I compiled a list of "unconventional" strategies I use to practice. Thoughts?

[ranjit]

I compiled a list of uncommon strategies I have come up with over the years which I use to practice. I would love to hear what the more experienced members on this forum have to say. Please let me know what you think!


1. Incorporating improvisation into practice: Drill one hand (e.g. with scales, octave patterns, thirds, etc.) while coming up with simple patterns in the left hand, such as an ostinato pattern, a simple chord progression played as an arpeggio, etc., or a simple melody in octaves (a la Chopin Etude Op 10 no 1).

2. Patterns and rhythmic variation during practice: Play something simple, but come up with as many rhythmic variations as possible. For example, start out with a chromatic scale, and then only play the notes of the chromatic scale up and down, but play whatever rhythms you feel like. Incorporate rubato, quintuplets, swung notes, anything which catches your fancy. If you play the same variations with both hands simultaneously, you can develop and improve upon a natural sense of coordination between the hands. Interestingly, you can make up melodies which sound interesting to the ear if you just vary the rhythm enough while restricting yourself to playing a scale up and down (while allowing yourself to switch direction at any moment).

3. Trill practice & groupings: Trills are one of the most "fundamental" things which you can get better at. Try and play a relaxed trill and then play a scale. It works remarkably well. Practicing trills in some way trains the time it takes for you to play one finger after another, which is a fundamental barrier to speed.

4. Practicing in front of a (literal) mirror: This can trick your brain into thinking that one hand is the "other", and since you are used to seeing the other hand playing in that position, it makes discrepancies in your technique between both hands really obvious.

5. Mirror practice: (NOT practicing in front of a mirror) The keybed is symmetrical about Ab, and about D. Play a figure with one hand, and play the symmetrical image of the figure with the other about either of those notes, either simultaneously or one after the other. Since the keyboard (and your hands!) are symmetrical, if you can play something with one hand, but can't with the other, you may be able to "transfer" the skill from one hand to the other.

6. While listening, try and concentrate all of your attention towards a very minor detail. In a song, try to listen to one particular instrument buried deep in the mix, such as the harmonization line of the vocals. Similarly for orchestral and piano music. You will feel like the music envelopes you and you'll better appreciate the cohesiveness of the whole arrangement. It also very conveniently draws your attention away from the arrangement in its entirety, while at the same time not distracting your mind entirely from it, which allows you to process the music "instinctively" rather than cerebrally.

[lostinidlewonder]

It depends on ones practice goals. What is your aim to practice in this manner and how do you develop it all? Surely you can't just keep it all at the same level and repeat it ad infinitum the main challenge is how do you develop it over time and have use for it to accelerate your learning of pieces.  Time is also a factor, if you can manage all of this as well as normal practice great, but one wants to be aware of the opportunity cost.

[ranjit]

Time is also a factor, if you can manage all of this as well as normal practice great, but one wants to be aware of the opportunity cost.

A lot of what I've written here is putting into words what I have been doing instinctively for years. I can't comment too much on their efficacy when compared to traditional practice because I haven't ever really practiced in that way. I can only speak from experience -- I feel this has worked for me even without technically "practicing", and many people who have trained under teachers say that I've progressed quite a bit faster than them, but I'm sure that a good student with a really good teacher would be able to progress faster. So I guess there's the opportunity cost.

Surely you can't just keep it all at the same level and repeat it ad infinitum the main challenge is how do you develop it over time and have use for it to accelerate your learning of pieces.

I think that a lot of what I've written here is general enough to apply regardless of what level one's at. It's more of a general principle. The idea is to use these strategies while experimenting with techniques at the extremes of your ability in order to advance your ability. It ties in with the idea of making exercises from pieces. Since technique is acquired when you make sense of certain movements, it is easier to figure out those movements imo when you are in an "exploratory" mindset.

Also, I think that a lot of what I've said here is what many advanced pianists actually do, but don't verbalize. A lot of pianists say that they "don't practice", and I suspect that what they actually do is kind of similar. (Have you seen Tiffany Poon's video on her practice "routine"?) It's possible that it only works after acquiring a solid foundation of some sort, though, do let me know if you think so.

