Practice Regimens for the Temporally Challenged

[Teasing the Korean]

There was a time in my life when I was very serious about the piano.  My life was relatively simple then, and I practiced four hours a day.  My regimen consisted of a combination of technical exercises; practicing a classical piece or two - very poorly, I might add; exploring the harmonic possibilities of a standard in great detail; soloing over a tune in 12 keys; working on patterns, chord voicings, and chord progressions in all 12 keys; and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.

My life is much more complex now.  I have a demanding full-time job that often requires evening and weekend work.  I am married to Ms. TTK, own a home, and am responsible for the health and well-being of two cats and several houseplants.  

Working remotely during the pandemic, I would occasionally waddle over to the piano to work on something, and during that time, came up with a few arrangements of standards that came close to what I accomplished years ago.

Anyway, I would like to get back into a routine where I practice, say, one hour a day on most days of the week, and am a little overwhelmed as to where to begin.  I think I would need to devote at least 15 minutes of that time to technique.  But I'm looking to get bang for the buck in abbreviated practice periods.

I am not planning on gigging, and I have nothing to prove, but I would love to get back to the point where I can sit down at the piano at a party, play standards, and not have anyone leave or complain.  Would love to hear from some of the professional, semi-professional, or would-be professional musicians out there who have faced similar schedule challenges at points during their lives, but managed to keep their playing more or less intact.  

Thanks in advance.

[JSngry]

You're at an advantage being a pianist - no long tones!

But trust me on this one - musical memory is the last thing to go, but muscle memory is the first. So keep that muscle tone up, which probably means practicing painfully slow and focused on even pressure with all fingers. Same as with any instrument.

Do it until it hurts, then do it until it doesn't.

As for the "what" - whatever gets you through all twelve keys with all ten fingers and as many intervals as efficiently as possible. Find your own routine, because if it's going to hurt, make it fun!

I've been on hiatus from the horn for a few years now and might be for another year, so this concept has been on my mind.  All I know for sure is that the body needs to be able to function so the mind can follow suit, so...you can't not do that work!

Have fun with it!

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

You're at an advantage being a pianist - no long tones!

But trust me on this one - musical memory is the last thing to go, but muscle memory is the first. So keep that muscle tone up, which probably means practicing painfully slow and focused on even pressure with all fingers. Same as with any instrument.

Do it until it hurts, then do it until it doesn't.

As for the "what" - whatever gets you through all twelve keys with all ten fingers and as many intervals as efficiently as possible. Find your own routine, because if it's going to hurt, make it fun!

I've been on hiatus from the horn for a few years now and might be for another year, so this concept has been on my mind.  All I know for sure is that the body needs to be able to function so the mind can follow suit, so...you can't not do that work!

Have fun with it!

Thank you!

I agree about musical memory and muscle memory.  My musical strength is having a very good ear - Charlie Banacos ranked me in the upper 5 percentile of his students - but technique was always my weak point, even when I was "good."  I was of the mind that if you have a good ear and taste, the technique can always be acquired, but that never quite happened for me to the degree I'd hoped.

I suspect that I may need to start out primarily doing slow, deliberate technical exercises for the majority of my practice time, and then make more time for other aspects later.  

[JSngry]

3 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I was of the mind that if you have a good ear and taste, the technique can always be acquired... 

I spent 10 or so years firmly believing that and have spent the years since trying to make up for lost time..which is of course not found again 

OTOH, the only time you really waste is the time you don't spend.

This shit is endless, it really is. Nobody gets to it all, so, you know, it goes on until it stops, right? Keep it going!

[sgcim]

I think this is the perfect time to explain your screen name- Teasing The Korean. It's one of the few mysteries left in the world.

[Teasing the Korean]

23 minutes ago, sgcim said:

I think this is the perfect time to explain your screen name- Teasing The Korean. It's one of the few mysteries left in the world.

