This is a very frank presentation of the work involved in learning to play any piece so you can reliably execute it from muscle memory. TH-cam is full of people pushing tips & tricks where you can tell from the comments people have no idea how much brute force repetition and mechanical reliance on a metronome it takes to learn to play in this conventional way. It's especially appropriate advice for self-teaching adults, who usually want to play impressive pieces that are beyond their actual level. I did a half-assed version of what you're explaining for two years and then looked elsewhere. I wanted to sight-read fluently. That's a long journey toward mastery that makes your steps seem like a short cut to having at least a small repertoire.
Great advice and I use it everyday. My challenge is when I try playing the entire piece I keep making random mistakes which is frustrating becuase I feel like a cat chasing its tail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hey Bruce, I’d recommend playing the piece slowly, perhaps 50% the normal speed and try to play it without mistake. Playing slower makes it easier to ensure everything is correct. Then after you play it correctly at a slow speed multiple times in a row (possibly over multiple days) it should be easier to avoid those mistakes. If you still make mistakes at a slower speed, then break it into smaller sections to make sure each section is “fixed” and you are able to play correctly.
@@northshorepianoschool Thank you! Although I can play all the small sections without mistakes at tempo I could not do the same when trying to play the entire piece. I took your advice and performed the entire score at a more comfortable tempo and what a difference. I wonder if it is becuase my muscle memory was trained to perform in smaller sections and when I tried to put them altogether it was a slightly new experience for the muscle memory. So now practicing the entire score at a slow tempo and gradually increase (mistake free) will be effective. Your tip about consistent fingering is spot on. Thanks again for you help! You have a new subscriber.
Goodness. I started a new song last Saturday and I for some reason thought to split the piece up. To help of course. I started with my right hand and then the next day I tried left( alone). This is all confirmation and will break the piece into more sections. I noticed I grasped the cords and notes quickly this way. ...what I missing? finger placement as you stated. So now I will go back and correct myself, implementing those placement for less mistake just from that change. Thank you so much. I am really excited to play the piano (keys as I call it) and I try to give 10 to 20 minutes a day. Is that too short a time to practice? I have plenty of time... just going off what others have said in other videos.
Sounds like you have figured out how working on each hand separately makes it easier and faster to learn a new song! It is good to keep reviewing each hand and work out the small pieces. I think 10 to 20 minutes is okay if you are focused, but if you practice longer you will progress quicker.
01:37 I think my neural networks & neuroplasticity goes too far and compacts the snow so much it goes to the slippy ice stage. Does anyone else suffer from "squishy balloon/whack-a-mole syndrome"? It's where mistakes and slip-ups pop up randomly at different places in a piece so no matter how much you practice sections & micro-sections slowly with focus and get them just fine a stubborn mistake suddenly shows up like an evil imp in a previously 100% perfect section. And repeat - argghh! There's another thing too: steadily increasing tempo for me seems to result in a sudden "phase transition" of performance rather than a consistent maintenance of quality - like the melting point of a pure substance vs the glass transition temperature of a polymer - and no amount of slow focused multi-approach practice helps. When playing at speed things like momentum, resistance and the muscle and joints used differ critically from playing slowly, and it's as if my brain-body can't make the transition at the critical point (tempo).
Ha that's a good call on the snow sometimes getting compacted! Yeah random mistakes do happen for most people. The thing to do is to become a mistake detective and figure out why it happened, it could be you accidentally hit a note you weren't intending, forgetting notes, hands not in proper position or trained enough, or just a brain hiccup. I still think constant isolation and drilling correctly can at least decrease mistakes. Sometimes it just takes weeks/months if the music is challenging. As far as speeding up and using different motor skill, it's good to do each hand separately at faster speeds to make sure the movements are still precise before playing both hands.
sounds like you have a bad dose of perfectionism mi amigo learn to be okay with making mistakes, its human when your head is ready to play that piece flawlessly, it will dont expect to run perfectly when you sometimes still mess up walking
This is a very frank presentation of the work involved in learning to play any piece so you can reliably execute it from muscle memory. TH-cam is full of people pushing tips & tricks where you can tell from the comments people have no idea how much brute force repetition and mechanical reliance on a metronome it takes to learn to play in this conventional way. It's especially appropriate advice for self-teaching adults, who usually want to play impressive pieces that are beyond their actual level. I did a half-assed version of what you're explaining for two years and then looked elsewhere. I wanted to sight-read fluently. That's a long journey toward mastery that makes your steps seem like a short cut to having at least a small repertoire.
