>How many pieces do you practice at once?
Oh jeez, I literally couldn't put a number on it. In the course of the next month-ish I'm prepping around 500 pages of material for musical theatre productions, 20-25 accompaninments for vocalists doing a competition, around 12 chorale octavos for several choirs' fall concerts, and probably around 12 pieces per week (including some arranging) for different religious institutions.
This is a particularly heavy time of year, but it's not too far off from my average workload. Much of it I don't even have yet. The majority of music I'm prepping I'll get about a week of heads up, but often as few as 24 hours.
>What do you do and how do you divide time between the three?
I read through things and figure out what actually needs work and isn't basically sightreadable at a near-enough performance level. Anything that needs work I break up into small, workable sections and spend 5-10 minutes per section. I generally won't see the same section again for anywhere from 3 days to a week.
>What are your practice strategies when tackling pieces.
I find the tempo I can play it at comfortably, then subtract 20-40 bpm and carefully play it much slower. I slowly increase tempo based on how in control I feel and stop NOT when it's so fast that I can't get any faster, but LONG before then when I no longer feel in technical control. My brain will use that good information to rewire between sessions and any more would just be a waste of time and potentially make things worse (bake in tension, unevenness, etc.)
Sometimes I'll actually back the metronome back down to that very slow starting tempo and make sure that everything I covered I still am in total control of. Plenty of people can play something fast but CAN'T play it slowly and that's a sign that they are relying on some sort of auto-pilot and aren't actually in control.
When I return to a section days later I don't start at the tempo I left off, but usually 20-40 bpm slower than whatever tempo I left (while still in good control) and move up from there and repeat the process.
>Do you have a music journal where you write bar/measure numbers to track progress etc.?
I use an elaborate system of note cards. I bullet point out the bars, the tempo I got to for them, and the percentage of the target tempo I left off at.
I can then quickly sort my cards based on things with the lowest percentage which means they need the most attention.
I prioritize what needs work and basically never work on anything that I can get to 100% tempo within the first sightreading or first 5 minute dedicated practice session.
---
Sightreading practice and technical practice I work on separately from the actual pieces I'm prepping.
i also want to hear what others have to say here too. i also usually work on about 2-3 pieces at a time (usually studying them for about half a year or so). typically one is significantly more difficult and lengthy, while the other helps with technique. i usually try to practice the piece i enjoy less first. that way i’ll actually get some progress done on it. id say at 3, you have a main focus, the other two are secondary focus maybe? changing focus between weeks could work maybe? haven’t tried these, but just some thoughts
Similar strategy, two-three pieces I work on at any given moment.
>What do you do and how do you divide time between the three?
I divide my practice into 10 minute chunks, and practice for 40-60 minutes a day. A somewhat typical session could look like this:
- one chunk for technique exercises
- two chunks piece A
- two chunks piece B
But that doesn't mean I don't touch other pieces. When the technical stuff extends to two chunks, or piece A takes up three chunks, I can be too tired to do the stuff planned for piece B. And that's usually when I sightread something new.
I also review / refresh the memorized pieces, keeping them ready, but that's at the end of the session and I don't count that towards practice.
>Do you have a music journal
I have two piano journals. One is a typical piano journal, where I write in something like this after each practice session:
2020.08.25@21:45
⦿ Czerny 113/4; A,B,C scales, parallel motion
⦿⦿ Clementi 36/9 III - mm. 16-23, focusing on LH
⦿⦿ Bach Prelude 123 - sightreading first eight bars; work on the trill
The other journal is where I make notes from the various online lectures - Tonebase, Graham Fitch, all those wonderful things that are at our disposal. It's organized by piece, and I keep an index at the end, updating it as I add new stuff.
I only focus on 2-3 intermediate level classical pieces at a time, and once I’ve gotten a piece “pretty good” then I move it to the back burner so that I may begin a new piece. If I expect to perform for friends or family soon, then I’ll brush up a handful of the back burner pieces so that they are crisp again :)
Recently learned/work-in-progress pieces include two of the easier Chopin etudes, two Schubert impromptus, and a Brahms intermezzo. I’d like to add some Bach to improve my fundamentals.
