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This December I will have completed a full year of tracking my piano practice using a helpful practice journal that I found on Amazon.com by Olivia Ellis and Davis Dorrough. I thought I would share the link here just in case anyone else might find it useful: https://a.co/d/3X0vFaX
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I’m pretty unorthodox in practicing. In the past I followed the recommendation to try to study everything in my repertoire daily and as I could have 1h30m to 2h max of training, it was really those 15 to 20 min of practice for most things. I had a problem because I was not good in making longer practice sessions, so I had to stop every time I changed the next thing to practice and lost some time. Also, after 2-3 things practiced, it was psychologically hard to go to one more, so I made longer breaks and spent a lot of valuable practice time.
I decided to adapt my practice to something that worked best for me, even knowing it is not optimal. So, my focus is usually one thing for the day (technique, piece) and take it really seriously, spending energy and time to be more careful and take it until a point that I feel things improved. If I get to the point I get tired with the piece, but feel I want to take something else I do. On weekends I study more things, but I can still spend a whole day in one thing if I feel I’m practicing with quality. And if I’m tired I stop. I can jump a day of practice also if I’m too tired without feeling guilty.
The downside is that not practicing daily implies in losing some of the progress made to take the piece back to the point it was. I do improve slowly, I feel I need double the time to make the progress of what would be a one year curriculum. But at least for me, practicing this way made me appreciate more the practicing session, as in the past I felt it more as a burden which would be hard to keep for these many years.
What I really miss is not having completed the theory (particularly harmony), and perception (aural skills) / solfeggio classes and even history, it is being hard to learn without formal classes those things and I’m at a point that I really feel the impact of the lack of those skills/knowledge in my progress.
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A more sincere answer than the one I gave last week in case it's of any use. I think it was helpful thinking it out into writing:
I'm about 50 and fairly new to piano (6 "real" years) so my process from year to year is still changing a lot.
Here's what I do now as a practice routine. Generally mornings before work gets busy, roughly 5-8am
- Set the stage - Maybe the recording of the last lesson should be going on the ear buds as I walk around. Likely something was said I didn't get marked on the score or Excel task list -- or didn't translate to symbols/words well and I need to hear it again.
- Turn on the PC by the Piano, get it booting up.
- Start the coffee water boiling, measure the beans on the scale
- Log in to the PC, load Word (my "learning piano" notes - a @John_Mortenson style zibaldone) Excel (menu of practice tasks) and browser (mostly for Newzik and Piano Marvel)
- Watch myself glance at - and than consciously-close-quickly - the favorite news web site. Notice how it's all the same stuff and it's amazing how interesting the news is all of a sudden. There will be time later to read it.
- Coffee water boiling, add a little cold to get to around 195-205. Grind the beans. Put together, start countdown timer on Fitbit watch at 3:45
- In Excel practice tasks files un-freeze panes from yesterday, copy all yesterday's tasks to new rows at the bottom. Update all the dates to today, shade all but the first 3 lines in yellow (indicating not done). Freeze pane on the top 3 items for today's list. Glance at them
- At around 1 minute, stir the coffee grounds back into the water
- Waking up the parts of the house I use. Glance at e-mail, if it's not crashed or bleeding, it can wait...
- Fitbit goes off, time to pour the coffee into my wife's Yeti so it's warm when she gets up. (I just dabble in coffee, trying to notice flavors)
- Fill and set the big water bottle by the piano. Every sniff of coffee requires a sip of water.
- All those bathroom breaks are chances for a bit of meditative mindfulness or reflection on how practice is going - to realize you've been forgetting to practice X the Y way - BEFORE time to practice is up. It is not time to read the news or check the mail. Keep working to make opening the news/mail app on the phone the habit trigger to meditate or reflect.
- Take off the Fitbit (playing piano confuses the pedometer)
- Warm ups
- While doing Roskell warmups, work to really read the first 3 items on the Excel task list. Notice the brain getting uncomfortable about what's to come -- and the squirming. ("Laundry needs to be folded! That plant may need water, you should check it! Maybe we have emails to deal with…."). Abide with this, play with it, let it play out in the background.
- Think about what is newer in the learning process (i.e. just started yesterday). Plan to reinforce/solidify any recent learning with today's work.
- Open the Word Piano-notes Zibaldone document. Spend a few minutes with it, find something to organize/clean-up. Look at any one page and I'll be reminded of a good thing or 3 I wanted to remember
- Feel the brain squirm "but reading and deciding what to do and how to do it is a waste of time! We need to start wiggling fingers!!!!". Enjoy the squirming. Who's going to be the boss today, emotions or the intellect? How long will that last?
