Mastering a piece of music
May 9, 2020 12:18 PM Subscribe
How do you get to the point where you can play a piece of music consistently without mistakes (and sounding good)?
Since I've been indoors more I finally dusted off the keyboard I got last summer and started practicing it more. There's one piece I've been practicing for most of quarantine and although I have played it about a million times and can play the different sections well at some points or even play most of it with kind of minimal errors every few attempts, I can't seem to just master it. Lately I've decided to try to just move on to something else for a while and try to come back to it/play it once or twice or thrice a day and not spend too much time on it, but every time I play it I feel frustrated that it's not perfect!
Things I've tried/ways I've worked on it:
- playing with the metronome, increasing the speed slowly up a notch each time
- playing it more free form, just trying to enjoy it
- practicing things more slowly, spending some more time working on things like musicality of the piece
- doing some variations on at least one section/switching up tempo a bit
The main issues right now seem to be that there are certain sections that are a bit harder to play faster and I generally am more likely to mess up on those. As well as transitions between the different sections (each section is kind of a more difficult variation on the previous one). I also think I'm getting in a bit of a mental spiral, being nervous about making mistakes, which makes me make mistakes, which makes me more nervous and frustrated.
I have memorized the piece after having repeated it so many times.
Any suggestions from those who are more practiced musicians for what to do to really get to a point of mastery of a piece? Thanks!
Since I've been indoors more I finally dusted off the keyboard I got last summer and started practicing it more. There's one piece I've been practicing for most of quarantine and although I have played it about a million times and can play the different sections well at some points or even play most of it with kind of minimal errors every few attempts, I can't seem to just master it. Lately I've decided to try to just move on to something else for a while and try to come back to it/play it once or twice or thrice a day and not spend too much time on it, but every time I play it I feel frustrated that it's not perfect!
Things I've tried/ways I've worked on it:
- playing with the metronome, increasing the speed slowly up a notch each time
- playing it more free form, just trying to enjoy it
- practicing things more slowly, spending some more time working on things like musicality of the piece
- doing some variations on at least one section/switching up tempo a bit
The main issues right now seem to be that there are certain sections that are a bit harder to play faster and I generally am more likely to mess up on those. As well as transitions between the different sections (each section is kind of a more difficult variation on the previous one). I also think I'm getting in a bit of a mental spiral, being nervous about making mistakes, which makes me make mistakes, which makes me more nervous and frustrated.
I have memorized the piece after having repeated it so many times.
Any suggestions from those who are more practiced musicians for what to do to really get to a point of mastery of a piece? Thanks!
- practice the sections
- learn how to smoothly move between sections
- practice the hard parts
- listen carefully and decide what needs work
- is the trouble in the hands or the mind?
- Turn. The. Metronome. Down.
- if you can't play it at half tempo, you can't play it at full tempo.
- breathe.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:36 PM on May 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
- learn how to smoothly move between sections
- practice the hard parts
- listen carefully and decide what needs work
- is the trouble in the hands or the mind?
- Turn. The. Metronome. Down.
- if you can't play it at half tempo, you can't play it at full tempo.
- breathe.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:36 PM on May 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
Keep practising the troublesome sections over and over. Then add in the in/out transitions; more days of practicing that larger section over and over. Is the suggested fingering working for you? If not, work out what best suits your hands and notate. What exercises are you doing for speed and control? Would working on ornamentation help?
For me, mastery was more than memorisation. It was full-on muscle memory; I never need to think about phrasing, really, it became a little monologue of “ooooh there’s that tricky bit. where is my thumb? breathe! be sadder darn it” etc.
posted by lemon_icing at 1:08 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
For me, mastery was more than memorisation. It was full-on muscle memory; I never need to think about phrasing, really, it became a little monologue of “ooooh there’s that tricky bit. where is my thumb? breathe! be sadder darn it” etc.
posted by lemon_icing at 1:08 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Massed repetition (i.e., playing over and over again, exactly the same) doesn't work. You have to find ways to change it up so that your muscles and your mind are presented with new problems to solve, increasing mastery in the process. Some possibilities:
-- Practice hands separately at a much faster tempo than you could play hands together
-- Practice difficult spots all extremely staccato.
--If you have modulation through rapid sequences of sixteenth notes, like you often get in Classical sonatas, try building fluency by playing them in different patterns. First, hold/ place emphasis on the first in each beat, doing the remaining 3/16ths really fast (|DUH...duhduhduh| DUH...duhduhduh). Then do the same, but switch the emphasis/pause to the second sixteenth note in the grouping (duhDUH...duhduh|duhDUH...duhduh|) and so forth.
