It's not so much the quantity of practice than the quality of practice. Efficiency is the key. Intelligent, conscious, systematic, organised practising in short sessions is far more efficient than many hours of senseless repetition.
" In piano playing you must repeat something several hundred times. But you must also alternate repetition with time for the unconscious to work it out. This means ultimately a night’s sleep. It is when you start dreaming with your piece that you know you are starting to learn it. Dreaming is a consequence of this integrative work of the unconscious.
This has the following awesome practical consequence: In order to learn anything in the most efficient way, work on it with full concentration for a period of time (15 – 20 minutes is more then enough) and then forget about it until the next day. The next day repeat the same procedure for the same amount of time and again forget it until the next day. Repeat this as many days as necessary to be able to play the passage in question is such a way that you cannot get it wrong even if you try. I assure you that you will get to this point in a maximum of seven days, usually much less. This demands incredible discipline and consistency. But it works like magic.
Now consider this extreme example. You decide to practise 5 hours every day. These five hours can be divided in 12 practise sessions of 20 minutes each plus 5 minutes break in between each practice session.
The worst thing you can do is this: “Today I am going to practise bars 12- 24 of piece x.”. Then you do that in each of the 12 practice sessions. For 5 hours solid. It does not work. It is a waste of time.
The brilliant thing you can do is to use each of these 12 practice sessions to practise something completely different in each.
You see, it does not matter if you work on a passage for 20 minutes or for five hours. Whatever you accomplished in 20 minutes is all you are going to accomplish that day. You need a night’s sleep in between. It is far better to work twelve days for 20 minutes everyday in a passage than to work on that passage for 12 consecutive sessions in a day. (You do not need to believe me. Just try it out !). Instead use the other eleven daily sessions to learn eleven new things. At the end of a week you will be amazed at the fantastic amount that you have learned.
But you must have a plan. You must make sure that everything that you are practising in these sessions add up to something at the end of a week. This is the simple secret of all those pianists who were able to learn massive repertories in no time at all.
This also means that you do not need to practise 10 –12 hours a day. 20 minutes is plenty. But the amount you will be able to learn in 20 minutes will be 1/12 of what you could learn in 5 hours. Do you understand what I am getting at ? Do not think in terms of hours of practise per day, but in terms of number of 20 minute sessions per day and stick to whatever you are doing for seven days (or until you master it - usually less than seven days).
I wish someone had told this to me in my teenager years (then again, would I have listened ?). So I tell it now to all of you. Enjoy and profit from it ! "
~ Written by Bernhard (I could not write it better).
NOTE: This is the only article on my website that has been entirely written by someone else. However because of it significance I felt that it should be shared in its entirety as it provides excellent invaluable advice explained in detail. Students and professionals alike could benefit from it.
Comentários