When most pianists describe what practising entails, the first word that usually comes to mind is “repetition.” Repetition is undeniably important for learning, reinforcing and refining skills. However, there’s a catch… Doing the same thing over and over again can lead to diminishing returns – or worse, make your hard work counterproductive.
The reason for this is that repetition can lead to your brain becoming less engaged and slipping into autopilot mode. While this might make time pass quickly, it’s not necessarily productive as we learn more when our brain is actively involved and challenged. It’s also more likely that you miss mistakes that start creeping in thus leaving you worse off for having practised!
After a long day, it certainly feels easier just to default to a familiar practice routine. This gives a comforting illusion of productivity as measuring time spent is much more straightforward than assessing the quality of what was done in that time. Yet this is a significant contributor to the all too familiar scenario where you thought you knew a piece only to have it unravel in a lesson or performance.
A varied approach
Introducing greater variety into our practising is an excellent way to stay focused and deliver deeper, more reliable learning. Research and anecdotes from many revered pianists tells us that practising passages in a multitude of different ways is a critical component in preparing for secure, confident performance.
Not only is varied practice more effective, but it’s also more enjoyable! Instead of resigning yourself to boring drills and mind-numbing repetition, how about approaching your practising with a spirit of creativity, playfulness and curiousity? Think of yourself as having a box of “practice toys” – different tools and approaches that can be taken out and played with in each practice session!
Ideas for your practice toy box
The following are some ideas for your toy box that can use to mix up your practising and keep your sessions fresh and interesting:
Varying dynamics, touch and articulation
Vary the dynamics each time you repeat a passage by exaggerating all of the markings, or deliberately play with none (playing passages pianissimo is an excellent listening exercise!). You can also play with different touches and articulations e.g. a legato passage can be played staccato or vice versa.
Change the speed
For concentration and to strengthen rhythmic and motor control, play one bar at speed and the next bar at precisely half the speed. This can then be done the other way around and then applied to units of multiple bars. You can also try practising at a very slow tempo but with very fast movements and shifts in-between notes (“slow yet fast”). This is especially useful for passages with jumps or difficult changes in position.
Floating fermata
Insert imaginary fermatas or pauses over notes of your choice, either equidistant or in strategic places. These give you the opportunity to stop for a moment to recover and regroup before moving on. It also allows you to appraise your results and repeat before moving on if necessary. The placement of the fermatas can be varied in each practice session to really keep you on your toes!
Rhythms and accents
This traditional approach to speeding up passagework relies on thinking of the fast note(s) leading in one impulse to the long notes, releasing all effort on the long notes (balancing lightly on the key(s)). Use as many different rhythms as you wish on a passage from your piece or even when you’re practising scales!
Another effective tool for passagework that can be used in alternation or combination with rhythm practice is adding accents. When using this as an alternative, you play the passage you’re working on evenly but add accents in different places. For example, you can start by accenting every second note, every beat and then each bar.
This blog post has some further ideas and suggestions for practising in rhythms and accents.
Creativity in Practice
If you’re looking for hands-on guidance on how to apply a selection of these tools within your own practising then don’t miss Graham Fitch’s online workshop on Saturday 7th June!
In this interactive session, Graham will demonstrate how a variety of tools can be used to make your practising more creative and rewarding, including the following:
- Zigzag practice as a fun and engaging variation of practising separately
- A further extension of separate practice taking elements from the score and playing them in different combinations with other elements
- Innovative ways to use the metronome and other alternatives for developing a natural sense of rhythm
Click here to find out more and to book your place!
Chaining
This is a really effective method method for getting a passage / piece up to speed. Take a tiny snippet of your piece (depending on context it might literally just one or two notes to start with, or a beat or a whole bar) and repeat several times at the target tempo, adding a note with each repetition. You can also build the chain backwards for a real challenge!
Deconstruction
An extension of practising separately, this involves taking elements from the score and playing them by themselves and in combination with other elements. For example, you can start by playing voices separately and then playing them together in different combinations (a particularly good way to learn contrapuntal music!). You can also add only parts of a voice e.g. play only the bass note of an accompaniment with the melody line.
Tracking
A great tool for planning and organising the practice, tracking simply involves dividing the piece up into meaningful units that you’re going to number like tracks on a CD. The tracks can be as long or as short as you want, but the unit you choose should at least be a phrase. You can then play them in different sequences (rather than in order) or start each session with a different track.
Zigzag
In this variation of practising separately, we play a chunk of a piece with one hand alone before passing to the other hand – like the baton being passed in a relay race! the manner of a relay race. In this example featuring Bach’s G minor Invention, the opening phrase is played in the right hand and then “passed” to the left:
Miming
Miming, or “shadow” practice, is a silent piano technique where the pianist deliberately prevents the keys from sounding – either by lightly touching or partially depressing them – to develop finger control, internal hearing and independence between hands or voices. There are many possibilities for how you can apply this e.g. you can mime one hand while playing another, mime a selected voice or alternate between playing and miming each bar.
Looping
To make ourselves thoroughly comfortable with a tricky passage, it can be helpful to practise it “on a loop”, repeating several times. With each repetition we aim to finesse our sound, to feel loose and free in the body and to correct any unwanted accents, wobbles or dings!
Doubles and inventing exercises
Doubles (or triples!) is a way of addressing challenging patterns within passages where we have a string of fast notes of like rhythmical values (e.g. semiquavers) by playing each pair of notes twice (or more). You can use this as a method for inventing your own exercises from your pieces to isolate and focus on tricky spots (more on this here!).
More ideas & applying these tools!
This is by no means an exhaustive list as there are endless possibilities! We also encourage you to come up with your own ideas, but if you’re struggling then these should give you a good starting point.
These and other tools are also explored in further detail in our interactive workshop series and new practice tools videos. The last workshop in this series takes place on Saturday 7th June @ 15:00 BST and includes access to the full collection of practice tools videos plus the recording and worksheets from the 10th May workshop.
Click here to sign-up for this session or click here to find out more about the workshop series!
