Building and Keeping a Repertoire Options

[VH2]

The answer to the original question is very simple. Set aside some of your practice time to play through and study your repertoire.

Depending on the size of your performance repertoire you may be able to get through it all every day, or you may have to play some each day for a week or two. My properly memorised repertoire is only about 6 hours worth of music, and I can get through it all in less than 2 weeks at 30 minutes per day. Professionals with large repertoires have a bigger problem. Some have over 100 hours of music memorized!

When you find something that has deteriorated, or into which errors have crept,or there are memory slips, then you have to put it aside, and schedule a remedial session. If you don't do this it will deteriorate further until re-learning is the only option.

Reading through the scores away from the piano is also beneficial. In some ways it is more effective than actually playing them, as you are studying intellectually and not relying on kinaesthetic memory. Also useful is a mental play-through (with or without the score) although you cannot dispense entirely with playing the pieces, as that is the definitive test of whether you know them..

[agricola]

My method is to start every day's practice with the thing I like least, in my case playing old repertoire from memory. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ill.gif) And I always try to do it in the 30 minutes before lunch to give me an incentive to get on with it. I know that things I like doing -- exploring new pieces or playing studies -- will happen anyway. When I had pupils doing jazz I did the same thing with improvising (not something that I naturally enjoy) -- always did it first. The interesting thing is that if I stick religiously to this plan, I start to look forward to those "compulsory" sessions because I can hear my own progress and get drawn in to try to improve further.

[JamesK]

I eventually get bored of playing the piano after about 4 hours straight, which is also about time that no more amount of playing will help. Then, I trawl through my box of pieces and play through the ones that are fun.

[PianoNotes]

There is an article in this month's Pianist magazine on this very subject, but I haven't read it yet and so cannot help you any more.

[sunil]

this is my daughter's case with limited repertoire

a. Teacher will listen to all the pieces once in a month (gives tips if need extra practice or attention)
b. If teacher advises, I'll go through the music and cross verify for any memory slips etc (via MIDI to Logic Pro)
c. Play through the pieces twice or thrice per week.

PS. she only has 6 main pieces in her repertoire which is more than 4 minutes that matches with her current ability.

[Pixie*Porsche]

I have started adding in time to play old pieces and go over any issues (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I'm happy to say I have officially added one lovely piece to my repertoire (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)