Breaking down a wall Options

[Gertrude]

Hello!

I am wondering how people are dealing with bars in a piece that seem to be impossible no matter how much it is broken into pieces or how slowly it is taken even hands separate.

I keep working at some bars lately every day for an hour and still I can't play them any faster than a snail's speed with two hands. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) It feels like trying to take down a wall with a spoon.

For now I "gave up" the hard work and am learning the rest of the piece but will keep spending time on the problem bars hoping that they will finally make sense to my brain - but I would like to hear how other people fight this problem!

[anacrusis]

I'd go from the back end of the wall - so rather than starting at the beginning of the difficult bit, I'd start at its end. I'm not a particularly good pianist, but the options of hands separately can work for some problems, just not all of them - it depends what the nature of the hurdle is which you're facing.

So - find the tricky bit. Play the bit just after it, the point from which you're comfortable again. Then add a few notes to that, the last notes of the section in which you stumble habitually. Once that is flowing nicely, add a few more from the beginning. This way you build up confidence, practising in only the right notes, not mistakes, and also remove the mental block which says eek the hard bit is coming up. I'd also suggest getting each stage of that learning up to speed before going on to extend it, so that you don't end up fixing only one tempo into your fingers and head.

[lottie]

I'd go from the back end of the wall - so rather than starting at the beginning of the difficult bit, I'd start at its end. I'm not a particularly good pianist, but the options of hands separately can work for some problems, just not all of them - it depends what the nature of the hurdle is which you're facing.

So - find the tricky bit. Play the bit just after it, the point from which you're comfortable again. Then add a few notes to that, the last notes of the section in which you stumble habitually. Once that is flowing nicely, add a few more from the beginning. This way you build up confidence, practising in only the right notes, not mistakes, and also remove the mental block which says eek the hard bit is coming up. I'd also suggest getting each stage of that learning up to speed before going on to extend it, so that you don't end up fixing only one tempo into your fingers and head.

I tried this the other day! It had never occurred to me before and it was incredibly effective!