The 5 Musical Processes

Throughout the course of my years learning piano and now teaching it, I've come to find there are a number of stages that one must experience and go through in learning and perfecting a piece (including memorization). Each stage occurs differently and lasts a different length of time for different musicians but they are all experienced in one form or another.This is my own personal break down of how the processes occur and what they mean.

1.Uphill Battle

The first stage is named uphill battle because that can be what it feels like. It involves learning notes and rhythm. For considerably hard pieces, this can be a very tedious process of writing down fingerings and teaching our fingers to memorize the muscle movements necessary in order to play the notes in the proper sequence and rhythm. This is the most laborious aspect of learning music because it involves a lot of separate hand practice and time spent repeating the same things over and over again. It's arguably the least fun and takes the most work. However, it's the most important basis to music. Without notes and rhythm, you have air space.

2.  The First Plateau

The second stage is named the first plateau because once you've learned the notes and rhythm, you feel like you've just completed a great feat and you can rest a while. And for difficult pieces, it's true, you really have. At this point, the notes and rhythm come easily and you can play the piece, but it lacks the stylistic elements in order to bring the music alive. The performance might still be a bit mechanical in places that are still uncomfortable, resulting in an unnatural sound.

3. Rocky Scramble

The third stage is one that some musicians may disagree with me on. I've talked to a few and it does not seem like I am alone, but perhaps it's not consistently experienced by all. I call it the rocky scramble because it's where you start to discover difficulties within the piece that you didn't think were there. You start making mistakes and messing up in places you thought you knew and had learned. It feels a bit like you're backtracking in your growth and learning. This stage can be frustrating because it involves relearning some notes and rhythms, perhaps in a way of rote memorization so that you can resolve the problems.

4. The Second Plateau (Refinement)

The second plateau is where it's easy to get stuck in. It's also named refinement because it's about the fine tuning - you have the piece learned pretty darn well, but it's not perfect. Stylistic elements are beginning to take shape and generally, the piece is enjoyable. There is the occasional slipped finger, wrong note, rhythmic error, a brief memory slip. It's the stage that takes the most work to gain the least amount of advancement, hence, why it's easy to get stuck in. It takes a lot of perseverance to get through this plateau and into perfection. 

5. Perfection

The last stage is precisely what it is - perfection. At this point, the piece comes effortlessly. You melt into the melodies and let the notes and rhythm embody you as the performer. There's no mistakes because you know the precise muscle movements and style to deliver a perfect performance.

I would like to share a video of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu Op. 66 with you. It's still in the refinement stage, but I have about 10 more months to keep working on it to the perfection stage. It sounds like a lot of time, but I have another 6-8 pieces I need to bring up to perfection at the same time, so it's not as easy as you might think.

I really like this piece. While learning it I found YouTube videos of young children under the age of 10 playing it. I just have to look away and remember that they're on a different path than me and will proceed at their own pace. I'm just very thankful that my own abilities have allowed me to learn and play this piece at all.

This and all my YouTube videos have been simply recorded on a point and shoot camera. No separate audio files.