Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum How do you tackle pieces above your level?

Lately, I've been assigned a piece by my teacher that I suspect is several levels from where I am currently. It's not the first time that my teacher encouraged me to play a piece that's higher than my level, but the others were only a level or two above where I was at the time and I got through them by patiently working on the pieces for about a month. I liked the challenge and it suited me. But the higher level piece I'm working on now feels almost like a nightmare. My teacher gave the piece more than a month ago but I hardly even looked at it because it felt so daunting at first glance. I finally set out to study it seriously the past week and set aside 20 minutes to really concentrate on the piece. To my utter horror, I only lasted about 12 minutes before my brain fizzled and fried. I have since decided to approach it with a more carefree attitude, but progress is coming along very slowly. I'm almost ready to bang my head in frustration. I am so tempted to just give it up, but my pride won't let me (the voice in my head says: If you can't even do this, how can you expect to play so and so piece someday!?).

I'm a bad memorizer so I read through all the pieces I play, but it seems that I have to memorize everything in this piece for it to sound even remotely musical. This is supposed to be my recital piece for March next year. I think I still have a lot of time, but the way it's been going, it feels like it'll take me a year to get through the entire piece.

So, how do you approach pieces like this? Is it all just a state of mind? Or should I just throw in the towel? Any encouragement?

hey....every new page I turn in my book I think "cripes, this'll take me forever" but so far I've managed just fine (I think). Just plug away and have patience. Works for me anyway.

I generally find the hardest parts (for me that usually means octave runs in either hand) and work on those, slowly, every day. I'll play through the whole piece, fitting in the hard parts, at whatever tempo I can actually do the hard parts

The rest of the piece I'll work on like I work on a piece that is only moderately hard - I make sure I know the transitions from one part to another (or the page turns? anything like that), do some anayzing and figuring out the chords/progressions so the music makes sense to me, try hands separately on parts where I want to make sure I hear both hands clearly, bring phrases up to speed, etc.

What is it that makes this piece so significantly harder than other pieces you've played?

Cathy

I find that more difficult pieces require a lot of deconstruction during practice. Don't just start at the beginning measure by measure trying to play the whole thing. Take it apart, learn the melody, learn some of the chords or accompaniment if appropriate. Look at the structure to see how the piece is put together. Are there repeating motifs, rhythms, or patterns that occur over and over? Work on some of those those first. Look for an easy section somewhere and work on that. You don't have to learn the piece in order.

A lot of the specific techniques to use depend on the nature of the piece, but one of the most important things I have learned from my teachers is how to take difficult or troublesome things apart, work on the parts, and then start putting it back together. Take a look at some of Hugh Sung's video lessons on Clair de Lune to see some of the ways you can do this sort of detail work.


I don't think so. I think it's learning some specific practice skills. Don't be intimidated by the piece "as a whole". Conquer it bit by bit.

DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

That usually works for me. The manic intensity will come naturally as interest and obsession builds. If you force it, you will dread it and never do it well. Be patient. If you want quick results, learn things at your level. For the hard ones, just take it slow.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I think I'm going slow enough as it is, but I may have to go slower..stock up on patience..and 'deconstruct' it..hmmm..pretty big tasks for a newbie like me, but I have no other choice but to conquer it bit by it, as packa put it

@jotur: What's hard about the piece is that so many new things are happening all at once. My hands are jumping and moving all around the keyboard. The key signature is new to me. The rhythms are new to me too. I'm not used to seeing and playing 16th notes, let alone 8th notes and 16th notes strung together. It's may be a piece of cake for even a moderately experienced player, but it boggles my mind

If it were me, the things I would try would be:

Work on scale & arpeggios in the new key, so the key becomes more familiar

Count and tap out the rhythms away from the piano, until they stuck in my head as familiar sounds, instead of needing to be decoded from the page

Pretend each gradation of note is one step larger -- i.e. think of the 16th notes as 8th notes, 8th notes as quarter notes, etc.

Practice the hands-jumping-around part HS (and in small chunks), and do it without looking at my hands. I'm learning to jump around myself right now, and it's kind of amazing how I can trust my hands to learn the right distance to jump with my eyes shut/averted.

Focus on one musically meaningful phrase at a time, so as not to get overwhelmed, and to have the satisfaction of being able to put it together & "say something" with it (if only a short something...)

Every time I learn a new piece, I feel like I will NEVER get it. NEVER! I asked a piano teacher at the college about this, and she smiled and said essentially it will be like that FOREVER.