-- Play with your eyes closed. Try to feel the piece under your hands.
-- Switch the piece to maintenance mode, but practice technique exercises (Czerny has good ones) to build your overall ability.
posted by Bardolph at 1:10 PM on May 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
-- Practice hands separately at a much faster tempo than you could play hands together
-- Practice difficult spots all extremely staccato.
--If you have modulation through rapid sequences of sixteenth notes, like you often get in Classical sonatas, try building fluency by playing them in different patterns. First, hold/ place emphasis on the first in each beat, doing the remaining 3/16ths really fast (|DUH...duhduhduh| DUH...duhduhduh). Then do the same, but switch the emphasis/pause to the second sixteenth note in the grouping (duhDUH...duhduh|duhDUH...duhduh|) and so forth.
-- Play with your eyes closed. Try to feel the piece under your hands.
-- Switch the piece to maintenance mode, but practice technique exercises (Czerny has good ones) to build your overall ability.
posted by Bardolph at 1:10 PM on May 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
Yeah. Mark all hard parts and focus on those. Play them over and over again - start slow and then bring them gradually up to tempo. When you make mistakes, take the tempo back down. My old piano teacher would say to keep at the same section until you can play it 10 times in a row with no mistakes, then move on to the next one.
But before that maybe examine what's making you spiral. It's really neat that you're working on something challenging, and it's okay if it takes you another 4 weeks or 4 months before you have it where you want it. It'll just be all that much more satisfying once you get there.
Would it help to break it down in a schedule. Think about how much time you think you really need with each section - and then double that. So maybe you wind up with a schedule for an hour a day for 4 days on section X, followed by an hour a day for 6 days on section Y (although you might want to not practice the same section on consecutive days, maybe). I think this can help by shifting your focus from your goal from playing it perfectly - and getting frustrated as it doesn't come as easily as other things might - to instead focusing on the process. If you make a schedule that allows you several weeks to reach your goal, then maybe it won't be so frustrating?
And of course keep playing other things in the meantime.
And if it's not coming together and you're not enjoying it any more, set it aside for several weeks and work on things that are challenging in other ways.
posted by bunderful at 1:18 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
But before that maybe examine what's making you spiral. It's really neat that you're working on something challenging, and it's okay if it takes you another 4 weeks or 4 months before you have it where you want it. It'll just be all that much more satisfying once you get there.
Would it help to break it down in a schedule. Think about how much time you think you really need with each section - and then double that. So maybe you wind up with a schedule for an hour a day for 4 days on section X, followed by an hour a day for 6 days on section Y (although you might want to not practice the same section on consecutive days, maybe). I think this can help by shifting your focus from your goal from playing it perfectly - and getting frustrated as it doesn't come as easily as other things might - to instead focusing on the process. If you make a schedule that allows you several weeks to reach your goal, then maybe it won't be so frustrating?
And of course keep playing other things in the meantime.
And if it's not coming together and you're not enjoying it any more, set it aside for several weeks and work on things that are challenging in other ways.
posted by bunderful at 1:18 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
As a lifelong musician who also works in the music industry, let me first say: There is no such thing as playing perfect.
Even the most accomplished professional musician can look at any one performance and find something they could have done better.
I agree with both answers above that if you are not breaking down the measures that cause you the most trouble, and only playing full sections or the full piece, you will not really fix those problems.
Things that have worked for me, or that I find essential to "mastering" a piece:
- Break it up - take the piece apart by phrase or measure, or even note-to-note. If there is a spot you miss every time, what is the culprit? Is it an interval? An awkward fingering? an accidental that was carried over the bar?
Once you isolate the root of your trouble spots, practice those, gradually moving out from the spot. For example, if you find an interval that's tricky, once you conquer it, go back and play the whole measure before it. Then add the measure after. Then try the whole phrase. Then try stringing together two phrases.
-Tempo. If you can't play the whole section at the same tempo, it's too fast. Only play as fast as you can play without making a mistake, and gradually increase a few clicks at a time. This applies to small sections.
-Repitition. Try the rule of 3. Play each chunk correctly 3 times in a row, and you can move on. If you mess up on #2 or #3, you start back at one. This helps to build muscle memory. Read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle to read about how repetition builds myelin which allows for better reaction time in the brain.
Hope this helps.
posted by Kimothy at 2:15 PM on May 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
Even the most accomplished professional musician can look at any one performance and find something they could have done better.
I agree with both answers above that if you are not breaking down the measures that cause you the most trouble, and only playing full sections or the full piece, you will not really fix those problems.
