Learning to play vs learning to concentrate

ShiroKuro · 2024-05-23T13:54:51+00:00

I am wanting to record some pieces this summer but I've been having kind of a hard time getting them "performance ready." The last few days I've really reali...

twocats

ShiroKuro it sounds like your life is very hectic right now and I wouldn't be surprised that it's affecting your concentration!

danno858

ShiroKuro I’ve had this issue too when recording. What works for me is just to leave to recorder on during my session. If I end up playing a piece to satisfaction then I stop the recorder and cut out everything that came before. What this does for me is that I forget it’s even on and then I relax.

ShiroKuro

Two cats, thank you for saying that!

Danno, good idea, I can try that as well!

Animisha

ShiroKuro

This is SO interesting, because I am struggling with a similar issue, but on a much, much lower level.
I have this piece with only 35 measures, with basically an 8-measure theme that is repeated four times. However, in every single measure there are variations on this theme. When I chunk the piece, after some pratising I can play all four chunks without mistakes, but when I play the whole piece in one go, by the time I reach the last variation, my mind is very tired and I seem to have lost the stamina for playing correctly.

I think that this stamina - or, prolonged concentration - needs to be trained.
I think that our way of living has reduced our ability to maintain our concentration for longer periods of time, and that we simply(!) need to train our concentration.
How? By practising our concentration. Tell yourself that your goal right now is to practise your concentration, then play through the whole piece and try to stay as focused as you can. Afterwards, give yourself a break, do something else, and when you feel fresh again and up to the challenge, once again, practise your concentration.

Maybe a seven-page piece is too much to start with. Maybe you can split the piece into two or three parts that you record separately and then glue together?

ShiroKuro

Animisha Maybe a seven-page piece is too much to start with. Maybe you can split the piece into two or three parts that you record separately and then glue together?

I don’t want to record separate parts and then stitch them together. Beside the fact what I want an authentic recording of myself, I also want to be able to play for people, so I still need to be able to play the whole piece through without losing my concentration.

Also, I used to be able to play, perform, and record pieces of this length with much less difficulty. But this past year has been a year of moving, new job, new city, lots of stress. And from Sept. to Dec 2023, I had the least amount of practice time I’ve ever had since starting piano (almost 25 years now!). So I do think it’s appropriate for me to “push” myself with this piece.

To the degree that this piece could be considered a push. Which to say, I agree with Bart’s approach, where you think about difficulty in (at least) two dimensions. Yes, this piece is 7 pages long, but in terms of technical difficulty, even the “most difficult” section is well beneath my overall playing level.

So I truly think it’s a concentration problem, and my ability to concentrate has gotten rusty, so that’s what I’m going to focus on.

danno858

Whenever I tackle a difficult, lengthy piece, I start by practicing the hardest places first. Once I get those down, I go back and try to play all the way through. That way, when I get to the difficult sections, they seem easy and I get a sense that I'm making progress which then motivates me further.

BartK

I usually look at the difficulty of playing a piece in two dimensions rather than one. There is the technical difficulty on one axis and then the length of the piece on the other axis. Maxing out both is not usually possible so you have to find a balance between length and difficulty. If you go on the more lenghty side then you have to reduce the difficulty level. So your choices are either difficult but short, long but easy, or something in the middle.

rogerch

I struggle with staying in the moment while playing as well. It's frustrating to be part way into a piece and realize I'm thinking about my last hike rather than focusing on my playing.

Lately I've been trying to be better at being in the moment no matter what I'm doing, and especially when playing the piano. What seems to help me is being conscious of the sounds I'm making. Part of that is singing in my mind as Josephine suggests, but I also think about dynamics, phrases, and other technical aspects of what I'm doing.

My mind still wanders when I play but I'm getting at least a little bit better. I'm looking forward to more suggestions on this thread!

Also similar to Josephine, when I'm recording and I get a few measures from the end I think "hey, I'm almost done and no really bad errors yet!". When that happens I try to shift my focus back to my playing to avoid the "don't make a mistake" thoughts that tend to provoke mistakes. I haven't got this mastered yet either but I'm trying...

BartK

I'm usually 100% focused on the music but noticed just now that being upset about the whole situation on PW made me think about that instead of the piece I was practicing. In that situation I think it's time to call it a day and do something else.

twocats

BartK today is supposed to be a practice day for me and I don't think I'll even make it to the piano 🙁

rogerch

I'm trying to play but here I am back at my computer!

I find that it's much easier for me to stay in the moment when I'm improvising than when I'm learning or playing someone else's composition. With improvisation there is less muscle memory to keep the music going so more attention is required.

