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I saw this topic somewhere else, and I thought I'd steal the idea. Its a great way to share info and help each other.

Mark

This is a very good idea Mark. I'm glad you started it. Every now and then I would see posts where people mentioned stuff their teachers had them do and I benefitted from them.

I learned something from my new teacher.

She's having me do hanon exercise one with a twist. She has me accenting the first note and last note and having me go down with my wrists and notes played with fingers 2-3-4 lifting my wrist as I go up with these notes to promote relaxation.

In addition she's working with me on treating my wrists as shocks on a car, play with a springy type motion to relax my hands.

Although I did this occasionally, I just started diligently playing through the scale (two parallel and separate octaves - slowly) and dominant 7ths and root chord (broken and whole) of each piece I practice at each session, even if I only plan to practice a section of the piece. I'm really LISTENING to the scale and chords AS I play and by playing it immediately before the piece or section I'm about to practice I'm discovering that it's helping me identify scales aurally.....and make a better connection with the structure.

I just wanted to throw out a big reminder to many of the pianist struggling with whatever piece they're learning. PRACTICE SLOWLY! PRACTICE SLOWLY and last but not least PRACTICE SLOWLY! You will make faster progress if you practice slowly and bring it up to speed with minimal or no mistakes than trying to learn it fast and getting nowhere with lots of mistakes. sometimes its painful, i know. this really hit me when someone on youtube put of old silent home videos of paderewski and horowitz. in the description he told of how his dad would practice piano and meet all of these famous pianist including rachmaniov. rachmaninov gave the advice to practice slowly and for some reason I felt like rachmaninov was talking to me because i had neglected to do this and I was working on one of his pieces. so, take this advice and take it seriously, PRACTICE SLOWLY!!!!!

Well, I was re-minded when I saw the CC Chang threads, that if I want to play fast jumps the *horizontal* motion has to be fast. It seems sort of like a "duh" idea, doesn't it? Get there early, so you're sure of the chord. But having been reminded it really made just that bit of difference in a couple of honky-tonk kinds of things I'm doing, so I'm not feeling quite so hopeless about them again

But yes to the practice slowly - it's always amazing to me how the piece begins to get its bounce and rhythm the more comfortable and sure of it I am - and that doesn't come from the fast practice, it comes from knowing what I'm doing.

Great thread idea, Mark.

Cathy

I have a couple things....

Although I try to keep my lower abs tight and remain conscious of my posture, I still find that I become lazy as I practice and thus my back starts to hurt. So I tried something that one of my physical therapists taught me during the 2 years I spent "being put back together again" and it helps me tremendously. I take a small towel or blanket, fold it and place it just under my tail end. Hard to explain exactly where, but if you give it a try, you will be able to find the right place. If you do this correctly, you will notice that your back is not allowed to become rounded, even while completely relaxed.

Another thing I figured out, and hopefully someone here can tell me if this is considered poor technique or acceptable, but in a piece that has fairly quick eighth notes with fingering of 343434, 242424, 141414, 141414, if I rotate my wrist back and forth slightly, it is easier than relying on only my fingers to play back and forth. Did that make any sense? If this is wrong, I want to nip it now. I have no teacher to correct me and I'm sure I have enough poor technique habits already!

Tina

Actually Tina, rotating the wrist is a piano technic. I do it automatically but I also have several piano technic books and they all address the slight rotation or rolling of the wrist not to be confused with twisting though.

Thanks loly! As you have several books, do you have a favorite?

Tina

tina, I do one of them is pathways to artistry.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?cart=339572699133370324&lc=recs:detail&item=3698866

I learned yet again that there's no shortcut for hard work (i.e., slowing it down and playing the hard bits beat by beat then bringing everything back up to speed).

I also learned that the best prettiest parts of music are generally also the most difficult (speaking of Tiersen here); but once you've learned how to play it, it's pretty remarkable to play (especially for an audience, cuz they know right off there's just NO WAY they can play something that complicated and thinks you're some kind of genius that was able to play that right off (ABF GUILD RULES: we don't tell anyone how long we practice a piece!) ).

instead of practising notes on a moderate to high volume, playing it differently every time helps a lot. Sometimes play it pianissimo / forte, sometimes staccato/legato.
but always practise slowly as already said

what i learned awhile back is that Hanon IS IMPORTANT.

i heard so much criticism about hanon and people saying they read the newspaper while doing it OR it is 'empty calories' or what have you...

but i learned later that without the hanon (yes, it is brainless) my finger strength and manoueverability is not maintained. yes, i can maintain flexibility and manoueverability perhaps through other exercises and playing pieces,
but for finger strength, for me, hanon must be done.
i spend a good 20 minutes doing so.
of course, i can watch tv or think about something else while doing it, but that does not mean it is not important.
like working out , you can lift weights while watching tv. you dont have to think about lifting weights for conditioning and muscle maintenance.
same thing.

I learned something interesting this thursday with my new teacher. It was something that clicked in class but when I got home it didn't click, so I called her and what she told me stuck with me and I was able to understand.

I'm playing 8th note triplets and I was playing them wrong by syncopating them by holding the last note too long.

my new teacher played it for me and I was able to listen to the rythym and I got it right while in class but when I got home I didn't have the rythym anymore so I called her and she simply said

Play the whole thing (the 3 note triplets and the following note) like 4 consecutive notes. For some reason that clicked right away and I got the rythym back by doing them evenly without holding the last one too long.

Oxfords Gal,

Saying "Cho-co-late" helps divide the triplets into equal parts and is easily used for 1/8 note triplets which together equal one beat.

I liked the idea that you see it and play it as 4 consecutive notes equaling 2 quarter notes in time - of course the 2nd note could have a longer note value - doesn't have to be a quarter note.

Thinking of it as 4 consecutive notes gives you "Cho-co-late Milk" or "Cho-co-late Shake". (Yummy, huh?)

Betty

My teacher has me count aloud the beats while playing material out of her sight-reading book. I'm beginning to tackle Bach's Invention 1, hands separately of course, and I wrote in the time (1e+a 2e+a, etc.) As I play the notes, I'm counting aloud...S-L-O-W-L-Y .
But anyways, counting aloud and writing in the time will help you learn a piece with various note values. Keep at it and you will have impeccable timing. Once you do it for a while, you will get used to it.

Don't go beyond my pencil mark, even if I'm impatient:

So... if I mark "the bottom of page 1" as what I'm to be learning this week, learn that first before sneaking over to page 2, or I'll be seeing page 1 exercises again!!

Oh wow Betty, this is awesome. Just what I needed thanks so much, can't wait to get home and try it. You Rock Girl!!!

didn't learn this today, but the "Cho-co-late" thing reminded me of this:
from this thread: http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/32/3858.html

3 vs 2
One Cup of Tea

Yep, 'one cup of tea' for me as well.