What about WHAT to practice?

Part I .....

We have a chunk of time. How shall we spend it?

Why, practicing, of course! But even if we take that as a given, questions remain. Unless we happen to have a performance on the horizon (that does tend to sharpen the focus, doesn’t it?), sometimes we’ll find that we stumble out into a vast field of altogether-too-many possibilities. Should we start a new piece? Should we spend time with old favorites in our repertoire? Is that a good thing to do, or does it make us lazy? Should we dutifully do some exercises, scales, chord progressions? Should we spend some time sight-reading, the way our teacher suggested? No, not today…. definitely not that! Maybe we pull out a piece we started recently but haven’t gotten too far on. It’s enjoyable at first, but we get frustrated. We decide it’s because we’re actually in more of a mood to work on this other piece instead. We eagerly open this one up, only to be met with a sinking feeling, remembering the hard bits that caused us to set it aside a few weeks ago.… Should we roll up our sleeves and jump straight into those challenges where we left off, or get a fresh start from the beginning? Or just pick something new? Wait—I’ve always wanted to play THAT! (Excitement! though here comes doubt, quick on its heels) -but I’m sure it’s too hard….do I dare try it? Oh, I just don’t know… What about some Debussy? Or—oh, this book won’t even stay open, grrrrr, not that…… What’s wrong with me, that I can never finish anything?…. I really should sight-read….. I give up! I think I’ll go watch Netflix instead.

As we try to figure out what to play, many factors can muddy the waters. For one thing, we pianists are blessed with an embarrassment of riches, in the form of many lifetimes’ worth of repertoire—music from an overflowing abundance of sources both known and unknown to us, with always more to discover, and more coming all the time. None of us will ever even scratch the surface of it. Of course we’re overwhelmed!

For another thing, sometimes we just don’t have a realistic sense of what is at “our level.” We may gravitate towards monumental, profoundly challenging works we’ve always admired, and find before long that “piano is too hard.” Or we may never dare to explore beyond the battered beginner collections we found in a box in the basement, their yellowed pages criss-crossed with ancient admonitions, in which case it doesn’t take long to decide that “piano is too boring.” We may have physical limitations that make us doubt what we can do. Or we may simply not have an understanding of what the prerequisite skills might be for any given piece we’d like to learn. Even if we’re aware of areas of weakness in our musical backgrounds, we may have no idea how to develop them. But meanwhile, we have that chunk of time, and the piano is just sitting there waiting for us…. What is a practicer to do?

The answers are as varied as we are—and the short answer is, it’s all good! If we are playing and we are enjoying it, it is time well spent. And that is enough! Life is short. Let’s remember that we play the piano. It takes work, yes; but if the work isn’t enjoyable and satisfying, then…. uh, why again are we doing this?

But by now you know I cannot stop at the short answer! Because this question—the question of what to play—can be looked at from so many different angles, it will find a great variety of different answers in Pride & Practicing over time. For today, here are a few ways we might look at it.

Longer answer no. 1: it’s nice, and helpful, to have different pieces at different levels going at the same time. One piece may be a “mastery” piece, which we can realistically challenge ourselves to play as beautifully as it can be played. This basically means a piece that is technically easy for us, one where all the space-in-our-brain isn’t taken up with just managing the execution. Pieces at a level where we can quickly get to the point of playing with some freedom! -by which I mean, enjoying a sense that we can truly listen as we play, and that we can even be spontaneous, trying new things in the moment as inspiration strikes, without falling off the horse. Pieces where our practicing can move quickly to the stages of practicing artistry. Pieces which, if we record ourselves playing them after we’ve practiced them well, we can truly love the result. The first stages of practicing pieces in this category may feel lightweight, less interesting. But the listening grows deeper and deeper! We become artists by playing music in which we can really devote ourselves to artistry—not fingering, not technique, not how to count this measure.