You haven't Googled it by now?

https://www.discogs.com/master/87552-John-Barry-Goldfinger-Original-Motion-Picture-Score

[sgcim]

8 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

You haven't Googled it by now?

https://www.discogs.com/master/87552-John-Barry-Goldfinger-Original-Motion-Picture-Score

A John Barry cue from Goldfinger- of course!

[Gheorghe]

On 9.11.2021 at 7:21 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

There was a time in my life when I was very serious about the piano.  My life was relatively simple then, and I practiced four hours a day.  My regimen consisted of a combination of technical exercises; practicing a classical piece or two - very poorly, I might add; exploring the harmonic possibilities of a standard in great detail; soloing over a tune in 12 keys; working on patterns, chord voicings, and chord progressions in all 12 keys; and probably a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember.

My life is much more complex now.  I have a demanding full-time job that often requires evening and weekend work.  I am married to Ms. TTK, own a home, and am responsible for the health and well-being of two cats and several houseplants.  

Working remotely during the pandemic, I would occasionally waddle over to the piano to work on something, and during that time, came up with a few arrangements of standards that came close to what I accomplished years ago.

Anyway, I would like to get back into a routine where I practice, say, one hour a day on most days of the week, and am a little overwhelmed as to where to begin.  I think I would need to devote at least 15 minutes of that time to technique.  But I'm looking to get bang for the buck in abbreviated practice periods.

I am not planning on gigging, and I have nothing to prove, but I would love to get back to the point where I can sit down at the piano at a party, play standards, and not have anyone leave or complain.  Would love to hear from some of the professional, semi-professional, or would-be professional musicians out there who have faced similar schedule challenges at points during their lives, but managed to keep their playing more or less intact.  

Thanks in advance.

Thank you soooooo much for this thread ! And thank you so much for sharing your story with us. 

I would like to tell you mine also, which in some points is similar to yours:

When I was young, I also practiced lot. The only difference is that I had played piano for my whole live. Even before I went to "Kindergarten" I could play with my little hands and short fingers tunes after hearing them and had perfect pitch. But playing written stuff bored me and I never was a good reader. When I was in the transition from kid to teenie I started to be fascinated with jazz and "practiced". But never technical exercises, never classical pieces, only aiming to be able at one point to sit in in a band and eventually become member of a band. So it was playing all the standards by ear, and fascinated with Bird,Diz,Bud and wanting to play in that manner, learning all the bop tunes by ear. 
During that time there was no Real Book, at least not here, and I had to write out the chord progressions to improvise on the tunes. Eventually, the great austrian pianist Fritz Pauer let me sit in when he had a gig with Allan Praskin and Karl Ratzer and from that point on I started to play very much in clubs, sometimes too much so I had to study a bit longer for my degree (not music). 
During my first short marriage with two kids I still played much, the marriage failed but not due to music. 

Not it´s the same like your situation: Demanding full-time job which requires also weekend work and night work, but I love it and will do further some stuff even after retireing in late 2024 at 65. And I´m married to lovely and beautiful Miss Serena, for 25 years, and before that we were already together 5 years. 

I cut out playing in public in 1992 and that remained for the next 20 years. But I always played the music at home, would play as if playing a live set, that means some medium, some up tempo super be bop, some latin and of course ballads, playing better and better as everybody said. 
I kept in touch especially with my former drummer who is a professional musician and who started to tell me to come back after visiting me at home and listening to what I can do. 
So I decided from 2012 until 2020 to play maybe 2, maybe 4 gigs each year, and now due to the pandemia , again at home for me and my wife. 
We both are not to kind of people who make really close friends like others have. I don´t need another guy to tell him private things, and my wife does not have a "best friend" or "girl´s evenings". People I´m in touch with are colleages from the same category, and some who share my passion for fishing, another thing I´ve done almost all my live long. 

In the future, as we hope at some point to have again the possibility to live withouth restrictions, I´ll be there again, doing this or that little gig. But we don´t have to practice. Besides me who also knows the music and how to play it, the others always have been professionals.....

