Practicing after a break

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goals, motivation, new insights, practice journal, returning after hiatus, slow practice

Source: Pixabay. Public domain. Let’s go!

Today I am starting to practice again after a break.  This post explores some aspects of returning after taking time off.

Not perfect?

Although we may vow to practice every day without exception, we all find ourselves taking a break from time to time, whether planned or due to illness, other responsibilities, being on hold with ConEd, travel, etc.

Feeling guilty? 

In the past, I would get angry with myself.  Not helpful!  That leads to yelling at yourself when staying calm would be the way to go.  When you acknowledge that everyone has days off, getting back into the loop is much less of a struggle.

What we can expect

What can we expect when we start again?  (Note that I did not say “start over.”)

Perfection?  Probably not.  However, if you are going back to music you have practiced recently, you can expect improvement!  Somehow, “ignoring” the music for a while lets it “cook.”  You will most likely find new insights when you return to it.

Jell-O fingers?  Yes… so I use the first practice session to concentrate on my warmup.  Skipping the warm-up after time off just doesn’t work well for me.  I need to feel the muscles in my fingers, so I exaggerate the movements.

Playing at performance tempo?  Even if that were possible, wouldn’t we be inviting wrong notes, fingerings, errors in dynamics and phrasing?  Practicing under tempo is useful, but extremely slow practice is not necessary.  I’ve already learned the notes.  But right now, performance tempo invites mistakes that I’d rather not add to the mix.

First day back

I usually dislike my playing that first day.  That is frustrating, but by now I expect it.  By the second day, it starts to sound better.

The first day back also seems to be a good time to assess fingerings.  If something feels uncomfortable (a level or two below “rusty”), this may be the time to experiment.  See whether a different fingering feels better.

Dynamic changes may not sound smooth.  In addition to that, if a notated dynamic contrast is completely missing, mark the spot in your music!  That means you didn’t learn that spot well enough.  This is a great time to eliminate the “oops” and fix the gap.  When you’ve remedied the problem, that phrase will usually fit into the whole more easily when you return to performance tempo in a few days.

I find it extremely motivating to set a goal, such as a performance date.  With a concert in place, I am far less likely to return to vacation mode.  (I have an aversion to making a fool of myself on stage.  Wonderful incentive!)

It is also helpful to keep a practice journal.  You’ll be able to see your progress.  I have found that dropping and then returning to a program speeds my progress toward my performance goal.  If you have a journal from the time you started learning the notes, you will be able to eliminate guess work and have accurate feedback.  (Do you remember what you did a week ago?  A month ago?  Keeping a written record is very helpful.  There is no reason to expect oneself to remember everything.  Remembering the notes is enough!)

Mix it up!

In an online piano forum, participants were exchanging ideas about how to return to practicing after a break. (What’s the secret? How can I make this easy?) Differing viewpoints emerged, as one might expect. Looking through the comment thread was invaluable.

One participant advocated starting out exclusively with etudes. Another suggested practicing only new repertoire. Someone else planned to play familiar music, waiting to add new pieces until s/he was back in shape.

While reading the thread, it seemed that perhaps taking something from everyone might be best.  In that way, etudes are included but not intimidating. Familiar music needs to be there so we feel like we know how to play! And new repertoire keeps us making progress.

What do you think?

This post has been updated from 2010.

What do you do when returning to practice after a break?  How do you help your students get back into it?  How much time do you need to get back to normal?

Comments welcome!

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Backwards Day!

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Music, pedagogy, teaching

A delightful seven-year-old, arriving for her lesson, immediately announced “This is Backwards Day!”  Who knew?

I went with it, of course.  Resistance would have resulted in one unhappy student.  What actually happened?  We had tons of fun!

What transpired

• We said, “Goodbye!”
• We shuffled her books so the top one was in back
• We chose a piece from the back of the book
• She played the end first
• We went backwards, line by line
• “I love it” became “It love I”
• Fast became slow, and vice-versa
• Loud was soft
• Cresc. was dim.
• She tried a piece with her hands crossed (good practice!)
• She taught me how to play something while she sat in my chair
• She asked me questions like she was the teacher
• And then we said, “Hello!”

Why backwards?