Josephine

rogerch

I wish I could do that. I think you can feel completely free when you can improvise.

rogerch

Josephine I think anyone who plays piano can learn to improvise. I started about four years ago after a lifetime of playing from sheet music. It has been a lot of fun and I encourage anyone who is interested to give it a shot! You can start by putting away the sheet music and playing some random notes to see what sounds good

ranjit

I have also found this relatively difficult. Most recently, I managed to maintain concentration while performing the entire first movement of the Pathetique sonata on stage (8 pages), which felt like quite an achievement.

The way that worked for me: Split the piece into 2-3 "mini pieces" in your head, and then also split by major sections (a page or two pages). Usually, there is a point where there's a fermata or something and where you can take a breath. Then reorient yourself and imagine you're playing the second piece, not the first. The Pathetique splits perfectly in the middle (4 pages + 4 pages).

This is how I approached the Pathetique:
PART I:

Grave: first page
Second page: Pick up the momentum with the main theme
Third page: calmer
Fourth page: culmination
END
(Take a breath)

PART II:

First page (page 5 overall): Pick up and gather intensity, 0 to 100 very quick
Second page (page 6): High point of the entire piece with the third trill
Third page (page 7): Same as page 3 but in a different key
Fourth page (page 8): Same as page 4 but in a different key, followed by the ending.

HeartKeys

rogerch I think anyone who plays piano can learn to improvise. I started about four years ago after a lifetime of playing from sheet music. It has been a lot of fun and I encourage anyone who is interested to give it a shot! You can start by putting away the sheet music and playing some random notes to see what sounds good

@Josephine I found this video to be interesting for classical pianists who are fairly beginner at improvising.

My forte is improvising and I’m pretty advanced at it, but my mind is pretty anomalous. As for those who are used to playing piano by sheet, this video could prove insightful.

Would love your thoughts!

Pallas

I am highly distractible. My thoughts drift away, and errors pile up. No matter what I'm doing, I have the impulse to leap up and go do something else. I've found that the only way to focus better is by practicing focusing. Most people call this meditation, but many people who meditate seem to think you've only "succeeded" if you have an empty mind throughout the whole session. But a "successful" sit is any session where you notice that your thoughts have wandered and redirect your attention to a preferred focal point (like your breath).

So when I'm at the piano and instead of repeating my measure as planned, I'm thinking about dinner, I redirect my focus to my hands, my ear, the score or my breath, etc. Even 5 minutes a day of active focus practice helps build the skill. Like scales, but for your attention skill.

Just like with meditation, it's a good idea to let it be acceptable when you notice your focus needs adjusting. You just take note and adjust. But if you mentally berate yourself for "losing" focus, you might turn it into a real hangup and source of anxiety. Like, the last thing you want to do if you wake up in the middle of the night is check the time, calculate how few hours there are until the alarm goes off, and spend all of that time staring at the ceiling, resenting not being asleep. Better to just let it be ok, roll over, and go back to sleep.

BartK

rokhead To learn a piece, start at the beginning.
As you proceed to learn more, annotate sections with letters.
As you practice the piece for memorization, start at the last section you have learned and play it.
Next, back up one section and play forward until the end, or until a section you've not yet worked on.

Given labeled sections: A B C D E
E
D E
C D E
B C D E
A B C D E

That's great but also very time-consuming and you end up practicing some sections less. For me what works better is:
A B
B C
C D
D E
(if necessary) EA
Sometimes in the opposite order, starting with the end.

ShiroKuro

By the way, as to Rok’s discussion of playing the piece “backwards,” I used to practice that way a lot. But at some point, I found that it’s more efficient to figure what where the trouble spots are, and focus on those as a practice goal. And then also focus on “playing through” as a separate goal.

Oh and btw, I know there’s a big (very good) discussion in PW’s ABF about memorizing right now, and this is actually the piece I said I would work on for the memory challenge. But I should also add that, ultimately, I don’t really care if I can memorize this piece and record it or perform it while playing from memory. Even if I do get it memorized,I’m going to play/perform/record it from the score because that will allow me to keep it as a repertoire piece. And based on past experience, I’ve found that memorizing a piece and then playing/performing from the score was actually the best way to get a confident result….

I just can’t get there right now, as I said when I started this thread, I think my concentration is really rusty!

Pallas

ShiroKuro Maybe I need to read about the Buddhist teachings on monkey mind...

First this. Then all the excellent practical piano advice!

Josephine

HeartKeys

Thanks! I'm going to watch it tomorrow (almost midnight here in the Netherlands)

I really enjoyed your improvs on that song you were looking for a while ago.

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