Note-perfect?

[oullman7130]

Hi fellow Pianoholics,
I have been finding increasingly that getting past that certain point of 1-3 wrong notes on a very hard passage, like codas of the chopin Ballades or any demanding jump section has been nearly impossible for me. I feel like I don't know how to correctly practice it. Practicing it slowly will almost always yield a few wrong notes after ten reps. and I feel like going even slower is a waste. Also, I feel like rhythms are only helpful on certain passages...

[michael_sayers]

Hi fellow Pianoholics,
I have been finding increasingly that getting past that certain point of 1-3 wrong notes on a very hard passage, like codas of the chopin Ballades or any demanding jump section has been nearly impossible for me. I feel like I don't know how to correctly practice it. Practicing it slowly will almost always yield a few wrong notes after ten reps. and I feel like going even slower is a waste. Also, I feel like rhythms are only helpful on certain passages...

Hi oullman7130,

Are you sure that practicing slower is a waste?  And why only 10 repetitions?  And are you practicing "deep" into the keys?

For a challenging passage in a Liszt Etude, I may practice it many thousands of times slowly (over a large span of time, days or weeks . . . I don't keep count of the repetitions).

For slow practice where the focus is note accuracy, slow and loud is best, with a natural but non-forcing fortissimo . . . if the focus is phrasing, diminuendo, fine shadings, then one does it more at tempo and with the dynamics one would want in a performance.

For note accuracy, what I mentioned above is the correct approach, and it needs to be slow enough to enable a complete cessation of motion after every note . . . then one builds the speed (and reduces the fortissimo) from there and begins to include some very fast playing of the passage and pianissimo rather than slow and fortissimo.  In the the rapido pianissimo practice, full key descent also is needed - and this is even though the hammers are "released" before the felt pads on the keybed are reached - in order to impart and control the acceleration all the way through the hammer release so that the tone in the rapido pianissimo practice is not be allowed to become colourless.  The full key descent enables using the presence of one's entire arm in pianissimo playing to actuate and stabilize/manage the accelerations, and not merely the fingers alone (with each having different properties, et c.) attempting to do this.

This is what is needed for practice and for accuracy.

I hope this helps!


Mvh,
Michael

[oullman7130]

Thanks! Don't you still mess up every now and then no matter what when practising?

[michael_sayers]

Thanks! Don't you still mess up every now and then no matter what when practising?

Of course!

One can read even about Franz Liszt's clunkers!

Accuracy develops over time.  Focus on expression, focus on giving a reason why, when people hear you, they will say to themselves, "I want to hear this pianist again" . . . even if you just play for friends and family.

That is the most important thing, in my opinion.

[piano6888]

Note perfection is important to an extent, but so are the other aspects of performance that others have mentioned.  Musical expression, meaning, dynamics, voicing, and color are very important and personally, I think they should come first, then accuracy.  However, this is not to say that note perfection isn't important; while it is of second importance, it is not far from the first priority, and one should strive to get all the notes right, but in reality there will always be some mistakes in performance (we do our best to minimize them, but they will, by default exist- but a very experienced pianist would be able to play through the mistakes or mask them such that the audience would be unable or unlikely to detect them). 

In other words, I think a good performance is much more than just note perfection, and while note perfection is an important aspect, there are other more important aspects to consider such as the musical expression, rhythm, tempo, evenness, voicing, dynamics, etc.