[Teasing the Korean]

6 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Thank you soooooo much for this thread ! And thank you so much for sharing your story with us. 

I would like to tell you mine also, which in some points is similar to yours:

When I was young, I also practiced lot. The only difference is that I had played piano for my whole live. Even before I went to "Kindergarten" I could play with my little hands and short fingers tunes after hearing them and had perfect pitch. But playing written stuff bored me and I never was a good reader. When I was in the transition from kid to teenie I started to be fascinated with jazz and "practiced". But never technical exercises, never classical pieces, only aiming to be able at one point to sit in in a band and eventually become member of a band. So it was playing all the standards by ear, and fascinated with Bird,Diz,Bud and wanting to play in that manner, learning all the bop tunes by ear. 
During that time there was no Real Book, at least not here, and I had to write out the chord progressions to improvise on the tunes. Eventually, the great austrian pianist Fritz Pauer let me sit in when he had a gig with Allan Praskin and Karl Ratzer and from that point on I started to play very much in clubs, sometimes too much so I had to study a bit longer for my degree (not music). 
During my first short marriage with two kids I still played much, the marriage failed but not due to music. 

Not it´s the same like your situation: Demanding full-time job which requires also weekend work and night work, but I love it and will do further some stuff even after retireing in late 2024 at 65. And I´m married to lovely and beautiful Miss Serena, for 25 years, and before that we were already together 5 years. 

I cut out playing in public in 1992 and that remained for the next 20 years. But I always played the music at home, would play as if playing a live set, that means some medium, some up tempo super be bop, some latin and of course ballads, playing better and better as everybody said. 
I kept in touch especially with my former drummer who is a professional musician and who started to tell me to come back after visiting me at home and listening to what I can do. 
So I decided from 2012 until 2020 to play maybe 2, maybe 4 gigs each year, and now due to the pandemia , again at home for me and my wife. 
We both are not to kind of people who make really close friends like others have. I don´t need another guy to tell him private things, and my wife does not have a "best friend" or "girl´s evenings". People I´m in touch with are colleages from the same category, and some who share my passion for fishing, another thing I´ve done almost all my live long. 

In the future, as we hope at some point to have again the possibility to live withouth restrictions, I´ll be there again, doing this or that little gig. But we don´t have to practice. Besides me who also knows the music and how to play it, the others always have been professionals.....

Thanks for sharing, and glad to know that I am not alone!

If you were going to set aside an hour a day for focused and intentional practice, where do you think you would begin?  I ask because while my ear is still very strong - I was born with a very good ear - my technique has faltered.  My instinct is that I should initially devote the whole hour to slow, deliberate technical exercises, and then begin to dial back the technical exercises once I'm feeling more comfortable.  

[Gheorghe]

16 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Thanks for sharing, and glad to know that I am not alone!

If you were going to set aside an hour a day for focused and intentional practice, where do you think you would begin?  I ask because while my ear is still very strong - I was born with a very good ear - my technique has faltered.  My instinct is that I should initially devote the whole hour to slow, deliberate technical exercises, and then begin to dial back the technical exercises once I'm feeling more comfortable.  

Your are welcome !

Well, it´s a bit hard for me to think about intentional practice in context with technical exercises, because after 60years of playing (yeah, I was maybe 2 years old when I sat on my fathers lap and started to finger the piano, and not making ugly sounds like non musical kids do, but playing coerent melodies from the beginning) it´s that way that I don´t think about the instrument separatly, the instrument is me. So maybe I played scales at the very beginning, because my dad wanted me to get to know the notes, the keys and above all that I can name the note or the key if he plays it and I had to hide under the piano for not seeing what he´s fingerin on the piano. 

So my advices might be more about the music itself. Start with slower pieces, let´s say a ballad and when you know the tune and the chords, try to get inside the ballad, I mean reallly inside so you will have your very individual approach to it. Listen for example to Bud´s version of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams". The melody is very very simple, almost childish, so let´s say try to play only the melody, then the melody with chords, and later when you master that, try to make it dynamical, emotional, like it´s on record, but not copying it, but getting your own individual approach. 