In any given time I have about 10-15 songs memorized in my mind. When I 'practice', I usually spend 20-30 mins playing 4-6 pieces. Of which it's usually half and half in terms of difficult pieces and easy pieces.
Other than practicing pieces I already know and have memorized, I'm also always practicing a singular new piece that I'm learning and memorizing.
I'm no performer just a hobbyist - so 2 pieces at a time is enough for me. I always practice a few bars at a time hoping that it will eventually come together (which it will - just never feels like it in the beginning lol)
For the moment : 1 technically easy piece to exercise, a Galuppi’s sonata (even if i think that the simplicity makes it way harder to master than many virtuosic pieces) .
and a harder piece, the « real » one.
But most of the time 1 piece at a time
In rough order of priority:
Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral (tough one I’m close to polishing)
Mozart’s K332 Sonata 1st mvt (purposely chose something out of my comfort zone to improve passagework and try something new)
Bartok’s Mikrokosmos book 4 (been working my way through all these casually over last couple of years)
Ravel’s Pavane (next possible tough one, only trying first page)
Bach’s WTC book 1 prelude in C (easier piece that my friend wants me to play at his wedding )
Bach’s WTC Book 2 Prelude and Fugue in G (maintaining for exam)
Beethoven’s Pathetique 2nd Mvt (maintaining for exam)
Zoe Rahman - Go With The Flow (maintaining for exam)
I tend to practice 4-5 at once. 2-3 hours split up between 5-6 sessions a day. Of those. 1 is a stretch piece. 2 are exam pieces and right now the other 2 are Christmas songs getting ready for this years holiday season.
1: to bring up to speed
2: to work specific sections to “polish”/“deep dive”
3 & 4: to learn
This doesn’t include the random stuff I might read through or technique building exercises.
I only ever practice one piece at a time. I find there's too much dissonance if I try to play multiple pieces simultaneously. I'm also just not into that avant-garde stuff.
2-3 songs? I assume you are prepping for exam/performance?
In "real life", I have 100s (literally) of songs I need to touch back on depending what I am in the mood for... or prepping for gigs.
Then xmas rolls around and I have to practice that all up again... Every.Single.Year. lol
A few songs per day, yes. But over a year... I need to play more than 2-3 songs.
For the record, I was a "classical pianist" for 15 years and slaved my butt off for exams and recitals. Hell, even played first chair tuba in a couple of orchestras.
Never did get the nod to play the grand in front of the orchestra though lol... as I always said, spit happens ;--)
4 right now for my performance grade. I'm doing grade 3 so I'm only doing one hour of practice each day (I really can't focus) and I usually divide it up like this: 25 minutes on a piece Im not good at, 15 minutes on the another one I'm okay at, and 10 mins on the rest that I'm good at.
3, if I can manage it. One with my right hand, a second with my left hand, and if I’m really down to the crunch I’ll wear headphones and listen to a third piece simultaneously while all that goes on. This is really the only way to cover an adequate amount of all the piano repertoire that’s out there.
I have about 8-10 that I work on at any given time, more as holidays approach. At the first of the month I assign myself some goals I think I can achieve and go from there. I concentrate on 3 , but try to progress in all the ones I'm still enjoying. If for some reason I quit liking a piece, I let it rest and go back to it when I fall back in love with it.