• Backwards is good!
• Start in different places
• Vary repertoire
• Play different dynamic schemes, different rubato, different tempi
• Try the opposite if Plan A isn’t working
• Find fingering backwards ~ where do you need to end?
• Nail the endings by practicing them first
• Practice movements, songs, and sections in reverse order for more flexibility and security

Why backwards works

• Reversing the order of movements assures “equal time” when something interferes with your practice session
• Going backwards is fun!
• Shaking things up enhances concentration
• The usual expectations of the same thing in the same way every day are avoided

Do you sometimes practice backwards?  Do you help your students mix it up?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Optimize your practice time!

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manage time, optimize time, practice, preparing for concerts, save time

Image by romaryka via Flickr

How do you manage your practice time?

[This is a repost from December 2009.  Enjoy!]

Since it is almost impossible to have the same amount of time available every day, it helps to be organized and flexible.  After all, exact repetition every day is soooooooo booooring.

Do you start at the beginning of your program each time you practice?  Are you able to practice everything each time?  Do you have several programs going at once?  It usually happens that I have many different situations to prepare for all at the same time.  With all those variables of performance dates, types of music (vocal, instrumental, collaborative, solo, choral music, etc.), there is rarely a time when everything is ready to go on the same day.

I have found it crucial to set priorities for each practice session.  Depending on the time available, the dates of upcoming concerts, and whether or not a piece is ready to perform, I make a list in my head ~ or sometimes on paper ~ about what I can realistically accomplish that day.  (Most of the time it works.  Sometimes I revise my goals along the way ~ and don’t get mad.)

Keeping a notebook of practice sessions helps immensely.  When you can see the last date you worked on a certain piece, as well as what you did, progress is easier to achieve.  If you don’t know what happened last time, or what state the piece is in, you could spin your wheels for quite a while just figuring out where you are.  And while it may feel good to just play something, it is a huge waste of time.  If you use your time well, you can learn twice as much music.

If I’m increasing the tempo, I write down metronome markings in my practice notebook (but not on the music).  While things are in such a state of flux, I’d rather not have all that writing on the score.  (And erasures wear out the paper.)

When I’ve worked on dynamics, I write that down.  How did it go?  What needs to improve?

Sometimes my impression of a composer’s intent will change, so I write that down, too.  That could change again in a day or two.

Trouble spots definitely make the notebook.  And then I make sure I concentrate on them until they’ve been solved.  Allowing portions of a piece to stay unlearned or remain uncomfortable is truly asking for trouble in performances.

Keeping written comments is the best way I’ve found to get all elements of a program together at the same time.  (It’s like cooking a large dinner, except there’s no backup such as a warming oven or a microwave!)  Having one piece or movement that I’ve ignored until the week before a concert makes me very uncomfortable.  (That happened exactly once.  I discovered on stage, of all places, that I had never put fingerings in a Haydn trio.  Oops.  I felt nervous just for that one reason.  A friend who was in the audience said she noticed, but that it was a good performance anyway…  and I trusted her not to lie to me.   And it will never happen again!)

On days when my practice time is limited, I often surf from one problematic spot to the next.  The next time, I do the same thing in reverse.  Why waste time practicing what you already play well?  You could be reinforcing unusual fingerings, making fast passages more comfortable, calibrating accelerandi and ritards, improving dynamic contrasts, playing the end of one movement and the beginning of the next, practicing intros and interludes in piano reductions or songs, or making a myriad of other effective choices.  What about the ending?  If it’s faster and louder, especially, I spend short periods of time getting it to be foolproof so I can be memorable in the concert.

A word of caution:  I have found that I often feel rushed when I have limited time.  So I play faster.  NOT helpful.  I have improved upon this tendency by being aware of it.  Now I frequently practice under tempo when there is too little time.  That increases my concentration and keeps mistakes from creeping in due to tension and anxiety.

And on those days when there is plenty of time, I revel in it.  Finally!  Time to “perform” an entire program!

How do you manage your practice time?

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I can’t play this! I’ll NEVER be able to play this!! NO ONE can play this!!!

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piano reduction

These thoughts go through my head every time I open a difficult score for the first time. How about you?

Background

This is the slow section of Mozart’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra #5, first movement.  In other words, the “piano” part is an orchestral reduction.

