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I have to balance many different aspects of my life commitments!
These primary tasks vary from
1. working at tonebase (of course!
) 2. teaching privately at the Colburn School
3. performing concerts (lots of traveling!)
4. Recording projects (as performer, engineer, and producer)
5. and my hobby of training for Ironman triathlons!
So my days can get very limited with how I practice. Therefore I employ some important techniques to take advantage of my time.
I always have a "working" playlist of pieces on my iPhone. That way I can always cycle through the pieces that I am working on and need to listen to as I am in transit, at grocery store, etc... It really helps to have the music playing on repeat, saving me time when I get to the piano! This is especially important for chamber music. The MOST important aspect of this is having a clear idea of the tempo. I don't want to waste time practicing the piece for TOO FAST of a tempo or not practicing it enough leaving me at too slow of a tempo.
If I need to relax, I often spend a lot of time visualizing my pieces in my head, running through them even when watching TV or a movie. Visualization practice is super important for me, equal to playing the instrument, so if I don't have access to a piano, or it is too late to practice, I can still put some more work in!
Similar to the above, if I don't have access to a piano, I always can relax by watching TV and having my scores out on my iPad. Analyzing them by adding fingerings, marking harmony, circling patterns is great work to get done before getting to the piano next!
In fact, I usually DON'T practice my piece until I have done a cursory overview of it first, away from the piano, marking in all the obvious harmonies, fingerings, and more. That way when I get to the piano I can dive in with a head start! I practice music that already as that "preliminary work" done.
I also am always changing my "priority level" of pieces as I work on them. With a lot of repertoire, it is good to have a quick check-in each day, where I think about which pieces need the most immediate work - due to upcoming rehearsals or concerts! This list can re-arrange itself each day, typically guided by "what am I most nervous about
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Dominic Cheli What a great outline of suggestions for when we can't be near a piano. I had some tendonitis last month when we were doing the mazurka challenge with Jarred, so I tried your technique of just analysing and "practicing" away from the piano for 1 week, then when my hand felt better I did a week of regular practice and the piece felt MORE solid than usual after just 2 weeks. I still have a ton to do on it, but I love your methodology.
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Dominic Cheli those are such excellent approaches! My first teacher was a big proponent of the Leimer-Gieseking method and had me read and analyze and, as much as possible, memorize the score of each new piece before ever touching the keys to play it. Now that I'm old and lazy, I'm not nearly as disciplined about it anymore, but it's a great skill to have learned at some point.
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Alexander Weymann That would be amazing to be able to memorize a piece completely before playing it.
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Vidhya Bashyam oh, yes! It's hard work, mentally very exhausting, but every time you achieve it, it feels absolutely thrilling to then play the piece from memory with absolute security. The technique is outlined in the little book they wrote together, the teacher (Karl Leimer) and the student (Walter Gieseking):
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Alexander Weymann Great! Thanks for the link. Will definitely give it a read.
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Vidhya Bashyam it's VERY German (read: dry and rigid) in its approach... don't hate us for it!
But it was one of the two piano bibles of my teenage years (the other one being Heinrich Neuhaus' "The Art of Piano Playing" which I literally carried with me everywhere). -
Alexander Weymann I don’t mind a rigid technical book at all- especially if it will help me spend more time “learning and playing” my pieces even when I am not at the piano. I was out of town for a bit during the Tchaikovsky challenge a few months ago and tried to memorize without playing by rewriting the score using the Dorico app- very interesting but exhausting too. I think I managed two pages that way. A more formal approach might be better.
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Alexander Weymann Wow, I had never heard of this method but I'm starting to do something similar. I'll look it up!
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Alexander Weymann I'll get this book!
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Alexander Weymann I found the book on Scribd!
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Alexander Weymann This book sounds intriguing. A few weeks ago my teacher took me through how to learn a piece of music. He suggested quite a bit of work which would be done before touching the piano, and much of that would be helpful in memorizing. Right now I'm slogging through singing the different lines while playing another line. This is certainly helping me memorize!
For me, at least, he recommended a book, "The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart" by Madeline Bruser.
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Michelle R I had looked at that book by M. Bruser on Amazon and wasn't quite sure about it; maybe I need to give it another consideration.
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Alexander Weymann I think it depends on what you're looking for. For me, it was a perfect fit - but I'm a bit of a philosopher and a dreamer. When I have a bit more time, I'll give you a synopsis of what it contains. I don't think it's for everyone. I can see some people just rolling their eyes over her suggestions!!
