Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Agree with cote about wrist position.

"if I learn a new piece, then go back to play a piece I could play perfectly last week, it’s as though my fingers have completely forgotten it and I can no longer play it"

Perfectly normal. This is why every day I play my favourite pieces at least once:

Rameau's Suite en la: Gavotte & 6 Doubles and Courante
Handel's HWV 428: Air & 5 Doubles
Bach's BWV 997 for lute or harpsichord in C minor: Prelude, Gigue, and Double
Bach BWV 823 in F minor: Prelude and Sarabande.
Anthony Young: Ground

And I can play them all quite well now.

This strategy depends on having about 2 hours to practice every day, though [smile[

Hi all
I'd put that at about grade 3 Mummybo8. Very nice. I tend to take liberties with the pulse, you do have to feel it, good way of putting it Never. It's easier said than done when still learning the notes, of course, I find practicing with a metronome helps with fluency too as it irons out hesitations.
Totally normal to forget pieces.
I think difficulty is quite subjective, especially at an intermediate level. I've learned some g4 pieces more quickly than some g2 recently
I've had a hideous cold and sinusitis so haven't been practicing a lot. Doing that 40 pieces thing but it can become getting pieces done as quickly as possible just for the sake of it, so might rethink. There's no point learning pieces that aren't challenging just to tick off another piece. Having a bit of a so many lovely pieces that I want to learn, so little time issue too. Especially if I want to do grade 5 this spring, will need to focus on that. Still wavering over it. I can do the scales, just the pieces are challenging. I have until 12 Feb to decide, then exam is lateish March. I'd be more prepared by summer, but possibly bored.We'll see.

Updated and hopefully improved video.

Oh, what’s this 40 pieces thing Broken?

It's a challenge to learn 40 pieces a year

I'm not stressing about it, but trying to learn more music instead of focusing only on exam pieces sounds good. I've kind of learned 4, not performance ready though, and another few on the go. I have to say my sightreading and not looking at my hands is improving. I won't manage 40 but it's a good idea.

I don't know how many pieces I learn a year! About 3, I think.

Since September, I learned Rameau's Courante, Handel's Air & 5 Variations (all variations are 1 page each and are complete, so can be counted as different pieces, I suppose), Anthony Young's Ground, Bach's Gigue and Double from BWV 997, Bach's Prelude & Sarabande from BWV 823, and about halfway done with Bach's Air that begins his Goldberg Variations.

So that makes... 12 in 4 months. I guess I could do 40 pieces theoretically but (1) I don't want to feel pushed towards learning easier & shorter pieces just to make the number, and (2) I don't see my teacher during school holidays.

I’m such a novice compared to you all, but hoping to gain some wisdom from you all over the coming months

40 pieces in a year, wow! That’s a lot. But I see the logic in stopping it so you can focus on more challenging pieces.

I had a lesson tonight and my teacher was very pleased. The practice with the metronome eventually paid off. We were talking about the future and things like exams. I told her that although I’m very rusty just now and probably a decade away from it, I’d eventually love to do grade 8 but I understand that I might never be at that level. She said that where I will really struggle will be the aural as that’s something that her other students (school age (have learned through music at school along with playing a variety of instruments in orchestras. I did sit Higher music (Scottish equivalent to A Level) but I can hardly remember any of it. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do to learn this, is there a course or books that I can read? I just would hate for that to be the area that I struggle with as I’m more than happy to put in the work required to learn it (kids permitting ). Any help/ advice is very much appreciated.

Abrsm publishes aural books with cds to help with the grade exams. They are helpful as they're just like the exam questions. They also have apps although I was creeped out by the voice on it when I got anything wrong!
I like the 40 pieces idea!

Thanks LooseAtTheSeams, I’ll have a look at that

Loose is right. Also there are loads of aural tests examples and help on YouTube. Music Online UK is good. Also the E-aural Trainer website.

Oh not tried the ABRSM app...did it have a telling off voice then?

