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Tag: Rough Spots

Piano Practice – More Techniques

When practicing the piano, it’s important to develop good practice habits in order to find and remove rough spots. Your goal should be to achieve perfection in order to get the most out of your piano studies.

In the Part One of her series, Piano Practice That Pays, Dr. Lory Peters provided a variety of concepts to help piano students achieve piano perfection:

  • Practicing is made up of — perfect — repetitions of rough spots.
  • Pull out rough spots in digestible portions.
  • Find patterns and then block them.
  • Jackhammer rough spots into muscle memory.
  • Use long and short rhythms to smooth out the passage.
  • Test for perfection by playing perfectly — three times — in-a-row.
  • Insert back into context and test again.

In Part Two, Dr. Lory used different articulations to help find and fix practice rough spots:

  • Legato – connected
  • Staccato – detached
  • Two-note slur – connected, then released
  • Accent – attack with louder volume

In Part Three, Dr. Lory says that when little or no progress is being made on a rough spot even with correct practice, you might be:

  • Practicing too fast,
  • The length of your practice section is too large, or
  • Your fingerings aren’t the best choice for you.

Piano Practice – Articulations

To master the piano, lots of practice is needed. And a great deal of time spent in piano practice involves finding and fixing areas of your music that are not perfect.

In the first part of her Piano Practice That Pays Off series, Dr. Lory Peters showed eight different techniques to help polish difficult practice areas. In this second part of her series, Dr. Lory discusses the use of articulations to help pianists polish rough spots in their pieces. This video covers four essential articulations that can be used to isolate and polish rough passages — legato, staccato, two-note slurs, and accents.

The teaching piece for this video is Beethoven’s classic, Für Elise.

Piano Practice – Polishing Rough Spots

Here’s a common situation. You have a piano piece that you’ve been working on. You’re playing it pretty well — except there are a few rough spots that you just can’t polish.

It’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it? Nearly all piano students have this problem. It’s all part of being a pianist, or any musician, really. But in this series, Piano Practice That Pays Off, I will show you how how to polish piano rough spots — once and for all.

When a rough spot just won’t polish up — even after lots of practice — then it’s time to take a good look at how the rough spot is being practiced. And if the practice routine doesn’t include lots of repetitions, then the routine itself needs an update.

In this video, you will see how to fix those problem spots in any of the pieces you are working on. With techniques honed over four decades of teaching, both privately and in public schools and universities, you’ll be playing your pieces better and with greater confidence knowing that when a problem arises, you’ll have the skills to fix it.

The teaching piece for this video is Clementi’s Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1.

Fixing Rough Spots

The following are excerpts from the video Piano Practice That Pays Off – Part One. You can watch the video on YouTube.


Here’s a common situation. You have a piano piece that you’ve been working on. You’re playing it pretty well — except there are a few rough spots that you just can’t polish.

It’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it? My students and I have the same problem. It’s just part of being a pianist, or any musician, really. But in this article, I’m going to show you how to polish those rough spots — once and for all.

When a rough spot just won’t polish up for me or my students — even after lots of practice — then I know it’s time to take a good look at how it’s being practiced. If the practice routine doesn’t include lots of perfect repetitions, then the practice routine needs an update. And, that update needs to include enough perfect repetitions in order to establish dependable muscle memory.

Muscle Memory

You may not be familiar with the term, but we use muscle memory all the time. We use it when we drive a car, work in the kitchen, or find a light switch in our home. The motor skills we use to perform these tasks were practiced — until they became automatic. And, that’s the same thing we need to do in order to polish rough spots on the piano. We need to practice effectively in order to establish dependable muscle memory.

Pull Out the Rough Passage

The first step toward developing good muscle memory is to pull out the rough passage to isolate it and to concentrate our practice energy on the areas that need the most attention. . We have to break apart the rough spots into pieces and then put them back together again. Isolating the rough passage will allow you to focus your attention and your energy on the passages that need the most work. Once those have been worked out and passage, you can insert them back into the piece, where other sections may not be a troublesome for you.

