Whilst on holiday I took away my pieces that I needed to practise in the event that I may have been able to find a piano.

No piano, but I still practised each day which I found invaluable as I was teaching my brain to use the correct fingering.

Without a piano I seemed to do everything right, to my horror when I got home and tried the real thing, I found that I still have a lot of work ahead of me!

I was so disappointed! Did I waste my time, or will the fingering of stayed in my brain and just a little slow to put it to the piano?

I was very dedicated as I took my OU work with me too.

ET

No - you didn't waste your time! You saved yourself from many mistakes in pitch and rhythm. I take new music to bed with me each night and enjoy a perfect performance before I turn the light out.

I think you don't understand the concept of a holiday Give yourself a break!

I don't find that it's too much of a holiday go spend every day traipsing round places and doing nothing instead of being able to spend time doing what you enjoy.

Well I don't personally favour lazing around all day on a holiday either I usually find different, interesting things to do. But you do have a point - horses for courses and all that

What sort of holiday would it be without a big pile of music to read?!

On the contrary, to me music is a holiday! The downside was that I couldn't find a piano.

Strangely enough I had the same comment from my husband when I said that I hadn't managed to get in any practise this particular day, he turned and said you're on holiday. So what, I told him, I am doing what I enjoy and isn't that what you do on holiday. I had the added bonus of lots of sunshine and being able to jump in a pool in between. What more could one ask for?

My piano teacher told me that she always packs her recorder, her girls usually disown her, but then who cares!

ET

I must admit when I'm off work I do enjoy practice, but if I was in some far flung destination I'd not worry too much about it...

I guess if your life is quite busy and you don't get as much time to play as you'd like, it would figure that holiday could include putting aside practice time. To people who are not musical though, it does come across as being a strange thing to do.

Saying that, people with hobbies like rock climbing go away to do that for weeks.

Haha... I totally understand the urge to play the piano on a holiday. That was why my friend and I entered a Steinway store during our long-ago Japan trip. And on the recent trip, we couldn't help going to music bookstores...

I guess people start saying "Your are on holiday!", because of the usage of the word "practice". Sounds like hard work. And it is hard work. But if you enjoy it, why not?

I always find shopping hard work too

I really enjoy that too!
I keep looking at the score until i can't stand awake

I think we still can practice even there is no piano. At least, as you mention earlier that we can memorise the fingering.



Great then! but, if there is no piano, maybe you can hear some recording of the piece you're going to learn
and simultaneously looking at the score! (this is fun also for me).

Good luck Eldatom

m_b_s

Actually, I like doing this before attempting to learn a piece. I'm not sure if it's good practice or not but it helps me to understand any funny phrasing quite quickly

If I'm on a long boring car journey, I sometimes sit on the back of the car and play the pieces on my knees while singing them in my head. It beats normal practice, they're perfect every time!!!

How about a roll up piano? http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221630

Seen them used before

That must be horrible to play, no weighted tactile feedback or anything... yuck!

I hate playing normal keyboards without weighted keys so that would be horrible!

It is entirely possible to review pieces mentally, imagining the sound and the exact physical movements that you make when playing them, and it has a definite effect. It does you good.

It is even possible to learn new material this way, though the mental effort involved is intense (for me at any rate). This method is however recommended in their books and manuals by many expert pianists and teachers (e.g. Hoffman, Geiseking). I don't know if this is genuinely well-intentioned advice, a result of limited contact with "normal" people, or some not-so-subtle one-upmanship and elitism.

Whatever ... using the method is described by several great pianists in their memoirs or in interview (e.g. Rubinstein).

In his book "The Ivory Touch" piano teacher LIviu Galvinsky describes how a 10-year old prodigy he was teaching at the time read through a few pages of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the flight to a radio interview, then played what he had read from memory on arriving at the studio!

Indeed they are. Certainly not for"playing" (as a piano player), but perhaps to top up your sight reading, or usefull for beginners to learn notes



Allzwell