 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2006-07-10 01:41
Just wondering. Better to work on perfecting one piece of music at a time? Or is it as productive to work on two pieces of music or more? I'm talking about working them up to a performance level, but they don't have to be there ANY time soon (plenty of time to work on them).
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: sgb2007
Date: 2006-07-10 01:47
Typically, I spend most of my practice time working on multiple pieces of music. I find that spending too much time on a single piece requires a musician to focus exclusively on the style and other musical elements of the particular piece, which can be a stifling environment for developing musical creativity. Having a variety of pieces can be refreshing and can sometimes help a musician apply certain ideas expressed in one piece to another piece at the same time.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-07-10 02:33
I do a few at a time.
and review others
i think it takes frequent reviews (for me, at least) to keep able to "perform" things that have been pretty thoroughly worked up.
Bob Phillips
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Author: leonardA
Date: 2006-07-10 03:31
I like to work on several, but I do this over a period of a week. On any given night I might only work on four or five or even concentrate on one that I'm having problems with, but over a week's time I work on maybe ten or 12.
Leonard
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2006-07-10 03:34
I think that if you work on one at a time, you're only developing the skills needed to perform that piece. To gain flexibility, you need to be playing other pieces, sight-reading, and working on scales. All these would improve each other.
That's just what I've experienced, anyway.
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Author: Markael
Date: 2006-07-10 11:19
In general I think it is better to work on several pieces, unless you don’t have enough practice time to give them adequate attention. It gets boring to spend hours and hours with only one piece. Boredom leads to lack of attention. Fingers become fatigued if you don’t vary the movements somewhat.
There is, however, a limited sense in which it can be worthwhile to select one particular piece to pick apart and put back together. If a piece has certain technical or stylistic aspects that are difficult to execute or to remember, meticulous practice on it can carry over into other pieces.
For example, one thing I am working on is accurate articulation. It is helpful to find a piece with complex slurring and tonguing patterns and to play all articulation exactly as written.
I used to sing barbershop. When our chorus was preparing for competition we would sometimes spend almost the entire rehearsal on two songs. It got to be very boring, but it was worthwhile. We learned to pronounce vowel sounds and diphthongs with precision. Later, we remembered to do the same thing when we pronounced the same words in other songs.
Don’t push the river. No matter how much you practice, there is only so much improvement that you can make in a short time. Better playing comes with faithful practice over time.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-07-10 11:40
I agree with the consensus regarding seeing bits of one piece illuminating another. There is room for ad hoc practice though, which is when you are in a pinch for time the main focus may not only be one piece but one little nasty bit of one piece.
To get back to the Stravinsky Three pieces, I started by concentrating on the worst couple of bars for me in the second piece. I played them by memory over and over. Then took the next nasty bits applying the same tactic. In a day or so the whole movement was comitted to memory and the approach to the playing became much more motivated by the SOUNDS than the black and white representation. This helps me dramatically get a better sense for the music.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-07-10 15:04
I like to have a "safety valve" piece, a relatively easy and fun piece that I can pull out during a practice session when tension and frustration starts to build and my clarinet starts getting in danger of becoming a permanent wall ornament. Things like the rose etudes or the cavallini caprices (or yif you have a somewhat masochistic bent the Jeanjean etudes), things that will never be absolutely perfect but that are fun to go through.
That being said, I usually work on three pieces at a time, one for clarinet, one for soprano (or tenor) recorder, and one for alto (or bass) recorder.
-Randy
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