Tag Archives: repertoire

Dropping Pieces from your Repertoire

Here is a really good viewer question about when to drop a piece of music. If you think about it, you study piano for years and years and develop a sizable repertoire. You can’t possibly keep all those pieces current in your repertoire all the time since you would be spending countless hours each day just refreshing old pieces! So at a certain point you have to drop some pieces just so you have the time to work on new repertoire.

So how do you know when to drop a piece? There are a few indications that you should drop a piece. Number one is if you want to study a new piece of music and you just don’t have the time, you’re going to have to let some pieces go. What I suggest is to try to refresh your repertoire from time to time so that you never let things get too far gone where you have to completely relearn pieces since even playing them over occasionally with the score can keep it in your memory somewhat. You’re going to be able to bring pieces back to performance level more easily.

The other aspect of when to drop a piece is sometimes you hit a brick wall. You try to take a piece as far as you can and you can’t seem to make any progress with it. Sometimes letting off of it for a while and coming back to it with fresh insights, particularly if you’ve been studying other pieces, can make a world of difference. You may get revelations about how to approach the piece that you couldn’t go further with after you develop other techniques by studying other music. So those are two good reasons to drop pieces. Thanks for joining me, Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. info@livingpianos.com

How Do You Maintain a Musical Repertoire?

A musical repertoire is one of the most important things a musician has. A repertoire is a demonstration of your accomplishments and provides the foundation for you as a musician, so it’s important to have music that you can play at any time which defines you. It’s important that you select pieces to add to your permanent repertoire, think of it like a resume for a job.

You can study an instrument for many years and if you only work on the pieces you’re currently studying you will eventually forget your old pieces you have learned and have a limited amount of music you can play. Let’s be realistic though, if you tried to keep every piece you’ve ever played fresh in your mind it would be an insurmountable task – just imagine trying to practice every piece you’ve ever learned every day; it’s impossible!

So how do you build a good repertoire and maintain it over the course of your lifetime?

Practice the pieces you want to maintain in your repertoire. Play through these pieces on a periodic basis. (It doesn’t require practicing at every session.) Try to keep these pieces fresh in your mind and never too far away from performance level.

Refer back to the original score. This is something that many people might not consider but it’s essential. Over time, no matter how often you revisit your pieces, mistakes and inaccuracies will creep in. By going back and referring to the score you can ensure that you are playing the pieces correctly and as originally intended. You might be surprised when you go back and revisit the score and play slowly with the score that you will see things you never noticed before. This helps you not only to maintain your repertoire but to master it.

Re-study pieces you really enjoy. It’s always personally rewarding to go back over a piece you particularly love and re-learn it by studying the score carefully and getting everything you can out of it. The pieces you re-learn and study again and again will become a part of your permanent memory and form a very strong part of your repertoire.

Thanks so much for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions or comments about this subject or any other subject please contact us directly: (949) 244-3729 or email: Info@LivingPianos.com

How Many Musical Pieces Can you Practice at a Time?

This is a great question and it’s something people don’t often consider. Most of the time people are used to the lesson plan of learning a new piece during the week – if you’re just starting it will probably only take you a week to learn – and then starting another piece the next week. The question is, what should you do with those older pieces and when you advance further in your playing, is it possible to work on two pieces at the same time?

When it comes to learning new pieces, it’s always a good idea to continue to practice the pieces you’ve already learned. It’s not worth forgetting about them. If you’ve taken the time to learn them, you should continue to reinforce them and expand your repertoire as much as possible. It’s much better to have a few pieces of music in your repertoire that you can play extremely well and as you continue to practice your older pieces you will be able to play them easier and more effectively. As you continue to learn new music and continue to practice all of your pieces you, will expand your repertoire very quickly.

Once you get to a certain point you might have too much music, which means that you might have to start dropping older repertoire to have the time to learn new pieces. This is a good place to be. It’s always great to have a solid repertoire you can refer to and once you begin to learn and master new pieces you can simply replace older ones you no longer like as much or you don’t think showcase your talents as well. Later you may revisit these pieces.

Instead of playing exercises, try playing your older music It can be more beneficial than simply practicing just exercises and it will allow you to refine your playing even more. I highly recommend playing older music as warm up exercises. You will become intimately familiar and comfortable with the music.

Once you advance to a certain level of music, it’s going to take you a long time to learn and master a new piece. If you’re entering competitions or playing recitals you will have to learn a lot of music all at the same time. It’s beneficial to practice each of your pieces at least thirty minutes to an hour a day – and many times you will have to practice much more than that. Learning one piece at a time simply isn’t feasible for a schedule like this and you will have to learn more than one piece at a time in order to keep yourself current with your music and the goals you’ve set for yourself.

So the short answer is yes, you should always practice more than one piece at a time, especially your review pieces in your repertoire because it only expands your personal music library and enables you to have many pieces on a high level at the same time. I know some people who simply learn a new piece each week and drop the older ones they were learning – they never have a piece that is on a high level they can simply play at a moment’s notice. The bottom line is that if you are to perform concerts, you must have a substantial repertoire under your fingers even though you can’t keep everything you’ve learned on a high level all the time.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729

Picking the Right Musical Repertoire for Your Skill Level

This is a very important decision and it’s something you should take very seriously. Having a teacher help you pick your repertoire is a great option, but there are a few tips I’ll share to help you pick the right piece for your skill level.

Sometimes teachers will make the mistake of having their students learn pieces above their skill level. Having a student playing a complex piece of music can be very gratifying and offers bragging rights for a teacher, but sometimes it comes at the detriment to the student. Learning a piece of music above your skill level will take you much longer to learn and it will be an arduous process. It is incredibly gratifying studying a piece on your level which you can refine to a high level of performance in a reasonable amount of time.

When you are a beginning or even intermediate student, you shouldn’t be playing pieces that take months to learn. Instead, you should try to focus on learning many pieces gradually building up your skill level. You will achieve two things by doing this: adding more work to your repertoire right away and gradually increasing the difficulty of the pieces you learn. In the same amount of time you would spend learning a complex piece, you could have much more music learned and have progressed much further in your playing.

You should also try and learn pieces that you can master playing up to tempo. Learning something and barely being able to get through it will not help you progress as a musician. The piece will not only sound bad but you will probably end up feeling frustrated.

As you progress as a pianist, it’s a great idea to push yourself with each new piece of music you add to your repertoire. You should find enjoyment in a new challenge but always be assured that it’s something you can achieve and master within a reasonable amount of time. As you advance to very complex music you will mature to the point of spending months learning an extended work, but you must be sure you have the skills to handle it.

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729