Pieces I study lose their drive after a while

[total_failure]

Hi all,

I would like first to describe the following situation, then ask if anyone can identify with that, and if you know a way to addres this problem.

When I start learning a new piece (usually of classical music), i have heard it first somewhere so I have an idea how it sounds like. So I start by learning the notes. After I roughly know the notes I start working on technical and musical issues, with my teacher. But there is a delicate issue here which I believe is of great importance, if you want to interpret a piece in a convincing way.

Music does activate certain emotions. (we agree on that I hope)
When I learn the piece, i feel the music very lively and fresh and appart from some mistakes, the enjoyment and fascination is big. Each note talks for itsself if that makes sense.

As I continue the study of the piece (solve technical issues, increase speed, memorize, shape the phrases etc) gradually that spontanity vanishes until the piece feels totally stiff. And I also feel nothing when playing it. I just remember, there crescendo, here accent, there faster here slower and go through the motions. But the result is nothing compared to the beginning.

How can I prevent this from happening? I want to solve the problems of a piece without losing the spontanity needed to play it.

[outin]

I don't think you can prevent this, because it is normal. You are supposed to lose those superficial first impressions and "emotions" while learning a piece IMO. The way it goes for me is that first I look at the big picture and the music speaks to me. Then I go into "perfecting" the details. In this process it's normal to lose the sort of enjoyment you would get from just playing through the piece. And it can take so much time that occasionally I get sick of the whole piece. But then hopefully I get back to the level of the whole piece and again find the music itself pleasing. But in this stage in a different way, not superficial but with deeper understanding of the music and appreciation of the details. I also don't think one should let emotions guide one much when performing. There's enough spontanuity in the performance situation (piano, room, audience, your physical and mental state) usually. I think the best performances are more intellectual than emotional from the performers view. But this I am sure many would disagree with...

[mjames]

Leave it alone and com back to it later. Don't practice it everyday. Once you get to a certain level of polishness leave it alone for a few days or even a week, and then go back to working on it. It's only obvious that your love for something will diminish if you play it eevvvveryday.

Also try to find more efficient ways to learn a piece. I'm not really fond of the idea of spending months on a single piece. It shouldn't work like that.

[adodd81802]

Maybe you should learn the emotion that's associated with the piece and phrases, the story behind it, and see if you can empathize with the composer, what they were feeling, their situation, their story etc. See if you can identify feelings with the piece with your own personal experiences.

Mostly, you have to enjoy playing it, and admittedly, it is less enjoyable to work out technical difficulties and getting frustrated with mistakes, but when you have that perfectly played piece under your fingers and all the technical aspect is out the way, you can spend more time thinking about how the piece makes you feel and let your emotion make the piece your own.

[brogers70]

Just leaving a piece alone for a while may help. Listening to various recordings of it. Analyzing it in detail, motifs, harmony structure, if you like that sort of thing.

And on a side note.. People will generally take your own evaluation of yourself at face value, at least at first, so you might want to reconsider your nym.

[michael_c]

Maybe you have consciously or unconsciously fixed a supposed ideal interpretation in your head (possibly the memory of the first time you played through the piece) and you spend your time practising the mechanics in order to get closer and closer to this ideal. In this case you will certainly get bored.

You need to go ever deeper into the pieces you are working on. Keep asking yourself questions: could I try another tempo for this passage? how does it sound if I slow up more here, or less? what if I try this part in stricter tempo, or with more rubato? could I bring out a different voice here? what happens if I make these accents more pronounced, or less? what did the composer really want here? why did the composer write it this way and not that way? should this passage be sad, or desperate, or nostalgic, or something else? ...

Remember, practising isn't just "technique". You are working on an interpretation. It's your interpretation: every time you work on the piece you have a chance to refine it. And you never have to fix it: each time you play the piece, you can make different interpretive choices.

[briansaddleback]

I never lose 'drive' for learning the pieces I learned and even after getting them to a satisfactory 'performance' level ( for class or recital or just personal goal) I never ditch the piece. I constantly go back to it and re-play them or work through them NOT just for the technical benefits of keeping the piece in the fingers and learning new technical/musical aspects of these pieces (thus my musical maturity progress in these pieces) but I am still enthralled by these pieces.
Whatever piece I ever worked on or am doing whether Canon in D, Debussy Passepied, arabesque , chopin etudes, certain czerny pieces, beethoven, etc, these pieces never lose their beauty and I am always excited to play these.

Maybe a while back, when I first learned with a lack of musical interpretive or technical experience, I trudged through Chopin 9 no2 and I got sick of that piece after a couple of months. I still feel meh about it to this day, but every once in awhile when I go back to it, I find that 'perhaps I could have enjoyed it if my technical soundness and musical interpretation of it' would have been better back then.

So I dont know if I dont enjoy 9n2 because of the piece per se, OR because my piano playing was blase back then.
If the latter, I certainly am thankful I did not learn these newer pieces during that time.



for example, debussy Passepied??? oh my goodness, that piece is so magical to play. It goes through a journey /story of left hand staccato married to the right hand melody through several epic stages I love that piece I must have played it (and listened to it by pros) over a thousand times, and each time it sounds fresh and totally amazing.

