RECORDINGS
Using existing performances
to supercharge your preparation
Ben
has been struggling with learning his new piece – he’s making slow progress, and can’t see how the
notes he’s muddling through are ever
going to turn into something that
people would want to listen to.
His
teacher is telling him to have faith – that
the finished version will be worth it.
If
only there was some way of him being able to taste what that finished
version could be like…
~o~ ~o~ ~o~
Ninety
years ago, if a student wanted to hear how
their piece was supposed to sound, there was only one way to find out:
They had to ask someone – usually their
teacher – to play it for them.
Picture their amazement if you told them that their grandchildren
would be able to listen to any piece, anytime,
anywhere. As many times as they liked. Right there in the same room that they practice in.
What
would amaze them even more though is that despite the fact such devices are
available, the majority of music students
don’t use them to help their practice. Like most of the technological
wonders we’re surrounded by – any of which would fill our ancestors with awe
and wonder – we quickly take them for
granted. Which means that often we end up ignoring them completely.
So
sure you could play recordings of
your pieces, any time you like, as much as you like.
But
do you?
Recordings as a practice tool
Recordings
are not just a way to preview new
pieces. They’re a powerful practice tool
in their own right.
Which
means that if you don’t use them when
you work, you’re making things much harder
for yourself – and paying for it by having to do additional practice.
So
how do recordings give you such a head start?
Let
me count the ways…
1. Aiding repertoire selection
Instead
of having to rely on your teacher to
choose pieces for you, recordings allow you to discover repertoire yourself.
If
you have a big listening library or pieces for your instrument, you’ll keep
getting great ideas for pieces you’d
like to work on.
2. Creating direction for the
future
Sometimes
you’ll discover a great piece, only
to have your teacher tell you “yes, but not yet.” When that happens (and at
some stage it will), your teacher can then tell you exactly what skills you need to be able to develop before that piece is an
option…
…which
is then a powerful incentive to make
those advances in your playing.
So
for example, a violin teacher might rule out a piece because it requires 3rd position, which hasn’t been
covered in lessons yet. Knowing that 3rd position is the obstacle,
if your teacher then gives you a book full of exercises that are all in 3rd
position, you’ll understand why, and won’t mind practicing them hard.
In
this way, recordings allow you to create
wishlists for the future – and shape today’s practice to help you work
towards those visions.
3. Scouting
Recordings
are one of your most important assets when you’re scouting a new piece. You’ll
be able to follow the score along
while you listen, and taking down notes, ensuring that by the time you actually start working on the piece, you
already know it thoroughly.
4. Background absorption
In
the first week with a new piece, one
of the best things you can do is to set the recording to loop, and listen to it everywhere.
In the car, while you do homework, as replacement background music for your
computer games, as the music that wakes you up when your alarm goes off…
wherever.
The
key word is “immersion,” and it’s a type of practice you can actually do while you’re busy with other tasks.
Unlike
scouting, it’s not active listening –
you won’t have the score, or be taking notes. But that’s fine… your subconscious
will be taking notes of its own.
5. Self-correction
Because
the recordings will mean that you know exactly what the piece is supposed to sound like, you’ll always know
straight away if you’ve played something that’s wrong.
So
your teacher won’t have to point out wrong notes – you’ll be able to hear them
for yourself.
This
sort of early detection will then also save you from accidentally cementing
wrong notes, so that they’re a permanent wart on your piece.
6. Rhythm mentoring
Sometimes
the easiest way to master a difficult rhythm is to be able to hear it and copy it, rather than
slogging your way through counting or te-te’s. Your recording is obviously a
great “here’s how it’s supposed to go” resource, and can help you with even the
most complex rhythm problems.
You
still need to be able to read rhythms – apart from anything else, a recording won’t
always be available – but if being able to listen
to the rhythm means you work it out faster, then you’re simply wasting time by not using the help.
7. Assembling the ultimate
version
If
you’re lucky enough to have multiple recordings
of the same work, then you can take big steps towards shaping your own interpretation by comparing the different ideas in each
of those recordings.
