New teacher, new approach, new goals, new practice strategy?

[bernadette60614]

I'm an adult "rebound" student (studied as a child, renewed playing about 3 years ago.)  About three months ago I changed teachers and my new teacher has a different approach than my prior one.

My prior teacher's style was to give me a piece a couple of levels above my current ability and have me work on it for an indefinite period of time.  The benefit was that I really stretched myself to a new level. The downside was that I found practicing so onerous that the pleasure I had taken in learning a piece evaporated.

My new teacher's philosophy is that one should understand the structure of a piece, experience the "gestalt" of the piece and pure technique is secondary.  From my prior teacher I have internalized a focus on every detail from hand position to articulation to nuances of expression.

The biggest difference, however, is that my new teacher invites me to select a composer, chose a piece and then when I reach a certain level to chose another which is in contrast to the first.  I am now working on three pieces, each at different levels.

The question is:  How do I structure my practice?  Currently, I am learning the new piece first, addressing perfecting technique and expression in the developing piece, and then tackling "rough" passages in the piece on which I've worked the longest.

Is this a good approach?

Also, for the last 3 years, I've practiced 45 minutes a day 6 days a week.  Should I be practicing more?  I feel as if I barely inch forward each week.

[amytsuda]

Adult rebound student! That's a great way to put, me too! 

I think for people like us it's not a question if we "should" practice for more hours, or if we "can" find time to practice for more hours....

I mean if you "can", with all our careers and families, it won't hurt to practice more than 45 minutes a day, since 45 minutes is definitely too short to be practicing multiple pieces, unless each piece is a tiny tiny simple thing, which can not be the case since you've been rebounding already 3 years. I mean even if each piece is simply 1-2 minute long, it's already in total 4-6 minutes of music! There's no way to cover all of them in 45 minutes.

I am not a piano teacher, so I can't advise you. But my teacher does what you describe too, keep adding contrasting composers or contrasting pieces. And I can't learn things that fast nor I can't practice every day, I travel a lot. (On top some pieces are 10 minute long....) But he has no mercy on me, he simply told me that I practice 3-4 hours a day or I won't make a difference.... you know, that's never possible. I have to eat, live and take care of family matters.

So I take a similar approach you take, but in my case, I work on addressing technical issues on the pieces that are better prepared, and spend less time on the new piece I am picking up, and try different things to speed up the process to pick up the new piece first. Otherwise, I will spend the whole hour trying to read the score and figure out what it is. And I never get anywhere.

One thing I do is keep playing the new piece while I am driving, while I am on the airplane, cooking, in my ears while I am working on my computer. I also carry around the score of the piece while I travel and read them instead of watching TVs in the hotel room! I read them with YouTube of others playing, and try to play them in my head. Once you can replay the piece in your head, it's a lot easier to pick it up.  Then, during a weekend, I have 4-5 hours, I spend the whole time crash coursing the new piece and try to put as much as possible in my head.

I probably now sound like a piano psycho (maybe I am), but there's no way I can fit it in my life otherwise. I am not conservatory students or professionals on this forum who are discussing if we should practice 6 hours a day or not. If I can, I would, but there's no way..... 

So I do everything I can to squeeze... I read this forum during the work instead of chatting with other people or checking news.... all sorts of crazy ways.

[indianajo]

But he has no mercy on me, he simply told me that I practice 3-4 hours a day or I won't make a difference.... you know, that's never possible. I have to eat, live and take care of family matters.

Whoa, four hours a day?  However motivated I am, at about an hour and a half, my tendons or joints become painful, and its off to take a NSAID pill.  I'm 64 and have worked some with my hands as a mechanic, or home projects.
One way to concentrate practice, is mark with a pencil the passages that are a problem, then practice only those for while.  And if you're making a repeated mistake, slow down and concentrate. Practicing the wrong movements causes learning just like practicing the right ones does.  You can leave out the parts you know already most days, until a performance is coming up and you are ready for a final memorized run-through.
The new teacher's method may teach you more about music structure style and history than the old one.  None of my teachers ever taught that way, it was all the technique of performing the recital pieces she scheduled.  There were huge holes in my education as a result. I had showy recitals, but not broad based ones. Perhaps if I had been a different person she would have given me more Chopin or Rachmanoff that are so popular on this forum, but she didn't.  
Enjoy the new teacher, perhaps it will lead to composing or something fundamental I can't begin to think about.  

[keypeg]

I think you should ask your teacher how to approach your practising and the piece, and I think that her answer will go directly to what she is already teaching you.  If her approach is to look at the structure & Gestalt of the piece, these are the very things that guide your approach to the piece.  I won't write more, since her answer will probably give you what you need.