Debussy was a genius to have composed that work (and other works of course). and chopin and rach and beethoven the list goes on.

I feel sad for those who lose the drive to learn a piece because it loses its flavor. I hope you find a way to be inspired continually.

[total_failure]

Thanks Brian quite usefull advice

What Michael_c wrote is also interesting.
To try different things out and not to have a fixed idea of the interpretation.
Music is after all not a static art form, it breathes and develops. That is why we must be flexible when performing, to have different options up our sleeve and adapt to the present situation.
And I believe that is true for all the performing arts.

So.. maybe this is the way to resurrect those compositions. I will certainly try that

[swagmaster420x]

The only time I did well in a performance was the one time my teacher told me to stop practicing the piece I was practicing, try some other piece, then come back to it later.

[lostinidlewonder]

As I continue the study of the piece (solve technical issues, increase speed, memorize, shape the phrases etc) gradually that spontanity vanishes until the piece feels totally stiff. And I also feel nothing when playing it. I just remember, there crescendo, here accent, there faster here slower and go through the motions. But the result is nothing compared to the beginning.

How can I prevent this from happening? I want to solve the problems of a piece without losing the spontanity needed to play it.

Your situation can describe a couple instances I could think of;

1) that you really do play the pieces with technical control and comfort but because you have played the pieces so many times you have lost the inspiration to play the piece.

2) that you play the piece with forced mechanical technique which you struggle to control and thus your expression is hindered.


The 1st situation is easy to remedy with a digital piano I have found. Sometimes changing the transposition of the keyboard can breath new life into what you hear in your piece. I do this often with pieces I play many times and love hearing it in a different key since I have heard it a billion times in the standard key.

The 2nd situation is of course more to deal with. I would advise not studying just pieces you love but simplifying your approach and learn many pieces you can comfortably conquer in a short time. Build your skills up then when you face the pieces you truly love all their technical difficulties will be nothing but routine since you have much experience. This is a tough thing to tell my students, many do get it but others simply want to play what they love so they never really get out of that state of always spending extra time to try and play their pieces well if ever at all.

[xdjuicebox]

Hi all,

I would like first to describe the following situation, then ask if anyone can identify with that, and if you know a way to addres this problem.

When I start learning a new piece (usually of classical music), i have heard it first somewhere so I have an idea how it sounds like. So I start by learning the notes. After I roughly know the notes I start working on technical and musical issues, with my teacher. But there is a delicate issue here which I believe is of great importance, if you want to interpret a piece in a convincing way.

Music does activate certain emotions. (we agree on that I hope)
When I learn the piece, i feel the music very lively and fresh and appart from some mistakes, the enjoyment and fascination is big. Each note talks for itsself if that makes sense.

As I continue the study of the piece (solve technical issues, increase speed, memorize, shape the phrases etc) gradually that spontanity vanishes until the piece feels totally stiff. And I also feel nothing when playing it. I just remember, there crescendo, here accent, there faster here slower and go through the motions. But the result is nothing compared to the beginning.

How can I prevent this from happening? I want to solve the problems of a piece without losing the spontanity needed to play it.

Are you involved with the music while you play it? Are you having an intimate conversation with the piano every time you play it? I will admit I know exactly what you're talking about, but more often than not, it's because I'm just "playing notes" and not trying to convey anything. This may be slightly unhealthy, but I think of myself as "always performing;" even when I'm drilling something, or doing a weird trick to speed something up, I think to myself "how would I play this if I had to perform it?" [Imagine trying to perform one chord repeatedly. How would you make it interesting? What are you trying to tell someone/something/yourself by repeatedly playing that one chord?]
And once I start doing that, the piece takes on a while new meaning.

But yeah taking a break and coming back after a while is good too.

[briansaddleback]

Also another thing to add, is I say add or put the piece into a story or idea context.  Really think through the details of this story, what its purpose is, its meaning.
For me this is automatic, at nite I obsess over a piece of music that I am intrigued by and play through it constantly in my head with certain imagery. It doesn't come w practice for me as I have done this all my life. Even when I was a child, I would be playing the theme orchestral music of Raiders or ET or Star Wars in my head (John Williams is the bomb but he did copy lot from Debussy) in my head , I recall even not falling asleep in bed because I'm conjuring up emotional meaning behind this music and be drenched in perspiration just totally into my music in my head ( yes I sweat easily and I didn't have internet or YouTube back then)
My mother would play 1812 Tchaikovsky on her 8track and I would play that over and over in my head (especially the last five minutes of it) with all the cannons and church bells, even really slowing down the melody at key moments (didn't know anything about rubato when I was six but I felt slowing down the music at certain moments made the music more electrifying! ) and my mom would ask why are you sweating while I was just sitting on the couch pretending to read a book.

First be convicted by a piece you really love.
Then imagine what that piece does in your imagination.
Once that is locked in, I don't think you can ever tire of if even after practicing it for a year or two.

[irrational]

I also go through this same.

My teacher generally has 2 things to say at this point.

1: You don't know the piece well enough yet
2: Leave it for a while and return to it.

I find both spot on. And if I get past this phase to where I can play different interpretations as I feel at that point, I start to enjoy it immensely again. I see this is the depth of the music. There is always something else to discover. Its very gratifying.