- Start to work the big warm-up task on Excel:
- Notes to play on the keyboard: Prefer coming-up-next or just-started repertoire, especially harder stuff doing 2-hands-together first-time type efforts. Older-probably-learned-with-some-bad-habits repertoire, and broken-chords-technique or lots-of-movement works like Chopin Op 25 #1 also good types of items for this task
- This is all about kinesthesia, clean easy movement, the brain noticing everything, fingers barely working at all, even when playing loudly
- Set the (usu. just mental) metronome on "excruciatingly slow - where a random 10-second listener can't figure out what you're playing"… or even slower ( @Maria_Lomozov's practice tip #7)
- This task currently reads: Position Practice, brain work not finger: (Mortenson) play only beautifully and easily. Super-neutral hands in dead/relaxed position. 3-dimension movement. Technique maybe 1-octave apart to help the hands synchronize/notice-differences in kinesthesia. Feel each release: In-and-out/thumb-jump-rope/swing/wrist pivot L-R/Wrist Rotation/From-the-shoulders, play on the edge, from the shoulders/elbows (swinging), notice how hands get out of synch, watch/feel the hands recover to neutral/level, elbows in/line-up-hands, level hands, free shoulders and arms, play from the back, try loud only from arm drop, no muscle force, listen to the sounds, usu. try for legato. PFx2, move-fast-play-slow, Anticipate the next note feel. Key Elaborations: over-do good motions to help learn them, 1 hand, Hands always neutral, arms move, learn how better-played notes sound. Play each note firmly and loudly to confirm good support, stick the landing in the center, force from weight drop and/or active fingers, not pushing down. Super slow, constantly aware of new things. Active fingers pushing down only (no side movement) with release. Eyes closed, feel everything, precise fingertips. Read and notice all the marks and notes on the score you've been ignoring
- The fingers are barely working but the brain is going crazy, anticipating, planning, feeling - make the mind feel a bit of strain
- Keep glancing back at the task text, find one or two small parts of it to work on next
- If this is going well and this task needs an hour, so be it.
- If a bunch of fingerings seem off or are missing and would be more natural if changed, so be it, figure it out, write it down now. You have all the time in the world if you get the motions correct right now
- Unlike @Dominic_Cheli I currently like using this "prime" time to work out fingerings. At my (much lower) level it's not just working out a fingering: It's working out groupings of fingerings and trying to decide the entire body and brain's approach to each note (i.e. @Henry_Kramer 's approach to learning 3rds in Chopin's g# etude), and trying to learn it so well I can hit it half as well when playing at tempo. There's plenty of crappy technique from childhood to still un-learn….
- A work where every "start playing exactly on this note" slightly-questionable fingering isn't written in - is a work I need to admit I'm not taking seriously
- Any key signature, ledger-line or un-fingered note hit wrong once or esp. twice on these first reads needs a finger-number/b/#/note-name written by it. No shame, momento mori - time is short, just write it in and save time getting it right every time after now.
- More Active Warm Ups / Longer-term technique work (if #2 above took long and time is getting short, this might be skipped)
- Start working the Excel list. Choose from (a bit more finger work, even more brain-work) some tasks like:
- Poly-rhythms work using scales
- Learning @Boris_Berman technique of "floor" articulations, feeling the forearm release after each note
- Dohnanyi exercises 1-6
- Sight reading: Consciously choose to work on "no-looking, learning hand positioning by feel" OR "at-a-steady-tempo sight reading"
- Start working the Excel list. Choose from (a bit more finger work, even more brain-work) some tasks like:
- Now we're cooking (or about out of time…) Get started on some items from the big list of tasks
- Look at the "key focus" items at the top of the task menu, maybe pick 1 or 2 to try to apply to all tasks today, change to white background
- Be sure to re-visit newly started things until the learning is starting to stick
- Maybe do some technique
- Maybe do deeper repertoire
- Maybe listen to yesterday's short recording, find 1-3 things that you want to change, update/create new tasks as needed
- While working the Excel list change the background of items "completed" to white -- but I only get to do that if "the cake is baked" (Roskell) for that item.
- Look at the "key focus" items at the top of the task menu, maybe pick 1 or 2 to try to apply to all tasks today, change to white background
- Set the stage - Maybe the recording of the last lesson should be going on the ear buds as I walk around. Likely something was said I didn't get marked on the score or Excel task list -- or didn't translate to symbols/words well and I need to hear it again.
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Eduardo, you can catch up on harmony and solfège by doing harmonic analysis of your pieces. A book might help, of course. But actually applying it to what you’re playing is most helpful. And that’s a part of practice time too.
As for history, I find that reading a good book about a composer whose works I’m currently studying extremely helpful and enjoyable. You get a better understanding of the music and somehow enjoy it more too. I follow the compositions mentioned and listened to them all as I read the book, orchestral and choral compositions included. This holistic approach might help you feel more well-rounded with your practice.
Another alternative is, of course, to find a music teacher who teaches solfège together with piano studying. You will still be expected to do a bit on your own.
All the best to you!
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Eduardo, here’s the list of composer books I would recommend highly. They are all scholarly and well-written books:
J.S. Bach, The Learned Musician, by Christoff Wolff
Beethoven, Anguish and Trial, by Jan Swafford
Johannes Brahms, A Biography, by Jan Swafford
A Life and Times of Fryderyk Chopin by Alan Walker
Also an interesting book by Eigeldinger - Chopin: pianist and teacher - the closest we come to Chopin’s piano instruction.
