The most powerful way of practicing music - Mental practice away from piano - Greg Niemczuk TUTORIAL
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2023
- #pianopractice #pianoskills #pianotutorial
In this video I decided to show you how I practice/learn mentally a new piece of music. It is very helpful and powerful way of learning. I will learn a little of the beginning of Prokofiev Sonata no. 6
contact: gnpiano@aol.com
www.niemczuk.com
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This is one of the most honest, brave and amazing videos I have ever seen, on any subject, on TH-cam. Greg Niemczuk is not only an extraordinary pianist and teacher, but truly an extraordinary person!
Thank you so much! I'm grateful that you appreciate it. I just share my experience
A lot of people think practicing piano is to practice the fingers. To a certain yes, but that is not the majority of the work. Practice piano is to practice your BRAIN. "Think perfectly" is more important than "play perfectly". Thank you Maestro for championing this concept to piano lovers.
Yes! It is indeed all about thinking! What annoys me is going to a “concert” - like a home gathering - and performers proceed to play by watching the music. It’s mostly rather disastrous.
Forever grateful. 7 years of intense study and I couldn't get any of the professors at conservatory to extend the gravity of the real guts of study.
You are a brave man to make this video without any editing 😎😎😎 And you've answered my question about using named keys in memorising - thank you. You are taking your piano-playing followers on a rich journey👍
Brave or crazy......
Great practice method! Maestro ! Interesting fact: Researchers discovered that internal imagery produces the same mental activity as physical movement, thus, when you imagine your hands playing on the piano, your brain interprets it as if you were actually doing that - with your hands on the instrument - . So, this kind of practice away from your instrument really works! That's very effective and makes the process of learning a little bit faster/easier. Our brain is amazing! 😊
Absolutely right!
Yes!
werent the Russians the first to do mental practice with their athletes many years ago?? At least that was the first that I heard of it. It takes a great deal of character to do this. It is exhausting.
Amazing
Love this so much!!!❤
😮yes!👏👏👏😃
Very interesting video!👍👍🎼🎶🎹
Sir, whenever I miss my piano teacher, I take to you, who seems to be so helpful to me! I 'm grateful to you! You've made me a Chopin lover, too!!
So happy to hear it!
Thanks for showing how you practise the piano with all of these creative ways. You memorize the music so fast, it is amazing.
Muito bom.
C'est une bonne découverte pour moi, et je tenterai dès que j'en aurai l'occasion ! Merci beaucoup pour vos vidéos et vos conseils ! 🙏
Goes to show just how magical our brains are at memorising! We can remember more than we think.
Excellent technique, and yes it always works. It requires a lot of patience but needs to be done. Thank you for all your excellent teachings . ❤❤
It really works and one of the best things is you can still practice even if you are away from the piano! Thank you Greg for all your wonderful teachings
Revolutionary!
I thought about your request while making this video!
Thank you so much Greg❤❤ ❤❤❤. I know this term a while back but never really know how to practice with it, let alone seeing it’s benefit. I was so frustrated coming back from my summer holiday that my fingers have ‘lost’ me and even pieces I know well (or not!) I can’t play without errors. I would definitely try this (leading up to my next vacation and beyond). One observation, I do noticed you first (quickly) identified the chords and memorise the progression of chords. So my other learning is to go back to my music theory and refresh on chords. Anyway, thanks again!
This IS the secret! The way it’s done. Playing endlessly from the music will get one nowhere fast. Repetitive work is very helpful of course, but unreliable… just works to bake in the technique and fingering. I do both intense memory work both at the piano and away from the instrument. My teacher was a pupil of a Liszt pupil and that is where he was taught! Lots of away from the piano, intense study of the score. Watch the score, Play it in your mind, then close your eyes and “play” it! If you can do that, they once you get back to the keyboard it’s SO much easier, hence proper memorisation.
Anyway, this is what my teacher taught me and it works.
Yes yes, 1000x YES!!!
Very helpful. Impressed to hear from your experience.
Studied for several years at Oberlin conservatory and never quite got this. This puts much more focus on what I am or am not or how not doing.
