4 ms·

'Chunking down' a piece is pretty much the only way I've managed to learn some harder pieces, at least by my regular-guy standards e.g. Rach Prelude in C sharp

by spangry 10y ago

'Chunking down' a piece is pretty much the only way I've managed to learn some harder pieces, at least by my regular-guy standards e.g. Rach Prelude in C sharp minor. That last one was particularly hard as I'm a terrible sight reader, and there's about two pages where you're playing 10 notes every half-beat. But I think GP has a point about the dangers of this approach (even though it's unavoidable I think). It sometimes results in noticeable 'seams' in an otherwise fluent performance. You can occasionally spot these 'seams' even in performances by world-class concert pianists (though this is rare). I find it weirdly reassuring: no matter how talented you are, those first few days of practising a new piece will always be a tedious grind.

smallnamespace 10y ago
You can avoid seams by learning overlapping (and varied-length) chunks. If you are working on 2-bar sized chunks, then make sure you also work on 4-bar and 8-bar sized chunks, and offset the chunks by half the chunk size. E.g. if your chunks start at bars 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., then repeat with chunks starting at 2, 4, 6 , 8..., then scale up to larger-size chunks so that you always have multiple chunks than cover up a 'seam'.
stcredzero 10y ago
there's about two pages where you're playing 10 notes every half-beat. There's a bit of stuff in classical music that strikes me as being there so that musicians can show off their speed. It's one of the things that even the lowest common denominator audience can relate to, so of course this happens! It sometimes results in noticeable 'seams' in an otherwise fluent performance. The way to avoid seams is to truly make the chunk yours, by being able to morph it in rhythm and time and introducing variation. By the time you can freely do that -- by the time it has become a plaything -- it is truly yours, and you can play it without seams. The problem for me with this and classical music, is that often I really don't care so much for the difficult segments. I'd rather play something beautiful, than something that shows me off.
- _raoulcousins 10y ago
  Absolutely! I learned to play a lot of fast runs of sixteenth notes by varying the rhythm. Effective and much more fun than starting slowly ticking up the metronome (although I do a lot of that too).
  - chopin 10y ago
    You may want to check out Cortot, who did a series on how to practice Chopin pieces, notably the notorious Etudes. One of the techniques he describes is varying either rhythm or accentuation. I tried especially the latter which works pretty well. But I am a bit unsure whether it is a genuine effect or a consequence that a practice a chunk more often if you do this.
- spangry 10y ago
  There's a bit of stuff in classical music that strikes me as being there so that musicians can show off their speed. It's one of the things that even the lowest common denominator audience can relate to, so of course this happens! Heh, agreed. Though I think the Rach Prelude was more designed to break piano strings :) (they're chords, some of which are marked 'sffff'... also looking at the sheet music it's actually 8 notes) There seem to be a few etudes like you've described (Liszt comes to mind). I cannot for the life of me figure out what these composers were attempting to teach their students...

by spangry 10y ago

smallnamespace 10y ago

You can avoid seams by learning overlapping (and varied-length) chunks. If you are working on 2-bar sized chunks, then make sure you also work on 4-bar and 8-bar sized chunks, and offset the chunks by half the chunk size. E.g. if your chunks start at bars 1, 3, 5, 7, ..., then repeat with chunks starting at 2, 4, 6 , 8..., then scale up to larger-size chunks so that you always have multiple chunks than cover up a 'seam'.

stcredzero 10y ago

there's about two pages where you're playing 10 notes every half-beat. There's a bit of stuff in classical music that strikes me as being there so that musicians can show off their speed. It's one of the things that even the lowest common denominator audience can relate to, so of course this happens! It sometimes results in noticeable 'seams' in an otherwise fluent performance. The way to avoid seams is to truly make the chunk yours, by being able to morph it in rhythm and time and introducing variation. By the time you can freely do that -- by the time it has become a plaything -- it is truly yours, and you can play it without seams. The problem for me with this and classical music, is that often I really don't care so much for the difficult segments. I'd rather play something beautiful, than something that shows me off.

_raoulcousins 10y ago
Absolutely! I learned to play a lot of fast runs of sixteenth notes by varying the rhythm. Effective and much more fun than starting slowly ticking up the metronome (although I do a lot of that too).
- chopin 10y ago
  You may want to check out Cortot, who did a series on how to practice Chopin pieces, notably the notorious Etudes. One of the techniques he describes is varying either rhythm or accentuation. I tried especially the latter which works pretty well. But I am a bit unsure whether it is a genuine effect or a consequence that a practice a chunk more often if you do this.
spangry 10y ago
There's a bit of stuff in classical music that strikes me as being there so that musicians can show off their speed. It's one of the things that even the lowest common denominator audience can relate to, so of course this happens! Heh, agreed. Though I think the Rach Prelude was more designed to break piano strings :) (they're chords, some of which are marked 'sffff'... also looking at the sheet music it's actually 8 notes) There seem to be a few etudes like you've described (Liszt comes to mind). I cannot for the life of me figure out what these composers were attempting to teach their students...