The art of practising

[wkmt]

Are your performances littered with unexplained mistakes?  ‘It went better in practice’ becoming a regular phrase?  Analyse your preparation and take the opportunity of the new year to resolve to improve the quality of your practice.


Whatever your age or ability level, there’s a strong possibility that you’ve developed several bad habits with your practice that are limiting your progress and reducing your long-term potential.  Like a bad crease ironed into a shirt, mistakes caused by practising incorrectly often go unnoticed until it’s too late, and worse, rarely disappear without having to start all over again.


Christian Dawson, our Senior piano teacher shares this article where explains the importance of practising on the piano for the learning process and gives some ideas.

I have written an article looking at the art of practice, and how students of any age or ability can make changes to their routines that will impact positively on their results. 

https://www.i-am-a-spammer.com/single-post/The-art-of-practise

[keypeg]

Answering.

Are your performances littered with unexplained mistakes? 

No.

‘It went better in practice’ becoming a regular phrase? 

Absolutely not, for two reasons.

Whatever your age or ability level, there’s a strong possibility that you’ve developed several bad habits with your practice that are limiting your progress and reducing your long-term potential. 

It is very unlikely, and there is no strong possibility, BECAUSE I have an excellent teacher.  I'm sure that I'm not the only student who does.

I looked at the article.
Points 1 - 3 are common, but the student would need to have a background already to do some of it.  Otherwise the teacher would play a role there.  Point 3 doesn't go far enough - that is also what should be worked on first.
Point 4 - It depends on the nature of the piece.  Sometimes that is not a good strategy if the nature of the piece isn't conducive to it.
Point 5 - "slowly" is empty, if there isn't something to do slowly.  It's the start of good advice, and also one that is commonly given.
Point 6 - I'm told: NEVER begin at the beginning.  In general, that is what most good teachers tell their students.
Point 7 - agreed
Point 8 - Disagree, for the reason stated in point 4. 

As a general observation, the article is geared toward preparing pieces for an event, rather than being geared toward developing playing skills that will help one independently prepare music on one's own eventually.