The right hand, when played by the orchestra, is divided between two string parts. Pianists, though, are required to perform gymnastic feats in the reduction, playing both parts in the same hand.

This section of the concerto is serene, slow, and quiet.  To achieve a murmuring sound on the piano is difficult, especially due to the fingers passing over one another and because the normally resulting accents must be avoided.  (It is not possible to play all the notes in the right hand while keeping the hand quiet, playing only five keys ((one for each finger)), and not moving to a different range on the keyboard several times.  In other words, don’t try this at home!)

Facebook comments

When I posted the above pic on Facebook, the following discussion ensued:

First, on 5/1:

[Photo caption]
The most recent addition to my catalog of Finger Busters.

[Discussion]

DG:  Finger busters is right!

AE:  What she said!

HW:  Dang!

MDS:  Wowser.

CBW:  Oh my!  😦

Then, on 5/22:

[Photo caption]
Remember this? The “ack!” phase?
Aced it in today’s performance.
I feel a blog post coming on.

[Discussion]
CH:  Looks “Greek” to me Gretchen but I’m grateful there are artists like you that let those like me enjoy the music!

CBW:  OMG!!!

TP:  Makes my head ache just looking at all those notes!!!

GS:  Exactly. My 1st thought when opening a score is often, “I can’t play this… I’ll NEVER be able to play this… NO ONE can play this!”

And then I learn it.

TP:  Some people like a challenge and some are gluttons for punishment!GS:  And some find it necessary to freak out EVERY TIME. I don’t think child prodigies do that…

TP:  In my trade we call it it SIDS…self induced disaster, the process of psyching yourself out before you even know what you’re up against! lol

GS:  I b the expert!

SN:  So how did the tempo end up?

GS:  120 and 72. Felt reasonable, thank God…

GN:  A great feeling to have worked something out in practice and then play it in performance with no “hitches” . . . .nice work!

GS:  Thank you!

KC:  cool, still growing into the job, Gretchen, that is so great.

GS:  Oh, I have the same reaction every time I open music I haven’t played that looks difficult.

Reality check 

How long did it take to reach performance level with this piece?

Although my Facebook “bookend” posts were three weeks apart, I was busy when I first looked at the score.  There was no time to practice it right away.

After consulting my practice notes, I realized that I had learned the piece at performance tempo in 8 or 10 days.

Got perspective?

This is not an idle question.  I am genuinely curious.  This is an aspect of people’s careers that is rarely talked about, as far as I know.

I am well aware that many musicians learn music faster than I do.  One of the vocal coaching fellows at Tanglewood (there were 3 of us that summer) could learn even a newly composed score still in manuscript form and perform it in 3 days.  He had the enviable ability to skip the practice stage most of us need to get the music into his hands.  Currently head of the composition department at BU, he is a conductor, composer, wonderful pianist, and vocal coach.

My teacher at Aspen was practicing Hindemith slowly with the metronome when I arrived for my lesson one day.  She had never played the piece.  Four days later, she performed it flawlessly, much faster.  So I went home and learned how to practice slowly with the metronome, increasing the tempo in increments.

On the other hand, another teacher practiced Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin” for an entire year before performing it.

What was Horowitz’s time requirement for mastering the repertoire he performed? Rubinstein?  Glenn Gould?  Myra Hess?  Clara Schumann?

A pianist who was interviewed on NPR, when discussing a recent CD release, let it be known that he had practiced one piece for 15 years before ever performing it!

So it seems that preparation time is highly variable.

First take

What do child prodigies say to themselves when first opening a score?  Have you heard anyone talk about that?

I suspect that my self-talk may stem from the fact that I was not a prodigy. While there was music in my family, many musicians I know listened to recordings and attended concerts from an early age.  Several had parents who were professional musicians.  They had mentors who connected them with effective teachers.  Good instruments were acquired early.  All of that makes a difference.  I’ve been playing “catch up.”

A childhood friend recently reminded me that, when I would be invited to go somewhere, my response would always be, “I can’t.  I have to practice.”

Following my senior recital in college, a few friends came back to the recital hall from the distant reception to ensure that I was planning to attend.  They were afraid I would go back to the practice room immediately.  (I’m slow about packing up after a performance.)