Things that have worked for me, or that I find essential to "mastering" a piece:
- Break it up - take the piece apart by phrase or measure, or even note-to-note. If there is a spot you miss every time, what is the culprit? Is it an interval? An awkward fingering? an accidental that was carried over the bar?
Once you isolate the root of your trouble spots, practice those, gradually moving out from the spot. For example, if you find an interval that's tricky, once you conquer it, go back and play the whole measure before it. Then add the measure after. Then try the whole phrase. Then try stringing together two phrases.
-Tempo. If you can't play the whole section at the same tempo, it's too fast. Only play as fast as you can play without making a mistake, and gradually increase a few clicks at a time. This applies to small sections.
-Repitition. Try the rule of 3. Play each chunk correctly 3 times in a row, and you can move on. If you mess up on #2 or #3, you start back at one. This helps to build muscle memory. Read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle to read about how repetition builds myelin which allows for better reaction time in the brain.
Hope this helps.
posted by Kimothy at 2:15 PM on May 9, 2020 [7 favorites]
Learning it slow and bumping the metronome up by a step is a useful technique for some kinds of problems, but it's not the universal answer.
The fact is that sometimes the technique required to play something at speed is just fundamentally different in some way to the technique you'd used to play it slower, in which case no amount of practicing at a slower speed is going to help.
If you've learned to play it reliably at the slow speed, and that isn't transferring to success at the high speed, don't torture yourself with endless repetitions one notch at a time.
People might be able to give more specific advice if they saw the exact problem. This is a place it's helpful to actually have a teacher watching.
In general though: if I'm OK at slower speeds, and I've got the sequence of motions memorized, I switch to more of an experimental/problem-solving approach: identify the hard passage, play it fast and try to spot exactly what it's going wrong--where exactly is it happening, in which hand? what fingering are you using? Isolate that one part, and experiment with different approaches. Really try to pay attention and think about it and look for creative solutions, and don't just do a lot of repetition.
These days if you can think of a term to describe the tough passage ("double trills"?), googling that will sometimes turn up ideas. Or maybe even google the name of the piece and watch somebody else do it on youtube.
Also don't bang your head against the same thing for a long time. If you're not making progress after a few minutes, move on to something else and come back to it tomorrow. Sometimes a little sleep and some time away from the keyboard works wonders.
Disclaimer: mediocre amateur musician, myself. I like to think I've learned how not to practice over the years, but take this all with a grain of salt.
posted by bfields at 2:35 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
The fact is that sometimes the technique required to play something at speed is just fundamentally different in some way to the technique you'd used to play it slower, in which case no amount of practicing at a slower speed is going to help.
If you've learned to play it reliably at the slow speed, and that isn't transferring to success at the high speed, don't torture yourself with endless repetitions one notch at a time.
People might be able to give more specific advice if they saw the exact problem. This is a place it's helpful to actually have a teacher watching.
In general though: if I'm OK at slower speeds, and I've got the sequence of motions memorized, I switch to more of an experimental/problem-solving approach: identify the hard passage, play it fast and try to spot exactly what it's going wrong--where exactly is it happening, in which hand? what fingering are you using? Isolate that one part, and experiment with different approaches. Really try to pay attention and think about it and look for creative solutions, and don't just do a lot of repetition.
These days if you can think of a term to describe the tough passage ("double trills"?), googling that will sometimes turn up ideas. Or maybe even google the name of the piece and watch somebody else do it on youtube.
Also don't bang your head against the same thing for a long time. If you're not making progress after a few minutes, move on to something else and come back to it tomorrow. Sometimes a little sleep and some time away from the keyboard works wonders.
Disclaimer: mediocre amateur musician, myself. I like to think I've learned how not to practice over the years, but take this all with a grain of salt.
posted by bfields at 2:35 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
A piece of advice I've been given is to only practice the hard parts when you're going to practice instead of going back and playing through the parts you can already play. But another thing is, if I'm not overgeneralizing as a mediocre musician, it takes SO MUCH REPETITION to get good at a piece. More than you think it's going to take.
posted by less of course at 3:50 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by less of course at 3:50 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Spend some time practicing the piece, as slowly as you need to, without a keyboard -- wholly in your mind.
That is, mentally simulate playing the piece from beginning to end -- what motions are your fingers making, in what sequence? Imagine these motor sequences as precisely as you can, until you can go through the piece in your mind without ever having to ask yourself what comes next. Isolate the trickiest passages and spend more time on them, then once you have those, do the whole piece at tempo (very slow to start with).
