Practising a lot of superhard pieces - does it increase learning speed?

[cuberdrift]

I want to get to the point where I can get a relatively difficult work performable (or at least memorised) in a short time of learning (like, for example, a Chopin ballade practically memorised in a week but I am practising it for like only an hour a day).

I like taking pot-shots at difficult music, sight-reading them - these are often "beyond my league". I will get out Le Preux, Rach 3, Hammerklavier, etc. and try to practise bits and pieces of them, but not for very long durations. Does this habit speed up one's learning rate?

My main hurdle is lack of reading skills I think. I enjoy practising the music once I get the notes under, but the sight-reading part is somewhat of a chore. I struggle and take effort trying to learn the notes and patterns of a hard piece.

Is there any way it is possible to learn this fast? How can I boost my reading abilities so I can get straight to "the music"?

Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks,
cuberdrift

[opus10no2]

I suggest that you join a site called

dasdc.net

There are a number of professional pianist there, they tend to be obsessed with technical skill, formidable displays of speed etc.

There is a section there to discuss technique, among other things.

I learned quite a few things there!

[cuberdrift]

I suggest that you join a site called

dasdc.net

There are a number of professional pianist there, they tend to be obsessed with technical skill, formidable displays of speed etc.

There is a section there to discuss technique, among other things.

I learned quite a few things there!

I've read about that site before, checked it out a few times. Strange but interesting site, though I thoughr ir's largely inactive these days. Still will check on that, as per your suggestion, lol.

Though my concern here was not so much overcoming technique but more of learning new pieces quickly in general.

[klavieronin]

This is purely a guess but I would have thought the opposite is true: practicing lots of super hard pieces would slow down your learning speed.

My intuition tells me (though I have no real evidence to back this up) that you would want to start with short & easy pieces, things you can learn in a few days, then gradually increase the difficulty (while keeping each piece relatively short) until you can learn a relatively difficult piece in the time it used to take you to learn an easy piece.

The reason I think you should keep the pieces short is that you can get a lot of variety while frequently encountering new material to learn. If you try to learn whole sonatas, for example, you will be practicing the same material for a longer period in order to get the whole sonata up to performance level. With shorter pieces, you can get them out of the way sooner then move on to something new. Therefore your brain has to constantly adapt to new input and new movements and, hopefully, get better at learning unfamiliar pieces.

…Just a theory.