Quick Study Project Wrap-up
After two weeks, my first quick study project came to its conclusion. I set about learning Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor (Op. Posth.) with the aim of performing it in an online concert two weeks later.
I’ve outlined my approach and documented the project in the form of a “video journal” which is available on my website and Youtube channel. In this article I share some of the results from this project and where I might be headed from here.
Outcomes & observations
This project was a very positive experience overall, yielding several benefits. In addition to the obvious ones of having thoroughly enjoyed the concert and having a new piece in my repertoire, I also learned some skills which will improve my ability to learn new pieces beyond this exercise.
The following are some of the outcomes and observations:
- Consistent practice, even for short time periods, is far more important than the time spent practising
- Combined with the above, identifying and tackling potentially difficult spots from the outset is an incredibly powerful way to get results without necessarily increasing the time spent practising
- Working towards defined milestones e.g. recording for yourself, a lesson, playing for others is an excellent way to give your practising structure and focus
- The areas that caused me the most problems in performances were not the ones that I thought would be difficult but rather almost always areas where I had been lazy or careless in practising
- The benefits were not confined to this single project (or just the quick study concept) in that I noticed that my rate of learning subsequent pieces has significantly improve
Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised by how much could be achieved with a disciplined and strategic approach which creates a further incentive to adopt and reinforce good habits!
What’s next?
Following from this, I will be doing more quick study projects alongside applying some of the techniques and strategies learned to longer-term repertoire projects. I have a bucket list of pieces that are suitable candidates for a similar approach and have already started on a few of them!
I will be sharing more about these subsequent projects with further observations as a follow-up. For anyone interested in learning the Chopin Nocturne featured in this project, I will also be creating a video with some tips and tools in case this is useful to you.
Please visit my website if you’d like to sign-up for updates on future projects or to see an index of the videos with further information on the approach and resources used.