B.B. King said it very well:

“It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.”

 

And now I’d like to thank my audience, who listens attentively whenever I practice and never, ever complains.  And thanks also to everyone who commented on Facebook.

What do you say to yourself when you open a difficult score for the first time?  Do you have a panic response?  See it as a challenge? KNOW you’ll be fine even before you begin?  Do you have an idea about how long it will take you to learn a piece before you’ve even started?

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I can sight-read. Why bother with fingering?

Tags

damper pedal, music education, pedagogy, pianistic fingering, piano reductions

Source: Pixabay

This is a question I encounter so often!  

Short answer:  Because if sight-reading is all you ever do, then that’s the best you will ever play.

Today, while learning a Mozart piano reduction (violin concerto), I had to stop myself from switching between fingers on a single key several times.

We have two options:  sight-reading and improving.  (One is more fun than the other!) The pic above accurately represents the way I feel when I have to write fingerings in my music.

The problem, for me, stems from three sources:

1.  Sight-reading (both music I need to learn and music that’s put in front of me in work situations);
2.  Organ playing; and
3.  Playing for chorus/opera/dance/musical rehearsals.

To elaborate:

1.  Sight-reading is a great skill to have!  Without it, there would be far fewer work opportunities.  The problem is that when one relies only on sight-reading, fingerings are random and so is the resulting sound.  The playing will be slower and have considerably less finesse.  In addition, when sight-reading is the only game in town, the music benefits from very little thought.

2.  Organs and pianos both have keyboards, but they are completely different mechanically.  To sustain a pitch on the organ, the key must be depressed. On piano, the damper pedal is available.  Organists are trained to play a key with one finger, then switch to another while still depressing the same key.  That’s how they navigate around the keyboard while playing legato.  Playing the piano in that manner, however, is not helpful except in cases where the fingering cannot be solved in other ways.

3.  When playing piano reductions (chorus, opera, and concertos where the pianist acts as the orchestra), pianistic fingering is not possible.  There are too many notes included in a piano reduction to fit under the hand. (Reductions are not “pianistic.”)  So “bad” fingering often results.  The object is to get to the next location on the keyboard however you can, ahead of time.

So, what is “good” fingering?

• Good fingering is pianistic (comfortable);
• Good fingering enhances the flow of the music;
• Good fingering makes use of different parts of the hand for intended results.
  • The thumb is heavy;
  • The pinkie gets a bright sound;
  • The 3rd finger can imitate French horn;
  • The 4th finger is guaranteed to be softer; and
  • 2 and 5 are great for flute solos.

Try playing Mozart.  Unintended accents will be immediately disruptive. Making good fingering decisions is the shortest route to playing appropriately.

Schumann, Verdi, and Prokofiev sound distinct from each other when played by good orchestras.  Why not play them with different sounds on the piano, too?

Why spend valuable practice time eliminating accents produced by the thumb when you could find a better fingering?  Practicing for hours attempting to produce an accented downbeat with the 4th finger is similarly a waste of time.

What do you think?  Is fingering important to you?  How many practice sessions do you spend playing the same music before writing in fingerings?

How do you get around the keyboard?

Source: Pixabay

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Goal-oriented Practice now 50% off!

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Goal-oriented Practice, Music, pedagogy, perform, practice, teaching

My e-book, Goal-oriented Practice, is now available at 50% off!

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Why singing is the best thing you can do

Leontyne Price. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Carl Van Vechten, 1880-1964, photographer. Public domain.

This afternoon, I practiced some music I hadn’t played in several weeks.  While reviewing notes, fingerings, and dynamics, I found myself thinking about the function of the passage I was working on at the moment.  Was it melody?  Accompaniment?  Beginning, middle, or end of a phrase?  And then I started altering the lengths of the notes to accommodate the direction of the line.

But that felt too removed from the sound. Then, by chance, I started singing the line. Everything changed immediately.

Why?

It was no longer necessary to intellectualize the length of each note (this one is shorter, this one is slightly longer, this one falls away from the previous sound, this one leads up to the next one).

Singing instantly makes the line legato, continuous, and infused with life.  Singing makes it human.  Pianos don’t do that.  Organs don’t either, really, unless the organist uses the volume pedal all the time.

