How to Learn a Piece of Music

How to Learn a Piece of Music
(How to Learn a Piano Piece)

Right, I've been learning music for 22 years now and I have come to some conclusions.

This is my current method for learning a new piece.

1. Familiarise
2. Memorise
3. Practise

That's it! Here's how you do it:

1. Familiarise. This means something very simple. First of all, it means going through the piece very slowly and carefully to see what the difficulties are in that work. If it is a complicated piece, then you can go slowly! Don't worry, even if you sound like an idiot while you are learning it, that's fine because you will be able to play it one day. It's different for show-offs who want to sound good from the beginning, because they never really learn their pieces. Yes, they will always sound like an idiot. Fortune favours the brave, as the saying goes, and here it also favours those who can admit they have problems - the problems are the difficult bits in your piece, and they will improve as soon as you admit they are there, understand what the specific difficulties are, and solve them!
You will need a nice clear copy of the music. Play through the piece slowly and carefully, listening to everything. Then you can see what is difficult. There is no such thing as a difficult piece, only difficult places in a piece. (Some pieces have a lot of difficult places!) So there will be a few bars in the whole piece that you find hard (or impossible). Now you know what to practise. You know what you find difficult, so you also probably know what is easy for you. These parts you can learn AFTER you've solved the real problems. Also you need to solve the difficult parts from the start because it will take longer to get used to them, longer than playing things you already can do, for example.
If you find the piece very difficult you might take a long time over this stage. In that case, put it away and come back to it as many times as you like until you feel confident.
There isn't time to discuss technical problems today, but I will say that a very important part of solving the technical side of the piece is getting a good fingering. Again, this can take a long time sometimes. There is a scale in fourths on page two of Chopin's Third Sonata, and that's taken me a year to get the fingering for. I'm sure you will do better than that!

2. Memorise. This is best if you can do it away from the piano, because playing what you are memorising can be a bit distracting. Also if you are using my method, then you haven't actually learned how to play the piece yet, so that could cause some problems if you are trying to play it! Some people don't see the music in their head, they just follow their muscles and the sound as they play. If they say they can't imagine the printed page then I have to believe them, particularly if they don't make any mistakes. But I know that if I can see the page in my mind then I won't make a mistake because I know what to play. So that seems good to me.
How to memorise could also be discussed at length. I would say it is about patterns, and where patterns change. Also the direction of the "story" (that could mean harmony, change in texture, etc.) is a way of remembering where you are in the work as a whole. I put a ring around anything I remember wrongly, as well as things that don't fit patterns (a chord that is different the second time round, and so on). Then you will see the ring in your mind, too. You will remember!

3. Practise. This means practise. Get used to things. Learn where your hands go. Understand the music better. Practise bits so you can play them at a faster tempo. That way, not much can go wrong at the right speed! If you are stretched to your limits in performance there could be a stress there. Try to escape this by admitting what is difficult and taking time to work it out.

Well I'm sure there is a lot more I could say, but that's all for today! I will discuss specific pieces next time. Let me know if you have one you'd like me to talk about!