TIP 1: Practice makes perfect – Divide your pieces up into links
You need to make sure you are giving yourself the best chance right from the word go; and that means making sure you are practising your chosen pieces correctly and efficiently.
Below, Pianist contributor Graham Fitch gives a fantastic lesson on the art of practising correctly (part 1). He demonstrates how to divide your piece up into links in order to form a chain of phrases. This is also a great exercise for memorization.
TIP 2: Try out the ‘skeleton’ method when learning your pieces
In a follow-up to the above lesson, Graham Fitch teaches the ‘skeleton’ method of practising. This involves taking a selected component of a piece of music and emitting one of the parts (or harmonies) of the music. Again, it’s another fantastic method for making sure your pieces are as prepared as possible prior to the competition.
TIP 3: Playing from memory? Work without the score as soon as possible
If you are planning to compete without a score in front of you, it’s important that you start practising without the score as soon as you possibly can.
“If you can do this from the very beginning, bar by bar, learning everything from the physical ‘feel’ of note patterns, fingerings and movement, to the required sound and musical details, you’ll find it easier to remember in the long run,” says Pianist contributor Melanie Spanswick in her blog on Mastering Memorisation. “This is because you’re already taking the music off the page and allowing it to permeate your mind.”