Broken I used it for grade 3. It had a bit of a passive aggressive 'hmm.. nearly right' tone of voice. Mind you it must have worked because I did fine at aural in the exam!
I have to pick up aural practice again if I'm going to take G5. Also need to get DS2 to do it for his cello exam. He's ok on everything except singing!
Last night's lesson went ok. My new quick-learn/sight reading piece is the Habanera from Carmen. Fairly safe to say I need to work on this...
'cool' is going ok in terms of timing but need to work on phrasing this week.

There's a huge amount of aural and theory training resources on-line - haven't really used them myself, but my self-taught pianist teenager spends a lot of time on ear training and theory websites (it's a geek thing).

My progress has stalled a bit due to illness, wasn't able to practice last week and since then my fingers don't seem to want to do what they are supposed to :( Very frustrating.

I'm working on a bunch of scales and arpeggios (major and minor C,D,E,F and G) which I do over four and three octaves respectively, lots of finger exercises to improve finger independence and finishing up the Bach prelude. Just starting the corresponding fugue (one of the easier ones, no 2 in c minor). Also have a new Scarlatti sonata. Once those are done we are going to work on some more modern repertoire!

There is definitely progress since last September but it does not seem like a lot compared to the amount of time I put in!

I'm playing the Courante and the Sarabande of Bach's C minor partita. But I still have the C minor prelude and fugue in my mind ...

Brilliant new idea - instead of stressing in the mornings about the dcs' joint inability to get dressed for school I shall now spend the time between breakfast and yelling 'It's 8 o'clock!' to practise Hanon exercises or scales!

All I can say at the moment is Debussy can get bent.

40 pieces is probably beyond me at the moment, but I am trying to do the Active Repetoire project from Piano dao:
keyquestmusic.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/active-repertoire-2018.pdf

Basically, 3 pieces you can play anytime. I can play the piano but if someone asked me to play something at the drop of a hat I'd be lost without music, so this is my attempt to rectify it. So far only one spot is filled, with Chopin's Prelude in E minor.

Loose - That's a brilliant idea! It should definitely get the kids moving, if only to escape the loud exercises

I have certainly noticed that the kids take to their rooms about half an hour into my piano sessions as they can't take it anymore and the resulting peace, if not quiet, is nearly as worthwhile as the practice itself

NotAnother - "3 pieces you can play anytime"

I couldn't have done it a year ago, but I have about 6-7 pieces now that I can play without the notes and anytime Even when I'm rather drunk. Yes, I've tried . This happened by itself, because I have been playing everything I really like, every single day.

One advice I can give is to keep the notes in front of you and follow them as you play, even if you know the piece so well that you don't need to look anymore. You still should, though, or you start "losing" the ease of playing the piece after a while.

I can't learn a piece by heart if I have the music in front of me. It takes me ages to learn pieces by heart and I have to actively deprive myself of the sheet music to break the dependence on following the line of notes.

I think it depends the individual and also how well you read music (I read music far better than I play it, unfortunately).

I read music better than I play it too Misti. I think I learned to read music before I read any other languages. And I haven't been very successful at memorising anything...

I'm a real memorizer as I said, I'm actively working on looking at the music, the opposite to some of you. I do like to have the music in front of me anyway. If playing without it I do occasionally forget. I must be looking at the music more than I think, subconsciously.
I do have 3 pieces I can play any time - the Bach little prelude in C, Czerny study in A flat, and Haydn minuet and trio (which I did for g4).

I find I play much better drunk

Debussy was not a nice person.

Babies I can't say what you should do with scales, just what I do. My teacher has me play them over four octaves - the C major scale starts with the right thumb on the C below middle C, and the left hand one octave below. At the moment I am learning all the major and minor scales that start on white notes, in ascending order, i.e. C, C min, D, D min etc (most of these have the same fingering). Once I've done all those we will do the scales that start on black notes.

I am also practising the related arpeggios, over three octaves, and some scale-type exercises involving ascending thirds, for finger independence.

I quite enjoy playing scales, because it's something you can do when you have five minutes spare, and because progress seems to be much quicker than with pieces!

4 octave scales scare me. I can do 3 now. Struggling with arpeggios over 3.

More pieces up: That's 3 of 40