Help! How to get a piece into your fingers as quickly as possible?

ShiroKuro · 2026-05-20T01:55:09+00:00

TL;DR version: as per the title, what's your advice for getting a new-ish piece into your fingers as quickly as possible? I need to get three pieces into my fingers in the next 3 three days. 😅 Fortunately, they are all somewhat below my level (as opposed to being at or above the difficulty level of what I normally play) otherwise it wouldn't be feasible. But I just started working on them tonight, and they need to be "ready-ish" on Saturday. This evening, my practice approach was to practice as slowly and accurately as I can, and to write in fingering and make note of tricky sections. I can play all of the pieces all the way through, so now I need to pick up the tempo and smooth out the tricky sections. I think what I'll do tomorrow is start at the end or the trickiest spot for each piece, and then work backwards. Keep the tempo down mostly, to cement the fingering.... So, any other suggestions that I can use to kind of push these forward? The details: I find myself in the happy predicament of needing to prepare three pieces to play with a cellist -- this weekend! Fortunately this won't be a performance, just a practice, but this will be my first time playing with him and I don't want to give a bad impression! I think the plan is that we'll play/practice this weekend, and then do a little home concert in July (because he's going to be away for most of June and July). It all came together sort of suddenly, and I didn't want to postpone, because then he'll be away and so on. And I've been trying to find a cellist to play with for forever!! So in order to get as much out of this practice as possible (so that I can really get things polished and be ready to perform with him), I want to be as ready for this weekend practice session as I can be. TIA for any suggestions! 🙂

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 Obviously the acoustic profile of the cello requires special consideration. But I have to say, I think dynamics are always relative. What counts as f vs mf is influenced by the room, the piano, the people, the weather… as well as the presence or absence of other musicians.

pseudonym58

ShiroKuro The cellist will let you know if they feel they are being overpowered, so even if your perceived relative balance is different, you will both work it out. Not to worry! :-)

MRC

ShiroKuro But yesterday during practice, I noticed that I felt it was hard to play more quietly. Especially because these are all Einaudi and Einaudi is all pedal!

Keep a light foot on the pedal and see what you can do with partial pedalling. You can make lovely airy effects with that sort of figuration if you use variations of half or flutter pedalling.

ShiroKuro What about adding the una corda pedal? Maybe as a last resort?? I'll try that today as well. (Probably I won't like it though!)

It is indeed a last resort, but can be useful if the piano is in a really bad state. A few years ago, I accompanied a singer on a piano which was in a terrible condition. I wedged the una corda pedal down with a piece of wood and played the whole concert like that.

MRC

And, of course, don't forget

The Golden Rules For Playing Chamber Music

Everyone should play the same piece.
Carefully tune your instrument before playing. That way you can play out of tune all night with a clear conscience.
If you play a wrong note, give a nasty look to one of the other players.
Stop at every repeat sign and discuss in detail whether to take the repeat or not.
Take your time turning pages.
The right note at the wrong time is a wrong note (and vice-versa).
If everyone gets lost except you, follow those who get lost.
Markings for slurs, dynamics and ornaments should not be observed. They are only there to embellish the score.
If a passage is difficult, slow down. If it's easy, speed it up. Everything will work itself out in the end.
If you are completely lost, stop everyone and say, "I think we should tune”.
If the ensemble has to stop because of you, explain in detail why you got lost. Everyone will be very interested.
A true interpretation is realised when there remains not one note of the original.
When everyone else has finished playing, you should not play any notes you have left.
A wrong note played timidly is a wrong note. A wrong note played with authority is an interpretation.

ShiroKuro

MRC OMG that’s hysterical! I think I may have to print it out and distribute it!

So in other news, it turns out that my cello friend is unable to get together this weekend, which means we won’t be able to get together until late July (because he’s leaving for a trip on Monday).

I’m a little disappointed but my overriding reaction is relief! 😅 Of the three pieces we are to play, currently I can only play one of them all the way through at tempo. The other two are pretty rough at the moment, and I would have had to make a lot of modifications (e.g., dropping a lot of notes in the LH etc.) to play.

But by July they will all be ready (and maybe I can even add a fourth, we’ll see). And I will be able to spend more time prepping for the dynamic control that I’ll need. Oh, and even better, by then, I will have had my piano tuned!

So all in all, this is a good development.

And I’ve learned that probably one piece is my limit for “speed learning.” (Unless they’re all super-super easy, and although these are easier than what I usually play, “super-super” easy they are not).

Thanks everyone for all the advice in this thread, it’s been really helpful. I will revisit when we move into July and he comes back.

I still think that he and I can play in July and then have a little music party to play for people after that.

Sophia

MRC

twocats

ShiroKuro And I’ve learned that probably one piece is my limit for “speed learning.”

Every time I have to learn something on a short schedule, unless I can sight read it I regret it. I was pretty annoyed that the piece chosen by the 92 year old clarinet player took me two weeks to feel confident playing, it sounded easier than it was! But who can say no to someone that age?! It takes me a long time to learn new pieces, so I don't commit to anything on a short schedule unless I can already sightread it at practically performance level 🙂

I'm really glad you ended up with lots of extra time!

ShiroKuro

twocats And by sightread, do you mean mostly at tempo?

One of the reasons I thought I might be ok is that these pieces are pretty easy to read (unlike my jury piece, for example!) you can see how "well-behaved on the page" the scores are above. But yeah, three days was just unreasonably optimistic on my part! 😃

If we had ended up practicing this weekend, I probably would have been able to fake through the other two pieces, dropping notes or even just playing one hand. I figured that would still be beneficial and help me know what/how to practice since it's been so long since I've played with a cellist. So that's why I agreed to the originally scheduled meeting this weekend.

But yeah, ultimately, this timeline will be much better!

BTW one side benefit of the crazy short-term prep I did was that I now have a few good questions to ask my teacher when I see her on Tuesday. 🙂

twocats

ShiroKuro And by sightread, do you mean mostly at tempo?

Mostly, yes! I should be able to pretty much play the piece, maybe with a few spots to pay attention to (wrong notes get a highlighter) or to practice. Especially if I only had 3 days 😳

ShiroKuro

twocats yeah, it was definitely overly optimistic for me. But it was a great learning experience!

Now I have no excuse not to be ready in July!

twocats

ShiroKuro yeah, it was definitely overly optimistic for me. But it was a great learning experience!

Hence my having no advice for you earlier about learning it quickly. Now my advice is "don't do that again" 🤣

ShiroKuro

twocats Now my advice is "don't do that again"

🤣🤣🤣

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