This information was really valuable. Thanks!
Can you do a video on hand independence. It's been my biggest struggle. Thank you 🙏
Merci for this advice.
I just discovered the channel, you explain very well, keep going on, i wish you the best!
Thank you very much!
Great sir...
Dude your content is quality! I just subscribed
I appreciate it!
Great advice and I use it everyday. My challenge is when I try playing the entire piece I keep making random mistakes which is frustrating becuase I feel like a cat chasing its tail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hey Bruce, I’d recommend playing the piece slowly, perhaps 50% the normal speed and try to play it without mistake. Playing slower makes it easier to ensure everything is correct. Then after you play it correctly at a slow speed multiple times in a row (possibly over multiple days) it should be easier to avoid those mistakes.
If you still make mistakes at a slower speed, then break it into smaller sections to make sure each section is “fixed” and you are able to play correctly.
@@northshorepianoschool Thank you! Although I can play all the small sections without mistakes at tempo I could not do the same when trying to play the entire piece. I took your advice and performed the entire score at a more comfortable tempo and what a difference. I wonder if it is becuase my muscle memory was trained to perform in smaller sections and when I tried to put them altogether it was a slightly new experience for the muscle memory. So now practicing the entire score at a slow tempo and gradually increase (mistake free) will be effective. Your tip about consistent fingering is spot on. Thanks again for you help! You have a new subscriber.
nice vid and amazing drama😂♥️
Thanks 😅
Goodness. I started a new song last Saturday and I for some reason thought to split the piece up. To help of course. I started with my right hand and then the next day I tried left( alone). This is all confirmation and will break the piece into more sections. I noticed I grasped the cords and notes quickly this way. ...what I missing? finger placement as you stated. So now I will go back and correct myself, implementing those placement for less mistake just from that change. Thank you so much. I am really excited to play the piano (keys as I call it) and I try to give 10 to 20 minutes a day.
Is that too short a time to practice? I have plenty of time... just going off what others have said in other videos.
Sounds like you have figured out how working on each hand separately makes it easier and faster to learn a new song! It is good to keep reviewing each hand and work out the small pieces.
I think 10 to 20 minutes is okay if you are focused, but if you practice longer you will progress quicker.
01:37 I think my neural networks & neuroplasticity goes too far and compacts the snow so much it goes to the slippy ice stage. Does anyone else suffer from "squishy balloon/whack-a-mole syndrome"? It's where mistakes and slip-ups pop up randomly at different places in a piece so no matter how much you practice sections & micro-sections slowly with focus and get them just fine a stubborn mistake suddenly shows up like an evil imp in a previously 100% perfect section. And repeat - argghh! There's another thing too: steadily increasing tempo for me seems to result in a sudden "phase transition" of performance rather than a consistent maintenance of quality - like the melting point of a pure substance vs the glass transition temperature of a polymer - and no amount of slow focused multi-approach practice helps. When playing at speed things like momentum, resistance and the muscle and joints used differ critically from playing slowly, and it's as if my brain-body can't make the transition at the critical point (tempo).
Ha that's a good call on the snow sometimes getting compacted! Yeah random mistakes do happen for most people. The thing to do is to become a mistake detective and figure out why it happened, it could be you accidentally hit a note you weren't intending, forgetting notes, hands not in proper position or trained enough, or just a brain hiccup. I still think constant isolation and drilling correctly can at least decrease mistakes. Sometimes it just takes weeks/months if the music is challenging. As far as speeding up and using different motor skill, it's good to do each hand separately at faster speeds to make sure the movements are still precise before playing both hands.
sounds like you have a bad dose of perfectionism mi amigo
learn to be okay with making mistakes, its human
when your head is ready to play that piece flawlessly, it will
dont expect to run perfectly when you sometimes still mess up walking
How to avoid making mistakes? Simple: Don't press the wrong notes