Hadley McCarroll, pianist
Discover Your Best Practicing!
In the words of my wonderful college pedagogy teacher
renowned pedagogue/pianist Sophia Gilmson:
Good technique starts with the posture and shoulders, not with the fingers.
Beautiful sound starts before we touch the keys.
The sound is prepared in our inner hearing, our imagination, and intention to produce a certain tone.
Only if first prepared, it might happen. Or not.
A convincing interpretation is rooted in a sense of flow.
Sense of flow is rooted in having the direction.
Where does this phrase go? Where does it peak?
Where does a group of phrases peak? Where does the entire section peak?
Where does the whole piece peak?
Very much like in hiking, the direction is a must.
Otherwise, it does not flow, it is wandering.
A routine is essential for progress! Work with your family to find the best days to get your practicing in. Use a calendar to write in the actual days/times you will practice.
Organize your practice into sections. Use a timer or clock to keep track of the time.
Follow the instructions I've given you in your practice notebook.
Quality over quantity! If you have a couple of days where you are super busy, plan on a few practice snacks for those days. Even 10 minutes will make a big difference! A snack could be a very short passage you've been trying to get into your fingers, or a wrong note you're trying to get rid of. Perhaps a tricky rhythm you've consistently miscounted?
Technique issue? Try working on the scales and chords in the keys of your piece to polish your technique.
Rhythmic issue? try using the metronome. Subdivide!
Try the +one or starting from the end of the piece working backwards.
Memorization trouble? Work in small sections, with actionable goals in mind!
Start early – don't wait until the last minute.
PRACTICE TECHNIQUES
from master teacher and pianist Maurice Hinson
1. Think a piece through without playing, with or without the music.
2. Think the rhythm always before starting to play.
3. The first time you play your piece, or any section of it, be fanatically careful not to make any mistakes either in notes or in time values.
4. Divide the piece into short sections.
5. Occasionally begin your practice period by beginning at the last section of the piece, then the next to last section, and so on, until you have reached the beginning.
6. For the first few days of practice on a new piece, repeat one section 4-8 times before beginning to practice the next. After they have been practiced in this way, they should be joined together and given 2-4 repetitions as a whole. Ultimately all the sections should be fitted together in this way.
7. Resist the temptation to go on playing faster and faster. Use the metronome for an"external discipline" to check yourself.
8. During your practice, free your mind from any anxiety concerning the final results of your practice, either with regard to standards or deadlines.
9. Always try to approach the act of learning a new piece when you are as fresh as possible.
10. Always be on the watch for signs of staleness. This usually reveals itself through a lack of interest in your piece or in the presence of more than the usual amount of inaccuracy.
11. In the earliest stages of learning anything new, the rate of forgetting is very rapid. Therefore the maxim "little and often" in the early stages of learning is very important.
12. Do get into the habit of trying to look upon yourself as an ordinary human being. This means you neither set yourself absurd or impossible standards of work or achievement, nor allow yourself to be satisfied with a standard which you know really could be and ought to be better.
13. Think ten times and play once.
14. Count bars, not beats, if your playing is lacking in movement.
15. Trills should aim at regularity before speed.
16. Listen for resonance, not noise, in loud passages.
17, Don't work against time. If you have only one hour at your disposal, plan 45 minutes practice and do the most with each minute. If you attempt a plan for the whole hour, you will have an eye on the clock, a nervous
tension that may result in muscular tension, and much of your mental energy will be wasted. Surround every action with a circle of non-hurry.
18. Perform always, even when sight-reading. Always express something and never "just run through."
19. Mark the beat with your other hand.
20. Every pianistic problem has both its origin and solution in the music itself.