|
Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
|
|
72 members (accordeur, BWV846, Animisha, benkeys, Anglagard44, brdwyguy, 16 invisible),
2,323
guests, and
438
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 244
Full Member
|
OP
Full Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 244 |
Hello everyone. I have been playing piano for a while now (7 years, but perhaps more or less depending on how you measure it). Anyway, I was never a good sight reader but pretty good at playing. I started taking lesson's again last year to improve my sight reading skills. I've come a long way, but have a long way to go. I seem to stutter, for lack of a better term, as I play. I tend to start then pause and restart and have trouble not doing this. Once I know a piece real well I, for the most part, do not do this any more. There are times when this does happen though, even when I'm "good" at a piece. I watch some of my teacher’s younger students that are less experienced then me and they seem to plow through the piece without any hiccup’s at all. My pieces are significantly more difficult than most of her students, but I'll stutter on even the easier pieces. It's quite frustrating and I really want to get past it. Any suggestions? Thank you.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 18,356
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 18,356 |
What you are describing is extremely common, MrHazelton. I'd guess that most of us would say that the same thing happens to them. I know that, for myself, I had to consciously train myself NOT to stop playing when I made a mistake but go right through them and try to recover.
What helped me a lot in that regard was recording myself. It also helped for me to remind myself that I needed to learn NOT to stutter so that I would be better prepared when playing publicly.
So what I do now is play without stopping and restarting if I make a mistake, but when I'm through with the piece I'll go back to the section where I flubbed and concentrate on just those measures a couple of times.
What I don't do (but probably should and think might help you) is to incorporate explicit sight-reading practice where you grab some sheet music that is significantly easier than you are capable of playing and then sight-read it through, with the goal of not interrupting or stopping at all.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 17,391
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 17,391 |
I believe stuttering happens when the eyes are not quite looking ahead of the fingers and so you repeat the notes until your eyes catch up again. The reason you do this is because when you learn a piece well, then it's comfortable to watch the notes as you play them, but in learning/sight reading a piece, you need to keep your eyes looking ahead to what's next, which is less comfortable. If you continue stuttering as you learn then chances are those stutters will become a part of how you play the piece, since that is how you've always played it. Learning a piece of music is so ingrained in the mind that this can also be to our detriment. Therefore it's very important to learn without stuttering. I have several students who do this, all of them not so great readers (and I used to be one as well ). If you know of someone who can read music, ask them to take a blank sheet of paper and after giving you a moment to look at the first measure, cover up that measure, then as you start playing that measure (now allotted to your short-term memory banks), then they are to cover up measure 2. Hopefully your eyes are on that measure, and it's pretty hard not to look ahead since the measure you're playing is covered up! Continue through the piece just like this until you're done. I have to warn you, this is a very uncomfortable/nerve-wracking experience! But it does the trick. Usually you only need it done once or twice, then you get the idea. When alone, you simply force yourself to look ahead, never allowing your eyes to rest upon a long note as it's held or on rests. Even now, when I'm sight reading I sometimes catch myself not looking far enough ahead and getting into trouble and thus having to *think* a lot faster to make up for it! Then I remind myself to get ahead and then it's much easier to play well. This is a huge part of sight reading.
private piano/voice teacher FT
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 244
Full Member
|
OP
Full Member
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 244 |
Thank you both for your responses.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 861
500 Post Club Member
|
500 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 861 |
<< I was never a good sight reader but pretty good at playing. I started taking lesson's again last year to improve my sight reading skills. I've come a long way, but have a long way to go. I seem to stutter, for lack of a better term, as I play. I tend to start then pause and restart and have trouble not doing this. Once I know a piece real well I, for the most part, do not do this any more.>>
Could it be that you've sight-read to a point where the complexity of the note means the you start to decypher/decode the notes, reading individual notes e.g. C-E-G rather than chunking it as "root position triad starting on C" or similar?
I think the aim is to recognise the patterns (scales, arps and chords etc) and read their relative intervalistic contex (rather than resort to reading individual notes. So with chords we may read for example just the lowest note then apply the shape without decyphering the individual notes.
Perhaps you should sight-read several pieces then review where these stutters occur, inorder to identify the underlying note patterns/structures that are causing problems.
Just a thought...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 101
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 101 |
I think what may help is to go through the piece you are going to work on. Get an idea of what you are going to play so there are no surprises while playing. When I play as I am coming to the end of a measure I look a head to the next so I know what I am going to play next. Try adding this to your practice, to look ahead and this should help you with the stutter.
"Music is what feeling's sound like"
Adult Piano Adventures (The F.J.H Music Company) RCM Prepatory RCM Grade 1 RCM Grade 2 (working on)
RCM Theory Hanon
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 72
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 72 |
Stutter is one thing. Ever have a complete freeze? I'm playing a piece today I haven't touched in months - so I don't "lose" it. First, I surprised myself. Despite my 53 year old brain, three plays got me back to where I was last winter. Maybe better, because my technique has improved. But there is one complicated passage that I can only do with muscular memory. It took a few minutes to get that memory back. Playing the song the second time I played that passage perfectly. On the second verse I froze: my fingers would go nowhere and I couldn't even reconstruct the passage with the sheet music. Stopped playing 10 minutes and then tore through the passage flawlessly without looking at the keys. Strange.
This was the third song I "saved" this week. I'm very happy how I can quickly pick up a song that Internet experts say I my old brain should have completely forgotten.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 31
Full Member
|
Full Member
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 31 |
I believe stuttering happens when the eyes are not quite looking ahead of the fingers and so you repeat the notes until your eyes catch up again. The reason you do this is because when you learn a piece well, then it's comfortable to watch the notes as you play them, but in learning/sight reading a piece, you need to keep your eyes looking ahead to what's next, which is less comfortable. If you continue stuttering as you learn then chances are those stutters will become a part of how you play the piece, since that is how you've always played it. Learning a piece of music is so ingrained in the mind that this can also be to our detriment. Therefore it's very important to learn without stuttering. I have several students who do this, all of them not so great readers (and I used to be one as well ). If you know of someone who can read music, ask them to take a blank sheet of paper and after giving you a moment to look at the first measure, cover up that measure, then as you start playing that measure (now allotted to your short-term memory banks), then they are to cover up measure 2. Hopefully your eyes are on that measure, and it's pretty hard not to look ahead since the measure you're playing is covered up! Continue through the piece just like this until you're done. I have to warn you, this is a very uncomfortable/nerve-wracking experience! But it does the trick. Usually you only need it done once or twice, then you get the idea. When alone, you simply force yourself to look ahead, never allowing your eyes to rest upon a long note as it's held or on rests. Even now, when I'm sight reading I sometimes catch myself not looking far enough ahead and getting into trouble and thus having to *think* a lot faster to make up for it! Then I remind myself to get ahead and then it's much easier to play well. This is a huge part of sight reading. Thank for your share!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,478
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,478 |
When I stutter, it is because I try to correct a mistake on the fly, so there is a glitch in my playing when I lose time to play the proper note. One way that helps me prevent this is to mentally tell myself that the music is the composer "suggesting" what to play, and the music is somewhat flexible if this makes any sense. I am not advocating sloppy playing or not trying to be accurate to what is written. But, when performing (meaning not practicing)if I have the attitude that the composer might have found my "wrong" note acceptable, or even considered using it, then it is easier to play though mistakes and not stutter, or crash totally!
Last edited by Stanza; 07/30/10 12:00 PM.
Estonia L190 #7004 Casio CDP S350
|
|
|
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
|
|
|
|
Forums43
Topics223,405
Posts3,349,434
Members111,637
|
Most Online15,252 Mar 21st, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|