ranjit What do you think of it?
Sorry - late answering again. I'm looking back to refresh my memory.
This last time you wrote:
I'd like to start with what you first wrote about your teacher's advice (16 days ago, it says)
Yes to both. My piano teacher asked me to try to get in 6 hours a day of practice if I aspired to reach a professional standard, because that's what other professionals are doing. His question was: Can you name a concert pianist, or anyone at that level, who didn't put in days of 6+ hours of practice during their initial stage of learning (i.e. before their repertoire was learned and they transitioned to a "maintenance" regime)? Additionally, repetitions are incredibly important to get to the point where you can "not get it wrong".
I don't like the "Can you name .... " type of thing. Besides the fact that we don't know how or how long such professionals practise unless there is some kind of record of it, or you know the person, I don't like the tone of it. It's the variety of "all smart / important / successful / noble people" do X therefore you should do it, otherwise you wont' be "smart/ important... etc." - or one can feel ashamed at the implication 'how dare I question what smart people do'. It shuts down conversation, and it's not that informative.
Also, the idea was that the practice MUST be with as much focus as possible. Just putting in the hours without focusing doesn't lead anywhere.
This part I agree with. We see advice of doing something 20 times, or logging in X hours of practice - which can lead to mindless activity with the main focus on the clock, or on counting number of repetitions. But besides the point of focus, there's no advice yet on what that might look like.
Which you then explore in the next paragraph.
Now, is it possible to maintain a high level of focus for 6 hours a day? There are three possibilities: No one can do it, some people who have an unusual capacity to focus can, or that it is commonly achievable probably with years of training to enhance focus. Which one is it? I do not know.
You are exploring the idea of focus, but I see no received instruction or advice on the matter.
The 2nd time you wrote 4 days ago:
quote] I was saying yes to both hours and repetitions. My teacher said that you might have to repeat something hundreds of times before you "have it". He also advocated having a goal and sitting down for an hour or two until a certain passage is mastered, by which point you might have gone over it several dozen times.
These are not mindless repetitions. It is a lot of breaking down into small parts, working on one or two measures at a time, figuring out the technique (as well as expression) you would use. But it can still amount to hundreds of repetitions. [/quote]
When you write of "breaking down into small parts", "figuring out the technique" (etc.) - are these your thoughts on it, or is this advice from the teacher?
You asked my impression. What you described is what Dr. G described as the "traditional approach" - many hours of practice, and lots of repetition. The advice to maintain focus and not make it mindless is what you'd expect a good teacher to say. But the detail and various aspects of effective practice are missing. This seems common. There seems to be a big hole. I sought and found these things some time ago, but out there they seem to be largely missing. It may be good to explore and adopt some of these things that are new, creatively making them your own. Then you have the positive things you acquired yourself, the things you got/are getting from your professor(s), and some extra catalysts.
Some of these things may also work hand-in-hand: teacher says "focus on X" - and you have some extra means for creating that focus.