I’m very excited to be able to say that I have had my first ever article published in a peer-reviewed journal!! The article is on findings from a study which looked at characteristics of tertiary piano students’ practice that lead to better performance quality. Since reading scientific papers is not everyone’s cup of tea (nor is it accessible to everyone, unfortunately), here is a summary of the main findings.
Summary of study
- 5 tertiary piano performance students were asked to learn a set piece in 2 hours over 2 consecutive days
- The practice sessions were recorded and analysed
- The pianists were also interviewed after the practice sessions, and talked briefly about what they had done during practice
- At the end of the 2 days, each pianist performed the piece for a recording. These recordings were later evaluated by several piano teachers.
Main findings
- Time spent not playing the piano was an important factor determining performance success: the top pianist spent about a fifth of the total practice time practising but not playing the piano (What were they doing in this time? Read on…)
- Pianists who performed better tended to pause more often during practice; those who did not perform as well tended to play continuously without taking time to pause and reflect
- Pianists who performed better thought about musical and interpretative aspects of the piece; the others focused mostly on just learning the notes
- The pianist who received the highest mark used three unique strategies:
- Recording themselves then listening back to it
- Writing expressive markings into the score
- Score study: this pianist looked at the score for a few minutes before starting each practice session, as well as during the sessions
- All pianists except the lowest-ranked pianist said that they weren’t too happy with the final performance but attributed this to the short timeframe. The pianist who received the lowest mark attributed it to a permanent trait, saying that they always play badly in performances.
Want to know more about effective practice? Check out 5 things you can do to practise more effectively.
Reference:
My eternal gratitude goes to my awesome Honours supervisor Associate Professor Helen Mitchell from the University of Sydney, who co-authored the article and helped me through my first ever process of getting published/peer-review!