Find Patterns

After isolating the rough passage, one of the techniques to make your piano practice more effective is to look for patterns in the notes. I do this every time I isolate a rough passage because patterns in the music can often be seen again and again in the piece. So, if you can work out the pattern, you are on your way to fixing any rough passage that has the same or similar pattern.

Use Intense Repetition

After isolating the practice spot, the first thing I am going to do is work on the notes through a process of repetition — intense repetition. Practice the rough spot over and over starts the process of developing muscle memory. We call this form of practicing repetitively “jackhammering.”

I’ll repeat the passage twice, then three times, then four times, then back to three, two, and one. I find that this kind of repetition slows down my hands so I can think before I play. Then, I’m able to set the pattern in my eyes, my memory, and my muscles.

Close coordination between the eyes, hands, and the brain will work to ensure that the passage won’t be a surprise for very long. And the next time it’s played, assuming that you have baked-in enough repetition, the passage will seem more familiar and less difficult. If you do this process of intense repetition, rough spots will soon be polished spots.

Perfect Three Times

One final practice technique is really just a test to make sure there has been improvement in the way I play a practice passage.

When I am working on a section that needs polish, I will repeat the passage until I can play it perfectly — three times — in a row. If I make a mistake, I’ll start over. And, if I keep making mistakes, I have to change something — if I expect a different result. I start with slowing down.

Why three times? Well, because in over forty years of teaching piano students, I’ve found that three is the magic number. If you can play something — three times in row — perfectly, then you’ve probably got it and can go on to practicing your next rough spot.

Putting Hands Together

The final step is to test the newly-perfected passage by playing it with my hands together. Getting your hands to work as a team is foundation to the piano and it may take you a bit to get the passage to work perfectly. If you need to, slow down the passage with hands together and even divide the passage into smaller portions. Then, you can test by increasing your practice tempo. When it is perfect in both hands, you can put the practice section back into context and test it again.

Conclusion

Let’s go over what we’ve learned.

  • Practicing is made up of perfect repetitions of rough spots.
  • It’s important to pull rough spots out of context to work on them.
  • The rough spots need to be in digestible portions.
  • Find patterns, if possible.
  • Jackhammer the rough spot into muscle memory.
  • Use long and short rhythms to smooth out the passage.
  • Test for perfection by playing perfectly; three times in-a-row.
  • Insert the practice section back into context and test again.
  • Review for the next few days.

I hope this article will help you smooth out your rough spots. We talked about several different techniques like finding patterns, blocking, jackhammering, using long and short rhythms, and testing for perfection. You can also review my YouTube video on this topic by clicking here.

If you find you need additional techniques to smooth out a rough spot, you can also try applying different articulations, like staccatos, and two-note slurs, and accents. These practice techniques and others are covered in this video on YouTube.

Just remember, only perfect practice makes perfect performing.

Using Articulations to Fix Rough Spots

The following are excerpts from the video Piano Practice That Pays Off – Part Two. You can watch the video on YouTube.


What Are Articulations?

An articulation is  how we play a note. More specifically, it is how we start or end a sound. Articulations add color, dimension, and texture. Articulations make the music come alive.

There are four articulations that will be discussed in this video:

  • Legato  – connected
  • Staccato – detached
  • Two-note slur – connected, then released
  • Accent – attack with louder volume

When we play the piano using a legato touch on the keys, we end the note by connecting it to the next note, creating a smooth line of sounds.

((Lory Plays))

When we play using a staccato touch, we end the note by releasing it quickly and separating it from the next note, creating a more distinct line of sounds. Each sound stands on its own.

((Lory Plays))

When we play using a two-note slur, both notes are played legato, but we end the second note early. So, even though the second note is written here as a sixteenth note, we will interpret it as a shorter note value, followed by a rest. Then, during that implied rest, we would simply release the key as if we were taking a breath.

((Lory Plays))

When we play using an accent, we start the note by attacking it with a louder volume and connecting it to the next note, creating a line of sound with sudden increases in volume.

((Lory Plays))

Using Articulations to Polish Rough Spots

So now that we have defined what articulations are, how do we use them when we polish rough spots?

