Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Is it Bad To Practice Too Many Pieces at Once?

Because I am currently working on about 8 pieces and only practice three hours a day it is not enough. I feel I need to practice 5 hours or more. I have to practice this many pieces because I have two teachers...but my question is..Is it too much? I think two hours is O:K if you are working on like two pieces.

I REALLY want to get good like how all the child piano prodigies play on youtube. They encourage me on the piano. I love children.

Can one grow faster on the piano by working on less pieces at a time.....Do the child piano prodigies work on less pieces so they can perfect them more?

Need suggestions.

I think it's better to be concentrating on perfecting a few, rather than shooting for many. You do practice quite a bit and your ambitions will take you a long way! (maybe not enough for 8 pieces though - that's quite a lot!!).

Out of curiousity, what sort of pieces are you practicing? Are these for exams or for fun? I am practicing 6 pieces currently (ARCT level, or grade 11) and even with a lot of practice, perfecting them is something that could take up to a 1-2 years.

I think while reading clavier I read an article about Lang Lang saying he concenrtates on 4 comoposers a year -- and probably plays/perfects quite a few from each. But he's professional and proabbly finds time to practice 6-7+ hours a day right?

It depends what you want out of this.. and everyone works at different speeds. You may personally learn faster or slower then others - so it may not be good to compare yourself with prodigies.

But don't let that discourage your goals! Keep up the good work & with enough practice you can really do anything!

I am currently working on:
#1) Haydn Sonata in G, Hoboken XVI:27, Movt #1
#2) " ",Movt #2
#3) " ",Movt #3
#4) Beethoven Sonata Op 49 No. 2
#5) GRIEG - Berceuse op.38 n.1, Heft 11
#6) Edvard Grieg - Walzer (Lyrische Stücke op. 38 Nr. 15)
#7) Bach Inv #14
#8) Bach Minuet 1 from Partita in Bb

They are pieces assigned by my two teachers...One Suzuki Teacher one traditional.

It really depends on the size of the pieces, and the level of which you want to perfect them (memorized, concert level, or just for reading through or technique purposes) .

Alot of the pieces you mentioned are not too bad length wise, so I would guess that for the both Bach and your Beethoven, you wouldn't need more than an hour to work on those. I don't know the Haydn, but if all these pieces are brand new to you, you might need some extra time to go through and really learn them.


I'm working on a few pieces right now. I try to spend about 45 minutes to an hour a day on each on on the weekends but it's hard with schoolwork and school days.

Good luck!

cor:

I am curious about why you have two teachers. I think this is very unusual. Don't they give conflicting advice sometimes, even if you are working on different pieces with each of them?

I don't see why you want to compare yourself to the child prodigies on youtube. Why not just enjoy the beautiful music and progress at whatever rate you can?

I would be interested to know why you have two teachers since that can eventually bring about conflicts arising from differing teaching styles. If one teacher is good, it doesn't necessarily follow that two teachers are twice as good.
I think comparing yourself to others, particularly those who are much younger than you with more advanced technique is really not a profitable exercise. While it's certainly good to get inspiration from others, the only person you should be comparing yourself to is yourself. Do you continue to get better? Are you better today than you were yesterday? Those are the questions the answers to which really count.
I don't see how one can make a lot of progress with limited practice time and eight pieces on the go at the same time. We all work at different speeds, of course, and it's true that some of your pieces are relatively short, but spreading yourself so thinly suggests to me that while you might make some progress simply by virtue of the time you put in, you would probably make more progress if you were to concentrate your efforts on fewer pieces.

Regards,

I think that studying four pieces, one from each period of music is a good recipe.

It is also good, depending on level and your practice time, on how many to keep polished, to review pieces already learned. That way you will always have a piece(s) to perform.

Haydn Sonata in G, Hoboken XVI:27, Movt #1
I THOUGHT IT WAS
Haydn Sonata in G, Hadouken XVI:27, Movt #1
for a second hehe.
I don't think its bad, but you can cut half your list and work on that half and another on the next day. I work on all of my pieces everyday.

I also have alot of pieces to work on. I'm still new in music, I year or two if i'm not mistaken.

-pishna exsercise
-bach inventions/sinfonia
-chopin maz 67.3 n chopin maz 7.1
-schubert landlers
-schumann 68.15 spring song I like beethoven violin sonata too
-sonatina albums
-kabalevsky 24.2

I am not really comparing myself to them...they just inspire me. :-) I have my regular teacher and then the Suzuki teacher because I am working on getting Suzuki certified to be a Suzuki teacher. And I really don't want to leave my traditional teacher. I LOVE her!

Hadouken?? lol

Thanks for the advice. I will try that. :-)

Thanks pianobuff. :-) I need to start reviewing my repertoire because I forget them fast.

cor:

When I ask a question related to a thread topic and you answer it on the thread, it is not necessary to send me a private message as well.

Regards,

Oh, I do that because you won't get the message unless you happen to be reading over the thread again.

Edited, see below

I think to PM someone who is not seen regularly here that I posted to their topic because the forum travels through rather quickly and the person I'm addressing might not see the reply. Especially if they are new to PWF and don't have habits established yet.

For instance, the full replay screen lets you know at home on your computer that there is a posting to a topic you are interested in. That if very nifty, and may mean I never PM someone for that reason before.

There is nothing sadder than a thread that didn't reach it's original poster because they did not check back in a day or two.

So, I think cor is being courteous when PM-ing about adding a new posting.

It's easy enough to respond "thanks", delete it from your PM's and move on. The PM's are a great part of the services here. I like to see them coming in when I get one.

Just a different opinion being stated.

Betty

Betty, you're completely right, I've had a pretty awful day (homework is a pain)... and totally didn't mean to say it like that. Edited

Matt

Matt,

I'd help you with your homework in a second, but you wouldn't necessarily like the grade you would get. The fact that I possess no expertise in the subject, does not reduce my willingness.

I think you really are doing a great job with it yourself, it's just that there's so much of it, right?

Just like pencils have erasers, posting places have editing and delete buttons. Thank goodness for that!

I hope your new week ahead gets better and better with things you like to do. Don't forget April 1st is April Fools Day!

Betty

YES! Weekends are really the only time I can serious knock 3-4 hours into practice, and having a 4 page paper to write on the changes in Vatican II (I go to a Catholic school) did not help that at all.

Matt

Dear Cor,

I am curious to know why you are learning from two teachers?

If it's not convenient to reveal here, you may PM me