Not sure how to learn pieces?

[redheadrebby]

Hi,

Up until this point, I've always learned pieces by playing them through time and again until I could play them fluently. I'm aware that this is a pretty bad way to go about learning pieces. I've just chosen my pieces for ATCL, and can see that I won't be able to learn them by sight-reading through over and over.

Does anyone have a good way to learn pieces, particularly those with a lot of voices?

Thanks

[xdjuicebox]

Measure by measure. If it's crazy enough, beat by beat, or "downstroke" by "downstroke."

Like I'm learning (and butchering TERRIBLY Liszt please forgive me, I want to see how far I can push myself) Mazeppa right now, which basically consists of be playing the same measure 20-30 times before moving onto the next one. (Always play the first couple notes of the next measure, but make sure you stop yourself!) This kind of practice is grueling, I don't need to need to spend as many reps as I do, but my brain is stupid so yeah. And then you start practicing overlapping 2 measure segments, and then 4 measure segments, and then phrases, and then sections, and so on...

You shouldn't play the entire piece more than 5 times in each practice I don't think. There's no real point unless you're specifically trying to practice continuity/large scale musical details.

I think measure by measure practice is the fastest for bringing stuff up to speed/memorizing, but that's just my opinion.

[kalospiano]

Hi Redheadrebby,

I jost posted the below in a thread about memorization but I thought maybe it could be useful for you too (I'm assuming you're a beginner like me here, but I might be totally wrong, in which case just ignore me )


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I'm just a beginner but I can memorize quite well using the following method. It's similar to what other users have listed already. With it I can memorize one page of music equivalent in length and complexity to, let's say, one single movement of a Sonatina from Clementi or a Burgmuller Etude Op. 100 in one-two days. Depending on individual memory skills, of course, one might be able to do a bit more or a bit less than that.

1) isolate one single section (depending on how easy/hard the piece is, the section might be half a measure, one measure, two measures. It needs to be something short enough that you can play it just a couple of times and then repeat it many more times without looking at the score). Let's call it section A.

2) play the section hands separate, very very slowly at first, then progressively accelerate until you're confident enough to play it repeatedly quite fast without looking at the score.

3) repeat step 2 with hands together.

4) go to the next section (let's call it B), repeat setps 2 and 3.

5) you should now be able to play A and B without any pause between the two and without looking at the score. Do look at the score if needed, but first try to go by memory. repeat steps 2 and 3 on A and B together.

6) go to the next section (let's call it C). Repeat steps 2 and 3.

7) now you should be able to play B and C together without pauses. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

continue going like this with all following sections. When you reach the end of a row, repeat the whole row without pauses multiple times (check the score if you need to, but try first to do without).

9) When you reach the end of the page/part that you want to learn, repeat the whole thing multiple times, HS and HT, first slowly then progressively faster (check the score if you need to, but try first to do without).

10) try experimenting playing the piece by heart starting from various random points (not only from the beginning of each section you isolated).

NB: very important, before getting from step 1 to 10, try to identify chords, arpeggios, scales, intervals used in each section. This really helps memorization.

This works especially well with spaced repetition. What I do, for instance, is applying these 10 points in the early morning, then going with my usual piano routine, then replay steps 9 and 10 after the end of my piano routine. Later, in the evening, I will again both start and finish my evening piano session with steps 10 and 11.

Generally on the morning of the second day I will be already able to play the whole piece by heart. Possibly there will be very few doubts in some points for which I will briefly check the music score, but by the third day I won't need the score at all anymore for that learned page.

Hope this helped at least a bit.

Good luck!
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I might add to the above (at least inferring from what I've read in the past, since I haven't had much experience with multiple voices myself) that for all of the above you might need to practice not just HT and HS, but also each single voice separately before you attempt to play everything at the same time.

Cheers!

[quantum]

Learn backwards.  No, I am not being facetious.  If you know where you need to go, you will get there.  Learn from the end of a piece, working backwards to the beginning.  Often the problem is that we do not know what comes next, and we fumble around hoping our fingers will "get it" eventually.  Knowing where you need to go from the point you are currently at puts you at a great advantage at solving problems.

Work in small manageable chunks.  If a task is overwhelming, break it into smaller chunks.  One chunk should be work that can be completed in a single sitting.  There is no need to tackle the whole piece every time you have a practice session.  If you work in small chunks, you may surprise yourself how quickly you can accomplish work when you string all those small bits of work together to form the whole. 

Spend more time on the parts of the piece that need work, not the parts you are good at playing. 

Work in a non-linear manner.  As mentioned in the previous post, choose random start and stop points to practice. 

Practice random jumping around the piece, while maintaining pace without stopping.  Eg: Play bar 24-36, 2-10, 16-28, 32-end, 1-24.

For multiple voice pieces, practice voices in isolation and in various combinations.  Eg: In a 4-part fugue, you may wish to practice all voices in isolation, all subject entries, voice pairs 1-4, 2-3, 1-3, 2-4. 

[birba]

I pull numbers out of a bag.   Seriously.  IT keeps my concentration on edge.

[redheadrebby]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice

I've been trying to break my pieces down and learn them in small sections, and it's definitely helping; It's even got me spending time working out a good fingering (whereas before, I used to just play and see what happened) and really listening to the sound I'm creating.

The idea of doing this but approaching the piece from the end sounds interesting too, so I think I'm going to give that a go

[visitor]

Bith birba and quantum are spot on. I also depending.on thepiece try to read through my way through the whole thing at the beginning and end if each sessuon if it is not aonater if a work that grinds to a halt. I use it as a sort of warm up  and to enchmark any progress to that point and re emphasize learned sectuons from the end  or grab bag that were worked that day