Practice, practice, practice, repetition repetition is getting me nowhere fast. Thank you so much for this❤
@@gregniemczuk thank you Greg!!! It’s so true and important. So many people really don’t know this - or they do know but don’t actually practice it. Memory work away from the keyboard is difficult tedious work! But worth it. It’s the secret. I was lucky to have such a great teacher who knew this thanks to Franz Liszt and he taught me this method. Prior, I was relying on the touch sense with repetition which was reasonable at times, but unreliable . It’s hard and intense work. For my Diploma I memorised this way my entire program including a 6 page Bach prelude and fugue, a Beethoven Sonata, à Schumann fantasie and a 20th century toccata. I memorised it all away from the piano one line at a time.
@@jennifermateyabram8480 dear Jennifer your most welcome!!! I would like to start a you tube teaching channel myself. I have much to offer. I’m so glad Greg and myself have been able to help you! Greg is a great teacher too.
@@lourens753 interesting you would suggest the mirror technique.
Sometimes when I look at eighth note down scale runs in treble clef, my brain is thinking dyslexia... Why are the notes going down from left to right when my rt hand is playing rt to left.
Does that make sense?
Hi Greg, your lesson about mental practice and memorizing it is a very interesting lesson, because it really make us think, and be able to remember and not to be so dependable of reading every single note like sometime I have to do, thank you very much.
Or sit at the piano playing over and over measures and lines for a long time thinking what's the matter with me how come I can't memorize this??
On the surface I was watching the rugby, but inside I was practising a Bach invention 😂 thank you Greg for the gift of a 26 hour day, this is so helpful - it's much harder than it looks!
I would love to hear you play Prok 6
I will!
Panie Grzegorzu, dziękuję za ten kanał. Pewny wykładowca powiedział kiedyś, że jeśli ktoś opowiada o czymś z pasją, to nawet jeśli będzie opowiadał o paczce zapałek to można słuchać godzinami. A Pan opowiada o Chopinie… Uwielbiam słuchać analiz, a przytaczane listy i historia pomagają się mi przenieść w czasie. Ciarki mam do dzisiaj po analizie Scherzo H-moll op. 20. Nagrania umilają mi czas do pracy, a już w domowym zaciszu skupiam się na zgrywaniu kolejnych utworów Chopina. Jest Pan inspiracją. Czekam na kolejne nagrania. Pozdrawiam serdecznie!
Dzień dobry! Serdecznie dziękuję za taki odbiór i ten komentarz! Dodaje mi to energii to kolejnych publikacji!
Hello Grzegorz! Wonderful video as always! Another thing is can you do another video, or a newer updated video on the Polonaise in A Flat Major Opus. 53? I watched your videos of them from 2 years ago!
Yes but what do you want me to record exactly?
@@gregniemczuk If you can, film your best performance of the piece and describe how you interpret some parts.
Many, many thanks for this helpful and important Practice - Video! I will test this method immediately, but with another and weaker piece 😂
Yes, try! And let me know if it worked for you
Yes, Sir 🫡
Wow!
I can't thank you enough for this video and also another, that was focused on memorizing musical piece.
You basically made something that seemed to me as a mistery and superhuman ability - mental practicing - into something that seems in fact as a quite natural way of practicing.
But well, I'll have to test this method on some simpler piece to see how it goes.
Btw, when have you started using this method in your practicing?
Thank you again very very much! I wish you all the best!
Hi! Thank you! I started when I was about 23-24, way too late in my opinion but nobody showed me that in this simple way!
@@gregniemczukVery true! Most music teachers don't show this way and they probably don't know it either. I have a Master's degree in piano performance and during all my years of studying, practicing or performing i always relied on repetition. Luckily, i had no problems but it's indeed unreliable and risky. I'm currently preparing a charity concert in the memory of my beloved, recently deceased father and i was considering using the music, since it's been many, many years that i haven't played an entire classical concert in public (i work as a music teacher in secondary education ever since i graduated). I will definitely put your advise to practise, since i've always felt that using the music somewhat "downgrades" the performance and it removes part of the thrill. Thank you! 😊
@@mariapap8962 when do you have your charity concert? Yes, I strongly recommend playing from memory, it also gives you a lot of freedom. If you force yourself to master every piece this way, I'm sure you can do it!
