I love practicing like this, not only is it extremely beneficial, it drives my five family members absolutely insane, wonderful, passive agressive revenge.
Excellent! I would say the most important part is to RELAX! Repeating over and over again, under tension, can be extremely frustrating, tiring, and do actual damage.
Superb! Correct in every detail. Wynton Marsalis used to practice just ONE note over and over (according to lore). When I was still acting in film and TV...(given time)....I would do this with a script...especially if it was a TV commercial where I was "the hero" with all the lines...... ..Such excellent counsel on your part. Thanks for the reminder.......
I have been doing this while learning Nocturne Op9 No2. It is the most advanced piece I’ve ever tried (I’m just an early intermediate) but the repetitions are the only way I could learn certain passages. Glad I’m doing something right! Thank you for this video.
WOW ! Every time I see one of your videos, I think you're the best and only piano teacher that actually teaches important, useful things. YOU'RE THE GREATEST !!! If I ever get rich, I'am gonna send you a big bag of money for being such a magnanimous, generous person. Thanks for being 🌟You🌟 !!!💜
I’ve practiced this way most of my life - over 50 years of such practice. Unfortunately, most of it was on the saxophone, flute, and electronic wind instruments. I switched to piano 3 years ago, and I’ve done that on the piano for 3 to 6 hours a day ever since. It pays off extremely well, but it makes everyone in the house hate you. Fortunately my cats think it’s all lovely, and my practice space has at least two doors between it and most of the house, so it’s really not very loud outside of my practice room, which happens to be the “cat room.” The cats tolerate it, but they really love it when I play something like Chopin’s Nocturne in Eb, or Scriabin Opus 42 etude no. 4. They aren’t swayed by a lot of notes, real fast!
I've been doing this, like one really difficult measure over and over--glad to hear I'm on the right track. Thanks, Robert! Oh, also the part about arm weight--right on!
As a Horn player, I “take stock” by playing one note, D flat concert (second space written A flat) to get my mental picture of my sound (a John Barrows sound). I imagine pianists might do similarly for their touch. Thank you Robert for your recent detailed videos.
Thank you so much Robert! I am putting this advise to work right now with Bach's G Minor and Halvorsen's Passacaglia to get me up to speed on these two pieces. This feels like I am getting professional advice from a master at some renown conservatory. I repeat, you are the virtuous virtuoso but with no limits! I can't afford the Bosendorfer concert grand so I play a Casio Privia Px-S7000 digital piano with 400 voices and I have a big Amp attached to blast my music to the world! Take that or enjoy that! Blessings 🌹🌹🌹
Take a listen to my Chopin 10/1 and that was after about 5000 repetitions, maybe more. But, you NEED a digital piano with headphones, or a felt to mute the strings. And Robert....have you listened to Cziffra's practice reels? Even one of the greatest pianists to ever live had insecure moments in easy pieces, and he needed to do the work just like any other person. So kids....DO THE WORK!!!
Yes. When I have a difficult or new short passage to work on I will set a timer and just rep it as accurately as possible until I crack it. I go slow and strive for accuracy and just repeat repeat repeat.
That example is brilliant. I can see that ‘melody’ being used to build up tension. “What will happen, will he commit the murder?” “Will the commandos be able to creep past the enemy soldiers and plant the bomb”.
“Repetition legitimizes” as they say… It’s funny how you breaking down the Scherzo sounds like a whole new piece it can be like that almost. True words though, slowly and repetitious in chunks can do wonders for any piece no matter the difficulty
That gives me hope I’ll be able to change my fingering in the Prokofiev Toccata on the measure where I discovered a wrong note I’d learned wayyyy back. If I just practice it incrementally over and over ….
Excuse my naive way, but how many repetitions are you talking, in general. I know, till it´s fine, but give me a ballpark idea, please? Thanks for your video
Work it up from a really, obnoxiously slow tempo. Little increments at a time. By the time you get within shouting distance of performance tempo, you'll have a lot of reps.