Thanks for this.I am a 76 year old pianist who lives for music and performing.However I an not the worlds greatest but appreciate these videos. If only Dr. You were around when I was 10!!❤
I'm a freshman and it's my first time preparing and memorizing 4 pieces and 2 technical exercises for my college finals. It's in 2 months and I have a long way to go. I really hope I can prepare myself well.😭Thanks for the amazing tips Josh!
It's brilliant advice, after all when we teach techniques to students we often show them how NOT to do something..but yeah I as well never really thought about making an error on purpose, except for where I want the real thing to feel easy so, I'll play the same passage in a really awkward key, or switch it to minor (if it's major, or vice versa) I'll have to try the "make a mistake on purpose" trick.
josh, you're pretty amazing, and really really cute and I'm a hetero male. A whole lot of very reliable and practical information and with a very natural, slightly humorous, and warm friendly delivery. After decades of lonely agonizing piano work people like you finally appear on the web with all the best answers to all the best questions...THANK YOU so so much for sharing what you've learned...you're also delightfully modest, hogs and smiles
Excellent advice, Dr. Wright. When I saw the title though, I was hoping for some advice for maintaining one's entire repertoire. For instance, how do you keep all your Chopin, Rach, Tchaikovsky, etc. etc. fairly fresh and ready for performances that may come up?
Splendid video, Josh. Exactly the problem for which I needed solutions. Could you please also make a video about Mental Practice as detailed as in this one? I think it would be in the interest of some people. Thank you very much!
I agree completely with your advice regarding listening to recordings and imitating others Josh! I advise my pupils to listen to at least 3 different recordings of the same piece, and then cherry-pick the ideas they like from each one. As you rightly say, when you have worked on a piece long enough, the recordings tend to merge with your own ideas to form a hybrid without you even knowing it. Some teachers disagree with this advice, but I'd put it like this: If you wanted to become a writer, how could you do this well if you didn't read and analyse the style of other writers? We are all influenced by everything we are exposed to (including advice from our teachers), so why is musical performance any different where listening to recordings is concerned? Good luck with your Rach 3 by the way! Darren
Thank you so much for this amazing video Josh! It's my third time watching it and I learnt so much. I super appreciate you sharing these invaluable tips earned from your professional experiences and years of practice. Your channel is such a gem on RUclips and hope more people will find it. 🙏❤️
Have you heard of tapering? It's a concept that comes from sports psychology and might matter more for challenges more physically intense (or maybe it works just as well for recharging the mind), but if I'm not mistaken psychology coaches for classical musicians have started recommending it.
I've been struggling with winterwind for a while, and then I decided to play the hardest sections/new sections in the beginning of my section, slowly to Also serve as warmup. Started making pretty good progress finally ^_^
The idea of intentional messing up is great! I would be interested in mental practicing and mental representation of sounds (especially how is this possible in high speed passages) and also how this ability can be developed.
Have you ever done a video discussing how to prepare a large amount of rep with very limited time (such as accompanying more recitals than you can handle at the end of the school year)? As much as I'd love to have these ready a month before, depending on when I actually receive the music, I may be learning notes the day before! I think "cram practicing" in this sense is a very different technique focusing solely on short-term memory, and I'd love to know your thoughts if you've ever been in that situation.
Great video as always! Thanks mr. Wright! Maybe you can do a video about first movement of Chopin's second sonata. The left hand part is weird to play.
Yikes! The thought of freezing my hands and then trying to play Ocean Etude! *shudder* It's still in the polishing stage, and I listened to every recording I could find and got some great ideas in addition to the impression I got from the first recording I ever heard.
Good tips.👍 It took me a while to understand that you were talking about Chopin national competition (I didn't even know it existed). I was like "He didn't pass preliminary round, what he's talking about?", but since it sounded impossibile that you were making up such a thing I did my research 🙄
I think it is very good advice to listen to and try play a piece played by some concert artist and then, afterwards, naturally allow the piece 'to become your own', so to speak. However, Horowitz was of such a high caliber that he said the following (I paraphrase): "When I am learning a new piece, I do not listen to recordings of others playing that work. It is better to make your own mistakes than to repeat someone else's." Well, that was Horowitz.
