Practice Tip, Igudesman and Joo

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Practice Tip - One Problem at a Time

If you've had a dozen lessons with me, then you almost certainly have heard me give you this very important principle to good practice.  Inevitably, you will attempt to learn something that seems overwhelming.  You have to address every obstacle in a piece of music in order to learn it completely, but you don't have to and shouldn't try to do it all at once.  That's probably obvious enough, but let's take it one step further:  don't even try to solve TWO things at once.  Limit it to one.

Sometimes the problem is as simple as getting from note # 1 to note # 2.  You may need to practice that slowly, then speed up.  Sometimes the rhythm is a problem.  Get off the keyboard and practice on a table.  No pitches to hear, so you need to focus on the rhythm.  Sometimes it's pedaling.  So pedal as you watch the music imagining you are playing without actually moving your hands.  We'll go over more ways than this, but the point is:  take care of just one problem at a time.  In a really tough passage, it may mean ignoring one problem while you work on another.  You'll do nothing but frustrate yourself trying to multi-task.

Meet Igudesman and Joo - Video and Concert Info

If you've ever been misled into thinking that classical music is boring, allow me to introduce you to the funniest classical comedy duo I've ever seen.  They are from England, and are Alexis Igudesman and Hyung-Ki Joo.  They are coming to Greensboro on Friday, April 12 at 8:00pm to perform with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra to play their Big Nightmare Music show (as opposed to their two-person Little Nightmare Music show).  Here is a link for more info: http://www.greensborosymphony.org/season/2012-13/masterworks5.asp

Finally, I leave you with this video by Igudesman and Joo from their Little Nightmare Music show.  The next time you think you're having a tough piano lesson, compare it to this one and its pure madness!