How to Prepare for a Solo Recital-without Practicing 8 Hours a Day!

[@mikebel74]

I think your advice about being mindful during practice is spot on. I can get more out of an hour of focused practicing than 8 hours thinking about everything else going on while mindlessly playing through pieces. Besides, going beyond just hitting the right notes requires an intense presence of mind and emotion. Thank you for this channel. It’s helped me a lot, and your playing is superb!

[@grahamtwist]

Thanks for sharing such good advice, Cole - really useful insights into the serious craft of recital preparation (and I'm so glad not to have to work that incredibly hard . . . not that I ever needed to at the level you can aspire to reach - the very top!). The exemplar pieces you demonstrated require such technical and emotional mastery for performance - as well as self-discipline . . . and you clearly have such qualities by the bucket-load: just awesome! And the reward? Well, hopefully you are 'satisfied' with what you can achieve; your audience, of course, can experience much more: pure ecstasy!

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you Graham!

[@leob9675]

I hear a lot of talk about mental practice too - do you find this useful? Some people swear by it. Knowing the piece note by note (within your mind's eye) away from the piano is another layer that allows for deeper encoding and a more reliable memory when performing. Loving these videos, thanks!

[@jamespeterson101]

When you run through the passages of your recital pieces, do you just play through them until they feel comfortable? Or do you drill on dynamics and technique in places that need it? Also, you said that this form of practice is great for memory. Do you memorize you music while you're learning the pieces, or after you've learned it all? Great video by the way. I love how this channel talks about things that are difficult to find anywhere else on youtube.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Hi James, thanks for the interesting questions. I didn't go into great deal on many points so these are helpful for clarifying. I vary the way I approach each passage depending on what I feel I need. So sometimes I might play slower, sometimes at tempo (or even faster than tempo), sometimes I might experiment with different dynamics, articulations etc. Some times I switch rapidly from passage to passage to maximize my ability to adapt, and sometimes I dwell on a passage, particularly if I feel there is much room for improvement. I don't force memory when I first learn a piece unless I am in a hurry, but generally once I am able to smoothly play a piece through I usually have it memorized. There are exceptions of course, and I never like to put my memory to the test too soon. That leads to mischief in the long run. I like to bring things back a few times before playing a piece for people.

[@jamespeterson101]

@@TheIndependentPianist Awesome thank you. I've been trying to find new and better ways to practice recently, so hearing some of the the ways others practice helps me a lot.

[@franciscafarfallina]

I love the language learning comparison. being a language enthusiast, I find sooo many similar approaches, like the learning processes and even musicality between music and languages. On another note, how did Schubert compose (rhetorical question) such a finger-breaking piece, although it sounds so beautiful? Love your channel also because of your deeply poetical way of playing. ThanksCole

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thank you! I'm glad someone found resonance with the language approach. Schubert wrote many things which have a very unique sound, even though they are also very awkward. It was his unique approach to the keyboard... I wouldn't change it for anything!

[@feinberg4625]

Do you have any thoughts on the value of performing versus recording? For a long time I've been firmly on Gould's side of the matter since there seems to be a cruelty involved in making the performer undergo so much stress only to produce a performance that's likely vastly inferior to a recording where there's less impetus to sacrifice artistry for safety, far less harmful interference of anxiety and adrenaline and better sound quality aside from just the ability to have multiple takes and create something permanent that can be enjoyed in a more solitary and intimate setting which seems conducive to deeper absorption. However I'm not sure if I'm eschewing performing predominantly out of my introverted and shy nature and if the arguments I mentioned above are just rationalizations. Great video btw :)

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Thanks! This is a great comment and a very interesting issue. Although I totally understand Gould's viewpoint (after all, just look at this channel!), at the same time, I do think that there is a certain experience that we can have with music, both as a performer and as a listener, that concerts offer and recordings do not. In my own experience, being in the concert hall induces a kind of focused attention that is difficult to find in everyday life. This is particularly the case nowadays, with all of the digital distractions that we constantly find ourselves bombarded with. Just being there, in the darkened hall, and hearing the music is a very meditative experience for me, that I would never want to eschew completely. For the performer, there is the joy of constantly renewing their connection with the music. For the most sensitive artists, every day is an adventure, and a new experience with a piece of music, and you don't get that flexibility with recordings. Indeed, the first generation of recording artists (think Busoni and people like that), often times expressed themselves paralyzed by the permanent nature of recording. It didn't allow them to have this kind of ephemeral, constantly evolving relationship with the music. This, of course, is the opposite feeling from Gould's! Then also, I think there might be some who would assert that the adrenaline and anxiety of a live performance is part of what can imbue these performances with a special kind of frisson and magic. I spoken before about how, for certain performers, it seems as though live performance brings out their best. Someone like Leif Ove Andsnes comes to mind. I have found his recordings to be stiff and literal compared to hearing him in live performance. Others, on the other hand can be just as awe-inspiring in recording as in live concert (Moravec, Horowitz, and Gould all come to mind). But even Gould sometimes struck me as being more interesting in many of his live or "near-live" performances. At the very least, we see a very different side of him in live recordings, a side of his musicality that he rarely allowed to appear in later years. I would never go as far as to say that one way is better than the other, but I do think they are different and worthwhile of exploration. I love doing this channel, because I find myself exploring so much repertoire that I would never get to know if I had to be playing concerts with the frequency of top-tier performing artists. They often times must restrict their repertoire severely to maintain their standard. On the other hand, I love the feeling of continual communion with works that I already know when I prepare for concerts-the way in which they seem to get deeper and deeper into my soul as I play them for audiences. I also love the feeling of the "event" that I get with a concert. And that little bit of the unknown, and danger-maybe it's just me, and I need to have a little bit of risk and adventure in an otherwise retiring lifestyle!

[@zfierstadt]

Thank you for the wonderful advice. So 1.5 hours a day is enough to maintain your entire rep - like - entire? I just wrapped D571 - it’s hilarious, I get some memory slips from time to time in that same passage despite it taking the least amount of time to get into my fingers. Maybe that’s why…

[@i34p]

Hi Cole Anderson, Do you have any practical exercises that might be useful for tackling the Ravel Toccatta? it has been a beastly piece because even though i use a lot of wrist relaxing exercises, i can't get through to the third page at crotchet = 100 without a cramp. Is it a wrist or finger problem?

[@phingzhersoe1436]

What’s the intro music?

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Earl Wild’s Etude no. 1 after Gershwin’s “Liza”

[@almosdrozdik6738]

I am sorry but I just can't get over the fact that the thumbnail looks like the outline of some sort of wading bird flapping its wings.

[@TheIndependentPianist]

Hahahaha, well pianists and herons... we aren't that different!