@@gregniemczuk Thank you, Greg! Initially i was thinking about January '24, but it'll all depend on how my practise goes, doing a full- time + a part-time job, PLUS getting it all organized. Most important is to make a respectable performance, whenever it takes place.
@@mariapap8962 good luck! I believe in you
Very impressive again, Greg, I am definitely going to integrate this in my study practice, thank you!
Yes! Do so! And let me know if that changed your progress
Disclaimer: This method is gonna prove successful for musicians with already somewhat clarified internal ear for recreating interval jumps or knowing the tune by ear and at least some basic grasp of harmonic system, as well as scales in order to provide a smooth association job for the mind. After all it's mental work. Having the forementioned elements under one's belt one can expect solid recalling foundation for any piece studied. Otherwise, the task may turn out difficult to apply.
Definitely. You're 100% true. It's not for amateurs without any musical knowledge
It is amazing that you practice not on the piano. I must say that I have a little hard time. I wish I could do it. Thank you dear Greg.
I believe in you!
Thank you dear Greg. Me too, I believe in you.@@gregniemczuk
Greg, thank you for making such a concise and wonderful video; a video about one of the most important topics in piano playing, but a topic that rarely ever talked about clearly and understandably. You have done a great service for future pianists by sharing your knowledge in such a clear way. I, like many others, are eternally grateful. As an aside, I do have a question when it comes to mentally practicing pieces that you've already learned hands together. In cases like the your experience in Latin America where you were mentally practicing pieces you'd already learned hands together, would you still mentally practice with hands seperate? Aditionally, what are the characterisitcs of a good surface to mentally practice on? Your videos are always so thought provoking and inspiring. Once again, thank you for all you've done.
Yeah, I never do it hands together. It's too hard for me. Always separately!
Thank you, Greg, for this tutorial!
A question, please:
When you practice mentally a piece like this that you have not played before, do you hear what it sounds like in your inner ear?
Even if it is very chromatic like this one?
Is hearing the piece with your inner ear part of the learning process?
Or can this be neglected and the main focus is to be on imagining the keys, the movements and the learning connections?
Just wondering!
I think you don't have to hear it! Sometimes it's very hard. Motoric memory and movements of the fingers are the most important
@@gregniemczuk Thank you!
Next could you do a video on how to play fast and clear?
Ok!
There are also many times when the weaker outer fingers of the right hand must create a singing tone on top while the inner stronger fingers need to be softer. Playing hymns in church on the piano and bringing out the melody is a good example of this.
Yes, or Schubert's Impromptus
Yes, and I had actually intended to comment on a previous clip in which was discussed a singing right hand against a left hand accompaniment , but I guess you may have realized that.
How do you sort out the fingering? I need to write them in the score, so that I keep uniformity in repeated patterns etc and avoid changing, as this upsets the tactual sense.
You can imagine the keyboard and usually find good fingering in your mind using the imagination!
I am trying to memorize/mental practice the LH of my piece and there is lots of repetition. I'm using a music composition app on my IPAD. So I copy the first line of the score and then try to write it again without the score - not easy for me, especially notes above the ledger lines, but I'm hoping it will get better. I do this at m local coffee shop with green tea. I'm hoping this gives the same results as you achieved. The Music composition app is called 'Staff Pad' a little pricey, perhaps there are cheaper ones. From the written notes I provide, it will immediately transcribe them into actual music notes. My problem is there are too many 'edits' if you don't write the notes so the computer can understand what you've written, it won't do anything. So you are effectively learning two things at once - the score and how to manipulate this program. Trial and error, as they say.
You should be writing things out by hand with a pencil and paper. It’s not the same doing it digitally, it’s much less effective that way
Ok. thanks.
@@mickizurcher8450
Do you imagine the score in your head while you practice? Or do you just imagine the keyboard?