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Dominic Cheli Incredibly helpful information, Dominic, and communicated in a very clear way! Thank you!
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Michelle R after reading your comment, I bought a copy, too. Thanks for the suggestion! One of my overarching goals for the year was to become a better learner and this book will certainly contribute to it.
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Monika Tusnady I hope you enjoy the book and get a lot out of it. Because I found it so interesting, I read through it quickly. Now, I'm going back and taking my time to glean the thoughts and ideas that appeal to me.
Alexander Weymann The book is pretty "touch-feely," so if you're not into that type of writing and those types of suggestions it probably won't be a good fit for you. There is much talk of awareness and mindfulness in it - I think she has roots in the mindfulness meditation movement (which many recent studies are showing can do more harm than good). I spent quite a few years seriously studying yoga and meditation, and actually ended up rejecting much of it, so in reading this book I was able to pretty easily root out what was useful (quite a bit) and what was not going to be helpful for me. As an example, some of the chapter titles which show the bent of the book: Meeting Yourself, Tuning into Your Heart, Pure Perception (my favorite chapter), The Dancing Body. I do think she's really on to something, encouraging vulnerability and opennes even in practice, but I think those who prefer a less "groovy" style will be turned off by the way she writes and the suggestions she makes and the way she makes them (they can be vague, feeling-based suggestions - not objective, direct, intellect-based suggestions). I find both the more affective-based and the more intellect-based approaches appeal to me ... but I'm a little strange that way!
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Thank you, Dominic. My life is different from yours, but I can really use your ideas. I am focusing on sight reading, especially fluency with fingerings and rhythms. I can use the scores wherever I am, clap rhythmic patterns or drill hands together on my lap. Of course, there's much more as you pointed out we can do with the score alone without being at our instruments that I know I will be able to incorporate. Scores can even go to the doctor's office while waiting for my husband. Thanks again!
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PS: Where'd you get the cool photo of the "piano desk"? I like that idea.
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Gail Starr Very cool indeed. Looks like it’s from the YouTube channel below. A lot of very creative people out there.
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Vidhya Bashyam What a creative person! I want to creative something like this!
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Such a great question. I am struggling with this at least as much (and probably at least as unsuccessfully) as the next person, but here are some things I always try to tell myself:
1. Use the time you have, and don’t try to use time you don’t have. As a physician at a large academic institution, I work anywhere between 60 and 80 hours a week, depending on whether I’m on service or not, have a project to finish etc., so during the easier weeks, I try to make good use of my evenings to get some practice hours in, and during the crazy weeks, I give myself grace to say: all I can do this week after work is have dinner, watch TV or read, and go to sleep.
2. “You can do anything, but not everything.” The internet tells me it was David Allen who said that. At any rate, it’s a great quote. I’m not even sure I can do ANYthing, but I am quite sure I CANNOT do everything. Just this past week, I told the folks at the Columbus Symphony Chorus that I won’t be returning to sing with them in the upcoming season because I am now taking piano lessons again which will take up a lot of my time. It was a hard and painful decision, but it was necessary to keep my sanity.
3. At times when you have no other commitments and do have time, but don’t feel like you have the drive or the strength to practice, remember that all you may have to do is decide to get started. This past weekend, many of us heard the wonderful panel discussion among the tonebase live directors about how to find and maintain motivation, and I seem to remember more than one person saying: “once I simply sit down and start to play, it immediately gets easier.” When I thought about that for a bit, I found that it is definitely true for me, too. Once I strike those first few keys, I almost always immediately build up the “activation energy” to continue working for a couple of hours. And that then frees up another evening, morning, or afternoon for something else.
4. Make the most of little chunks of time. Use strategies like the Pomodoro Technique (or whatever works for you) to get the small, but necessary parts of piano practice done that may feel like chores and drudgery. For me, that’s fingering, memorization, and (to a lesser extent) solving thorny technical problems. It sometimes is amazing how many of these pesky little tasks can be checked off in 20 or 25 minutes. That's another way to make some measurable, satisfying progress with your music without it taking up too much of your life.
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Alexander Weymann You do so many things so well, Alexander
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I also like to do a lot of listening of the pieces I am working on. I like to separate them in sections and focus on a section and parts of a section, and then put them together. It makes me feel it is less work than think of a whole piece. I don’t have a lot of time to practice so I do it in little chunks and again, lots of listening!
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Haha, I understand the sign "Get Hands Dirty" is good for a work desk, but it's not exactly what you would want on a Piano!
