Increasing Your Repertoire with Fast Research

On this week’s put up, Ryan Morison discusses how fast research can be utilized as an efficient software to broaden your repertoire and develop good habits and abilities when studying new items.

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I lately wrote a weblog put up about one among my primary piano targets for 2021 which is to broaden my lively repertoire. A software that I’ve discovered to be invaluable for the needs of attaining this aim is fast research.

Fast Research – What & why?

Fast research are an typically neglected, however extremely useful strategy to study Piano On-line. Additionally they allow you to develop and hone the talents required to new study items sooner.

The idea may be very easy: you scale back the period of time it’s a must to study a bit e.g. typically one or two weeks quite than months. The target is to do that with out compromising considerably on the standard of the musical outcome.

Ideas for fast research initiatives

The next are some suggestions and solutions that I’ve discovered which can be helpful if you happen to’re contemplating embarking upon comparable initiatives:

• Not too troublesome – Don’t be overly formidable in selecting items. Choose works which can be sensible given your talents and the shortened timeframe. It’s much better to decide on one thing simpler than too troublesome. One strategy to measure problem is to make use of examination syllabi as a tenet e.g. choose items one or two grades under your present degree (this labored very properly for me!).
• Not too lengthy – Shorter is healthier, particularly if you happen to’re not fairly positive if a bit is on the proper degree.  Personally, I discovered that items roughly three pages lengthy with some repetition labored properly. I additionally checked my choices by doing a run by means of and retaining a tally of adverse spots. These had been locations that I couldn’t sight-read and subsequently would wish to practise. A number of tough spots is okay, but when actually each bar has one thing difficult then the piece most likely isn’t appropriate.
• Lay good foundations – The issues that triggered me probably the most issues down the road had been errors with fingering and different sloppiness within the earlier notice studying phases. Simply because you might have much less time doesn’t imply that you just shouldn’t observe a scientific method, in reality it’s the alternative! This free electronic mail course provides a terrific course of to observe for the early phases of studying a bit and may be utilized to fast research.
• Be constant – Constant follow, even for brief time intervals, is way extra essential than the entire time spent practising. I used common “micro-practice” periods focused at particular drawback areas which helped me make nice progress regardless of having very restricted time. This weblog put up provides some helpful suggestions for brief follow periods.
• Be disciplined and focussed – Merely enjoying by means of your piece each day and hoping that issues will enhance or right themselves is a positive recipe for failure. A way more disciplined, strategic method is required. This would possibly embrace highlighting drawback areas upfront and adopting a plan to deal with them systematically (Graham Fitch refers to this course of as Quarantining).
• Set targets and milestones – Working in direction of outlined milestones e.g. recording for your self, a lesson, enjoying for others is a superb strategy to give your practising construction and focus. There are such a lot of alternatives to do that, even in present circumstances. For instance, over the past yr I participated in numerous on-line meet-ups and even an internet masterclass (click on right here if you happen to’d prefer to see a video of my efficiency and suggestions session!).

Many of those rules apply not simply to fast research, however to studying new items usually. Due to the time stress of a fast research, they develop into much more pertinent. This makes fast research extremely efficient for constructing and reinforcing good habits that apply properly past the undertaking at hand.

I lately concluded my first fast research undertaking and located it to be such a constructive enterprise that I’ve since began a number of additional items on this method (For those who’d like to search out out extra, I’ve documented my expertise within the type of a “video journal” on my web site). I extremely advocate the fast research method and if you happen to’re trying to enhance your capability to study new items, encourage you to offer it a attempt!