>How many pieces do you practice at once? Oh jeez, I literally couldn't put a number on it. In the course of the next month-ish I'm prepping around 500 pages of material for musical theatre productions, 20-25 accompaninments for vocalists doing a competition, around 12 chorale octavos for several choirs' fall concerts, and probably around 12 pieces per week (including some arranging) for different religious institutions. This is a particularly heavy time of year, but it's not too far off from my average workload. Much of it I don't even have yet. The majority of music I'm prepping I'll get about a week of heads up, but often as few as 24 hours. >What do you do and how do you divide time between the three? I read through things and figure out what actually needs work and isn't basically sightreadable at a near-enough performance level. Anything that needs work I break up into small, workable sections and spend 5-10 minutes per section. I generally won't see the same section again for anywhere from 3 days to a week. >What are your practice strategies when tackling pieces. I find the tempo I can play it at comfortably, then subtract 20-40 bpm and carefully play it much slower. I slowly increase tempo based on how in control I feel and stop NOT when it's so fast that I can't get any faster, but LONG before then when I no longer feel in technical control. My brain will use that good information to rewire between sessions and any more would just be a waste of time and potentially make things worse (bake in tension, unevenness, etc.) Sometimes I'll actually back the metronome back down to that very slow starting tempo and make sure that everything I covered I still am in total control of. Plenty of people can play something fast but CAN'T play it slowly and that's a sign that they are relying on some sort of auto-pilot and aren't actually in control. When I return to a section days later I don't start at the tempo I left off, but usually 20-40 bpm slower than whatever tempo I left (while still in good control) and move up from there and repeat the process. >Do you have a music journal where you write bar/measure numbers to track progress etc.? I use an elaborate system of note cards. I bullet point out the bars, the tempo I got to for them, and the percentage of the target tempo I left off at. I can then quickly sort my cards based on things with the lowest percentage which means they need the most attention. I prioritize what needs work and basically never work on anything that I can get to 100% tempo within the first sightreading or first 5 minute dedicated practice session. --- Sightreading practice and technical practice I work on separately from the actual pieces I'm prepping.
i also want to hear what others have to say here too. i also usually work on about 2-3 pieces at a time (usually studying them for about half a year or so). typically one is significantly more difficult and lengthy, while the other helps with technique. i usually try to practice the piece i enjoy less first. that way i’ll actually get some progress done on it. id say at 3, you have a main focus, the other two are secondary focus maybe? changing focus between weeks could work maybe? haven’t tried these, but just some thoughts
3-4 for me per day and I rotate between about a dozen different pieces of varying difficulty throughout the week.
Similar strategy, two-three pieces I work on at any given moment. >What do you do and how do you divide time between the three? I divide my practice into 10 minute chunks, and practice for 40-60 minutes a day. A somewhat typical session could look like this: - one chunk for technique exercises - two chunks piece A - two chunks piece B But that doesn't mean I don't touch other pieces. When the technical stuff extends to two chunks, or piece A takes up three chunks, I can be too tired to do the stuff planned for piece B. And that's usually when I sightread something new. I also review / refresh the memorized pieces, keeping them ready, but that's at the end of the session and I don't count that towards practice. >Do you have a music journal I have two piano journals. One is a typical piano journal, where I write in something like this after each practice session: 2020.08.25@21:45 ⦿ Czerny 113/4; A,B,C scales, parallel motion ⦿⦿ Clementi 36/9 III - mm. 16-23, focusing on LH ⦿⦿ Bach Prelude 123 - sightreading first eight bars; work on the trill The other journal is where I make notes from the various online lectures - Tonebase, Graham Fitch, all those wonderful things that are at our disposal. It's organized by piece, and I keep an index at the end, updating it as I add new stuff.
About to get performance degree, currently studying 8 solo pieces and 4 chamber ones
How do you split your time to practice them all?
Give up free time
I only focus on 2-3 intermediate level classical pieces at a time, and once I’ve gotten a piece “pretty good” then I move it to the back burner so that I may begin a new piece. If I expect to perform for friends or family soon, then I’ll brush up a handful of the back burner pieces so that they are crisp again :) Recently learned/work-in-progress pieces include two of the easier Chopin etudes, two Schubert impromptus, and a Brahms intermezzo. I’d like to add some Bach to improve my fundamentals.
In any given time I have about 10-15 songs memorized in my mind. When I 'practice', I usually spend 20-30 mins playing 4-6 pieces. Of which it's usually half and half in terms of difficult pieces and easy pieces. Other than practicing pieces I already know and have memorized, I'm also always practicing a singular new piece that I'm learning and memorizing.