So if one piece we’re practicing (or several) goes into that “mastery piece” category, at the same time perhaps we’re also working on a piece that might better be considered a “stretching” piece. As for this one, some might tell us is “too hard,” but we have a sense that it is not impossible—that is, not so challenging that we can’t manage it at all after some reasonable effort. But challenging! This piece is one that stretches both our technical and musical skills. If we practice it well for a while and then record ourselves, we might be disappointed; some things might sound bumpy, hesitant, pushed, rough or too slow. It may sound hard when we hear ourselves play it (and that’s not what we were going for!). We might decide we don’t want to play it on a recital, at least not for a long, long time…. Does that mean we shouldn’t be working on it? Not necessarily! Not if working on it is like this: for all its difficulty, we enjoy sinking our teeth into this piece, working tenaciously to solve the varied problems it presents. We relish our sense of increasing skill. We witness the miracle of watching those hard things transform, ever so gradually, into easier things—that’s easiER, for now, but we can see where the practice is going! We begin to imagine ourselves playing this once-difficult piece fluently, beautifully, with ease. (It may not manifest any time soon, but at least we begin to imagine it!) And we experience the thrill of gradually discovering more and more in this piece. It yields up its secrets to us little by tantalizing little, motivating us to keep going, to dig deeper, to keep developing all of our technical & musical abilities. We maximize our potential as pianists and musicians, we grow, by challenging ourselves to do that which is currently beyond us.

How many sincere, devoted players have floundered on the rocks of only playing things that are hard? And how many have stagnated in the pools of staying only where everything is easy and safe? So: when we are choosing what to play, let’s try choosing pieces that meet both of these kinds of needs and give us the balance we need! Let’s work on pieces that we can play as beautifully as they can be played, and also on pieces that take us beyond where we’ve been before. It works, as long as we know what to do with this: that is, we hold different expectations for different kinds of pieces. With our mastery pieces & our stretching pieces, we know which is which. We don’t beat ourselves up for the shortcomings of our current rendition of the Hammerklavier, though we derive a unique satisfaction from working on it—but we do intend to play the pieces that are easy for us as beautifully as they can be played. (The piece may be easy, but that intention always, always calls us farther….)

What to play? Here’s another answer, though it’s along the same lines:

In addition to working on pieces at different levels of difficulty, there is also tremendous benefit in dividing our practice time among pieces that are at different stages in our learning. We all know that when we’re learning something new, it’s exciting, but it can also be a slog. We face a seemingly endless array of details to master. We need to force ourselves to go very slowly, a bit at a time. There may be an element of tediousness (practice mirrors all of life), and we may feel cautious, unsure of our abilities, dissatisfied. If this piece is the only thing we work on in our practice session, we’ll get up from the piano feeling cautious, unsure of our abilities, dissatisfied. That’s no fun.

So let’s ALSO include, regularly, reviewing old pieces in our repertoire! My own adult students are about to hold a recital featuring only old pieces. The way we experience not only the music, but OURSELVES as pianists and musicians, is completely, utterly different when it’s a work we’ve known for a long time! Cautiousness around the new piece is replaced by confidence; dissatisfaction is replaced by the delight of returning our hands, minds, ears & hearts to this piece that has become an old friend. We can be free & spontaneous, we can take risks (with old friends, we can talk about anything!). The result is different. Our experience is different. Our experience of both the pieces and of ourselves is different!

NB, just as with pieces of varying levels: we need both, of course. If we only play old pieces, never learning anything new, it’s possible our playing may stagnate, suffering from an undercurrent of fear, doubt or self-judgment. On the other hand if we only play new pieces, and say “I’m finished with this one!” as soon as the recital is over (that recital for which we got the piece up to tempo just the week before), then we will never discover the richness that lies below the surface of this music. That can only come from deepening our experience over time. Ripening. And in this ripening is also where we find the increasing richness (in the form of new understanding, confidence, sensitivity, freedom…) of our own playing. It will grow for every one of us if we just give it the chance.

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What to play: many different kinds of answers coming in future posts! But for now: with what you’re working on (or thinking of working on), ask yourself where it belongs in terms of these categories. Is it more of a mastery piece or a stretching piece? Old piece or new? Are your expectations with this piece in alignment with which category it fits into for you? Also: over time, do most of the pieces you play fall into certain of these categories? Why is that? How might a different balance feel?

And let’s end where we began: don’t forget about answer no. 1! If you’re enjoying it, it’s good! ENJOY your practice! On our deathbeds, will it matter more what we played, or that we played, and that we brought the best of ourselves to it? You want to know what to play? Play anything that brings you joy, and let that be enough. You can figure out what to play tomorrow… tomorrow.

And if you’re enjoying Pride & Practicing, please share it with your friends!