Let me show you how with a rough spot from Bethoven’s Für Elise  – measures thirty-two through thirty-four.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Für Elise

In the last video, we used a step-by-step practice routine. We talked about:

  • Isolating a rough spot so we could focus our attention on it,
  • Then, we looking for patterns and blocked them,
  • We jackhammered the rough spot into submission, and finally,
  • We applied uneven rhythms.

Now, let’s apply different articulations  – our newest practice technique.

You can see that this passage is written as legato. To continue polishing this rough spot, I am going to try the other three articulations to see how they can help.

First, staccato.

((Lory Plays))

Now, I will try it with two-note slurs.

((Lory Plays))

And, finally, with accents.

((Lory Plays))

Now, let’s see if this routine has improved my rough spot. I will play the passage as written  – which is legato.

((Lory Plays))

And, it already sounds a little better!

Playing Hands Together

We’re going to skip a few steps and go right to the end of the practice routine, which will be putting our hands together.

Just one thing – if your hands aren’t getting along with each other on a rough spot, there is an optional step you can take first.

Take your hands off the keys. Using the fall board or your lap, tap the rhythms  – hands together, while counting aloud.

((Lory Plays))

Why do this? Well, if we can’t coordinate our arm muscles, then adding the fine motor skills in our fingers is going to be frustrating and not very productive. Tapping creates muscle memory in our arms so that we can focus on the finer details. And, we can hear the combined rhythm created by both hands.

Let’s put everything together.

((Lory Plays))

Remember, not every technique works for every passage, so you will want lots of choices in order to customize your practice  – adjusting based on each passage and which techniques work for you.

Boredom When Practicing

And, there’s another thing  – boredom.

We all get bored when we practice. The mind wanders. But, by changing things while you practice, you engage your brain, reduce tedium, and experiment with different sounds.

When you do all of this, you’ll find something interesting happens —you gain improved technical skills and more control of your hands. And, you’ll find that every time you perfect a rough spot, you’ll be better able to handle future rough spots.

Here is something else I tell my students. When you practice rough spots with different techniques, you build a roadmap that you can use when there is a problem on the road ahead. Just like a GPS system, that gives you alternate routes to get home, your practice routine gives you alternate ways to play the passage to help you play it perfectly.

Neuroscientists might describe this as building different pathways in the brain, but we’ll just stick with the roadmap analogy.

Conclusion

Let’s go over what we learned in this video:

We talked about using different articulations to smooth out rough spots and adding those to our practice routine.

We found that using different pathways makes practicing more fun, reduces boredom, and improves your technique and control.

We used different practice techniques to build many roads leading to the same place  – a perfect passage.

In part three of this series, we’ll add even more practice techniques  – speed, length of the isolated spot, and fingerings. So stay tuned!

((Front Cam))

Thanks so much for joining me today. If you found this video helpful, please subscribe. I have also enjoyed reading your comments. Keep them coming. You can contact me on my website if you would like to schedule live online piano lessons.

Until then, keep on practicing!

More Ways to Fix Rough Spots

The following are excerpts from the video Piano Practice That Pays Off – Part Three. You can watch the video on YouTube.


Ready to give up when you’ve tried everything to smooth out a rough spot and nothing is working? Well, help is on the way. Stay tuned.

Hi! I’m Dr. Lory. Welcome back to our series. This video is part three.

When a rough spot won’t polish, even after lots of practice, we have to change something.

But, change what? Well, here are three things that could be changed – your speed, the length of the section you’re practicing, or your fingering patterns.

Slowing Down

The first thing I change is speed. I slow down. Slowing down allows me to look at the rough spot – note by note. I want to find exactly what is causing the problem. Once I find the problem notes, I can isolate them and use some of the techniques we talked about in Parts One and Two — like jackhammering, uneven rhythms, and different articulations.

But, I’ll do this at a slower tempo.

Another benefit of practicing slowly is that new information can be more easily connected to what we already know. Our brains can compare the new information with the old, can distinguish how they are the same and how they are different, and then more easily store and retrieve the new information.

This is much easier to do when we practice slowly.

How Slow is Slow Enough?