I was just getting ready to post a question like this. I don't have a teacher right now, but it takes me a long time to learn even advanced beginner pieces. Why I don't know. So, I prefer to pick pieces slightly above my level, which are longer, and which are actually peformance quality pieces (i.e. someone would enjoy hearing them), like Bach Inventions, Chopin preludes, etc...because if I'm going to work that hard, I want something to show for it...a piece I can play forever.

It's taken me, on and off, over a year to learn a Chopin Waltz, and I'm still killing myself over a Bach 2 part invention. I take breaks for months! That's probably why it takes so long.

Anyway, one of my prior piano teachers told me that if I don't work on harder pieces I won't get better. I think the way to advanced repertoire is to keep challenging yourself.

I have to learn them in small chunks, no more than 2-4 measures at a time, and hands separate.

I have to force myself not to keep playing the parts I've mastered, which is the biggest temptation when you finally learn a harder piece.

Oh, and learning the hardest parts first doesn't work for me, although that may be good advice for a piece at your level. If you are working above level, that would be discouraging I think.

I'd just work my way through sections a measure or 2 at a time.

One trick that works for some people is to learn the piece backwards, so that you've finished it before you start!

I'm getting ready to switch from the middle of my current piece to the very end, because I've reached a point where I feel very stuck.

Good luck! Trust your teacher, it really does help to work above level.

Don´t worry, it happens everyone! It´s funny, but that is how it is, specially when you´re facing your first piece in G flat major, or any other equally challenging minor scale, with complex rhythms, with four fingered chords, etc, it´s daunting! But don´t give up just yet!

First off, try deconstructing the piece like someone else mentioned above: figure out it´s harmonic structure, the motifs and melody, try figuring out the parts if it´s a minuet, a sonatina, etc. Play the harder parts first, and play them with different attacks and rhythms (staccato, legato, starting with a longer note value (like and 8th) and then playing the rest fast (in 16ths). Two of my teachers have recommended this as a general practice (even with Hanon and scales) and it improves your finger strength and dexterity a lot.

Also, set realistic goals each day. Work through it little by little, and you´ll figure it out with enough dedication and patience. I guess one of the hardest things to do is not be your own worst judge.

If all that doesn´t work, then probably the piece is in fact way above your current technical level, which you should discuss with your teacher. If that´s the case, you should complement with other technical exercises or change the piece for the time being, revisiting it later on once your up to it technique-wise. But I dont´think this is going to be the case Work hard and you´ll do just fine!

I think what was meant by working on the hardest parts first was not necessarily "learn the hardest whole sections first" but learn the hardest couple of measures first, then the next hardest, and so on.

Doing it any other way means you end up in the same situation as I was in earlier with the Beethoven Polonaise...you can play the whole 8 pages but continue to fumble in the same handful of one or 2 measure sections until you just focus on them solely and get them under control.

How do you eat an elephant?

One pound at a time.

The same thing applies to a piece that might seem overwhelming at first. There are times in the future where you will encounter this feeling, and then you just need to take a step back and think logically. If you can work all week on one measure that is difficult for you to play, then after that week, you'll have it resolved or much easier to play, and it will no longer be on your "need to fix" list.

Maybe even make such a list where you write out which measures need work. I have done this and it helps tremendously. When I practice, I just go right to that measure to work on and not bother struggling through the whole piece. Cross off enough measures on your list and pretty soon, you'll be able to play most of it pretty well. Then it's back to refining, adding more expression, etc. Do this in layers, and it won't be so daunting, or so difficult!

I think tangleweeds had some really good suggestions for working with this. The more familiar you become with it the less it will seem absolutely impossible

For me, again, besides all the "break it up into chunks" parts, and scales, and patterns, and whatever, it's important to play it all thru at once every so often so that it becomes music in my head - I begin to hear it well enough that when I play a part I have an idea of where it's coming from and where it's going just because I know the piece. That's why I work back and forth from hard parts to the piece as a whole.

Any way, keep us posted - I'd love to hear how it's going.

Cathy

Focus your efforts on songs you really like, not what the teacher picks. That is the only way I can learn hard pieces.

I find I start learning a piece when I figure out how to break it down into pieces small enough to practice fluently. For hard (to me) pieces, this could be one measure at a time or a small part of a measure played hands separate. Very monotonous for the rest of the household, but more productive than stumbling through a longer passage again and again.

Start with the melody line by itself first, then the bass by itself (or vice versa) then gradually put them together. The tempo may be slow at first, but the speed will eventually increase the more you play and memorize it.

One measure at a time.