Piano playing requires extremely sophisticated motor skills and superfine coordination. While we acquire these skills for a new piece or if we are polishing up an old one, a certain amount of repetition is inevitable. As we repeat, we refine and ingrain.
When we need to repeat something, it strikes me as preferable to know why we are repeating it. Am I repeating it because it was good and I want to make it a habit, or was there something wrong that needs to be corrected? If the latter, what was not right about the first repetition that I need to do it again? Not just a vague response like “there were some wrong notes” but something more probing, along the lines of “my LH misjudged the leap at the beginning of the bar and that threw me out”, or “I sensed tension in my forearm and noticed the semiquavers became uneven”.
I can hear some of you thinking that’s all very well, but young players don’t have the diagnostic skills to figure these things out by themselves during practice. I sometimes ask a younger student to give me a lesson, meaning we reverse roles and I mirror back to them what they did. I admit that sometimes I might exaggerate my point slightly, but I am amazed that most of the time they are able to hear and tell me what wasn’t right. It is absolutely possible to teach them to listen with elephant ears and to teach them by asking questions.
The Feedback Loop
When we use the feedback loop during practice, we deliberately stop and think before correcting a mistake. “Think ten times and play once” was Liszt’s command, and it remains a great principle to work by. Before we repeat, we diagnose precisely what went wrong and make the correction mentally by hearing it inwardly and visualising ourselves playing the passage in our mind’s eye before reconnecting with the keyboard. And we do this a few times, maybe not ten but certainly not just once. This takes enormous self discipline because during this phase we are not actually playing – all the work is happening in our head. Very few indeed have the patience to engage with this sort of practice.
Looping
The practice technique of looping is something I have come to use more and more in my work recently. It involves taking a small fragment and going round and round in circles repeating it, watching the difficulties melt away until the passage becomes easy and finally automatic. For years I was against this way of solving problems because it seemed like a sure-fire way of ingraining whatever was repeated, good or bad. That danger remains but looping, if used wisely, can be a very effective practice tool.
Repeating a self-contained pattern of notes several times is sometimes a good way to form a muscular memory and immediately cement it. By repeating, we can organise and refine it in a matter of a few seconds. But beware! Because muscular memory is inextricably bound up with fingering, always make sure to use the fingering you have selected. Thus a certain amount of slow practice and hands separately practice will have to be done prior to this type of repetition practice.
When we use looping, we simply take a few notes and repeat them rhythmically as many times as we feel we need. Too few repetitions won’t be enough to form the habit, too many will lead to inattention and error. Doing this rhythmically is important, as it provides a structure (we have to start at a precisely ordained moment in time), as is doing it correctly. Wrong notes, rhythms or fingerings if repeated will make matters worse, so reserve this form of practising for a section you can manage reasonably well already. Make sure the section is short.
In this bar from Chopin’s Waltz in E minor, op. posth., we can loop the last note of the bar immediately back to the first:
If we feel uncomfortable about going straight back, we might add a bar’s rest. It is better to link back rhythmically rather than at some random moment, to keep everything on one continuous loop:
I have found the idea of linking back rhythmically extremely helpful. Starting each repetition at a very precise moment in time provides its own momentum and is much easier than generating a new upbeat each time. We might even decide on how many repetitions we’re going to do before we start, but try to keep it in single digits or you can bet that concentration will wane.
There is more on using the technique of looping in scales and passagework in Volume 3 of my ebook series, Practising the Piano. Here are details of how to order:
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I have to admit, I’m a bit leery of looping, for a few reasons. First off, a lot of times I’ve found that being able to play a tough section when that’s all I need think about playing as is the case when looping, is very, very different from being able to play it when I also have to let go of what came before and set my mind up for what’s coming next. Many times, an error is not caused by a particular tough passage but by the fact that another tough bit nearby is distracting me. Looping doesn’t touch that, nor does looping train the brain to do varied tough things in a row. It may work to convince you that yes, that strange reach is not an outright physical impossibility, but you’ve got to do it in context.
Looping also runs the risk of wearing a rut in the piece that will trip you up later on. It reminds me of the old story about the police officer who was practicing wrist-chopping a gun away from his partner, and when the partner dropped the thing, he’d pick the gun up, hand it to his partner, and then start over. When he finally had to do it to a robber, you can guess what happened.
Thanks for the comment. I like to think of all the practice techniques I outline in this blog as tools in a toolbox. You pick out a particular tool for a particular job. Two things that are very important about what you say:
(1) A tool when used correctly does the job beautifully but when used incorrectly can be damaging
(2) It is the teacher’s job to demonstrate and explain how and when to use a tool, and to supervise this during lessons.
I agree with this with short, defined “tricky sections,” to learn and ingrain notes, fingering, gesture, etc., (I mark with parentheses around the exact section). Once mastered, the small section is expanded in both directions to weave the small one into a larger context, then eventually the whole phrase of which it is a part. I think it’s a smart, efficient technique. As long as the looped part is consciously woven into the whole, the police training analogy is not applicable.
Yes, reintegrating the section back into its context as you describe is of course important too!
It was clear that you meant that. I hadn’t given it a name. Thank you for that – and all your great ideas here.
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