How many pieces do you work on simultaneously?

[klavieronin]

I have a long list of pieces I want to learn and have been planning how I'm going to tackle them all and it got me wondering about how other pianists plan their practice time. The question applies to both new pieces being learnt for the first time and pieces already learnt but still actively practicing.

When I first learnt piano seriously I would only ever work on four pieces at once and would spend 30mins on each piece everyday. If it was a multi movement work I would bump that up to an hour. Now with less time on my hands it feels like I'll need to either practice each piece less regularly, for a shorter time, or simply practice fewer pieces.

How do others handle this? I'm mostly interested to hear from people who practice everyday but, of course, anyone is welcome to answer.

[brogers70]

I like to have several pieces at different stages of development, but since I'm usually working on a specific program, there are times when that does not happen. So if I've just finished a house recital and I'm ready to start a new program, then I might have a bunch of pieces I do not know at all. The most mentally taxing thing for me is the phase of learning notes, working out fingerings etc, so then I cut back my practice time from 3-4 hours down to 2, and work on learning the notes for just 2-3 pieces. As I get past that phase on those pieces, I add in new ones, but still spend time on the earlier ones to refine them. Then as the months go by and I get closer to the times I want to perform (all low stress, amateur performances) I end up at a point where I am just refining all the pieces in the program. That's fun, and not so mentally taxing, so at that point I'm doing about 4 hours a day, not necessarily hitting all the pieces every day, that just depends on how secure I feel with each one. Then I do some practice performances for a couple of friends and my teacher, and then do a house recital. Then, start all over again. I always tell myself I'll maintain one or two pieces from the previous program, but I never seem to manage to do that.

[pianistavt]

I have a lot of pieces that are active, so to organize it and actually make progress I group them into 3 tiers: high, medium, low.  There are usually 4-5 pieces in the high group.  I'm very focused on these.  Debussy Toccata has been in there for a while, I just posted a recording of it in Auditions.  The medium group has pieces I am learning or pieces I am invested in but not spending as much time on.  Beethoven opus 109 is in the medium tier, and has been for a while, occasionally a single movement will move to the high tier for a while.  The low group has pieces I am exploring/considering - Liszt's Mazeppa is in there. 

I rarely practice the same piece more than two days in a row.  This is to keep practicing interesting.  I would get bored practicing the same piece every day.

I could probably make better progress if I weren't juggling so many pieces (I have 15 pieces in the high and medium groups) but progress isn't the first priority, engagement / enjoyment is the first priority, progress is the second.

I actually organize these in a spreadsheet...   

Hope that gives you some ideas.

[klavieronin]

I rarely practice the same piece more than two days in a row.  This is to keep practicing interesting.  I would get bored practicing the same piece every day.

I could probably make better progress if I weren't juggling so many pieces (I have 15 pieces in the high and medium groups) but progress isn't the first priority, engagement / enjoyment is the first priority, progress is the second.

Yes, that's something I'm trying to balance too. The problem is that I feel like if I don't practice a piece everyday then it's really difficult to get to the point of polish that I want.

[klavieronin]

The most mentally taxing thing for me is the phase of learning notes, working out fingerings etc, …

I'm the same. It's tire much quicker when learning something new vs polishing a piece that feels fairly secure.

[lelle]

Though I don't play in a professional capacity anymore, I have a master's in piano performance. I have grown to view learning pieces as a long term project. You don't really know a piece well until you've played it for 1-2 years, even if you can learn the notes and prepare a competent performance in a couple of weeks or months. I can certainly relate to what you're saying about mentally tiring quickly when learning something new vs polishing and that it's difficult to get to a high level of polish without regular practise.

With these things in mind, I tend to
* Always be reading multiple pieces with my mind aimed at knowing them well in 1-2 years but with no pressure on mastering them quickly
* Occasional work on cementing older repertoire, bringing out old pieces, playing through them, doing some work on parts that have deteriorated. A surprising amount of stuff holds up fairly well as long as you keep your technique in shape and have learned and memorized them well.
* Polish work on pieces I have worked on for years but which I need to get up to a standard for maybe recording, playing for a small non-professional performance etc. Though as I said I'm not active professionally I still want to bring things to as high a standard as I can, since I hear the flaws all to well with my background.

A typical practice session is a mix of these plus technique work at various ratios depending on what I need.

Not sure how helpful that is but there you go.

[pianistavt]

Yes, that's something I'm trying to balance too. The problem is that I feel like if I don't practice a piece everyday then it's really difficult to get to the point of polish that I want.

There's a lot of talk now in piano teaching (persons or software) about practicing smarter.  I stopped piano lessons at age 22 when I graduated from college.  I can't say either of my teachers (high school or college) taught me how to polish a piece of music, i.e. bring it to performance level, I think the assumption is that after a certain number of hours of playing it, it will just arrive there.  Hmm.

We could really have a separate post on how to polish a piece of music, but for now I just want to say that it's the hardest phase of the piece - - your practice session has to be very focused and intentional.  It's more a factor of strategy, though plenty of time is needed.

[psipsi8]

About a year ago I restarted piano playing after a long absence. I had achieved a high standard of playing beforehand and the first thing I did was try to bring some of my old pieces (e.g. those played at my exam for an associate's performance diploma at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada) up to standard. This didn't take too long, but at the same time, I took it upon myself to learn the rest of Bach's keyboard toccatas BWV 910-916 (one of them had been in my old repertoire). Needless to say, that a year later, they are all technically decent but not up to performance standard. My playing routine (I've since added two new Beethoven sonatas) is pretty random, although I do try to work on each piece for at least an hour (or more, depending on how long the piece is) twice weekly. So, with a lot of new pieces, the progress is slow, however, there is progress. One annoying thing is that if I leave a piece for too long, the first time I replay it, it's really bad, but if I play it continuously during a session, it just flies.

[cuberdrift]

I think a good way to approach practice is to plan a "serious" repertoire that you will perform in public at a scheduled date and then a "side piece" which you practice for fun when you get bored with the former.

[klavieronin]

I can't say either of my teachers (high school or college) taught me how to polish a piece of music, i.e. bring it to performance level…

That's unfortunate. I feel like I did a tonne of work with both the teacher that helped me get into university and my teacher at university preparing music for performance (or exams). It's what I learnt most from them. Almost everything else I learnt from books or experience (except I did have one teacher for a very brief period whose primary focus was technique).

[klavieronin]

Lots of great suggestions and things to think about from everyone here. Thanks. 

[lelle]

I'm curious if someone knows any interviews qoth the biggest concert pianist regarding how they do this?