Playing with your eyes closed is a must. When you open them it feels much easier. Or playing much faster a tempo than you intend to perform a piece at.
The second rule would be to get more familiar with your recital song, by searching for that songs composer and copy how they performed your recital song originally. After you do this then you can personalize the song for the recital.
Hey Josh I love you channel and your videos and your work and your approach to teaching which seems to me somehow both revolutionary and attune to an attentive to tradition and that's cool I really loved the moment in this video where you were saying that it's silly that people would disagree with this point about the the sort of like importance of like mimesis or like memetic like copying of of like our heroes of the Masters of like people who have came before us I think that you know I think that that's great advice and it holds true across media and yeah I think it just it's like in any art form the whole like journey not I really don't like that metaphor but like the process or cyclical progression of it of any artistic practice is like a deepening of ones like awareness of others you know because it's like we it's we don't get any better when we're sort of just in a sort of like monologic mode you know it's like it's the dialogue is like where it's at anyway I love yeah like I said it's I pretty much would I would yeah I'm planning on supporting your channel like a little bit more directly I'm hoping to like look at your pro piano resources soon anyway thank you
Can you make a video, or do you already have a video ( also any pointers would help too ) that goes more in depth to keeping a whole LIST of pieces memorized and performance ready, over a long period of time. So for instance I would like to have about 30 songs performance ready to whip out at any time. But sometimes I find that when I start learning NEW stuff, the old stuff can sometimes get muddled, and it takes alot of practice just to keep up the pieces and get to all of them. I find a helpful thing is to practice the performance ready pieces from memory alot but it still takes alot of time to get to them all. Any pointers? :)
i really find your channel so obviou and genial: obvious it should be that teachers were more articulated to touch the heart of the matter without too much disguise. They dont talk about themselves. I never knew if some teachers of mine Claudius Tanski inclusive coul really do what they ask for and how they ask. The fact that you consider (principally try to) yourself and the students and the tradition always together gives the meaning and efficiency of your advice. In this sense even some bad players can give good advice, if they are more healthy and confident about teacher/student roles and labels. Some people think we will stop to admire them if they open up how is ACTUALLY the concrete piano life. Anyway, of course i still believe that a master playing im front of you is a lesson in itself, even if he is didactically to close and antipathetic. But you may handle just 5 lesson and then die, if you are not of stone...
Uno i realised that after you have the piece memorised and u can play all of it kinda how u want it, u hear the little imperfections and that theres no emotion in lets sat bar 50, after practicing the piece relentlessly u start to hear this which i think is so cool and thats why i keep practicing 😂 lmao might help u maybe anyone else noticed it?
- Piano Practice In his preface of his piano treatise, Johan Nepomuk Hummel (1778- 1837) wrote: Many pianists, already advanced, believe that it is necessary to play at least six to seven hours a day in order to achieve their goal; they are in error: I am able to assure them that a regular, daily, attentive study of at most three hours, is sufficient for this purpose; any practice beyond this, damps the spirits, produces a mechanical, rather than an expressive and impassioned style of playing, and is generally disadvantageous to the performer, inasmuch as when compelled to play aside this incessant exercise, if called upon to play any piece on a sudden, he cannot regain his usual powers of execution without having some days previous practice.31 According to one of Chopin’s student Madame Dubois, it seems that Chopin agreed with Hummel. For Delfina, another of his students, Chopin wrote: “Once again I repeat - don’t play more than two hours a day; that is quite enough during the summer.”32 For von Timm Chopin recommended “not practicing too long, but to reading, looking at beautiful art works, or taking walks as periods of rest from practice.”33 Chopin did not believe that six or eight hour practice periods “signified diligence. He considered it mechanical, unintelligent and useless labor. He insisted upon complete concentration, alertness, and attentiveness as the utmost requirements for good practicing.”34 www.forte-piano-pianissimo.com/Chopin-the-Teacher.html
@JAMES KRAMER Die Klavierschule von Hummel kannst du dir bei IMSLP herunterladen."Versuch einer theoretischen und praktischen Anleitung im Pianofortespiel".Oder so ähnlich.
