Completing a piece.
By Craig M Winston, classical guitarist and instructor in Denver, CO
In today's classical guitar lessons, we're going to dive into some steps to learn a piece from your first sight read to your recital performance. the list might seem like a lot at first, but a seasoned learner will soon be able to implement many of these goals very quickly. For example correctness of notes and rhythm is gained from improved reading skills generally.
Some of the ideas in this post are adapted from The Musician’s Way by Gerald Klickstein, particularly the idea of three phases of “knowing” a piece. Klickstein's book, as well as the Menuhin Guide book Guitar by Leathwood and Wright are excellent resources on the subject of practice, performance, and development. Please consider this a summation of knowledge I've gained from their insights and others as well as suggestions from my own practice as a performer, teacher, and student.
To be sure, we’re never truly “finished” with a piece. There is always some way it can evolve further with our deepening understanding of the piece, and with our ever progressing abilities in technique and musicality.
That being said, we can satisfy this notion of “finishing” a piece by giving ourselves a performance goal, such as a recital, open mic, or even to share our music at a family event; or even by sharing it on social media. This puts the question in our heads, is this good enough to share with the world? And if not, what would it take to get it there?
Some of the answers might be obvious, and some a little more elusive. You can use the following practice checklist to guide your study towards performance level of a piece. Note that we will follow the typical 3 tier system that I have in our lesson notes. **note “practice session” means about 20 - 30 minutes of work on the particular piece.
Phase 1 - Exposition - New Music
- Sight read the piece and listen to the piece - Get a general overview in this step. sight reading helps you understand the technical demands of the piece, and listening helps you develop an aural model.
- Diagram the piece - identify the sections. for classical pieces you can use letters A, B, C, etc. For popular music (especially with words) you can use terms like Verse, Chorus, etc.
- Label difficult moments - you encountered these on your first playthrough, but may want to do a second reading to refresh where those are. Circle these moments for focused practice later.
- Start small - Taking just 4 measures at a time can be an ideal amount of material to master before tackling the whole piece. For all the advice here (unless it says otherwise) keep your attention focused and avoid playing the full piece until the end of your practice session.
- Isolate the voices - before rehearsing the piece as a whole, isolate the melody, then isolate the bass, and then the accompaniment. It can also be helpful to play bass together with accompaniment.
- Key points of focus at the beginning: Rhythm! Counting aloud as you play is an indispensable tool. Correct Notes! Writing a finger indication, or a courtesy accidental can ensure better accuracy.
- Put it together - now that you’ve heard the different parts, put them together. The full arrangement of voices will be more difficult but you should have a pretty good idea of the direction of the music based on the simpler previous task. Aim for the melody notes to sound connected and to sing above the rest of the arrangement. Bass should sound enough to give us a clear sense of the downbeats, and the accompaniment should add rhythm and harmony but avoid taking center stage.
- How closely are you following the finger indications in the score? This is the ideal time to adhere to these and understand the logic there.
- Practice in sections - now, practice the full arrangement in sections, based on the labels you added during the diagram step. You may need to step back from time to time to isolate the voices again or listen to someone perform the piece in order to reinforce your aural model.
- Play the whole piece - Once you have put in the work in smaller sections, play the whole piece at a slow and manageable tempo. You should play slow enough that you get 90 - 100% of the notes correct without needing to backtrack or stop. Is your rhythm correct? Record yourself, or play it in lessons (or both) to get a fair assessment of your progress.
- Before moving on to the next phase, make sure your rhythm is just as correct as your notes.
Phase 2 - The Development
- Listen to the recording you made in your last practice session of the “New Material” phase. With score in hand, label any audible mistakes, from missed or wrong notes, to buzzes, hesitations, or lost beat and tempo.
- Focused practice - you should now have quite a few rehearsal spots in your score. Visit each one, focusing as narrowly as possible at first. Think about what is the most difficult part of this moment, and start there. The focus can be as narrow as a single beat if it requires a tricky chord shape. Think about why the moment is difficult, and problem solve. Is it a tricky shift of the right or left hand? Can you play the passage in a different way, choosing different fingers, picking pattern, or along different strings? Once you’ve got a solution, back up by a few measures (one or two is enough) and play through and beyond the difficult moment by one measure. Focus only on about 2 or 3 of these spots in a single practice session. After addressing the problem areas for today, play through the piece at a slow tempo, ensuring you get 90 - 100% of the notes correct. Again, record yourself or play it in lessons.
- Repeat the above step throughout the week, focusing on different moments until you feel you’ve addressed all of the technical demands. continue to refer back to recordings you’ve made to judge your progress.
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Musicality - once you feel confident with the technical demands of the piece, explore its musical demands. If the score includes dynamics and rubato markings can you incorporate them? What about timbre or expressive indications (i.e. dolce or misterioso)? If the score lacks such markings, do you have a feel for where you can add expression? Either way, be aware of what is in the score and write in any extra ideas you have. Now listen to your last recording and decide if you’re successful with these yet. Circle any moments in the score where you need to work on expression.
- Repeat the above step throughout the week, focusing on different moments until you feel you’ve addressed all of the musical demands. continue to refer back to recordings you’ve made to judge your progress.
- Voicing - this is a complex subject and requires a sophisticated approach. Listen to your recordings, are you conveying the voices correctly? One way to think of it is this: have you ever seen a band where the back up singer or the bassist insist on upstaging the lead singer? Don’t let your thumb or the inner voices ruin your band in the same way. You may feel the need to continually refine this aspect of the piece as you progress. Volume, tone, legato, vibrato, and placement (in time vs. the other notes) can all affect a listeners perception of voicing. as before, circle any moments where this isn’t coming across as clearly, focus, expand, refine, record, repeat.
- At this point you may need a new copy of your score.
- Volume - despite dynamic markings, are you projecting enough for your audience to hear? Also, how is your tone?
- The final step to get the piece to “performance level” is to increase the tempo, either to what is indicated in the score or to what sounds most musical (you can often judge this versus a well known recording)
Phase 3 - Recapitulation - Performance
- 95 - 100% correct notes on every playthrough
- The rhythm is correctly interpreted.
- Minimal to no buzzes, squeaks, clicks, rattles, etc.
- The music is audible and well projected from the guitar, while still conveying a range of dynamics. The tone is consistent and pleasing to the listener.
- Can play at tempo without encouragement from a metronome or teacher.
- The music clearly moves towards its goal, propelled by the melodic phrasing and rhythmic direction of the piece.
- Convincing separation of voices.
- Convincing execution of dynamics, rubato, and changes in timbre.
- The final step is to simply practice performing the piece. Lessons are a great place, but you can find other low stakes scenarios, such as playing for family or friends, an open mic, or a local jam or meet up group. Remember, the more often you put yourself in performance situations (or approach lessons etc. as performances) the lower the stakes will always feel, creating more confidence whenever you share your musical gift with the world.
So much goes into learning a piece! What further steps would you take, what have I forgotten here?