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Method for Learning Daunting Music

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-02-26 08:18

COVID has had me repeating a lot of my etude books, and I have many, to the point where, while I could still stand to greatly improve accuracy and speed, it's also true that I've practically memorized etudes (not from memory but in the sense that I am reading music I've seen many times before).

Make no mistake, I'd hardly say that I've mastered Bearmann III, (and any of my material, from Kroepsch 1-4, to Lazarus, to Opperman, to any of them,) and will continue with it for the rest of my life. But it's not the challenge it was when first new---simply because it was new (adjusting for improvement in my technique over time.)

So today I started looking at the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto. And while utterly challenging, I can play some of it at extremely slow tempo.

Now--right or wrong, I have my own ideas about how one goes about learning such things. I loosely call my approach "divide and conquer." "Divide" relating to both metronome speed and sections of the overall piece.

While I can do some of the harder stuff at very slow speeds, until it becomes set in the fingers, at which point metronome speed is slowly increased, how would you teach such a beast? What is your methodology, your approach?

What tips might you offer that present the shortest distance between first seeing this piece and getting it down; much as I appreciate that this shortest path is itself extremely long. Would you assign sections, and if so, at particular speeds?

BTW, I am floored that someone not only masters this, but commits it to memory.

https://youtu.be/6y-3HelXglY

Thank you in advance for your advice. I'm curious how my approach to improving might itself stand to improve from other teacher's perspectives here on the art and science of pedagogy.