PRACTICE TIPS #29: Starting to Work on a New Piece, part 1

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

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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

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PRACTICE TIPS #29: Starting to Work on a New Piece, part 1

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    [This is the first issue of Practice Tips from its

    new home (PracticeTips@topica.com).  You'll see a few

    immediate differences--for the lowdown, see the Note at

    the end of this message.]



Since it is the start of a new school year for us, most of my students are 

starting to work on new pieces.



What should pianists do, who are just starting a new piece?  How should 

they spend their time in the first hours and days they are working on a new 

musical work?  Here are some ideas:





1. WHOLE WORK: Sight read through the entire work a few times to get an 

overall view of the piece and what it's about. But DON'T waste all your 

time with a new piece playing it through over and over and over--the "Play 

Myself A Slow, Bad Concert" approach to practicing.



2. LARGE/MEDIUM SECTIONS: Notice the natural sections within the work--from 

large-scale sections (exposition, development, ABA or AB structure) down to 

phrases.  This is the first step in turning the piece from a random 

collection of notes into meaningful music.



3. SMALL "PRACTICE SECTIONS": Divide your piece into small "Practice 

Sections".  Clearly mark these Practice Sections in your music with a 

pencil.  Spend most of your time in the early days and weeks of learning a 

new piece working on one Practice Section using this simple scheme:



     A. Choose a Practice Section

     B. Repeat it over and over until it is perfected

     C. Concentrate your effort on this one section. Do not

        allow yourself to lazily play on to other sections, which

        will cause you to loose focus on your current Practice

        Section and the many problems you have to solve there.

     D. As soon as the current Practice Section has been perfected,

        move on to another Practice Section, and perfect it.





Next time: More on starting a new piece.





Happy Practicing!



--Brent





P.S.  Various list mumbo-jumbo follows.  Feel free to ignore.





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A Fair Warning: How Often Does Practice Tips Come?

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During our school year (September-May), Practice Tips has kept a 

more-or-less regular schedule: one message every week or two.  During the 

summer, when I travel a lot and generally have an irregular schedule, 

Practice Tips, too, has been rather irregular.



But now that our school year has started again, I am planning a regular 

schedule of one issue every week.  However--and this is a change--I am 

planning to send TWO tips per week, on occasion.  The second tip will 

usually be an expansion of the first tip of that week.  Sometimes it might 

be a little quiz to see if you remember the previous tip.  This will not 

happen every week--only when it seems like a good idea.



I *did* say Practice Tips was an "occasional" newsletter, didn't I?  You 

have been warned . . .



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Subscribing to Practice Tips

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New subscription instructions, as of this issue.  Please invite your

friends/students/colleagues to join!



To subscribe, send a blank email to:



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A Note About Practice Tips' New Home at Topica.Com

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You'll see some immediate differences in Practice Tips now that it has been 

moved to Topica.Com.  The main one is



   * Yes, there are ads.  There will probably be small ones (3 lines)

     at the top and bottom of every message, and larger ones (5-8 lines)

     at the top OR bottom (not both) of some messages.



The ads are annoying (my advice: don't look at them).  But there are some 

important advantages to the move:



   * The listserv is more capable of handling the large list

     that Practice Tips is becoming, with less intervention

     on my part.  The larger the list becomes, the happier

     they are; it won't strain their resources.

   * The location is stable; the list should never need to be

     moved again.

   * The Topica.Com listserv has some nice features, many of which

     you won't notice (but I will).  One feature you *will* notice,

     though is:

   * Immediate, up-to-date archiving of old issues of Practice Tips

     (as soon as I figure out how to configure it . . . ).



In the interest of full disclosure: I don't get to choose the ads that 

appear in Practice Tips, but I *do* get a small cut of the advertising 

revenue.  According to my calculations, this will be about enough to buy 

myself a couple of candy bars every month (i.e., the advertising money 

isn't the primary reason for the move, the reasons outlined above are--but 

if I get a couple of candy bars every month, I won't complain.)



If the ads are too annoying, or there are other problems with Topica.Com, I 

may consider moving the list to a different listserv.  *However*, there is 

no way I can make any kind of a change until the end of the year.  So if 

you find the format/ads annoying, *please* let me know, and understand that 

I *will* take this into consideration, but also understand that I won't 

under any circumstances make a change until January 2001.



I am planning to make Practice Tips better than ever in its new 

location.  I hope you will continue to enjoy and find it filled with 

helpful ideas!



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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 . . .



Please remember that this tip is but a small spot near the tip of the

elephant's trunk--it's not even close to the whole elephant that is

"how everyone in the whole world should practice the piano".



Practice Tips Archives (updated about once a month):



           http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/practicetips/



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

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

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

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

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

+  Internet Piano Concert: http://www.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/recit   +

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







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