Let's not forget the context of these pieces of advice. They didn't have the later Liszt or Rachmaninoff, to cite just two composers of many who've stretched the technical limits of music well beyond even the most difficult Beethoven and Chopin. But besides this, we don't necessarily know what the advice refers to when mentioning practice. Josh Wright makes the difference between practice and playing through crystal clear. Maybe his starting with the tough bits is the equivalent to what Hummel and Chopin meant by practice. I can't see them limiting their piano playing to two hours a day! Why would anyone if that's what they love doing most?
My opinion, practice for as long as you want to! If you are truly passionate about it, you won't even think about the hours you're spending on practicing! This shouldn't be a big deal for you if you are truly serious about playing the piano professionally!
I have a competition coming up, the Steinway competition, and I’m playing chopin’s nocturne op 48 no 1 and I started learning it a week or two ago. The competition is on April 18 (I think) and I’m a page and a half in. I’m worried I won’t be able to learn it in time as I’m also working on a Bach prelude too. I do have a backup, chopin’s waltz in C sharp minor, prepared that (if I need to use it instead) I just need to memorize but do you have any tips? Should I start practicing A LOT more I do a day? Because currently I practice maybe a couple hours a day off and on. I don’t know. I just thought I’d ask 😅
I do this way:i put an technical piece(op.25 no.6) as the second piority piece and in the first i put something like liszt consolation no.3. The key is to dont try to learn 2 technicall pieces at the same time.
i learned chopin op.10 no.1 this way,but sometimes u need to put this on the priority piece.Now im working on all pieces i know everu day,trying to make its beatiful as posible
I just need to see the sheet music and then my muscle memory just kicks in. So I maintain a collection of books with piano music. It would be nice if they made them more durable tho
Download an app for random sounds. Then set it and Everytime you hear the sound, pretend you have made a mistake. Recover. If you use EE (emergency entrance) numbers, learn how to jump to the next number with above. Take two dice in a clear small box. Shake them. Play the EE numbers THAT COME UP. When you can play the EEs and keep track of what number you are on. Fool proof.
I try to maintain a 7 hour repertoire of memorized music, as well as putting time into learning more and reading through familiars. Perhaps way too much overextended!
I try to maintain about a dozen songs and I can do the easy ones but I’m starting to lose the harder ones . If you don’t mind me asking, how are you maintaining your music? How often do you have to go to back and tighten them up again.?
@@eliascastillo1641 Big challenge to maintain a large repertoire! I do try a straight through on everything once a week and then put time into those that seem to be slipping away- which are typically some of the harder ones. Practicing with my eyes closed and at different tempos also seems to help.
Mostly great advice. However, "running your hands under ice cold water and then playing"... You're asking for a first class ticket to an injury, are you not???
Thanks for this.I am a 76 year old pianist who lives for music and performing.However I an not the worlds greatest but appreciate these videos. If only Dr. You were around when I was 10!!❤
I'm a freshman and it's my first time preparing and memorizing 4 pieces and 2 technical exercises for my college finals. It's in 2 months and I have a long way to go. I really hope I can prepare myself well.😭Thanks for the amazing tips Josh!
Wow I have never thought about messing up on purpose that might be the best piece of advice I have heard in months, great video Josh
It's brilliant advice, after all when we teach techniques to students we often show them how NOT to do something..but yeah I as well never really thought about making an error on purpose, except for where I want the real thing to feel easy so, I'll play the same passage in a really awkward key, or switch it to minor (if it's major, or vice versa)
I'll have to try the "make a mistake on purpose" trick.
It is 2024 and I just found your channel. This is advice is still quite relevant. Thank you.
Hands down, Josh is the best teacher I ever had, and I've had many. Great advice here (and in all his videos).
Great! I love the longer more detailed videos! Is there any chance that you could make a video completely about mental practice. Thanks again.
josh, you're pretty amazing, and really really cute and I'm a hetero male. A whole lot of very reliable and practical information and with a very natural, slightly humorous, and warm friendly delivery. After decades of lonely agonizing piano work people like you finally appear on the web with all the best answers to all the best questions...THANK YOU so so much for sharing what you've learned...you're also delightfully modest, hogs and smiles
I will anwser as Josh, cuz the guy never answer. No problem, thanks for your support
Excellent advice, Dr. Wright. When I saw the title though, I was hoping for some advice for maintaining one's entire repertoire. For instance, how do you keep all your Chopin, Rach, Tchaikovsky, etc. etc. fairly fresh and ready for performances that may come up?