[brogers70]

I really like #6; listen to minor details carefully. I find that if I listen carefully for nice details in inner voices, or long slow lines under faster notes, or any similar hidden beauties in pieces that I'm playing, then they automatically come out in my playing, without any need to think in detail about what to do physically to voice them the way I want to. It makes me learn pieces a bit faster, but the main thing it does is make practice more effective and much, much more enjoyable, because I'm always listening to find some new, beautiful detail that I hadn't noticed before. Time flies that way and practice never feels like drudgery.

[lostinidlewonder]

A lot of what I've written here is putting into words what I have been doing instinctively for years.

I understand that it is what you personally do and that's fine, I will give you some of my opinion about it all.

I can't comment too much on their efficacy when compared to traditional practice because
I haven't ever really practiced in that way.

When I suggested to focus on normal practice I meant not going into the extra details you are going through in your points (a side on type approach) and just focusing on learning the music head on.

I think that a lot of what I've written here is general enough to apply regardless of what level one's at.

For instance your point no 3 practicing trills is something I have enough mastery over and a number of my students also. There are of course tougher double note trills at extreme speed but honestly you don't find much music that requires such feats.

Also, I think that a lot of what I've said here is what many advanced pianists actually do, but don't verbalize. A lot of pianists say that they "don't practice", and I suspect that what they actually do is kind of similar. (Have you seen Tiffany Poon's video on her practice "routine"?) It's possible that it only works after acquiring a solid foundation of some sort, though, do let me know if you think so.

As an advanced pianist I can say the majority of my practice is simply done through multiple sight reading attempts of a piece. If there are sections that are troublesome I will apply the numerous tools I have to solve it. I don't tend to create extra work to solve the issue, a side on approach, I simply approach it front on and solve all the challenges. There are practice tools to dismantle pieces and still maintain exactly how it is to be played, sometimes when creating exercises or other side on approaches we can end up creating more work. Though I agree sometimes exercises act as a catalyst to solve our technical problems.

1. Incorporating improvisation into practice: Drill one hand (e.g. with scales, octave patterns, thirds, etc.) while coming up with simple patterns in the left hand, such as an ostinato pattern, a simple chord progression played as an arpeggio, etc., or a simple melody in octaves (a la Chopin Etude Op 10 no 1).

Sure this is good to do but you can flounder about doing these things for a long time and not really get much else done. Of course it is good to practice coordinating your hands away from pieces and its fine to do it with improvisation but the freedom that you have can often make you fall into patterns you are comfortable with and experimentations to develop your improvisationary patterns can prove elusive without much piece study.

2. Patterns and rhythmic variation during practice: Play something simple, but come up with as many rhythmic variations as possible.

This just adds a lot to ones work load which may be interesting for some but unnecessary for others, some just cannot afford the extra time required. It can be helpful to transform a piece you are playing into different rhythms or groupings but to simply create many for the sake of it seems to me to take up precious time.

3. Trill practice & groupings: Trills are one of the most "fundamental" things which you can get better at.

Trills are not a huge part of everyones playing and a number of my students play them very well so there is no need to actually practice them as exercises.

4. Practicing in front of a (literal) mirror: This can trick your brain into thinking that one hand is the "other", and since you are used to seeing the other hand playing in that position, it makes discrepancies in your technique between both hands really obvious.

I don't see the point in doing this.

5. Mirror practice: (NOT practicing in front of a mirror) The keybed is symmetrical about Ab, and about D. Play a figure with one hand, and play the symmetrical image of the figure with the other about either of those notes, either simultaneously or one after the other. Since the keyboard (and your hands!) are symmetrical, if you can play something with one hand, but can't with the other, you may be able to "transfer" the skill from one hand to the other.

What is the point of doing this as a daily habit and for all levels?

6. While listening, try and concentrate all of your attention towards a very minor detail. In a song, try to listen to one particular instrument buried deep in the mix, such as the harmonization line of the vocals. Similarly for orchestral and piano music. You will feel like the music envelopes you and you'll better appreciate the cohesiveness of the whole arrangement. It also very conveniently draws your attention away from the arrangement in its entirety, while at the same time not distracting your mind entirely from it, which allows you to process the music "instinctively" rather than cerebrally.

Sure you can pick and choose what to listen to when listening to a piece however it is the overall picture and style that one needs to understand, the musical language as a whole. Once you have the large picture then the minor details can enhance that, you don't study the minor details to appreciate the whole picture, it is like trying to study a tree and looking at the cellls in its leaves first. Start with the large picture and focus in.

