Learning a piece behind your teacher's back

[mavis_]

So I have an upcoming recital in a few months but I've already memorized the pieces and my teacher is just helping me polish/refine/enhance my way of playing the pieces. Honestly, I want to learn a lot of repertoire within this year and I feel like if I don't start anything and just wait until the recital's over, I would be wasting time. (Because I just want to pursue piano career but I realized it very late and I have at least exactly a year to prepare my skills) I remember telling my teacher about learning a new piece while preparing for the recital piece but she's like "no, since we're not yet done with your pieces/recital, let's focus on the recital for now because you can't balance" But I'm also academically busy, and I'm terrified that if I learn a piece behind my teacher's back I might  forget the pieces we've been working on for the recital or I worry that once I start a piece I might turn my back against it because of the increasing academic stress but there's also that stress for enhancing my skills in order to get accepted into a music conservatory.

I really want to learn a new piece so what should I do? I can't tell this to my teacher especially since she said that, so any advice to balance acad work and learning a new piece (with quality since I won't get help from my teacher) + recital pieces. Thank you!

[brogers70]

Sounds like you are already pretty overloaded with things musical and academic to work on. I'd say, take your teacher's advice, take a deep breath, and focus on your recital pieces.

[ranjit]

You know, I used to think similarly, but I've grown to realize that the quality to which you learn pieces matters so much more than how many of them you learn. The amount of time you take to learn new pieces after you've already mastered a bunch of pieces in a similar style decreases rapidly in the initial stages, if you learn properly. So it doesn't make sense to think, I'll learn one Bach WTC prelude and fugue a month, for example imo. The first one may take 6 months. You then develop a bunch of allied skills and the next one may take 2 months. After a few years, you may be able to learn one a week.

Also, it's important that you do your best to get into university if that's what you want to do, as a path forward. You will probably have time there to learn new pieces.

[mavis_]

well that's true and indeed an insight i should actually pay attention to. i'm just probably overwhelmed of the thinking of the future with regards to me not making it in time when it comes to auditions. Plus I am kind of struggling relearning techniques for my pieces because i've been playing them wrong for 2 years now and it's hard breaking habits sigh

[faa2010]

I understand you, I think. I also want to learn new pieces because either they are challenging, my favourites, or both. But in some way like you, I am also overloaded and I have to keep in order my priorities like ending the major, teaching piano to my students, social service, and ending and polishing the piano pieces I have in case I decide to graduate by doing a piano recital.

I agree with your teacher, because the safe bet is improving and polishing the piano pieces you have instead of learning new ones from zero and which the error probability is higher. Those new pieces could be learnt after your recital.

And we are not alone, I bet that there are many students around the world who also want to learn new pieces, including ones which could show off their awesomeness as pianists, but they can't because of timing and overload of work as well. 

There is a manga (and has its anime), Nodame Cantabile, and even though there is some fantasy, there are parts where realistic issues appear, like when the titular character decided to enter to a piano competition in short time, with the intention of getting the first prize, she learnt many difficult pieces, but it was a question of time (and with a mix of stress and getting sick) that she failed and got disqualified because her memory failed in the last round with the last pieces.