Learning a new piece, Different techniques and methods Options

[RoseRodent]

I'm interested to know how people generally go about the process of learning a new piece. In this context I mean a reasonably major new piece of significant material rather than a tune in the context of week by week progressive tunes and studies, a movement from a concerto, that kind of thing.

Being sans teacher at the moment I am having to go my own way and was interested to know how others break down and approach such a massive thing. I have sort of fallen into the habit of having a quick play-through then focussing in on the first short section, maybe about 32 bars, up to letter A, that kind of thing and practicing that for a week or so. In week 2 I work the second section and revise the first. Week (ish) 3 add in the next session, play through the opening sections on 2-3 days out of the week. At this point I probably do the whole of the first major section and spot practice for difficult moments. Then on to the second half in the same manner until the whole thing is technically "under the fingers" and ready to move on to being tweaked. Then it's back to spot working the hardest parts with occasional playthrough of the whole thing.

Once it's up to spec I make sure I play it every couple of weeks just so the technical is not lost while I learn the next piece. I'm not sure if that is similar or different from other people's techniques, whether perhaps I should start with its most challenging sections rather than starting at the start, so that the hardest bits get the longest attention. What do you do?

[Violin Hero]

I work through a new piece one phrase at a time. If it is not perfect I stop and work on it, slowly. Once I have mastered a couple of line I put it all together and make sure it all flows together and that i am happy with teh sound produced.

If this takes a lot of time then so be it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I started working on a new piece with my teacher today. it is 10 minutes long and I reckon it will take between 1 to 2 months to get it performance ready, not that i have any performances of this piece lined up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[owainsutton]

I suppose the only answer is 'it depends'! If it's not too challenging, then I'll hack through it a few times. If it's got particular technical challenges, I'll figure out ways to tackle them.

If it's particularly difficult, to the point that you simply cannot make any semblance of it even at a slow tempo, one trick I've been pointed to is to start with the very last bar, and get that under control. Then add the penultimate bar, and so on. It distract you from the summit to be climbed, allowing you to focus on the next small hill.