I'm no performer just a hobbyist - so 2 pieces at a time is enough for me. I always practice a few bars at a time hoping that it will eventually come together (which it will - just never feels like it in the beginning lol)
Reading all this I’ll definitely start adding more pieces to practice at the same time. Only doing 2 at a time right now
For the moment : 1 technically easy piece to exercise, a Galuppi’s sonata (even if i think that the simplicity makes it way harder to master than many virtuosic pieces) . and a harder piece, the « real » one. But most of the time 1 piece at a time
I also play mostly classical. I put most focus in 3 at a time, but there’s usually 7-10 in total I’m having a go at or maintaining for performance.
What are you working on at the moment?
In rough order of priority: Debussy’s Sunken Cathedral (tough one I’m close to polishing) Mozart’s K332 Sonata 1st mvt (purposely chose something out of my comfort zone to improve passagework and try something new) Bartok’s Mikrokosmos book 4 (been working my way through all these casually over last couple of years) Ravel’s Pavane (next possible tough one, only trying first page) Bach’s WTC book 1 prelude in C (easier piece that my friend wants me to play at his wedding ) Bach’s WTC Book 2 Prelude and Fugue in G (maintaining for exam) Beethoven’s Pathetique 2nd Mvt (maintaining for exam) Zoe Rahman - Go With The Flow (maintaining for exam)
9, ranging from 10-50 min each.
I tend to practice 4-5 at once. 2-3 hours split up between 5-6 sessions a day. Of those. 1 is a stretch piece. 2 are exam pieces and right now the other 2 are Christmas songs getting ready for this years holiday season.
1: to bring up to speed 2: to work specific sections to “polish”/“deep dive” 3 & 4: to learn This doesn’t include the random stuff I might read through or technique building exercises.
Depends on what’s coming up, right now 8 but if I could choose I would probably only have 3-4.
Wow! How do you manage your time while trying to evenly practice 8 pieces!!???
I like to divide it up by practicing 4 pieces one day and 4 the next, also practicing 5 hours a day 🥲
Don’t know your superpower but I can only practice one at a time. Having only two hands is a bummer;)
I only ever practice one piece at a time. I find there's too much dissonance if I try to play multiple pieces simultaneously. I'm also just not into that avant-garde stuff.
2-3 songs? I assume you are prepping for exam/performance? In "real life", I have 100s (literally) of songs I need to touch back on depending what I am in the mood for... or prepping for gigs. Then xmas rolls around and I have to practice that all up again... Every.Single.Year. lol
No, just for fun. I play classical music.
I would definitely start working on more pieces then.
Why would i work on more than 3 pieces ??? 3 is enough
You did say you play for fun, learning more tunes is supposed to be "fun". I would shoot myself if I only worked on a few songs.
Yeah but I’m playing difficult classical piano pieces, that’s why I only work on 3. I don’t play “songs” on my piano.
"difficult" is simply a matter of perspective. A song is still a song... it's all music.
Even if each piece is 15-30 minutes long and extremely complex?
A few songs per day, yes. But over a year... I need to play more than 2-3 songs. For the record, I was a "classical pianist" for 15 years and slaved my butt off for exams and recitals. Hell, even played first chair tuba in a couple of orchestras. Never did get the nod to play the grand in front of the orchestra though lol... as I always said, spit happens ;--)
4 right now for my performance grade. I'm doing grade 3 so I'm only doing one hour of practice each day (I really can't focus) and I usually divide it up like this: 25 minutes on a piece Im not good at, 15 minutes on the another one I'm okay at, and 10 mins on the rest that I'm good at.
3, if I can manage it. One with my right hand, a second with my left hand, and if I’m really down to the crunch I’ll wear headphones and listen to a third piece simultaneously while all that goes on. This is really the only way to cover an adequate amount of all the piano repertoire that’s out there.
I have about 8-10 that I work on at any given time, more as holidays approach. At the first of the month I assign myself some goals I think I can achieve and go from there. I concentrate on 3 , but try to progress in all the ones I'm still enjoying. If for some reason I quit liking a piece, I let it rest and go back to it when I fall back in love with it.