Your Favorite Technical and Musical Exercise

[oullman7130]

I'm looking for some new exercises to increase my technical ability(I am advanced) , which I would define for the purpose of this discussion as how easily you can play hard passages and pieces without having trouble and without wrong notes.
I'm also looking for some new musical exercises. For the purpose of this discussion those are exercises that increase your ability to get the sound you envision in your head.. Kind of like a a jazz pianist works on being able to improvise what he/she hears internally.
I'm keeping both of the definitions pretty loose intentionally...
So, out of all the technical/musical exercises you all of you do, what are your favorites?

[ted]

What I do has no foundation in orthodoxy and is directed primarily at furthering my own highly idiosyncratic improvisation. The technical part is mostly, but not entirely, done at my Virgil Practice Clavier, usually in the morning. Some assert that practice improvisation does not exist, that is to say we either create spontaneously or we do not. I used to think that way, but in recent years I have found that modes of idea generation can indeed be practised to great benefit. By that, I mean something at once very general and very personal, but in my case it amounts to finding workable answers to the question, "I am now playing a certain idea. How do I establish transition to the next one ?" This constitutes my "musical exercise", which is mostly done later in the day or at night.

I can go into detail about both these activities if you like, but neither is particularly constant or simple. Actually recording improvisation, the "real thing", as it were, and the practice and playing of pieces, are completely separate from "exercises", at least for me.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Improvisation is my absolute number one exercise, both technically and musically. Decorating melodies with figurations e.g. thirds, scales, arpeggios is a sure test of whether you have the control to project the melody whilst the figuration is going on and both that the figuration is secure (i.e. you can put it to the background and let it take care of itself). I always listen to the sonic image projected as well, e.g. whether it has expressive nuance when legato and if it is crisp when staccato. I think I would be a considerably worse pianist if this wasn't my main practice regimen.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

broken octaves for the win!

[oullman7130]

How are you guys able to improvise without stopping? When I improvise I always decide to stop for a second (constantly) because I had an idea in my head that I incorrectly carried out...

[ted]

How are you guys able to improvise without stopping? When I improvise I always decide to stop for a second (constantly) because I had an idea in my head that I incorrectly carried out...

Start by keeping any sort of flow going regardless of how it sounds, then over time, probably quite a long time, develop idea generation. This runs contrary to most conventional learning processes, which presents a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for older, experienced players. If you can accept that it isn't going to sound particularly good for a long time, and persist with it, then after a few months, or more likely years, suddenly it will start to sound all right. Specific idiom doesn't matter, and it's a question of "how" rather than "what" you play. All tutorials on the internet seem to concentrate on giving rules about what notes to play and what notes to avoid, which is worse than useless for the beginner.

[oullman7130]

I'm a great jazz and blues improviser, will that help?

[ted]

I'm a great jazz and blues improviser, will that help?

Of course, idiom doesn't matter.

[handz]

broken octaves for the win!

Im begginer but can play fast broken octaves quite easily, what is the benefit of them?

[briansaddleback]

He's just being lame. Replying for no purpose other than, just to reply. I guess.