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Does anyone know how do the great pianist practice?, do they use slow practice or rhythms?, does anyone know?

One of my teachers at the VCM summer piano academy had this experience when she was studying at Peabody:

"I heard someone practicing on one of the grands, painfully slowly but with great beauty. My friend said, 'Do you know who that is??? That's Murray Perahia!'."

There's also a similar story in one of the books I read that refers to Rachmaninoff practicing very, very slowly.

Another story I heard at camp related to, (I think), Myra Hess. The person was early for an appointment to see her and so he stood outside her hotel room door listening. He heard her play a few notes followed by 10 to 20 minutes of silence. Then a few more notes, more silence, etc. When he questioned her, she said she was thinking.

I happen to think my own teacher is a great pianist and he uses both slow practice and rhythms. He also carefully listens to what he is playing and thinks about the execution of every single note.

I'm not sure this answer can be corroborated beyond anecdotal evidence, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway: differently.

The same as everybody else, but more often and with better ears, focus, conviction, and patience.

This sounds like a set up to a joke.

But it mostly reminds me of the great SNL skit (cowbell) with Christopher Walken in which he plays a music producer:

"Easy, guys, I put my pants on just like the rest of you: one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records."

Actually I usually put on my pants both legs at the same time, but I'm still trying to figure out what's the best way to practice.

To be totally random, Mark, can you explain your profile picture? I remember it used to be in black/white. Is it an old photo of you? It looks like a baseball player to my imagination.

link to thread

Yes, it's an old baseball player, from way way back, named Red Ruffing. I use it because:

-- I like it
-- And it sort of looks like me.

In fact, it's not a real good pic of him; if you put it alongside other pics of him, you might think this couldn't also be him. I don't at all look like any of those other pics.

About it having been black and white before: You're probably right but I don't remember. At some point, maybe when I was changing something in my settings, the pic disappeared and I had to look for it online again, and wasn't sure if I'd found exactly the same one. This was what I found, and I remember wondering if the previous one had been in color too (I just never paid much attention). I guess it wasn't.

Good job.

Wow Joel... That guy looks just like our very own Mark_C!

Mark, please tell me you're not a Red Sux fan... say it ain't so!!!

Oh, it's probably even worse than that. He may be a Yankees fan!

I know nothing of sports.

I think he is a Yankees fan, which is why it's puzzling his avatar is a Red Sox player.

Assignment 101, for someone who will not think less of themselves for consulting a reference source, as opposed to just blowing it out their ear, the way a lot of folks here do, is as follows: Obtain a copy of a fairly new book making the rounds entitled "Practicing Perfection, Memory and Piano Performance," by Roger Chaffin, Gabriela Imreh, and Mary Crawford.

These are a concert pianist named Gabriela Imreh, that I never heard of, and a husband and wife psychologist team.

First, they went out an surveyed the literature on what various concert pianists said about how they learned, practiced, and memorized a piece. Then, they surveyed the various studies that had been done on memory and learning at the piano. Finally, they took the Presto movement from the Italian Concerto, and had Imreh learn it from scratch, and then compiled and analyzed the data.

Instead of giving you my take on it, like I said, why don't one of you get a copy of the book, and present your assessment here. The conclusion I came to wasn't all that earth shattering, and I don't think yours will be either.

On that other website, out of Sweden, it is a very hot topic. Uh oh, I'm sorry for even mentioning another website.

He spent most of his career with the Yanks.

P.S. If it helps, even though I'm a Yankee fan I don't hate or even dislike the Red Sox (or Mets).

And y'know, someone who might have an even harder time not hating the Red Sox is one of the people who's now running for mayor of New York City (and the polls say he's leading): He's a RED SOX fan (since he's from the Boston area) and he's having to answer some tough questions about how he can be mayor of NYC but a Red Sox fan.

Maybe you could fix your link so it doesn't screw up the whole page.

Phew! I would hate to have to talk trash on the best AAA ball club around if you were a fan.

(And yes, I don't understand how NYC chooses its mayors.. very very strange process. Bloomberg tried to ban Coca-Cola, and now a BOSTON fan? If it were just the pianos, I'd understand, but the baseball team? WTH?)

I read that book just recently. Enjoyed reading it very much because it was well written and quite well thought out and methodologically sound research. What I got from it was:
1. There are different ways to achieve greatness, but there are certain things that are more common.
2. There are many similarities in the way I practice and the way Gabriela (and some of the others) practice. I just practice easier things and it takes me more time to achieve results, which will also ultimately be inferior because I don't have their background (and not necessarily all of the physical and mental qualities they have, which I call natural talents).