Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Final stages of performance prep, advice please

I will be playing 5 pieces in a concert in December. I am still working on two of the pieces, but the other three are "finished" i.e. I am happy with where they are, I can play them at tempo from memory, with the dynamics I want etc.

My plan is to completely work up the other two pieces by the end of this month, so that I can play them at tempo from memory. Then I want to spend Novemeber polishing and maintaining, and hopefully playing all the pieces in front of other people several times.

Once I have the pieces worked up, how should I be practicing them? I play each piece every day, but right now most of my practice time is spent on the two unfinsihed pieces, so I don't do much with the finished pieces besides play them each through twice.

After I get all the pieces worked up, I plan to add the following to my practice routine:

Play starting from random places in the music, with and without the score.
Play the end.
Play very slowly.
Play HS, without the score.
Play HT with and without the score.

Is there anything I should add to this practice routine?

If I can't spend that much time on each piece everyday, is it ok to focus on one or two pieces at each practice session and then just play through the other pieces, so that the pieces would be on a sort of rotating schedule?

Is it important to play the pieces in the concert-order, or would it be better to mix it around each day?

Any other advice about concert preparation in general?

Thanks in advance!

Avoid performing it - whatever you do (your plans are great, exactly what I would do), do it totally different to how you would do it in recital. Slow practise it's okay, and I guess practising the beginnings and endings you can leave it as it is, but for the others I'd recommend doing something that makes you think about the notes being played - like playing all staccato, all forte, etc.

Something I've also found to be of good use to do once or twice if a piece you already know begins to "fall apart" is this: set a metronome for a speed that is between 1/4 and 1/2 of normal speed, and simply read through the score hearing the piece in your head. You don't even need to play it, just read through at a nice slow, steady pace.

Parry, thanks for the suggestion. Reading through the music, without playing, but in time with the music, sounds like it would actually be very intense mental training. The mind would tend to just skim over the notes at the rate it can process, which is much faster than the tempo of the piece, or the tempo of the metronome.

Max, I'm not sure what you mean by not performing it... Do you mean just to play it in as many different ways as possible to make sure it's cemented in the memory?

ShiroKuro :

I think your practice/rehearsal plans are good. The only thing I would add is that during the week before your performance, at least particularly during that time, you perform your repertoire exactly as you would for the performance. Wear the clothes you plan to wear - or similar - approach the piano as you will for the performance, and go through the pieces as if you were playing for your audience. If you have an audience to play for, even better; take advantage of every opportunity you have to play for them and do so with the same demeanor that you would for your December concert.

What is the venue and what will you be playing?

Regards,

Bruce, thank you for your advice. I think I'll be able to schedule an actual rehearsal in the hall a week before the concert, so that will also be really helpful. But even in my living room, just going through all the motions and visualizing etc will be very helpful.

The concert is actually one I'm organizing myself(nothing like adding to the pressure!) There's a lifelong learning center here that has a small hall with a small grand piano in it.

Since I'll be the organizer, I'm planning on being the "MC," so I'll have a lot of speaking to do (which is nothing compared to performing!) And I am playing first, which I prefer, so that should help.

I changed teachers in 2005, and my new teacher only has one other adult student. Since she wasn't planning on organizing any recitals, and I don't want to play in the children's recital, I decided I either had to organize my own or there would be no performing this year.

In the past, I've playing in 2 or 3 recitals every year, but zero this year. I'm hoping that if this goes well, I can do it again in the spring.

I've invited the other adult student to perform, and then the other musicians are all more accomplished, advanced level musicians. In addition to another pianist, there will be a flutist, and hopefully a classical guitar ensemble. So 5 performers/groups.

The other performers will all be playing classical music and maybe a few Christmas-y pieces, and I'll be playing modern solo piano music. Here's my program:

Energy Flow (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
Overcome (David Nevue)
River (Yiruma)
Carol of the Bells (my arrangement?)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Nevue's arrangement)

BTW the first three pieces can be heard on my web site now.

Sorry this got long. If anyone has any more ideas to add, please keep them coming!