So this is my recommentation for today, tomorrow, next week, next month…

Sing the line!  It changes everything.

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How to learn a chromatic left hand in a week or less

Tags

Accidental (music), chromatic music, Franz Liszt, Liebestraum, piano pedagogy

A helping hand (Photo credit: JMaz Photo)

Yes!  This really works!

In this example, you will need to be patient and keep your desired end result in mind.  When you stick to it, though, it takes less than a week to play the left hand fluently.

The music

One of my piano students is playing “Liebestraum” by Franz Liszt, arr. Bastien.  This is a simplified version in which the left hand plays primarily quarter-note broken chords.  The piece is very chromatic, which requires reading accidentals in quick succession.

The melody is not difficult.  Adding the left hand makes a huge difference in the piece’s impression on listeners.  The harmonies are often unusual, but by adding them, the repeated melody notes have direction.

Let’s get started!

You will recognize this well-known piece as soon as you hear it, so play the melody first.

The left hand should be learned separately.  Accidentals can derail things in a second!  Give yourself a break and focus only on the left hand during a few practice sessions.

Look at the structure

The compositional form is ABA.  The departure from the opening key occurs, of course, in the B section.  This is where the accidentals happen so often they can be confusing.

My student started her practice sessions with the B section, left hand alone, for a few days.

What, specifically, do you need to work on?

If your answer is, “the entire piece,” or “the middle section,” you need to improve your ability to identify where the problems are.  Looking at the entire piece, or a long section, is far too vague an approach for you to progress in a reasonable amount of time.

Fingering

Are you using good fingering?  Have you written the fingering in the score?  It is not necessary to write a number on every single note.  Look for places where your hand could stay in the same range, but the music moves to a different place on the keyboard.  What fingering can you use to make that transition go smoothly?  You may need to adjust the fingering earlier in the phrase.

Important:  Use the same fingering every time.  There’s no getting around this one.  You will learn the piece much faster.

Practice challenge

Do you read bass clef easily?  My student does not, so I gave her an assignment.  For one week, she said the names of the notes aloud while playing.  When she started doing this during her lesson, she was reluctant.  When she tried it again, she was speaking so softly, I couldn’t hear her (directly to her right!).

On the third try, she did it!  I challenged her to continue doing that, even when practicing alone.  I know it works… I use the same approach sometimes, saying fingerings out loud.

At first, she needed a slow tempo.  The idea is to play at a steady pace while saying the letter names loud enough so someone can hear you across the room. Maintaining a steady pace makes it much, much easier to go a little faster in a day or two.  The hesitations will disappear, and mistakes won’t have a chance to be built in!

Try for a steady tempo, even if that is slow, for now.  You don’t want to build in “hurry up and wait” like a New York driver!

Why bother to say the note names out loud?  Can’t I just say them to myself?

NO!  And this is why:  Speaking creates an additional track in the brain.  It is one more way to know the piece.  Finger memory alone is too risky.  Patient work on many levels truly pays off.  Those levels include:

• visual memory
  • of the notes on the page
  • of the keys you play on the keyboard, in the sequence of the piece
• auditory memory ~ how does the music sound?  Can you sing the tune?
• finger memory ~ how does playing the piece feel?  Do your fingers, hands, and arms feel it differently than other pieces you know?
• fingering memory ~ it can be helpful to say the fingering out loud.
• harmonic structure ~ do you know which chords you are playing?  I’m not talking about which chord inversion, whether there are 6th chords, or anything beyond the basics.  You need to know what the basic harmony is.

How to increase the tempo

After you can comfortably play the left hand while saying the note names out loud, going slightly faster will be easy!  But don’t go from the slow tempo to, say, 12 counts on the metronome faster all at once.  Speed up a little at a time.

When I practice this way, I increase the tempo by 2 or 4 clicks/minute.  At the end of the practice session, I write down what the fastest tempo was that day.  On the next day, it usually does not work to begin at that tempo.  So I back up a notch, get comfortable with that again, then go to the fastest tempo from yesterday.  Arriving at that point doesn’t take long.  Then things proceed from there.

As you reach faster tempi, you may want to back up more than one notch to begin the next practice session.  Things improve quickly, so don’t worry if you need to start slower.

