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Post by Steve Hopwood on Jun 2, 2008 22:22:55 GMT
Or is it just playing, and playing, and playing which gradually puts a piece in reach? Yep. That is just a different slant on my "learn through repertoire" philosophy. One of the more useful things I have learned in my umpteen years of piano teaching is this: it doesn't really matter what people play; so long as they play lots of stuff over lots of hours they will improve; the more stuff they play over lots of hours, the more dramatic will be their improvement. Of course, I teach the piano not the recorder, but I find it hard to imagine the principle does not hold equally true for both instruments.
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Post by Dulciana on Jun 3, 2008 23:43:24 GMT
I've pondered over this too. I've had very limited time recently, but have found that things have improved simply through having been 'put to bed' for a while. How can this happen? It's certainly not from having played lots of other related repertoire in between. I wonder how much listening helps? And even teaching? Both require thinking - and critical listening, which is not the same thing as just having the music playing while you hear it. Listening objectively to one's own playing, I think, is our greatest teacher. Technicalities can just fall into place when we really listen out for them to sound as they should. If we get too bogged down in practising sections over and over again we can lose sight of the wood for the trees, but maybe a break can reawaken our sense of expectation and that ability to listen for it to sound as we know it should. Ears dictate, and then fingers - or tongue, or whatever - respond. I used to do a lot of creative writing, and would often toss things aside in disgust when I felt they were going nowhere, but would find it easy at a later date to say exactly what I wanted to once I'd looked again. Music could be the same. Our vocabulary hasn't changed, and neither has our technical ability - but our creativity might have benefitted from being a crysallis for a while.
What is technical ability anyway? It's unlikely to be muscle strength or agility; it's more likely to be the ability to relax our muscles and have the confidence to allow things to happen - as long as we know what we're aiming for in the sound produced. So unless we have a particular hindrance in the form of a 'bad habit' that we need to overcome, the battle has to be in getting the sound right - knowing what we're aiming for and knowing when we've hit it. Like riding a bike, when we do it once we'll know, and we'll do it again. There is no point in showing a pupil how to hold his hands when playing the piano unless he knows what he's trying to achieve in the sound department; it would be like showing a monkey how to hold a pencil when he didn't understand the concept of writing.
I honestly think that can be the problem in over-practising without taking a break; we can lose sight of what writing means, and focus too hard on holding the pencil.
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Post by kerioboe on Jun 4, 2008 20:24:53 GMT
What is technical ability anyway? It's unlikely to be muscle strength or agility; it's more likely to be the ability to relax our muscles and have the confidence to allow things to happen - as long as we know what we're aiming for in the sound produced. I have been reflecting on the idea of relaxing recently. I went to see an osteopath for a shoulder problem (caused by writing too much on the black board so nothing to do with music) and came out with my neck and shoulder muscles totally relaxed. I came home and did some oboe practice and was amazed by how good I sounded - the slow movements were beautifully expressive, my fingers just fell into place in the fast movements - I couldn't believe it was me playing. Unfortunately, 24 hours later I was back to my usual standard but it let me glimpse what I might be capable of, not by hours of practise but simply if I could get myself into the same relaxed state.
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Post by chocolatedog on Jun 4, 2008 21:03:59 GMT
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Post by anacrusis on Jun 4, 2008 21:57:02 GMT
I wonder if the business of pieces appearing to improve when nothing's been done in the way of work might also then be due to decreased expectations of oneself? That would certainly fit both with what Dulciana says, and with kerioboe's comment on relaxation. I know that when I spend a few days in good company, chilling out and putting the worries of the world to one side for a bit, I seem to play better too. Listening is I'm sure also a big part of it - one of the ways I prepared for playing Bach a few weeks ago was to listen to recordings of it, over and over. Chocolatedog - I hope that thumb improves soon . Which hand is it?
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Post by Dulciana on Jun 7, 2008 0:11:41 GMT
Overpractising can lead to nit-picking and digging holes for ourselves. But it depends what sort of practice we're talking about. Obviously it doesn't do any good to just not bother making the notes and timing secure. Are we talking about once that's all in hand? We also have to assume that we know HOW to play expressively; if we want a phrase to rise and fall in a particular way - do we know how to physically execute that? If we do, and it works for us most of the time, then practising it into oblivion can only make it turn stale. We can be practising not so much to become consistent as to find the mood that makes it sound special - and, paradoxically, it can be in doing that that we lose the flavour.
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Post by chocolatedog on Jun 7, 2008 15:16:00 GMT
I wonder if the business of pieces appearing to improve when nothing's been done in the way of work might also then be due to decreased expectations of oneself? That would certainly fit both with what Dulciana says, and with kerioboe's comment on relaxation. I know that when I spend a few days in good company, chilling out and putting the worries of the world to one side for a bit, I seem to play better too. Listening is I'm sure also a big part of it - one of the ways I prepared for playing Bach a few weeks ago was to listen to recordings of it, over and over. Chocolatedog - I hope that thumb improves soon . Which hand is it? Left hand...... and it's still ouch............I'm seeing the physio again on Monday, but at the moment I can't play for even 30 minutes without it starting to seize up again.... 10 minutes is about OK (but I'm very bad at only doing 10 minutes.....!!!) It's beginning to really worry me and get me down....
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