And when you take a swinging tune, try to make it flow. No cuts or stops when you get to the next chorus or get from the second A-part to the bridge.....

So my advice is: You want to make MUSIC. If you take much time doing technical exercises, it can get boring. Learn by doing. Many musical carees, if it´s a more sensible kid, completly devoted to the music, a severe teacher who keeps you playing technical exercises could destroy the musicianship.
Especially if it´s creative and individual music like jazz and improvisation. 
 

So get inside the music, try to play a piece, learn the meaning of the piece and to transmit the meaning on the keyboard.  You want to play some tunes for your wife, at a house party and maybe at some point together with other musicians, so what count´s is the music, and I have no doubts that you have musical ears, so you have all you need. 

 

[JSngry]

As much of a fan as I am of making it up as you go, you do need to get your musical memory and digital strength in  sync if you want to have successful outcomes. Otherwise...the person has the ideas, but it's the body that brings them to fruition. I ain't never seen anything play itself, not even a computer.

Sam Rivers said that the way to tell who can really play and who is halfassing it is to listen to whether or not there's certain chords or keys where a player resorts to licks or other devices that they don't use in the easy parts of the song, or in the easy keys.

That's the difference between a musician and a hobbyist.

[Teasing the Korean]

I knew a professional musician - a sax player - who had a successful music career through a combination of jazz gigs, wedding gigs, orchestra pits, pick-up bands, sessions, etc.  At one point, he decided that most of the music he was playing was making him miserable.  So he chucked it all and switched careers.  

He put down his axe for a long time.  Eventually, he picked it up again and reconnected with the music he enjoyed playing.  I asked him about his practice regimen, and he said that he never did technical exercises, and that he exclusively played music.  He claimed that playing tunes and improvising provided him with the technique, and that he had no use for scales and arpeggios.  

I think that is an interesting approach, and if it works for you, great, but I don't think that would ever work for me.   My recent playing can attest to this.  

Edited November 18, 2021 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

I do believe that the technical exercises are of no real musical value. But as physical exercises... let's just say that the sooner you get them done, the sooner you can move on to other things.

James Moody's take on it was - if Iiss a day, I can tell. If I miss two days, musicians can tell. And if I miss three days, EVERBODY can tell.

Just sayin'...

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I do believe that the technical exercises are of no real musical value. But as physical exercises... let's just say that the sooner you get them done, the sooner you can move on to other things.

Well, technical facility allows you to better express yourself musically, so I would say exercises can have indirect musical value.  

[JSngry]

Indeed. But some people revolt against the idea of "technique", thinking that it's a substitute for true creativity. And indeed it can be, often is. But that's a personal flaw not related to the technique itself.

I've heard people want to get less hung up on technique, but I've never heard anybody talk about hey, I need to play my instrument worse.

[Gheorghe]

Well it´s possible I have played the instrument for too much time to be able to remember how I mastered to finger it. Some time ago I was asked by someone if I know a piano teacher or if I could teach her to play piano. 
I said no, because first of all from where should I know a teacher, I know people who play, and some of them teach at Jazz-Conservatory here in Vienna, but that´s not about the basics, if you go to a conservatory I think you are supposed to allready know the basics. 

And by the way, isn´t playing an instrument like riding the bicycle? Once you learned it, you never forget it completly, you may get "rusty", but that´s all. 
The last time I did ride the bicycle regularly was when I was a kid, until I had my driving license. 20 Years later someone invited me to make a trip on bicycle and sure I didn´t fall down, but boy, how my ass hurt after 2 hours on bicycle....

So my opinion is, you don´t forget it, but you´ll be a bit rusty after a long absence from the instrument. 

I also did bass fiddle when I was young. I´m sure I didn´t forget how to finger and how to pluck the strings, but sure I´d get blisters.....

[JSngry]

You can't forget what you never knew.