Advice on how to learn music more efficiently?

[epicchopinenjoyer69]

I have always struggled with this.  Every time I pick up a new piece, it almost always takes me forever to get through it.  For example, I have recently started Beethoven’s Hunt sonata and Scriabins 2nd sonata, and getting through them has been torturously slow.  Obviously these are difficult sonatas ,but I have seen so many of my peers go through music (often more difficult than this) so quickly.  Not to performance standard necessarily, but their ability to get through learning the music to a roughly playable level has always astonished me.  I am a late learner(started at 21, now a senior undergrad in music school at 27), so it doesn’t come as naturally to me as it might for others who started at a much younger age, so I have to imagine that has a lot to do with it.  My playing ability progressed much more quickly than my reading/sightreading skills.  It often feels like I spend so much time just spinning my wheels and making so little progress at the end of an extensive practice session.  Once I get past this “learning the notes” stage, I really don’t have any comprehension issues.  I have pretty solid theory chops, and that helps a lot, and memorization has always been my strength.  I Also have been making it a point as of the last few months to engage in a lot more meaningful score study.  Once I have a piece memorized, it generally will stay with me for quite a while, and I rarely have any memory issues.  There just seems to be this kind of disconnect between my brain and my hands, which makes the initial process of learning notes and such incredibly frustrating and time consuming.  So I’m wondering if anyone here has any advice or some kind of method or general procedure for getting through music efficiently?

[dizzyfingers]

It sounds like you're very on top of the situation - you've assessed your various music skills, you know your strengths and weaknesses and you've come up with a couple strategies - "I also have been making it a point as of the last few months to engage in a lot more meaningful score study."  Not sure what that means exactly.  Meaningful?

There are probably some experts on sight reading skills - doubt you'll find them on this forum - so you should research the topic.  Many people make a point of practicing sight reading. 
You should too.  Create a sight reading improvement strategy, based on your research.

Note:  Scriabin is not easy to read, so don't get bent in the wrong direction by sonata 2.  Sonata op 31 no 3 should be more feasible though.

good luck

[thorn]

Every time I pick up a new piece, it almost always takes me forever to get through it.  For example, I have recently started Beethoven’s Hunt sonata and Scriabins 2nd sonata, and getting through them has been torturously slow. 
...
Once I get past this “learning the notes” stage, I really don’t have any comprehension issues... memorization has always been my strength.

There are two types of sight reading. The first is reading new repertoire in real time as you're working on it, the second is performing a score as accurately/faithfully as possible with limited preparation. The second is what sight reading exams ask us to do, and as we all know the pieces in question are quite a few levels below the repertoire we are performing- for example someone at the level of playing Scriabin 2 and Beethoven op.31/3 might be given the first movement of Schumann Kinderszenen.

The best way to develop sight reading skills is to concentrate on the second kind. Find some pieces that are a few levels below your playing level, set yourself a timer of say 10 minutes, then in that time study the score (even memorise bits if you want) away from the piano. When the timer is up go to the piano and play it from start to finish without stopping, as if you were in a sight reading exam. If you find it too difficult then go back and look for pieces at an even lower level. The point is not to see how difficult a piece you can manage, but what level pieces you can play reasonably well after only a few minutes of studying the score. You can scale up difficulty as your skills develop.

Obviously whilst doing this you're still going to need the other kind of sight reading (reading through a score that you're studying in order to learn it). But if you can't read a full sonata from scratch then stop banging your head on that wall, just build it up a little at a time through memorisation which you say is your strength. To be honest I'm the opposite- hyperlexic so read new scores really fast but easily fall into 'playing through' rather than practicing anything properly (I'm also a late starter btw). The ultimate goal is mastery of the score, it honestly doesn't matter how you get there.

[ranjit]

To be honest I'm the opposite- hyperlexic so read new scores really fast but easily fall into 'playing through' rather than practicing anything properly (I'm also a late starter btw). The ultimate goal is mastery of the score, it honestly doesn't matter how you get there.

Did you find that being hyperlexic for the written word made you hyperlexic at reading sheet music too? That's what I'm hoping for!

Did you find that starting late affected your ability to read in any way?

[thorn]

Did you find that being hyperlexic for the written word made you hyperlexic at reading sheet music too? That's what I'm hoping for!

Did you find that starting late affected your ability to read in any way?

Yes to the first question, no to the second!