How slow is slow enough? If someone walking by can recognize what you’re playing – then you’re playing too fast. You know, sometimes my students tell me that they’ve practiced something so slowly that even they couldn’t recognize the melody. I tell them, then you’re doing it right.

You can also find your correct practice speed by using a metronome. I’m going to use a common rough spot from the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata, Opus twenty-seven, number two, known as The Moonlight Sonata.

The section I’m using starts at measure thirty-two and ends at measure thirty-eight.

Let’s go through the steps I would take to see how slow is slow enough. My current practice speed is one-hundred-sixty beats per minute to the eighth note.

((Lory Plays))

Did you hear my hesitations? They tell me that I’m playing too fast. I’ll keep slowing down until I can play the passage perfectly.

I will cut my current practice tempo, which has hesitations, in half, to eighty beats per minute as a quick way to slow down.

((Lory Plays))

Wow! That is slow. But, there are no hesitations. And it was perfect.

So this is my correct practice tempo. Now, I will start speeding up until I get to the final tempo.

By the way, a technique for doing this will be covered in an upcoming video.

Using a Metronome

If I’m already practicing slowly enough – or I slowed down with the help of my metronome – and I’m still not making much improvement, then I’ll check the length of my practice section. It just might be too large.

And, this one is. It’s seven measures long.

Practice Section Length

But, how long is too long? If I can’t see progress within several minutes of practice, the section is too long. If you’re not sure, start with a smaller part and build up. Then, you won’t waste valuable practice time.

That’s what I’m going to do here – divide my seven-measure practice section into single measures. Then, I’ll start building them back up – in two-measure segments.

You can do this by connecting measures in groups of two. Then keep connecting measures until they are all back together.

((Lory Plays))

Fingerings

What if my rough spot is still – rough? Then, I look to my fingerings.

To pianists, fingerings are the way we assign a specific finger to each key to be played. And, when we do it right we get fluid playing, efficiency, and the sound we want.

You know, we have ten fingers but there are eighty-eight keys on the piano. So, we have to work really hard to get the right fingers on the right keys.

This is a very important first-step because once practicing begins, we develop habits and long-term memory. And, if we keep changing fingerings, we have to unlearn wrong fingerings and then learn the right ones.

I always have my students start with fingerings when they begin a new piece. Then, they check questionable fingerings with me before serious practice begins.

To keep from putting wrong fingerings into long-term memory, you might want to check fingerings at the same time you are shortening the length of your practice section. If you put that together with a slower practice tempo, you can catch any wonky fingerings before they become a habit.

One more thought on fingerings. The fingerings you chose at the start may actually be right – but they still aren’t the best choice because of the size of your hands, the expression of the passage, or the final speed. The only way you are going to know for sure is when a rough spot pops up, and your first choice for fingering just won’t work. You have to try something else.

Deciding on Fingerings

How could there be more than one correct choice for fingerings?

Let’s look at the fingerings printed in the score. These were chosen by the editor. Are they right? Yes they are – but they are not working for me. There are a few stretches that are awkward and the numbering pattern doesn’t match the pattern of the notes.

I’m going to try another set of fingerings that has a more digestible pattern and closer position changes. Once I make a final decision, I’ll use those fingerings each time I practice.

((Lory Plays))

You might be wondering – how I do find the correct fingerings for me? Good question! If you’re working with a teacher, he or she can help you.

If you don’t have a teacher, your score might have suggested fingerings. Sometimes the editor even gives you two choices. Start with those. You might still come up with your own. And, that’s OK.

If the music does not have fingerings, check out my upcoming video on how to find fingerings that work for you and the piece you’re working on.

Conclusion

Let’s review what we’ve learned in this video.

When little or no progress is being made on a rough spot even with correct practice, you might be:

  • Practicing too fast,
  • The length of your practice section is too large, or
  • Your fingerings aren’t the best choice for you.

I hope this video will help you smooth out your rough spots. In the next video, we’re going to work on speeding up a rough spot that is already perfect.

Remember, what Vince Lombardi said about perfection – Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Thanks so much for joining me today. If you found this video helpful, click subscribe and check out some of my other videos on YouTube. You can also contact me to schedule live online piano lessons.

Until then, keep on practicing.

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