I was reading a posting from creativity post.com this morning and thinking about more efficient ways to practice. A study was done a few years ago at the University of Texas in Austin on "8 Things Top Practicers Do Differently". A group of pianists were given the same piece on which to work, then performed the piece the next day. The bad news first......the worst practicers found that the more times they played a passage incorrectly, the worse the performance. The researchers then identified a number of practice strategies that were common among the top pianists; here are some for us to think about:
1. Playing was hands-together early on in practice (and I might add - go back and forth between separate and together)
2. Practice was thoughtful, as evidenced by pausing to look at the music, singing/humming, making notes on the score, etc.
3. Errors were addressed right away; the precise location and source of each error was identified accurately and rehearsed toward correction.
4. Target passages were repeated until the error was corrected and the passage was stabilized.
And one to rule them all.....one strategy overall was most impactful: STRATEGICALLY SLOWING THINGS DOWN !
OK, now I've got to get back to work on that Debussy.............
1. Playing was hands-together early on in practice (and I might add - go back and forth between separate and together)
2. Practice was thoughtful, as evidenced by pausing to look at the music, singing/humming, making notes on the score, etc.
3. Errors were addressed right away; the precise location and source of each error was identified accurately and rehearsed toward correction.
4. Target passages were repeated until the error was corrected and the passage was stabilized.
And one to rule them all.....one strategy overall was most impactful: STRATEGICALLY SLOWING THINGS DOWN !
OK, now I've got to get back to work on that Debussy.............
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