This is hard and time-consuming at first but can be very effective; what it does is it isolates one possible source of mistakes (mind) from another (muscles). A lot of mistakes come not from lack of physical dexterity but from not being 100% sure what the motor sequence is. This method is a way to remove all doubt on that plane before you actually sit down at the keyboard.
An intermediate step between this and actually playing the piece might be to sit down at the keyboard and play it silently, with the right finger motions but without actually pressing the keys. I'm extrapolating here because I don't play much keyboard, but with woodwinds, my procedure is (1) play mentally until I can do so without mistakes, (2) pick up the instrument and play silently, (3) play normally. When I follow this method properly, once I actually start playing the piece it usually feels as though I'd already been practicing it for hours.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:24 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
That is, mentally simulate playing the piece from beginning to end -- what motions are your fingers making, in what sequence? Imagine these motor sequences as precisely as you can, until you can go through the piece in your mind without ever having to ask yourself what comes next. Isolate the trickiest passages and spend more time on them, then once you have those, do the whole piece at tempo (very slow to start with).
This is hard and time-consuming at first but can be very effective; what it does is it isolates one possible source of mistakes (mind) from another (muscles). A lot of mistakes come not from lack of physical dexterity but from not being 100% sure what the motor sequence is. This method is a way to remove all doubt on that plane before you actually sit down at the keyboard.
An intermediate step between this and actually playing the piece might be to sit down at the keyboard and play it silently, with the right finger motions but without actually pressing the keys. I'm extrapolating here because I don't play much keyboard, but with woodwinds, my procedure is (1) play mentally until I can do so without mistakes, (2) pick up the instrument and play silently, (3) play normally. When I follow this method properly, once I actually start playing the piece it usually feels as though I'd already been practicing it for hours.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:24 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Lots of great suggestions and advice.
As suggested here by Bardolph and also by my teacher, practicing in staccato has helped me learn passages that were difficult for me.
I also
-- practice often at half speed
-- isolate difficult areas, practice them, and add the measures before and after fairly soon
-- take a day off from practicing now and then
-- listen frequently to other people playing the piece on YouTube
posted by Dolley at 7:39 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
As suggested here by Bardolph and also by my teacher, practicing in staccato has helped me learn passages that were difficult for me.
I also
-- practice often at half speed
-- isolate difficult areas, practice them, and add the measures before and after fairly soon
-- take a day off from practicing now and then
-- listen frequently to other people playing the piece on YouTube
posted by Dolley at 7:39 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
I think most people, even people who know better, tend to practice in sections that are too large. repetitive metronome practice is the way to go if there are no broader technical difficulties in the piece that you're not equipped to handle without a teacher's guidance. practicing with varied rhythms is the way to go if you're having trouble with evenness of the notes. but if you have a known "trouble section" that's more than a measure long, you haven't broken it down into small enough sections yet. take a section of less than a full measure, if the music is complex enough.
another thing everyone knows but everyone ignores: if you're working on a tricky section with the metronome, once you work up to a speed where you start to make tiny mistakes, SLOW DOWN a few notches and work back up again. rather than trying to force it further just because you feel you should be able to.
A lot of the time if you can play a section in isolation with no trouble, but still fuck it up in the context of the full piece, it's because you've conditioned yourself to expect to. and for this, usually it helps if you break up the sections differently and practice the lead-in through just after the point where you usually fall apart, very slowly. that helps. the fundamental thing -- and the point of slow practice -- is you have to do a thing right many more times than you do it wrong or you'll remember it wrong when it counts. you just will. ideally, there is a point where you're playing so slowly that the slowness wins out over the nerves.
[I am an adult amateur who had good early piano instruction but didn't practice enough.]
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:09 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
another thing everyone knows but everyone ignores: if you're working on a tricky section with the metronome, once you work up to a speed where you start to make tiny mistakes, SLOW DOWN a few notches and work back up again. rather than trying to force it further just because you feel you should be able to.
A lot of the time if you can play a section in isolation with no trouble, but still fuck it up in the context of the full piece, it's because you've conditioned yourself to expect to. and for this, usually it helps if you break up the sections differently and practice the lead-in through just after the point where you usually fall apart, very slowly. that helps. the fundamental thing -- and the point of slow practice -- is you have to do a thing right many more times than you do it wrong or you'll remember it wrong when it counts. you just will. ideally, there is a point where you're playing so slowly that the slowness wins out over the nerves.
[I am an adult amateur who had good early piano instruction but didn't practice enough.]
posted by queenofbithynia at 8:09 PM on May 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Sometimes I find if I am nearly there on a piece, e.g. only making one or two mistakes sometimes, and not the same mistake at the same point every time, then it's better to put it aside for a week or two and work on something else. Then sometimes when I come back to it it's like my brain magically consolidated everything in the background and I can do it so much better. Doesn't always work, but sometimes it does.
