What are you thinking when practicing? I'm CURIOUS.

[cuyoo59]

Hi pianists. Nice to meet you guys. I was bogged down recently with my progress with learning the notes and memorize music fast.  I don't know whether it's my high expectations or my way of thinking when learning the notes that's slowing me down. I'm always not secure of what I'm playing. The practice next day all seems like completely new stuffs. And that often makes me doubt during performances.

I was wondering what is in your mind when your are practising? What's going on in there? Do you think of the chord progressions? Do you sing/hum during your practice and what for? What are some of the essential skills(musicianship/ theory) to become a more efficient pianist? I know active listening is important. But what do you listen to?We're often taught to listen but not knowing what to taste. Advice truly appreciated. Thank you. 

[outin]

Well, you not alone...Right now I am thinking I must have brain damage. I am stuck with a reasonably slow  and short piece with not that many notes. Cannot play with the score or without it even though it's  been memorized since April. No matter how much and what techniques I practice I just cannot play it through consistently

Tried practicing short sections half tempo with the metronome. Both ht and hs. Analyzing where to look and what to think. Just cannot remember half the time where to go even though I hear the music correctly in my head. When I think I have one short phrase solid, after working on another one the previous one is gone again. My hands just cannot remember what to do and my brain cannot keep up either. Sooner or later I will have to stop playing due to complete black out. My teacher's suggestions don't help. Usually when this happens with a piece reworking the fingerings help. Not this time... Time to quit trying to play the piano and take up knitting instead?

[ted]

I think about whether I have found the best, which is usually the easiest, way of thinking about a passage. By that, I mean not just working on the physical aspect in order to be able to play it at all. The same physical way of playing even a short passage has an infinity of concomitant mental ways of hearing it. A simple example is breaking a relatively unaccented passage into mental groups. Some ways make it easy and some make it hard, with no detectable difference, visually, physically or aurally. Most of what I play is improvised these days, but the same principle of working first from the mind applies.

[bernadette60614]

I find myself plateauing with my pieces.  I've worked on them for so long, that it seems that I play them without thinking.

What I've begun doing is spending 20 minutes away from the keyboard with the score and reading and thinking about the score. Then, I go back to the piano, and play with a clear set of goals for the remainder of my practice session.

[louispodesta]

Hi pianists. Nice to meet you guys. I was bogged down recently with my progress with learning the notes and memorize music fast.  I don't know whether it's my high expectations or my way of thinking when learning the notes that's slowing me down. I'm always not secure of what I'm playing. The practice next day all seems like completely new stuffs. And that often makes me doubt during performances.

I was wondering what is in your mind when your are practising? What's going on in there? Do you think of the chord progressions? Do you sing/hum during your practice and what for? What are some of the essential skills(musicianship/ theory) to become a more efficient pianist? I know active listening is important. But what do you listen to?We're often taught to listen but not knowing what to taste. Advice truly appreciated. Thank you. 

Congratulations!  You have just participated in another phony post, posted by a Silver Member registered in August of 2013.

[keypeg]

I want to read about the topic, not anyone's opinion about any member.  I think that is standard in forums.

[pjjslp]

Congratulations!  You have just participated in another phony post, posted by a Silver Member registered in August of 2013.

What makes you think it is phony? Perhaps this poster registered a few years back and decided to renew his or her participation? Who cares, anyway?

To the OP, it depends where I am with a piece. If it's something I'm just starting, I'm looking and listening for patterns, tricky bits that I know will need extra attention, and paying close attention to any possible fingering issues. When I'm further along, I'm really listening to whether the sound is what I'm after. Of course, this is when I'm well focused, which is rare now that the kids are out of school for the summer. Now I'm lucky to get through each piece once without interruption or distraction, and forget intense repetition on harder passages. Sorry I can't offer any real advice! It's only as I've returned to playing regularly as an adult that I'm realizing how little instruction I received on how to practice when I was young. My old methods aren't very efficient with more advanced repertoire.

[briansaddleback]

I think about I

[outin]

A related question: Do you finish practice while "winning" or do you continue to look for new difficulties until you are too drained mentally (or physically) to solve them? I tend to finish my practice sessions thinking I suck and will never learn to play no matter how well it went earlier and how many difficulties I already conquered. Probably not the best way, but I cannot seem to stop until I just cannot do it anymore. Unless I am practicing before work and the time runs out. Good thing my memory is so short that I've forgotten how bad I was the next time I sit at the piano

[brogers70]

A related question: Do you finish practice while "winning" or do you continue to look for new difficulties until you are too drained mentally (or physically) to solve them? I tend to finish my practice sessions thinking I suck and will never learn to play no matter how well it went earlier and how many difficulties I already conquered. Probably not the best way, but I cannot seem to stop until I just cannot do it anymore. Unless I am practicing before work and the time runs out. Good thing my memory is so short that I've forgotten how bad I was the next time I sit at the piano

Whenever I stop working on some section of a piece I play the section one last time at a very slow and relaxed tempo so that I can play it without mistakes. That way, the last memory my brain has of that bit is a memory of playing it correctly and without stress.

[ted]

A related question: Do you finish practice while "winning" or do you continue to look for new difficulties until you are too drained mentally (or physically) to solve them?

The whole trick with me is making sure I remember exactly how I "won" the previous night when I start playing in the morning. Making written notes helps a lot. No, enough difficulties exist for me without my looking for new ones.

[cuyoo59]

Thanks all, gained some insight over here. So it's to eliminate as many unnecessary thoughts as possible, and make what seems difficult easy? So it's like thinking it's a Cmajor instead of a C D E F G A B C ?

The remembering how you won your last practice hit me.   

[ted]

The remembering how you won your last practice hit me.  

In the past I paid a lot of attention to things I was doing wrong but neglected to analyse the occasions when I played well. In the latter case I tended to react thankfully, "That's good, no need to work on that any more." But when we surprise ourselves it is most important to thoroughly understand exactly why it happened, and to memorise, not just our physical movements but also the internal sensations and thoughts which brought it about. Repeat it a few times and write notes to ourselves about it. Then the next time we have something concrete to jog the memory enough to repeat the success. It might be something as simple as a momentary sensation in one finger which does the trick, but we will surely forget it next time unless we somehow preserve it.

In short, it's about memory.

[ted]

A few years ago I developed involuntary movements, starting in one finger, which threatened to undermine my entire playing. I fixed it by a relearning process over two or three years, but I could have accelerated recovery had I made a greater effort to recall how I felt when I played in earlier years, the memory of which had been gradually eroded by silly habits which became entrenched. The incident brought home to me the importance of memory in the broadest possible sense. Quite literally, when playing an instrument, we become our memories, mental, physical, aural, the lot. If they get tangled, we get tangled.

[bernadette60614]

I can only speak from my experience, so take from this what you will:

I focus on two goals:  Very slow and very loud.

One of my challenges as a student is that I tend to play very fast and "mumble" the notes rather than fully articulate them.

I would like to say that it is the nature of contemporary life, but I suspect that it is also my nature, to try to optimize every moment by multitasking or multiprocessing (thinking on more than one track.)

When I discipline myself to play very slow and very loud, I find that my playing improves vastly because I am concentrated on just two goals.  Also, I find that my anxiety level when I'm working on a tough passage can be so extreme that I just barrel through it.  Playing very slow and very loud also serves to relax me.

And, sometimes...I just think about donuts..!