In
each recording, you’ll hear ideas you want to adopt, and others you’ll want to avoid – but in the process, you’ll learn plenty about your own
vision for the Ultimate Version of this piece.
You’ll
also often end up with a favorite recording,
in which case you can reverse-engineer it
to figure out what exactly it is about that recording that you like so much. You
can then apply those values to your own playing.
Multiple
versions are not always easy to find,
but this technique is definitely worth considering if you’re ever learning a well-known (and usually therefore, much
recorded) work.
8. Karaoke practice
Once
you know your piece well enough, you can use the recording to play along with –
not so that you’ll end up cloning that
performance, but simply to give you the added
pressure of being able to keep up.
It’s
also a great way to rehearse cues for
concertos and pieces with accompaniments. Just listen to the recording and come
in each time when you’re supposed to.
9. Defining the gap
When
you listen to a recording made by a concert artist, you’ll quickly realize that
you don’t sound like that… yet.
Instead
of despairing at the gap between what you’re
producing and what you hear in the model
version, spend some time defining exactly what the difference is.
That
way you can go and work on bridging that gap.
For
example, if you notice that the recording manages to maintain a ruthlessly controlled tempo, whereas
yours tends to fluctuate randomly, then
as soon as you’ve realized that, you can do something about changing it.
In
that way, the recording acts as a constant
reminder of what’s possible, and an incentive
to polish your own efforts.
10. Keeping the prize in view
When
you’re in the early stages of
practicing a new piece, it will sound nothing
like the version you’ll end up performing. You’ll be playing things at half
speed, in small segments, and there will be plenty of wrong notes and dodgy
rhythms.
When
your piece is sounding rough like that, it can be hard to remember just why it was that you fell in love with this piece in the first place.
That’s
where the recording can come to the
rescue. If your practice now is the “before” shot, the recording is a mock-up
of what the “after” shot promises.
A
recording is your instant reminder of “why am I doing all this?,” while also
reminding you that the ugly-duckling stage
of your piece won’t last forever.
11. The time factor
Even
if all the other practice applications for using recordings leave you cold,
there’s one that no student can ignore.
When you use recordings, you’ll
learn your pieces faster
In
other words, you get a big fat discount
on the amount of practice required to be ready for each lesson – and for your
concert/exam – if you’re immersing yourself in recordings of your piece.
So
unless you’re one of these rare students
who just has loads of 'don’t-know-what-to-do-with-it' spare time every week, you’d
be crazy not to make use of anything that can help you get everything done
sooner. If somebody could prove to me that wearing a peg on my nose would help me learn pieces faster, then I’d do it.
Fortunately,
recordings are not nearly as painful. J
Playing back demonstrations
Another
use for all this is to have your teacher’s
demonstrations at hand. If your teacher has their own recording facilities, they can quickly record the passage segment
as they want it, together with any explanation they want to make.
Broadening your musical
intelligence
Your
listening shouldn't just be limited to
your pieces and your instrument. If you’re trying to make sense of a late
Beethoven Piano Sonata, then you should also be listening to his other late works.
Similarly,
if you’re about to play some Bartok for the first time, then immersing yourself
in Bartok recordings is a great way to give yourself a head start for some of
the stylistic and interpretation decisions that you’ll have to make later.
Listening guilt-free
Students
are sometimes told that they should avoid
recordings, because it cripples their reading, and has them producing
carbon copy performances of the original.
Neither
of those things is true.
Listening
while you follow scores can actually enhance your reading – helping you relate what you hear to what you see.
And
if carbon copies were possible that easily, then the fact that I listened to so
much Horowitz as a student should mean that I sound like him by now. I don’t. But
those recordings gave me plenty of great
ideas, and inspired me to
practice harder.
Like
every other practice technique, using recordings is not designed to be the only
way you work. It’s part of a much larger team – it just happens to be one
of your best players.
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