working on JS Bach Passacaglia & Fugue in C min These are all my favorite pieces, so I don't have any trouble concentrating on them when outdoor projects of summer don't get in the way or practice.  

[bernadette60614]

I'm also a student, and what helps me:

Keep a daily log (I just use a simple Office Depot planner) of what you  want to work on each practice session and also what you want to have accomplished by the end of the week.

So, e.g., I am working on a Beethoven sonata's dynamics and a Schubert Impromtu speed, and the second half of the impromtu.  I practice 60 minutes a day.

I am working on all the forte piano markings on the Beethoven with the goal of exaggerating them. I want to work on 4 pages this week.

For the Schubert, I want to bring 1.5 pages up to tempo and to get the first page of the second movement comfortable hands together.

Today, I'm going to work in the second movement hands together first ..when I'm fresh, then the Beethoven, cause that is dynamics..not notes,rhythm, etc., then the Schubert.  I always start with new material and end with new material.

I think like an athlete you need goals broken down into manageable actions.

[gregh]

Okay, I'm not great at piano, but this generalizes to any kind of training or practice: An hour is about all you get! Nobody can focus longer than that.

You improve by deliberate and disciplined practice, working on things that are hard, with specific goals in mind. That's not the same thing as noodling around, playing fun stuff that you already know pretty well (although there's also a place for that). Deliberate practice is difficult, it's uncomfortable, and you can't stay focused for three hours straight. But if that's your goal, it's not a big surprise if you wind up feeling frustrated and guilty.

Don't demand more of yourself than about 45 minutes. You can do multiple session in a day, but 45 minutes in one sitting. And a single session of 45 minutes every day is better than three hours twice a week. That's another thing that generalizes-- you get more out of shorter but frequent sessions than you do from the occasional marathon.

[amelialw]

try recording yourself...I invested in a recording device which I use to record all of my practice sessions. Just to share I also used to be very dependent on my teachers till I reached a point when I started studying under concert pianists and initially one of the teacher's barely had any time for me so that forced me to take control of my own learning. Now the teacher I'm under is away quite often and sometimes for long periods of time so we just set some goals (pieces which we feel I should learn & what I would like to learn) and I practice while he's away on my own. I'm also still under the guidance of my teacher who's away in Canada so she gives me pieces to learn too. Based on what both teachers give me I pace myself

Another thing I've done is to create a daily schedule for myself; despite still being a piano student seeking to further my studies in performance I'm out teaching music at a public school to 14 classes a week not including many other tasks so that takes up much time.

As for stamina I feel that it's something you naturally develop as you go on...I used to struggle performing continually for more than an hour but now I can do it. Sometimes it has to do with how much practice you invest in as well.