Practice Until it’s Easy

Recently Khatia Buniatishvili, a world famous touring pianist, posted a video on practice. It’s a little tongue in cheek but you should watch it here if you’re on Facebook.

The specific section is titled ‘My mom and reality’. Khatia is repeating a phrase in her music and if you look closely there is a book on her music stand, not her music.

As I said, it’s a little bit extreme however there’s a message in there that we should all be paying attention to. Essentially she is saying that she knows the music so well that she can read a book while practicing it. Ignore the difficulty, this can be applied to your own music.

My teacher regularly goes on about practicing until the section feels easy. It’s something everyone should try and I am continually surprised about the short amount of time it takes to get to the ‘feels easy’ level.

A couple of things to note here.

  1. Don’t actually read a book or do something else like watch tiktok while practicing these sections. This is mindless practice which doesn’t get us anywhere.

  2. When trying this with repertoire, do it with small sections. Just pick a phrase that is causing problems and go for it.

  3. Once you master the phrase gradually add it back in to the rest of your piece.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Free top 10 tips to effective practice

10 top tips and our newsletter.