Splendid video, Josh. Exactly the problem for which I needed solutions.
Could you please also make a video about Mental Practice as detailed as in this one? I think it would be in the interest of some people.
Thank you very much!
I agree completely with your advice regarding listening to recordings and imitating others Josh!
I advise my pupils to listen to at least 3 different recordings of the same piece, and then cherry-pick the ideas they like from each one. As you rightly say, when you have worked on a piece long enough, the recordings tend to merge with your own ideas to form a hybrid without you even knowing it.
Some teachers disagree with this advice, but I'd put it like this:
If you wanted to become a writer, how could you do this well if you didn't read and analyse the style of other writers? We are all influenced by everything we are exposed to (including advice from our teachers), so why is musical performance any different where listening to recordings is concerned?
Good luck with your Rach 3 by the way!
Darren
Thank you so much for this amazing video Josh! It's my third time watching it and I learnt so much. I super appreciate you sharing these invaluable tips earned from your professional experiences and years of practice. Your channel is such a gem on RUclips and hope more people will find it. 🙏❤️
Have you heard of tapering? It's a concept that comes from sports psychology and might matter more for challenges more physically intense (or maybe it works just as well for recharging the mind), but if I'm not mistaken psychology coaches for classical musicians have started recommending it.
I've been struggling with winterwind for a while, and then I decided to play the hardest sections/new sections in the beginning of my section, slowly to Also serve as warmup. Started making pretty good progress finally ^_^
Heh, that's what I need to try with Rach Moment Musical 16 4, second half.
Now there’s some of the MOST practical advice you can get!
Brilliant ✨Thank you so much for your work and inspiration 🙏🏻🫶🏻
The idea of intentional messing up is great! I would be interested in mental practicing and mental representation of sounds (especially how is this possible in high speed passages) and also how this ability can be developed.
Have you ever done a video discussing how to prepare a large amount of rep with very limited time (such as accompanying more recitals than you can handle at the end of the school year)? As much as I'd love to have these ready a month before, depending on when I actually receive the music, I may be learning notes the day before! I think "cram practicing" in this sense is a very different technique focusing solely on short-term memory, and I'd love to know your thoughts if you've ever been in that situation.
What an awesome video! I loved that metaphor with the glass and “clarity”, totally relatable! It is so true! Thanks for the pearls of wisdom.
Thanks for the advice mr. Wright!
i'm preparing for my Graduation Exam (20 minutes of pieces) and that was really helpful.
Very valuable advice from a professional. They will definitely help my daily practice and recital preparation. Thank you so much.
Great video as always! Thanks mr. Wright! Maybe you can do a video about first movement of Chopin's second sonata. The left hand part is weird to play.
Yikes! The thought of freezing my hands and then trying to play Ocean Etude! *shudder* It's still in the polishing stage, and I listened to every recording I could find and got some great ideas in addition to the impression I got from the first recording I ever heard.
The video that I really needed, thank you!
Good tips.👍
It took me a while to understand that you were talking about Chopin national competition (I didn't even know it existed). I was like "He didn't pass preliminary round, what he's talking about?", but since it sounded impossibile that you were making up such a thing I did my research 🙄
I think it is very good advice to listen to and try play a piece played by some concert artist and then, afterwards, naturally allow the piece 'to become your own', so to speak. However, Horowitz was of such a high caliber that he said the following (I paraphrase): "When I am learning a new piece, I do not listen to recordings of others playing that work. It is better to make your own mistakes than to repeat someone else's." Well, that was Horowitz.
Your rendition of Rach 2 is on par with van Cliburn's 💞
Could you do a video on analysis? Maybe show how you'd analyse a few pieces
Thank you for this video! It helps not only with piano skills, also my English is getting better :)
You gotta practice 40 hours a day
Alexander Mikhniouk AH. Twoset reference :D
PRACTICE!