OK, now you can play the left hand at a convincing tempo with no glitches!  You did it!  Bravo!

Getting both hands into the act 

It’s time to slow down a little and add the right hand.  You will progress faster if you continue to say the names of the notes in the left hand.

Where do your eyes focus?

My student had no problem with this at all.  I asked her whether her eyes were focusing in a different place on the page now.  She said that they were, in the white space between the two staves.

That is crucial to playing both hands together!  When one’s focus is on the right hand, the left hand is out of focus and collects mistakes.  (Oops, I meant to play….)

My hunch is that we all tend to focus on the top line more than the others.  This is true in piano music, open choral scores, opera scores, etc.  That is not particularly helpful!

Choice of music

“Liebestraum” is a good piece with which to learn these tools, since the melody has so many repeated notes.  That makes it easier to look at the left hand.  You can play the melody by ear.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Ebook, Goal-oriented Practice, learning music, learning process, music education, piano pedagogy, time saver

Give your valentine the gift of music!

Shop in your bunny slippers!

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by Gretchen Saathoff

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“…there’s lot of insight in [your book] that applies nicely to other life endeavors besides practicing the piano, and that was apparent just from my first partial reading of it.”

“Students could download [your book], keep it, and refer to it again and again.”

“I just read your e-book, and it is AMAZING. All I could think about was, “why did our teachers never teach us how to practice?” Sure, they would suggest not always starting at the beginning of the piece, but I really think we needed a much more systematic, disciplined approach. Can’t believe all those wasted hours in the practice room.”

“I love the layout of the book… and the sense of humor is perfect….”

“…a PLEASURE to read something so well-written… clear, concise, and organized. A true pleasure.”

“Wonderful!”

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to all who contributed their expertise and support to make this possible:

to Sean, for assembling all the pieces into one PDF file;

to Charles, for his wonderful feedback and encouragement;

to Louise, Irene, Lauren, and Jane for their support;

to everyone who wrote terrific reviews (see links above);

and to my Facebook and Twitter friends for their ongoing presence.

I couldn’t have done this without you!

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Giant steps!

Tags

adult student, music education, piano pedagogy, unexpected progress

The many ways in which one of my adult students progressed in her two most recent lessons felt like they were unrelated to what we were doing that day.

Four amazing things occurred in her playing!  We had worked on each step at various points in previous lessons, but not for the two weeks included in this post.

1.     Consistent fingering

Two weeks ago, my student was able to stick to the same fingering throughout a piece for the first time.

After our discussion about how this would help from now on, I asked how she felt.  She said she felt stuck, like she couldn’t move (from one location on the keyboard to another).  I had no problem with that for a first assessment.  She just hadn’t experienced the freeing aspects of using consistent fingering yet.  She was trying too hard, so her hands were not relaxed.

2.     More experience with consistent fingering

This past Saturday, she did it again!  When I repeated my question about her experience, she said, “I feel like I know the piece.”  I’ll take it!

3.     Releasing a chord to arrive at the next
in advance

This was such a surprise!  The right hand was playing a melody while the left needed to move from a 2^nd finger C to an octave above with 1 and 3.  She was able to do that, and I don’t think she even noticed.  Moving early has always been difficult for this student.  So seeing her accomplish that even when the other hand was doing something else was particularly gratifying.

Of course we discussed this, too.  She said she could tell where she was headed.  It just “looked right.”  This is the first time she has been able to eliminate most of the 88 keys and see only the ones she wants to play.

4.     Stretching for an octave, then contracting hand

One passage in the right hand included a 5^th finger C, then a stretch to the thumb one octave lower, both quarter notes.  Most of the time, my student’s hand would remain stretched, not relaxed.  On Saturday, her entire hand moved to stay with the thumb!

How could all of this happen at once?

My thoughts go back to consistent fingering.  When someone feels secure on the keyboard, then there is so much less to think about.  Most of the self-defeating guesses were no longer necessary.  (She normally uses a process of elimination.  “No, it’s not C…”)  She knew where she was.

I can’t wait until the next lesson!  This student’s progress will most likely move much faster now that she can find her way around the keyboard more easily.

Have you seen major changes in your students’ lessons?  What were they?

Please share your thoughts
in the comment section below!

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