Practiicing strategy

[lzerwas]

Hello everyone!

Just starting piano lessons (longtime casual player - no lessons since childhood) and am wondering about how to practice a new piece. Do you first practice the piece focusing mainly on getting the notes/fingering down? And then after you are pretty confident with that part work on volume/pedaling/phrasing, etc?

When I try to focus on trying to incorporate everything at once I feel like my mind is going to explode.   

Thank-you!

[dogperson]

Does 'just depends' help?   I try to incorporate as much as I can short of having my head explode.... and I can identify with that phrase!  When I first re-started lessons,  I used the same strategy, and my teacher seemed to expect it, and I really felt like my head would explode   .. but now after two years, it is getting easier to see the learning as a unit.  The measures that are tough for me?   Sorry, but  that is layered learning, with maybe a great deal of work on the fingering, or playing 'the right notes at the right time'.

Of course, I can't always practice as a unit... so absolutely get the notes and the right fingering and incorporate what else you can in layers.

Everyone may vary what they do, but my best advice for you is to identify the problems, and work on those.  Don't allow yourself the luxury of always starting from the beginning and playing
 through.  The beginning will get better, and the tough  parts will remain the same problem sections.

Should you discuss with your teacher?  Absolutely. But my experience has, sadly, been that my teachers have not addressed HOW to practice.

I have found the Graham Fitch videos on practice technique very helpful -- there is a series, but the first one is linked here:

[visitor]

what you describe is actually harder and more work. without taking into account touch, articulation, phrasing, dynamics, pulse, etc, you end up 'learning it wrong' then trying to add in basic details later you usually have to try to unlearn bad habits from learning 'just the notes'.
perhaps the first couple days or so you'll hammer out fingerings, get rhythms and keyboard geography, etc while still paying attention basic details even if you cannot execute them, but as soon as possible, preferably first session/end of first session you want to be doing these.

think about it like this, you may only cover half of the page but get 100% of the details in one day. the other method you might do the full page but only the notes, fully 80% of the music/details you ignored.

at the end of the day the first method you learned 50% of the music, the other way with 'just notes' you learned oh 20% of the music, you may be further down the page but you have not necessarily made more progress.

it's tough but worth it, it will allow you to 'finish' the piece easier. the notes only method you'll have an easier time starting a piece but a harder time finishing at least that is what i experienced early on before i [begrudgingly] made that paradigm shift in my approach to learning, it's probably one of the reasons may people get to 'intermediate' level and stay there not quite progressing much beyond that, vs those that learn the language of music to a deeper extent and make slow continued progress to better and better musicianship and more advanced repertoire.

just sayin.

[themeandvariation]

If you are taking lessons,  (as you mention) - then you must ask your teacher about how to practice!   This is one of their Main duties as a piano teacher!

[kathyc]

I am a returning pianist, played as a child and went back 5 years ago. The first three of those years I spent practicing in just the manner you described, a page at a time, notes and fingering first. I made some progress in the beginning, but then I got stalled.
With a new teacher, I began practicing just a phrase at a time, learning everything about it, touch, dynamics phrasing, everything that would make it beautiful. Sometimes one phrase (and it might be only two bars) can take a whole week. But when I work all the way through a piece, it is finished and sounds the way I want it to sound. Ultimately, it is much more satisfying.
I don't really know if it takes longer or shorter. It simply sounds like I want it to sound when I finish, and that makes it worth the work.

[lostinidlewonder]

... wondering about how to practice a new piece. Do you first practice the piece focusing mainly on getting the notes/fingering down? And then after you are pretty confident with that part work on volume/pedaling/phrasing, etc?

When I try to focus on trying to incorporate everything at once I feel like my mind is going to explode.   

It is a good aim to avoid brain explosion, I always stress the importance of practice method and really it needs to improve with easy and efficient to learn pieces not always challenging pieces that boggles the mind. The problem I find most people face when initially learning a piece is listening to themselves effectively while playing. If your ear knows very well what something should sound like it will control your actions, however if your actions are so busy that you cannot hear yourself you must stop and reassess.

Most works I learn are sight read from start to finish with expression immediately, the works often don't require complete muscular memorisation since you can play concert standard from the sheets. Other more difficult technical works I go about discecting trouble parts and using a whole set of learning tools to absorb it. I sometimes like using scissors and glue for insanely difficult pieces I'll cut out parts and glue them into a single page, this forces focus for me (or my students).

[bronnestam]

One approach can be to focus on sections so small that the "note work" is very little, and then you work with the phrasing and intonation. And then you connect one section with the other. If you get totally lost in the note jungle it is a clear sign that you are trying to swallow too much in one bite. I have found that there is no reason to panic if you have to spend insanely lot of time just to get the first (the first of your choice) bar right. The rest will go easier - hopefully! Or else you have a piece that is far too difficult for you at the moment.

Unless you start with the beginning of the piece, this will invariably lead to the situation that you can play only parts of the piece next lesson - if it was not a very short one - and some unwise teachers may show disappointed reactions to this. A better teacher will say "good" and then you work with what you have, and you go home and keep on learning.

