G.P.S. - finally, to work

February 27: Sunday night (T minus 17 days)

I have not touched the Franck since completing the fingering a fortnight ago. Other music had higher priority, including a couple of tricky voluntaries this morning: Distler's Mit Freuden zart and Reger's Lobet den Herren. This last went badly, despite the best preparation that I could give it in limited time. It is cautionary; I believe that my practice methods are effective, but there are no short-cuts, and no guarantees.

At nine o'clock on Sunday evening, with next Sunday's voluntaries for Eucharist and Evensong properly started, the Franck is finally at the top of the list for its First Workout.

My methods center on Slow Practice, but that alone is insufficient. One must eventually play quickly, if the music demands it. But one must do so in tiny steps, building in plenty of “anchors” where one feels a sense of repose, even if only for the smallest of moments. So, in the early stages, I play in two-note figures, and gradually build to larger units.

I begin by playing a short passage – typically four measures, or a phrase – very slowly, with care to get every fingering right. Then, I play it again. And again: three times, all very slowly and carefully. Then, I work through the phrase with modified rhythms. Assuming a passage in 2/2 time with running eighth-notes, I would play them as dotted quarter-eighth. Then, I reverse the rhythms: eighth-dotted quarter. Then, groups of four (making a half-note “beat”), pausing on the first note of each new group and playing at performance tempo (or as close as I can manage with accuracy). Then, groups of four again, but pausing on the third note of the group in the middle of the half-note beat. Then, in full measures with a pause on the first note of the bar. And again, this time pausing in the middle of the bar. Finally, the entire four-measure phrase at performance tempo. (For other meters, and other types of rhythmic motion, adjust accordingly.)
Then, on to the next phrase.

As a final step, I review the entire piece (or movement, or large section) slowly, at about half performance tempo. To keep from rushing ahead, I do this last play-through with metronome. I seek to remain focused and relaxed, and I find that this last play-through helps settle and confirm the work that I have done. The idea is not mine: Virgil Fox used to do this.

Indeed, none of these ideas are mine. Much of it comes from a book by John Bertalot, and much else from bits and pieces of advice and teaching over the years, plus a healthy dose of trial and error. [Edited in January 2017 to add: Most of this can be found in the book "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle, along with much other good advice and some neurological reasons why the method works.]

For subsequent workouts, I follow the same procedure, except that there is only one slow play-through of the phrase, not three. Gradually, I will work in larger units – eight bars, or a musical period, or whatever fits the specific piece. On many pieces, it is good to work through in two-measure groups: Play measures 1 and 2, then 2 and 3, then 3 and 4, etc.

Eventually – as soon as the second or third workout, if the piece is not very hard – I can content myself with just three times through – take each phrase or passage slowly, repeat at tempo, and then give it the final complete play-through with metronome. If there are isolated passages of greater difficulty, they get the fuller treatment as I work through the piece. Ideally, I would love to have everything I play reach this state of preparation well in advance of its performance. It rarely happens that way. Less than three weeks out from performance, I wish I were at this stage with the Franck, instead of being still engaged in the First Workout.

With most of the music I play, even some of considerable difficulty, four or five workouts suffice to prepare the piece for performance. Looking at my recent practice records, Stanford in A got six workouts, “How lovely are the messengers” got five, the Franck “Prelude Fugue and Variation” got five, the Bach Prelude and Fugue in C (BWV 545) got by with three, the Distler from last Sunday got three. But the Reger had six, and still fell apart.

I work until about 11:30, covering about half of the first movement.

March 2: St. Chad (T minus 14 days)

I complete the first movement this morning. I am not as discouraged as I was after the failure of Sunday's postlude: the postlude for March 6 (a setting of Lasst uns erfreuen by R. Busch), which was problematic in its first workout early Sunday evening and second workout yesterday, shows signs in its third workout this morning of being ready by Sunday. Today's work on the latter part of the first movement of Franck, a very tricky few pages of music, was encouraging. Patience!

Over lunch, I contact the secretary at the Congregational church, and schedule practice times: next week – Ash Wednesday – and the day before the recital.

Perhaps if I can complete the First Workout on the other movements by Ash Wednesday, and do a complete second workout that day at the recital instrument, I will get through this. I have a lot of ground to cover between now and then, but only two passages remain that are likely to be as challenging as what I did today – the third movement scherzo, and about four pages in the finale. There are long stretches of music in this piece that should be ready after one or two more workouts. But some others will need a lot of work.

The Mozart for this Sunday has been a better example of the way I would prefer to work; I started on it a month ago, and today's workout was its seventh. It is finally, after some anxious hours in mid-February, starting to be comfortable. I spent only a half-hour on it this morning, and with similar workouts on Friday and Saturday, it should be ready for Sunday.