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Topic: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?  (Read 1865 times)

Offline lorcar

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for some reason i had missed the previous two lessons (one lesson a week) so for the last THREE weeks I had been repeating the same two pieces the teacher had given me...A piece from Schumann Jugend Album + one of Heller's Etudes op 47. Pretty easy the former, not too difficult the latter, but tricky from a tempo/rhythm point of view.
And my teacher observations were the same: tempo is not perfect, start and repeat S L O W E R. It was so slow any music was killed.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying she wasn't right! As I wrote in the past, I am having really hard time to keep my inner beat...simply I dont feel it. So my tempo is far from perfect.

Then I left with no new piece to study for next week, but I have to study the same piece at a slower tempo. I am fed up! i am at a point where muscle memory does everything, and it's difficult to stay with my mind on the score. I cant even think of spending another week on the same piece...

Do you get a new piece every lesson or not?
sorry for my rant

Offline anima55

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #1 on: January 28, 2014, 11:45:52 PM
I think it is always a good idea to be studying two or perhaps even 3 pieces at a time (depending on the time you have to practise or the difficulty of the pieces), rather than just one.  Are you perhaps left in the position of having only one piece to practise because you missed a couple of lessons?

I wouldn't offer a new piece at each lesson unless the student has at least 'some' fluency with existing pieces.  On the other hand, I always think it is a good idea to play other music in addition to anything the teacher gives you to practise.

Offline outin

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #2 on: January 29, 2014, 05:41:14 AM

Then I left with no new piece to study for next week, but I have to study the same piece at a slower tempo. I am fed up! i am at a point where muscle memory does everything, and it's difficult to stay with my mind on the score. I cant even think of spending another week on the same piece...

Do you get a new piece every lesson or not?
sorry for my rant


It does happen often that I get fed up before we can get through the whole piece. For me it's the muscle memory part that takes a very long time and it's not reliable at all, so I only work on something when I can at least be a little bit interested. But every piece has certain technical challenges and I try to persist until those have been somewhat solved before dropping the thing.

I do not work my pieces with my teacher until I can master them. If I like something I keep working with them on my own, but with breaks so it stays fresh.

We don't bring in new pieces avery time, because I always have 3-5 at the same time.

Offline slane

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #3 on: January 29, 2014, 07:47:36 AM
Yes. Or rather I bring a new piece to my teacher every week. If I don't he gets all antsy and wants to give me  a piece himself, or asks what else I'm working on.
At the moment I'm labouring away at scarlatti Kk455 and Beethoven op14 #2 second movement.
At the same time I've been learning two things from Anna Magdalena, one from Schumann's album for the young and a really easy one from Kabalevsky Thirty pieces for Children.

My teacher doesn't want me to get stale. He says "Extract the lesson and move on", in other words near enough is good enough but some pieces really suit a particular person and so those ones end up more polished.

So you could hunt up some pieces yourself. Maybe some really easy etudes to give that inner beat a work out. Or anything classical like say kuhlau or clementi where you have to keep the beat tick, tock or it sounds dumb. I really struggle with this myself so I like to play romantic composers. :)

Offline carl_h

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #4 on: January 29, 2014, 08:07:46 AM
Perhaps your teacher is trying to fix your problem. In order to be able to focus on tempo & rythm, having the notes down is preferable. The fact that you say that muscle memory is taking over everything is your own fault and you should not let that happen, there are always things to think about. If you play this mindlessly it will do no good ofcourse.

If you were to start on new pieces every week, you would be learning notes and notes and notes while chances are that your tempo will be off in those aswell and thus basically you will be learning mistakes, forming bad habits.

Don't give up and follow your teacher's advice. There is a lot to be learned by sticking to 1 or 2 pieces for a while and really studying them instead of half-arsing 10 pieces.
If you get your problems fixed with these, and you will, you will be very glad you did.

Offline stevenarmstrong

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #5 on: January 30, 2014, 01:08:47 AM
Firstly I think learning to playing musically at a deadslow tempo is very important!

Bringing completely new material to every lesson?? Whats the point? Cycling through 3-5 pieces is good (without repeating the same one two consecutive weeks). If you learn something to "learn the lesson then move on," when will that end? Will you ever learn anything thoroughly? What can you learn about the artistic side - interpretation and spiritual qualities - if you never spend much time on a piece??! Impossible.
Debussy Preludes 1:4, 2:9.
Beethoven Op. 22
Medtner Op. 5
Shchedrin Basso Ostinato
Silvestrov Op. 2

Offline slane

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #6 on: January 30, 2014, 07:22:26 AM
Just because you start a new piece every week, doesn't mean it takes a week to learn it!
My harder pieces will probably take months before I move on. The easier pieces 2-3 weeks.

Offline chopinfrederic

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #7 on: February 03, 2014, 04:33:21 PM
Nope, my teacher doesn't give me a new piece every lesson. For a very good reason, though. He wants me to practice it till I master the piece's technique.

Offline chopinfrederic

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Re: Does your teacher give you a new piece every lesson?
Reply #8 on: February 03, 2014, 04:42:56 PM
for some reason i had missed the previous two lessons (one lesson a week) so for the last THREE weeks I had been repeating the same two pieces the teacher had given me...A piece from Schumann Jugend Album + one of Heller's Etudes op 47. Pretty easy the former, not too difficult the latter, but tricky from a tempo/rhythm point of view.
And my teacher observations were the same: tempo is not perfect, start and repeat S L O W E R. It was so slow any music was killed.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying she wasn't right! As I wrote in the past, I am having really hard time to keep my inner beat...simply I dont feel it. So my tempo is far from perfect.

Then I left with no new piece to study for next week, but I have to study the same piece at a slower tempo. I am fed up! i am at a point where muscle memory does everything, and it's difficult to stay with my mind on the score. I cant even think of spending another week on the same piece...

Do you get a new piece every lesson or not?
sorry for my rant

Btw I think your teacher's right... you should start V.E.R.Y. S.L.O.W. first and then gradually increase your speed... my teacher says so too, and this trick worked for me.
I've been studying the same song (1 song) for around 6 months now for a competition. If there aren't any competition it'd probably take around 2-4 months...
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