I have many others, including on Rachmaninoff and Moszkowski, but not high on my recommended list.I have a number of books on piano playing and practicing, including by Josef Hoffman, Heinrich Neuhaus and Seymour Bernstein. My favorite, however, is Playing the Piano for Pleasure by Charles Cooke published in 1940 and republished more recently. The author was an amateur pianist, whose job gave him access to the world’s greatest pianists at the time. The book is a well-written and very inspiring document of recommendations of these greats for us, amateurs. My piano teacher loved it too.
Enjoy!
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My practice is pretty idiosyncratic. I try for 90’, but usually can do an hour. Regardless, I find it helps to have a plan and to think in terms of daily, weekly, and quarterly goals. I cannot abide scales and arpeggios, so usually have some fingery Mozart or Beethoven on the menu for that. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time doing one hand slow practice, then playing short segments at best speed, recording, and repeating. As I have aged memorization is more of a problem, solved with the IPad which serves as a great aide-memoire.
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I will admit, I'm a bit obsessive in my goal tracking. I like to make sure I allocate appropriate time and that I meet or exceed my goals each day - it helps me get back to the piano. I have one rule - you can skip one day, but never two... and I track an analyze my progress - I know this level of detail isn't for everyone but I've been doing it for a while and it works well for me. Sometimes I will notice I've invested a lot of time in one piece and it isn't progressing ...why, why are others moving so fast - is it difficulty, practicing familiar parts too much, not setting specific goals before I get to the piano?
I do also find if I set a small goal each day - I can be successful each day and that gets me back to the piano each day because instead of feeling discouraged and like I didn't get anything done - each and every day I conquer a problem - it really was a game changer.
Anyway here is my tracking sheet for better or for worse ;-) -
Wow, I've been trying to keep track of how much time I spend on each piece I study, but I end up feeling a bit lost when it comes to analyzing it all. Would you mind sharing this file, as a template, with me? Also, if you're up for it, could you leave a few examples of your daily practice goals in there?
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Sure I will post the whole sheet... in response to an example of my practice goals - as you see on my sheet when I'm done practicing each day - I think what needs to be fixed next time - I keep it small though 1-2 measures, 1 passage, on spot giving me trouble - I never make it really big things... as an example those types of goals are never 'play it start to finish without stopping' those types of goals I look at differently as those can be the ones that are demotivating and I call those 'performance goals' and while I do have them each day they are generally after I've done my practice for the day - usually an hour or two later I will do full play throughs without stopping as best as I can at whatever speed allow the most accuracy.
The key for the small successes every day are the most important to me because they help me make the most progress... some examples -
* play this one descending scale with the turnaround until it is smooth and in my muscle memory
* fix that one note I keep playing wrong - play it 20 times right in that measure
* stop being lazy and fix this fingering
* really look at those notes I'm not sure of work through the very slowly
* decide on the fingering for that measure today and stop changing it - this IS what I'm going to do going forward.
* I'm shaking on the timing there - play this one or two measures over and over with the metronome so I understand and am sure of the timing.
I really resist just playing even a whole line in these focused practice sessions I work on very specific and very very small sections... generally I never have to fix them again - on or two focus events and they are fixed.
Hope that helps...
I'm posting the spreadsheet - be sure before you type in a cell you see if it has a formula in it! If it has a formula in it - see the cell it is referring to and fill it in there.
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I am on two platforms: flute and piano. My aim is to prioritise each instrument on alternate days, based on thirds because of the musical significance of thirds. It's also a really significant number for me personally. A flute day is 2/3rds on flute and 1/3rd on piano, and a piano day is 2/3rds on piano and 1/3rd on flute. It doesn't always go according to plan!
I have been laid low for about two months now with a respiratory virus. I have just finished the second week of antibiotics. I am feeling much better but sceptical that the virus has gone. The weather in the UK is improving so hopeful that the rising temperature will kill off this virus.
My approach, when I am fit, is the same for each instrument, which is to start with improvisation, which combines with memory effectively, as I try to remember where I have decided to travel. I then move to practising phrases that I know have their challenges. I then like to 'prelude' which is to play some Bach, followed by going through the diatonic chords on piano and jazz scales on flute.
I then turn to scales, which I rotate. I use Taffanel and Gaubert on flute on the 2/3rds basis - e.g. 10 mins = 1/3rd and 20 minutes = 2/3rds. I was planning (before I became ill) to revisit Moyse's 'Exercise Journaliers' and start to use this as my technical daily flute practice, so that starts tomorrow!
I just joined the Piano TWI on Scales and am so pleased that this is happening as I am at the point where I need to go back to Dominic's Scales and Trills lessons and take them forward to the 'Grand Form', with a little good fortune.
I played the chromatic several times yesterday. It's always interesting to me that a 'rest' allows the brain to absorb one's current experience. I was so pleased with how my chromatic has stabilised.
It is noticeable that there are no pieces mentioned above. However, I do need to re-establish my flute repertoire, which was again rotated to maintain it.
My piano repertoire is less advanced than the flute, of course, but, again, I need to re-establish it. I did have one many years ago. My 'go to' piece currently is the 2nd Fugue for the WTK, well the first 9 bars presently.