I'm not ling ling though
Hahaha
I'm a violinist who watches Josh Wright vids too. They are invaluable to serious musicians:)
Very well thought set of advice. Thank you.
Fantastic, thank you for your advices.
Playing with your eyes closed is a must. When you open them it feels much easier. Or playing much faster a tempo than you intend to perform a piece at.
The final r in repertoire is not silent in French. :-)
Such good advice! I do the cold water shock sometimes:)
When do you mention the book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less"?
Awseome video, really great tips! Hope to see you in Sweden at some point
This video is gold
The second rule would be to get more familiar with your recital song, by searching for that songs composer and copy how they performed your recital song originally. After you do this then you can personalize the song for the recital.
Hey Josh I love you channel and your videos and your work and your approach to teaching which seems to me somehow both revolutionary and attune to an attentive to tradition and that's cool I really loved the moment in this video where you were saying that it's silly that people would disagree with this point about the the sort of like importance of like mimesis or like memetic like copying of of like our heroes of the Masters of like people who have came before us I think that you know I think that that's great advice and it holds true across media and yeah I think it just it's like in any art form the whole like journey not I really don't like that metaphor but like the process or cyclical progression of it of any artistic practice is like a deepening of ones like awareness of others you know because it's like we it's we don't get any better when we're sort of just in a sort of like monologic mode you know it's like it's the dialogue is like where it's at anyway I love yeah like I said it's I pretty much would I would yeah I'm planning on supporting your channel like a little bit more directly I'm hoping to like look at your pro piano resources soon anyway thank you
Recording is good, because you can listen to yourself more objectively.... from outside - like any listener.
Can you make a video, or do you already have a video ( also any pointers would help too ) that goes more in depth to keeping a whole LIST of pieces memorized and performance ready, over a long period of time. So for instance I would like to have about 30 songs performance ready to whip out at any time. But sometimes I find that when I start learning NEW stuff, the old stuff can sometimes get muddled, and it takes alot of practice just to keep up the pieces and get to all of them. I find a helpful thing is to practice the performance ready pieces from memory alot but it still takes alot of time to get to them all. Any pointers? :)
Thanks for this
Great tips!! Thank you for sharing 😊
The idea of practicing at the middle of the night really appeals to me and I have no idea why
i really find your channel so obviou and genial: obvious it should be that teachers were more articulated to touch the heart of the matter without too much disguise. They dont talk about themselves. I never knew if some teachers of mine Claudius Tanski inclusive coul really do what they ask for and how they ask. The fact that you consider (principally try to) yourself and the students and the tradition always together gives the meaning and efficiency of your advice. In this sense even some bad players can give good advice, if they are more healthy and confident about teacher/student roles and labels. Some people think we will stop to admire them if they open up how is ACTUALLY the concrete piano life. Anyway, of course i still believe that a master playing im front of you is a lesson in itself, even if he is didactically to close and antipathetic. But you may handle just 5 lesson and then die, if you are not of stone...
Love the in depth video!
Uno i realised that after you have the piece memorised and u can play all of it kinda how u want it, u hear the little imperfections and that theres no emotion in lets sat bar 50, after practicing the piece relentlessly u start to hear this which i think is so cool and thats why i keep practicing 😂 lmao might help u maybe anyone else noticed it?
- Piano Practice
In his preface of his piano treatise, Johan Nepomuk Hummel (1778- 1837) wrote:
Many pianists, already advanced, believe that it is necessary to play at least six to seven hours a day in order to achieve their goal; they are in error: I am able to assure them that a regular, daily, attentive study of at most three hours, is sufficient for this purpose; any practice beyond this, damps the spirits, produces a mechanical, rather than an expressive and impassioned style of playing, and is generally disadvantageous to the performer, inasmuch as when compelled to play aside this incessant exercise, if called upon to play any piece on a sudden, he cannot regain his usual powers of execution without having some days previous practice.31
According to one of Chopin’s student Madame Dubois, it seems that Chopin agreed with Hummel. For Delfina, another of his students, Chopin wrote: “Once again I repeat - don’t play more than two hours a day; that is quite enough during the summer.”32 For von Timm Chopin recommended “not practicing too long, but to reading, looking at beautiful art works, or taking walks as periods of rest from practice.”33 Chopin did not believe that six or eight hour practice periods “signified diligence. He considered it mechanical, unintelligent and useless labor. He insisted upon complete concentration, alertness, and attentiveness as the utmost requirements for good practicing.”34
www.forte-piano-pianissimo.com/Chopin-the-Teacher.html
@JAMES KRAMER Die Klavierschule von Hummel kannst du dir bei IMSLP
herunterladen."Versuch einer theoretischen und praktischen Anleitung im Pianofortespiel".Oder so ähnlich.
