ON PRACTICING

HANS BOEPPLE        “ON PRACTICING”

Practicing is “where it all takes place.” The lesson serves as making a roadmap for the week ahead. Student knows what to do for their homework. Do piano students have the same clear understanding of what they are doing.

TYPICAL STUDENT ASSIGNMENT: Mozart Sonata      Half hour a day – sight read through as many times as you can , then set metronome At 60 and eliminate places where you have to slow down; then increase tempo. Student arrives and says I got to 80, but playing for the teacher it is mistake ridden. “Let’s go back to 66, then we’ll see.” If you went to the doctor and he told you what to do for the pain in your side, and you came back not having done what he told you to do, he would say “Why are you back, because I’m just going to tell you to do the same things I told you last week.” That’s like some of our students and lessons!

It’s all about details and following instructions.

How much time should I spend practicing?  Depends on your goals.

Play for your own amusement.

Sonatina-Sonata Level.  Half hour

Advanced Level  An hour a day.  

Competition.  2-3 hours. a day

Scholarship to a top school   3-4 hrs. a day

Your practice must be enough to support whatever level is your goal.

Technical Exercises.   It’s not really technique until certain standards of speed and refinement are involved.

ANYTHING under 120 is slow

GOAL should be scales at 160 to be able to handle Beethoven Sonatas

25% of practice should be technical exercises of all kinds.

MAKING BIG SKILLS into HABITS

HB: Account of what his music looked like under a teacher: Measures are filled with pencil marks, every measure is filled. Imagine how many marks would disappear if you just did what the music tells you to do!

FOUR MAIN IDEAS IN ALL HEALTHY PLAYING:

1.     Do what the music says to do.

2.     Play the rhythm accurately.

3.     Bring out the melody.

4.     Shape the melody.

What would I have to do in order for the teacher to say “Play the melody less loudly.” So HB made overemphasizing the melody a habit.

Counting out loud – the single most important musicianship skill. Counting is verbal conducting.

Sophisticated reasons for counting:

• ·       Important things happen on the 1^st beat
• ·       4^th beats tend to roll into 1^st beats.
• ·       2^nd beat seems to fall away from beat 1
• ·       Think 4, 1, 2, 3   or 3 4 1 2  or 2 3 4 1  with an accent on beat 1
• ·       Hyper counting – Minuet in G   Counting reveals all of these levels:

o   1  2& 3  (Beginner)

o   1 2 3 4 5 6 (measures in pairs)

o   1          2          3          4  OR     1    &     2   &     3    &

• ·       Counting helps organize

Bring out the melody – make it a habit!

Shaping a melody is sophisticated and requires thought

·       Two melody notes must be either louder or softer than each other

·       Long notes emphasized – Play TO the long notes

·       Use a + or – on each note of a phrase

·       Now play it that way!

·       HB: I see a committee in my head – one conductor, one is in charge of beauty, one musicianship police, just like a finely tuned  basketball team.

SLOW PRACTICING – WHY?

·       Some people believe that in slow melodies each note is so important, but in fast melodies notes are not as important. NOT TRUE

·       Every element in a slow performance must be retained when speeding up.

FAST PRACTICING has its place, too.

Develop stamina; nothing can take the place of playing through the piece many times.

Wonderful Session! So inspiring!