How To Practice - Repertoire

Level Best

Mike Saville — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:23:49 +0000

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Having a good range of dynamics can make your performances much more interesting for the listener. There's nothing duller than listening to music that is the same volume or intensity all the way through. Use this method to improve the range of dynamics in your pieces.

Follow these steps to improve the dynamics in a section or piece of music: Read more . . .

Work out what the middle dynamic is in your piece - it's quite often around mf (or medium loud)

A Change of Emphasis

Mike Saville — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:36:31 +0000

It's often difficult to find new ways of playing a piece, especially if it's a very well known piece of music.

Consider this well known piece of Piano music by Mozart:

This has been played milllions of times by pianists all over the world. How then do you take this, or any other piece of music, and give it your own interpretation?

Here's where the emphasis method comes in. When played with a standard interpretation the emphasis will fall on the red note as follows:
Read more . . .

Artistic Learning

Mike Saville — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:59:34 +0000

Once you have learned the notes to a piece it's time to make music and to express your own musicality.

Consider the 3 drawings below:

Each of these is a note. How do you think each note will sound?

Here is another shape:

What do you think this music might sound like?<1--break-->

This shape has yet more differences. Try to imagine in detail the sounds this might make: Read more . . .

Storyteller

Mike Saville — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:31:13 +0000

Photo courtesy of Schani

You can use the fact that everyone likes a good story to help shape the music you are playing.

The first thing you need to do is to write down what the music reminds you of. Is it a scampering insect, a floating leaf, a noisy train station or a barking dog? There is no right answer here. Write down what ever comes into your head.

It may be that different sections of your piece remind you of different things. If so write those down as well. Read more . . .

Musical Map

Mike Saville — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:20:50 +0000

Photo courtesy of Marco

Does your teacher tell you to be more 'musical', more 'expressive' or play with more 'feeling'?

I bet you're left wondering how to do that. By using the Musical Map method you can give your piece more direction and make it sound more musical and expressive.

The Musical Map method requires that you mark every single note on your piece of music. These markings will show the direction of the music, the high points of phrases and guide the ebb and flow of the music.

You should realise that every note in a piece is either going towards the top of a phrase or coming away from a high point. Read more . . .

Begin Backwards

How To Practice — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:28:15 +0000

Photo courtesy of RBerteig

If you follow this method the end of your pieces will be as good as the start.

First you need to decide how many bars you can learn in one practice session.

Once you have chosen you need to start your practice that many bars from the end of your piece. If you think you can learn 4 bars at a time then start your piece 4 bars from the end.

In your next practice session you need to start twice as many bars from the end of the piece (so if you thought you could learn 4 bars then you will now be starting 8 bars from the end).

The next day you start another 4 bars back (or however many you chose). Keep doing this until you work your way back to the start of the piece. Read more . . .

Divide and Conquer

How To Practice — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:05:46 +0000

Photo courtesy of Thorne Enterprises

Try this method to crack those tricky sections.

Look through your piece and mark the tricky passages with a pencil. Next break these passages down into smaller sections. For example, a long run of semi-quavers can be broken down into groups of 4 semi-quavers, tricky intervals can be broken down into a collection of simpler ones. Mark these small sections with a pencil. Read more . . .

20 Questions

How To Practice — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:51:06 +0000

Before you begin to learn a new piece of music answer the questions below. You will then be much better placed to learn it quickly. Read more . . .

What is the title?
Who is the composer?
When was the piece written?
Where is the composer from?
What else did the composer write?
Who had an influence on the composer?
What is the style of the piece?
What is the mood of the piece?
Can you describe the melody?
What key is the piece in?
What is the time signature?
What happens to the dynamics?

Climb The Steps

How To Practice — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:51:35 +0000

This practice method gives you a simple way of knowing how you are getting on with a particular piece or section of music. When your teacher asks you can very specifically tell them that you are on step 2 for the first section and step 4 for the second section of your piece. By using these "steps" you can move through the learning process of a piece, beginning with learning the initial notes to having it up to a performance standard. So what are these steps? Read more . . .

In At The Deep End

How To Practice — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:55:10 +0000

This methods ensures that difficult passages don"t get left behind.

To prepare, play through your piece once stopping to mark with a pencil any tricky bits.

When you practise play only those tricky bits you marked with a pencil. Practise until you have mastered all of those bits. You are not allowed to practise any of the easier unmarked sections. Read more . . .