PRACTICE TIPS #3: "Repeated Note Practice"

[Brent Hugh <bhugh@griffon.mwsc.edu>]

======================================================================

PRACTICE TIPS is an occasional email newsletter with practical 

piano practice tips and ideas, by Brent Hugh



You are receiving PRACTICE TIPS because you subscribed 

to PRACTICE TIPS at the Practice Tips Web Page or because you 

are a student of Brent Hugh.  To end your subscription to PRACTICE 

TIPS, see the instructions at the end of this message.

======================================================================



PRACTICE TIPS #3: "Repeated Note Practice"

------------------------------------------



The main purpose of Practice Tips is simply to give you a variety of ideas

to try in your practice.  The challenge of continually re-learning your

music in slightly different ways keeps your mind engaged and helps with the

"overlearning" that is necessary to give a really secure performance.



This week's practice idea comes from Arlene Steffen, who says that she

learned it from Brian Ganz.



"Ganz . . . recommends a kind of practice where you play each note in the

pattern a certain number of times, reducing the number with each repetition."



For instance, if you were practicing the first motive of Bach's d minor

invention, you might start by playing each note six times (each time with

the correct finger, of course):



   DDDDDDEEEEEEFFFFFFGGGGGGAAAAAABbBbBbBbBbBbC#C#C#C#C#C# etc.



Then each note 5 times:



   DDDDDEEEEEFFFFFGGGGGAAAAABbBbBbBbBbC#C#C#C#C# etc.



Then 4 times:



   DDDDEEEEFFFFGGGGAAAABbBbBbBbC#C#C#C# etc.



Then each note 3 times, 2 times, and finally 1 time (as written):



   DEFGABbC# etc.



The repeated notes give you time to get a very clear mental image of where

you are going next, and with which finger(s).  By reducing the number of

repeated notes, your mind learns to bring up this clear mental image more

and more quickly--finally as fast as the tempo of the piece requires.



Pick a difficult or problematic passage that you have been practicing

recently, and try  this "Repeated Note Practice" on it--let me know how it

goes!



Happy Practicing!



--Brent



---------------------------------------------------------------------

PRACTICE TIPS is by pianist, teacher, composer, and internet nerd

Brent Hugh.  Brent knows about practicing mostly because he *does*

it, and in fact is toddling off to do some of it just about now . . .



Responses to PRACTICE TIPS articles are welcome, as are your ideas 

and thoughts about practicing--part of the idea of PRACTICE TIPS is

to establish an online community of people who are interested in

interesting and innovative approaches to learning music.  So I 

welcome your responses and ideas and may use them (with due 

credit given, of course) as the basis for future articles. (Private

responses are welcome, too--just mark them clearly "Private Response".)  



To unsubscribe from PRACTICE TIPS, send a message



    TO: listserv@griffon.mwsc.edu

    SUBJECT: [leave blank, it is ignored]

    MESSAGE BODY: unsubscribe practice



You are welcome to forward PRACTICE TIPS to others as long as the 

ENTIRE message, including this trailer, is forwarded.  Friends can 

find out how to subscribe to PRACTICE TIPS at 

          <http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/practice-tips.html>

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 





+++++++++++++++++++ Brent Hugh / bhugh@griffon.mwsc.edu ++++++++++++++++++

+   Missouri Western State College Dept of Music, St. Joseph, Missouri   +

+               Piano Home Page: http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh              +

+ Internet Piano Concert:  http://cctr.umkc.edu/userx/bhugh/recital.html +

++++++++++ Classical Piano MP3s http://www.mp3.com/brent_d_hugh ++++++++++