Let's not forget the context of these pieces of advice. They didn't have the later Liszt or Rachmaninoff, to cite just two composers of many who've stretched the technical limits of music well beyond even the most difficult Beethoven and Chopin. But besides this, we don't necessarily know what the advice refers to when mentioning practice. Josh Wright makes the difference between practice and playing through crystal clear. Maybe his starting with the tough bits is the equivalent to what Hummel and Chopin meant by practice. I can't see them limiting their piano playing to two hours a day! Why would anyone if that's what they love doing most?
where did you get the sleeves for the music stand and side boards? great video btw:)
Awesome as usual!
My opinion, practice for as long as you want to! If you are truly passionate about it, you won't even think about the hours you're spending on practicing! This shouldn't be a big deal for you if you are truly serious about playing the piano professionally!
You'll get hurt if you do that. First, learn to practice efficiently an hour a day, then, a few months later, go to 2 hours a day, etc.
Which Totentanz did you play? The piano and orchestra version or the solo piano version?
This great advice! Awesome video
A lot of wisdom
I have a competition coming up, the Steinway competition, and I’m playing chopin’s nocturne op 48 no 1 and I started learning it a week or two ago. The competition is on April 18 (I think) and I’m a page and a half in. I’m worried I won’t be able to learn it in time as I’m also working on a Bach prelude too. I do have a backup, chopin’s waltz in C sharp minor, prepared that (if I need to use it instead) I just need to memorize but do you have any tips? Should I start practicing A LOT more I do a day? Because currently I practice maybe a couple hours a day off and on. I don’t know. I just thought I’d ask 😅
I do this way:i put an technical piece(op.25 no.6) as the second piority piece and in the first i put something like liszt consolation no.3. The key is to dont try to learn 2 technicall pieces at the same time.
i learned chopin op.10 no.1 this way,but sometimes u need to put this on the priority piece.Now im working on all pieces i know everu day,trying to make its beatiful as posible
Inspiring sir
Great Josh!
I just need to see the sheet music and then my muscle memory just kicks in. So I maintain a collection of books with piano music. It would be nice if they made them more durable tho
Download an app for random sounds. Then set it and Everytime you hear the sound, pretend you have made a mistake. Recover. If you use EE (emergency entrance) numbers, learn how to jump to the next number with above. Take two dice in a clear small box. Shake them. Play the EE numbers THAT COME UP. When you can play the EEs and keep track of what number you are on. Fool proof.
What kind of mic is there standing on your piano?
It’s a Blue Yeti microphone
Prepare a whole hour of repertoire in 4 weeks? When he says that he means repertoire that is not from zero, right?
Wow nice hair
copy copy copy... If you sound "too much" like Horowitz because you copied him...well, that's a 'problem' I for one would love to have.
I try to maintain a 7 hour repertoire of memorized music, as well as putting time into learning more and reading through familiars. Perhaps way too much overextended!
I try to maintain about a dozen songs and I can do the easy ones but I’m starting to lose the harder ones . If you don’t mind me asking, how are you maintaining your music? How often do you have to go to back and tighten them up again.?
@@eliascastillo1641 Big challenge to maintain a large repertoire! I do try a straight through on everything once a week and then put time into those that seem to be slipping away- which are typically some of the harder ones. Practicing with my eyes closed and at different tempos also seems to help.
Mostly great advice. However, "running your hands under ice cold water and then playing"... You're asking for a first class ticket to an injury, are you not???
I like your hair better when the sides are short like this.