If you learn the piece HS you may have longer parts to demonstrate to your teacher, and one idea is that you play HS and let the teacher fill in with the other hand (if possible!)
 

Let's say you get a new, long piece assigned. You go home, try to find as many recordings as possible and listen to them several times. (I know, some pieces are not recorded!) You also study the music score very carefully and try to analyze how it is constructed. Now you have already laid a decent foundation. Find the harmonies, try to play the piece just with harmonies - simplify the chords if you have to - and when you have found a good "feeling" and sense of musical flow, you can add more details.

Then we have some special cases, like the infamous semiquaver-against-triplet combination. Here you may choose to practice just the rythm by tapping on the table before you try to figure out what notes to play. Besides, tapping the rythm before you put your hands on the keys is a good idea in general if the piece is difficult in this aspect.

In these ways you can approach the piece from inside and out and from outside and in. Learning difficult pieces is seldom about just learning a certain key-pressing sequence on the keyboard - I do not insinuate you thought that either - but about making many different approaches, sometimes even inventing a few preparatory exercises, and so on. And the note learning and the technical aspects will probably melt together this way.

[vaniii]

It is a good aim to avoid brain explosion, I always stress the importance of practice method and really it needs to improve with easy and efficient to learn pieces not always challenging pieces that boggles the mind. The problem I find most people face when initially learning a piece is listening to themselves effectively while playing. If your ear knows very well what something should sound like it will control your actions, however if your actions are so busy that you cannot hear yourself you must stop and reassess.

This.

I have said it many times, but will continue to say it until my dying breath.

The problems encountered in practice are the result of over the years, a student disregarding the ability to listen-effectively.  Usually, seemingly trivial components of music making are disregarded, in favor of 'getting to the music', namely looking, listening and being comfortable with navigating the instrument.  The problem is, over time, these basic components are what allow pianists or musicians to be able to pick music up and play it.  I can attest, to similar, with students who have had lessons for less than two years being able to do similar for fairly complex material.

...
it's tough but worth it, it will allow you to 'finish' the piece easier. the notes only method you'll have an easier time starting a piece but a harder time finishing at least that is what i experienced early on before i [begrudgingly] made that paradigm shift in my approach to learning, it's probably one of the reasons may people get to 'intermediate' level and stay there not quite progressing much beyond that, vs those that learn the language of music to a deeper extent and make slow continued progress to better and better musicianship and more advanced repertoire.
...

I also agree with this statement.

People love the romantic notion of piano playing, but often fail to see the reality.  The reality being, learning and skill over long periods.  The students who make the most progress go slow and take time to look, listen, understand and most importantly remember.

I am baffled by people who play a note in one bar, disregard it, then fail to recognize the same note in the next bar.  Whats more, when they do not take the time to work it out, and guess ... my opinion on guesswork is it is the opposite of good practice.
 
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In regards to practising strategy, I practice what I preach.  Anything I play or perform, must be read from the page in the first session.  I go slow, and read it through at a crawl.  Something to consider, just because I can play it at thrity-quintillion beats per minute, does not mean I must; particularly at this time.

I take the time to look at everything: time, metre, notes, rhythm, articulation, dynamics.  Slowly and quite mechanically, I play it though with these details.  The aim here is listening and understanding, laying foundations.  Technically, it should not sounds like music yet, or rather, a performance of music; afterall, we ar not performing at this time, it is practise right?

Once I understand what it is I need to do with the music, the speed increases, even at this point, I hold back my tempo to a crawl.  This requires more concentration that simply playing it, and also builds good memory, both physical and mental; in so much as, each note you play must be a conscious choice at this speed, not a flippant reflex.

Something to also consider; absolute certainty, is when you know everything about a piece of music.  When you reach this point, nerves are not a thing.

One more point I want to make, I have seen many people on this forum state, playing slowly does not allow for preparation for muscle tension at speed.  Forgive my bluntness, but if you are playing in a calm, relax manner, speed is irreverent.  The tension is caused, by you are playing too fast, which in turn makes you anxious, resulting in muscle-tension.

Conduct an experiment at your keyboard, if you would, please:

Type the sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

This uses all of the letters in the alphabet on an English keyboard; the speed you type the sentence has nothing to do with your muscles, but everything to do with knowing, completely, and absolutely where each letter is on the keyboard and what you have to type; if you do not know the 'geography' of the keyboard, or the statement, trying to type it fast will result in errors and tense arms (unless you admit defeat and go slow).

[lzerwas]

Thank-you so much to everyone for taking the time to respond so thoughtfully to my question! So much wisdom here.

 I am starting to realize the main object is not to just get the notes right but to make the piece actually sound like music. Duh! I have had only 2 lessons and am impressed by how my teacher is helping me slow down and pay attention to volume, phrasing and tempo. At first i thought the pieces she was giving me were way too simple but now I understand why - there is so much more than just learning the notes! Now I see why people always say to get a teacher if you can.

Thank-you again for your thoughts & advice - much appreciated!