I was just curious as to what everyone's opinion is on practicing more than one piece at a time. Do you all think it is better to focus on just one piece or to work on 2 or 3 at a time.
I havent been playing very long and i am so anxious to learn some pieces that i have been working on two at a time. I feel like it's beneficial to me because im exposing myself to many different techiniques and styles.
I am sure some people would say working on more than one piece at a time spreads you too thin.

So what is everyone's opinion?

I'm always practising more than once piece at a time - I would say about 3 on the go would be a good number. Otherwise I think I would get very sick of the same piece!!
Hope this helps!

I have 3 on the go but I do find it hard to get the balnce right with practice sometimes.

I do about 10 at the same time but i never finish them!!

I use different pieces for different purposes - some for the sheer joy of the music, even though I'm not working on them for any particular reason, some because they have some aspect which helps with technique, and then any pieces on which I am working for a particular reason - exams, concerts. The last sort I'll work on reasonably steadily on most occasions I grab some practice, the middle lot when I'm feeling virtuous, and the first lot when I'm too crabby/tired/hassled to do anything else.
I also agree with the idea of not starting too many new pieces at once - it's great to have one or two at the polishing stage, and one or two at the just-working-it-all-out stage, because then you are using different skills in one practice session, which keeps it more interesting.

With my pupils I try to have 3 on the go at the same time, but they'll be at different stages. One will be quite well known and will be on the "finishing touches" stage, another will be in the middle, quite well known but still needing quite a bit of work, and the third will be at the beginning stage i.e notes and rhythms still being learned. That's the theory anyway, doesn't always work out like that.

For myself - I'm doing a concert in September with a flautist and I'm learning 6 items, most of which consist of several movements, so am having to practise quite a few at the same time. Each time I sit down to practise I generally decide which ones to work on, usually one or two movements out of a couple of the items and concentrate on those.

I find that I make much more progress working on many pieces at once. I usually work on about 4-7 at once. Right now I'm sort of taking a break, I'm learning 6 pieces but I'm familiar with 4 of them so it's easy going. Also, I usually have one piece which is stupidly hard and I probably won't be able to learn it anytime soon. I don't expect to make much progress and I usually give up half way through but I come back to it when I feel I am ready. Right now it's Chopin's Ballade #1.

Yes, and keeping it interesting makes practice a lot more appealing!

I also like to have a range of pieces in terms of difficulty, from pieces which I can sight-read and then just work on detail to pieces which are really a stretch.

I'm not very good at being organised and keeping to a set bunch of pieces though, at the moment it's little bits of loads of pieces - NOT efficient and I don't recommend it as a long term strategy....

I often end up doing this too when I'm playing just for myself, but we've sent the programme off to the organisers of the concert so I have to stick to what we've said we're playing - thank goodness. My flautist has a habit of changing his mind at every rehearsal we have together as to what he wants to perform at the concert, sometimes leaving me almost sight reading at the performance - not something I like doing!

Yes, I agree with the others. It's all about layering your practice. Having 3 or 4 different pieces at various stages of completion is very important. Using some sort of practice diary will help you to focus on what to practise each day, without neglecting anything. Your teacher could help you with this.

At the moment, I have to do (on the violin)
Scales &arpeggios
3 g3 pieces
a piece for a carnival in sept
A piece that I like



and on the piano I do
Scales and arpeggios
3 g6 pieces
a piece that i like
a piece that I don't want to forget (minuit waltz etc)

Yes I am similar to this. I have about 3 pieces which I am 'officially' working on, about three more that I am unofficially working on and about 20 that I play through once a fortnight or so that I am in no hurry to perfect.

Obviously, I focus on more than one when I have exams. I.e. 3 exam pieces then one or two random nice easy ones...but right now, with no exams I'm just focussing on about 2. I find that if I just try learning one I get sick of it too easily, and too many just confuses me.



Two or three at the most is about right...and its always good to have some on the side to sight read

Eeek!

Yes, that's one of the reasons I want to do a performance assessment - it'll force me to do some work on a small selection of pieces.

Try this approach if interested:

(a) Have about 3 challenging pieces under construction

( Keep reading playable new pieces that are at a difficult sight read level. Maybe one or two grades behind your current.

Which brings me on to a piece of advice from an excellent pianist and sight reader - learn to sight read by experimenting with real music. Don't bu sightreading books!

I usuall work on 3-4 pieces at a time .
For some poeple, it would bw boring to work on one piece and practice it for a long time , Don't distract yourself , though, in practicing many pieces in the same time , or you wouldn't be able to master any of them...

Hurrah hurrah hurrah! Exactemente!!!

...though I've never tried sight reading books, I can't imagine they'd be better than finding lots of music you like and playing and playing. You start to improve without knowing it! (And you enjoy it..)

I practice at least 3 pieces at a time. One will usually be my main focus, eg. a sonata and the other two will be shorter, slightly simpler pieces or studies. Besides that I also play a whole load of random songs that I like (jazz, contemporary, etc.) to keep from getting bored.

Absolutely agree. The best sightreading practise is also when 1 of the kids says "Mum play this accompaniment please"....for violin, flute whatever- & you have to get through it & keep going!!

Wow... Thank you for imparting the best piece of advice I've heard in a long time!!! My sight-reading is absolutely hopeless, and I've always looked at sight-reading books and thought I should definitely get some, as they are really supposed to improve your sight-reading.
But now I don't need to bother! I just need to look at music I've never seen before and hopefully I will improve one day... That is really the best way to do it. After all, the sight-reading books would be music you hadn't seen before anyway!!

Sight-reading books can be very helpful. They tend to concentrate on teaching you how to sight-read, ie remembering to look for key sigs, time sigs, accidentals, thinking about the rhythm before you start. I agree that they aren't the be-all and end-all of learning to sight-read, but whilst reading unfamiliar music gives plenty of sight-reading practice, some people need the guided help that sight-reading books can provide.

My pupils are almost always working on at least two pieces at a time, as well as building up a repertoire of pieces that they can play any time at the drop of a hat. These they keep to run through once a week or so to keep them under their fingers or in their heads, or both. I usually have dozens of accomps. to learn for singing and recorder playing students and would probably become bored just working at one item.

I have about 10 on the go.

My teacher gave me this book "Improve your sight-reading - a workbook for examination"
And they are available for each grade - 1-8 - and rather than just having a few pieces to play..... you get little exercises... and in then one i have it says try to practise without looking at the keys.... and other things like when you see a piece of music first look at certain things.... key sig etc i found these books helped ALOT !
does anyone else use these?