Music Video Lesson: How to Practice Reading Pieces

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. Robert Estrin here with a very important subject. I know with over 1,500 videos, it's amazing when I think of a topic that I've never covered before that's so fundamental. Today I'm going to talk about how to practice reading pieces. Now, first of all, let me explain what I'm talking about.

I have obviously described the process of practicing pieces to memorize.

The painstaking process of taking one hand at a time, very small phrases, mastering all elements of the score, the notes, rhythm, fingering, phrasing, and expression of each hand separately, memorizing them, and then putting them together one phrase at a time and then connecting them.

But, you know, sometimes there are pieces that are not solo pieces and it wouldn't make much sense to memorize. For example, let's say you're playing in a group. An orchestra has a piano part in it, or a band. You're not going to memorize such a score. Or if you're accompanying somebody, a singer says, oh, can you play this with me? Now, maybe it's in your reading level that you can just read through it. Great. But suppose it's harder than that and you want to play it with them, and once again, you're not going to memorize this piece. So how do you approach such a thing? Well, I'm going to tell you about that and then stay to the end because I'm going to tell you an additional benefit to this that's essential for your piano practice.

So, interestingly, I described that process of how to learn a piece of music that you're memorizing as opposed to just reading it through again and again until you kind of get it. And the danger with that type of practice is that unless you're playing it perfectly and if the piece is of sufficient difficulty for you, it's probably not something you can just read through perfectly. Otherwise, why study that? You could already play it. So usually you're taking a piece of music that has more challenges than something you can just read through perfectly. And if you read through something and you're missing again and again, you're going to reinforce those mistakes. Think about this.

A piece, each note has a rhythm, has a fingering, has a dynamic level, has other expression markings.

So if you count up the number of notes in a piece and multiply it by four or five with the elements that it has, you come up with thousands, maybe tenths of thousands of details. There's no way that you can just assimilate that kind of information without an organized approach.

So what do you do when you have a piece of music you're not memorizing, an accompaniment or something of that nature, we are playing in a group, interestingly, much the same type of practice method. Here's what you might do.

Read through the piece just to get acquainted. Now, if there are large sections you could already play just reading, good, you've got them. You no need to go and practice further. But any sections that you can't just read through adequately, you go ahead and you practice it the same way you'd practice memorizing.

However, because you're not memorizing, you could take a bigger chunk of music at a time. So if normally you'd be taking two measure phrases, hands separately, maybe you take four measure phrases or even eight measure phrases, getting one hand really fluent, studying the score carefully for all details.

Get the dynamics right from the get -go. Work out good fingering.

As a matter of fact, learn all the details of the score. If there's expression marks, retards, words that give you different indications of how it to be played, incorporate that right from the beginning.

Get the hand as fluent as possible. Do the same thing to the other hand, not memorizing, but just getting it so it's totally fluid. Then put the hands together, slow down so you can get it accurate the very first time. And then play it many times and speed that phrase up. Then go on to the next phrase connected with what you are already able to play earlier and work through the whole piece in this manner. Now you might not be able to get everything up to tempo right at the beginning, but get each section as fast as you can get it, knowing that you're going to revisit it tomorrow and get all the sections again a little bit faster and more fluid connections between sections. Working always to the point of diminishing returns on all sections.

And then you'll know which sections need work because those are the sections you can't play adequately up to tempo yet.

Now I told you there's an additional benefit to this type of practice and this is really essential, which is pieces you've already memorized you can revisit and solidify your work by reading them. And more than that, you can go through and any sections you can't read, you can practice in this manner. Because you know it's absolutely essential that you are able to read through the pieces you have memorized. Otherwise over time they will degrade. You won't possibly be able to keep all the integrity of your memory over a long period of time by sheer repetition of playing without reinforcing the score. You must go back and reinforce the memory by reading through with the score. So this is a great way to develop your reading abilities and pieces that you want to be able to play that are not to be memorized, as well as reinforcing the memory of pieces you've already learned.

I hope this is helpful for you again. I'm Robert Estrin, LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks so much for joining me.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/how-to-practice-reading-pieces/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---