Mostly keyboard, only sometimes the score when it's absolutely necessary
Interesting ! I wonder: why do you not recommend two hands practice ? How would do do this practice with Godowsky études 2, 4, 13 for instance ? I practiced a lot (22 Godowsky études every day) pianoless, but really without a piano for weeks, and without hands too, it's very tinteresting ! I feel that I need to go back to that. Many thanks
Omg... I never really looked deeply at Godovsky, feeling that it's too difficult for me. Maybe it's time to do it.
I must say, playing mentally hands together was always simply too hard for me and it discouraged me from doing it at all at the beginning
@@gregniemczuk Don't you think that actually the first hurdle is actually what we think (the difficulty) of a piece ? and also what we think of our abilities ?
@@MathieuPrevot yes, totally
Greg you sound like you also have aptitude for the drums...why not? Or some other percussive instrument ...but in America ..you know what the old saying is ...dont quit yout day job..which in your case ...is being a fantastic concert pianists!!!..thank you for this wonderful learning experience.😊
Thanks!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ I love America!
Inspiring practice!
But because Prokofiev No. 6 isn't in the public domain in the EU or in the US, it is difficult to find a copy for the purpose of following along.
Awwwww.... I didn't think about it!!!!! 🤦
Should I make another one with something publicly available?
Yeah it would be easier for a lot of us. We would appreciate if you could, unless it’s very much an inconvenience.
@@Nostalgicavenue2000youre asking too much. i’m sure you get the general idea of what he’s trying to impart. He shouldn’t have to do this over again it’s very clear as it is.
@@gregniemczuk Greg we totally get the idea. I didn’t have a score and I totally understood what you were doing. I don’t think you should have to find something else just because somebody else needs to be spoon-fed. ❤
Do you ever have to practice with ear plugs in?
Only when it's a lot of noise outside.....
Fantastic teaching. I had a thought though at 5:05 if someone walked in on you unexpectedly they'd probably call the men in the white coats 😂😂
Only kidding. My partner has walked into the kitchen before to find me strumming on the table whilst looking at a music book 😂
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
Watching this video again, I’m thinking I will never be and to “see” and memorise to much at once. I could do smaller chunks. What do you think?
Yes, the smaller the better!
@@gregniemczuk yes. I used to sit in a chair with music, and memorise 1 line: RH, LH, BH - play it in my head with fingers moving on my lap , eyes closed with the keyboard in my head. Once I could
do it, I would go to the piano. It’s hard and tedious requires most of thinking just like
You demonstrated! Thanks for your great video and inspiring me to get back
To doing this when I get home to Australia! Cheers from Bangkok Thailand!
Hi Greg! Sorry - I have renamed the waltz I composed in your honour. Also I have changed what I thought was a mazurka (in honour of Paul Barton) - having watched your excellent video on the difference between waltzes and mazurkas. It is also on my 'waltz playlist'. Here is that playlist: th-cam.com/video/8K49Tnhch0I/w-d-xo.html
This is wonderful! Thank you so much!
Thanks Greg! Actually I changed all my 'mazurkas' after my Beethoven-line teacher said tat they were not like how mazurkas are defined. So I changed all them to 'moments musicaux'! I have now done 6 of them - like Rachmaninoff and Schubert! Not quite as good as their ones though! Here they are in case you are interested: th-cam.com/video/283yXUUYGZE/w-d-xo.html
So guess what we learned today? Practicing with the piano is a lot faster.
Nope. It's not, it's an illusion
But i just took the score and learned what you did in 5 minutes. Can play by memory too. I wanted to prove it to myself and i can say the following. Fastest way is to practice with understanding. You basically do both at the same time. Never play faster than you can think. Understand patterns, rhythms and harmonies. Make use of what you learned in hanon and then you get what i got.
@@gregniemczuk btw i would suggest to use 53 and then 51 fingerings on the first 2 thirds, makes life a lot easier. 😉
@@Cooller1993 thanks ! But 14 works well for me I think
Not quite true. You’ll not memorise just doing repetitive practice at the piano looking at the music. It will take forever to learn it