[chrismaninoff]

I really like this! I also find that incorporating improv is really good for me. 

My one... concern?  I guess?... would be that some of these things seem like the kind of things that I, personally, would find too fun to do usefully.  For instance, the melody-writing method you mentioned.  I think that I would get carried away with it and spend too much time.  I think that whatever your practice method is, it has to be intentional and goal-oriented.  I used to spend about 30 minutes each morning making a list of very precise goals, before starting my practice sessions, so that I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish.  I found it made my practicing incredibly efficient and effective. 

Maybe the conclusion is that these sound like good tools, but we have to make sure we don't trust the tools, and rather, that we use them to accomplish goals.  With that in mind, I really want to try number 5... that sounds like an interesting experiment at the very least. 

[ranjit]

lostinidlewonder -- Thank you so much for your detailed response!

When I suggested to focus on normal practice I meant not going into the extra details you are going through in your points (a side on type approach) and just focusing on learning the music head on.

I initially thought you were referring to exercises such as Hanon and Czerny, or scales/arpeggios which a lot of classical piano students use to practice (which would also be a side on type appraoch). I agree with the part on learning the music head on. I'm not referring to incorporating these strategies daily as part of a practice routine -- I'm talking about using them to troubleshoot, and to "unlock" technique.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the impression that many of the points you mention are directed towards advanced piano students, who have already learned pieces such as Chopin etudes. In that case, learning the piece would amount to sightreading it and attacking the problematic sections (which there shouldn't be too many of in the first place) head on.

For instance your point no 3 practicing trills is something I have enough mastery over and a number of my students also. There are of course tougher double note trills at extreme speed but honestly you don't find much music that requires such feats.

I was referring to learning to play more difficult trills as useful to help surmount bottlenecks in speed. Your playing of a scale is fundamentally limited by how fast you can play 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, etc. in succession. While there's a lot more that goes into it, I felt that being able to trill, say, 3-4, would help indirectly to play scales and other figurations where you need to play them quickly in succession. It probably doesn't apply anymore when you reach a high enough level.

Of course it is good to practice coordinating your hands away from pieces and its fine to do it with improvisation but the freedom that you have can often make you fall into patterns you are comfortable with and experimentations to develop your improvisationary patterns can prove elusive without much piece study.

Actually, I was referring to learning technique by adding a small amount of musical interest to an otherwise dull pattern, while sacrificing very little attention, as playing an octave or something in one hand won't really distract you from the "actual" learning going on in the other hand (assuming you aren't a complete beginner). It can also take your mind out of an obsessive rut to get the damn thing right.

This just adds a lot to ones work load which may be interesting for some but unnecessary for others, some just cannot afford the extra time required. It can be helpful to transform a piece you are playing into different rhythms or groupings but to simply create many for the sake of it seems to me to take up precious time.

I was referring to coming up with the rhythms on the spot while practicing. It's not just playing a scale in different rhythms -- it's playing a scale while dynamically varying the rhythm in an improvisatory (as opposed to premediated) fashion. Playing at different speeds and in different patterns will require slightly different hand motions, and this should help with that.

I don't see the point in doing this.

Why not?

What is the point of doing this as a daily habit and for all levels?

(Regarding mirror practice about Ab and D) I think it's helpful as long as both of your hands aren't essentially "equal" in terms of technique, since there will probably be quite a bit one hand can "learn" from the other. I think most pianists at least up to the early advanced level, have a dominant hand which is considerably better than the other in some respects, so it should be useful.

This isn't a daily practice routine. I find that if you have a technique which you want to learn which you are already good at with one hand (say fast left hand scales), then one of the fastest ways to get the other hand up to speed is to play the mirror image of the figuration in the right hand about Ab, and then mimic the movements. However, whenever you are practicing scales/arpeggios/basic technique, I think doing this would be very useful.

I don't have daily habits lol. It would be highly hypocritical of me to prescribe them.

[ranjit]

My one... concern?  I guess?... would be that some of these things seem like the kind of things that I, personally, would find too fun to do usefully.  For instance, the melody-writing method you mentioned.  I think that I would get carried away with it and spend too much time.

Haha -- you're right about that! The same happens with me, I guess I'll have to cut down on it later on lol.