Also I've found it's worthwhile to find a speed slow enough that you don't ever make mistakes, even if that speed is ridiculously laughably slow. Play it through like that a lot, and then gradually speed up. If you start making mistakes, slow down again.
posted by lollusc at 8:28 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also I've found it's worthwhile to find a speed slow enough that you don't ever make mistakes, even if that speed is ridiculously laughably slow. Play it through like that a lot, and then gradually speed up. If you start making mistakes, slow down again.
posted by lollusc at 8:28 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Everyone's got great suggestions. Definitely break things down. How far you break it down depends on what it is, but generally, break it down into 1-2 bars, or a 1/2 bar, or even if it's just two notes if there's a big jump and just practice that jump. Identify what's tripping you up. Hand coordination? Fast passage that requires a lot of dexterity? Lots of accidentals?
Do it hands separately, SLOWLY. Make sure you know exactly what your fingers have to do. Again, depending on what the challenge is, you can practice it slowly hands separately, speed it up, then do it hands together and speed it up. After a lot of repetition it just kind of gets into the muscle memory, it gets "under your fingers." You'd be surprised that you think you know what's going on with a tricky passage, but once you take a close, slow look at it, you actually don't. That's when the lightbulb turns on a little bit more for me.
Or sometimes you're not ready for the piece and you need to advance a little bit more before you can get really comfortable with it. In which case, practice more technique to build up your strength and dexterity, and learn easier pieces. It definitely takes time for me to have a piece "sink in" - I have to get to know it as a friend in a way, and understand what I want and need to do with it, and observe what I'm learning from it and what it's teaching me. Please be gentle with yourself too!
posted by foxjacket at 8:52 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Do it hands separately, SLOWLY. Make sure you know exactly what your fingers have to do. Again, depending on what the challenge is, you can practice it slowly hands separately, speed it up, then do it hands together and speed it up. After a lot of repetition it just kind of gets into the muscle memory, it gets "under your fingers." You'd be surprised that you think you know what's going on with a tricky passage, but once you take a close, slow look at it, you actually don't. That's when the lightbulb turns on a little bit more for me.
Or sometimes you're not ready for the piece and you need to advance a little bit more before you can get really comfortable with it. In which case, practice more technique to build up your strength and dexterity, and learn easier pieces. It definitely takes time for me to have a piece "sink in" - I have to get to know it as a friend in a way, and understand what I want and need to do with it, and observe what I'm learning from it and what it's teaching me. Please be gentle with yourself too!
posted by foxjacket at 8:52 PM on May 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
I have been involved in a couple musical endeavors lately where I was a little out of my depth, and like everyone here is saying, I had to isolate the trouble-spots, usually transitions between sections or difficult arpeggios & cadenzas. I would simply play those 10-15-second passages over and over as long as it took for them to become muscle memory. Sometimes over a period of days. When your hands play them automatically without instruction from your brain, you’re almost there - now you can go back & integrate them back into the song as a whole.
That whole Malcolm Gladwell thing about 10,000 hours to mastery is a crock of shit when it comes to music. See me in 50,000 hours, & we’ll know if you’ve developed a gift.
Anyway, keep banging on it.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:14 PM on May 9, 2020
That whole Malcolm Gladwell thing about 10,000 hours to mastery is a crock of shit when it comes to music. See me in 50,000 hours, & we’ll know if you’ve developed a gift.
Anyway, keep banging on it.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:14 PM on May 9, 2020
Lifelong trumpet player here. Here's what my teacher recommended years ago:
take a set of measures that you clam and just work on those bars. Again and again. The goal is to be able to play those bars 6x in a row without clams. After you get that, put a few bars on either side. Lather, rinse repeat.
But, this is not the whole of it. For me, a solid practice regiment consists of a process:
So did out the Hanon and get those down too!
posted by plinth at 9:35 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
take a set of measures that you clam and just work on those bars. Again and again. The goal is to be able to play those bars 6x in a row without clams. After you get that, put a few bars on either side. Lather, rinse repeat.
But, this is not the whole of it. For me, a solid practice regiment consists of a process:
- Warm up
- Fingering/scale/interval exercises
- Technical etudes/studies
- Sight reading/sight transposition
- Your piece
- Cool down
So did out the Hanon and get those down too!
posted by plinth at 9:35 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by acidnova at 12:28 PM on May 9, 2020 [16 favorites]