In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of asking good questions. I gave examples of self-defeating or negative questions as well as some examples of effective questions to ask in the practice room.
Today I’m going to dive deeper into three specific questions. You can literally ask these questions over and over in a practice session and make significant progress. For many years I had an index card with these three questions written on it that I kept on the music desk of my piano, so I could refer to it throughout my practicing.
Three questions to ask:
- “How do I want this to sound?”
- “How is this different from how I want it to sound?”
- “What do I need to change in order for it to sound more like how I want it to sound?”
Let’s go through these questions in more detail:
1. How do I want this to sound?
At first glance, this question seems incredibly obvious. It’s easy to look at it and think, “Well, of course I know how this should sound. I want it to sound like that Lang Lang recording. I want it to sound like my teacher says. I want it to have all the right notes and all the right rhythms. I want to play expressively, too.”
But one of the biggest challenges of practicing is learning how to be specific. It’s not enough to just know how you want the finished product to go. How do you want this measure to sound? How do you want this phrase to sound? How do you want this note to sound?
Asking “How do I want this to sound?” will inevitably lead to other useful questions, such as:
- What is the character of this particular moment?
- What kind of touch do I want to I use here, on this chord or on this note?
- How does this phrase compare with the previous phrase, and the next phrase?
- What visual imagery describes what I am trying to achieve here?
- What emotional state describes what I think this music is about?
Really thinking about the specifics of exactly what you are trying to achieve from moment to moment in your sound, touch, character, affect, and technical approach will help you generate a sound image in your head.
Inner hearing
Answering this question requires developing the skill of audiation, or “inner hearing.” Inner hearing is the ability to imagine sounds in your head when no sound is actually being produced out loud.
At first when you start trying this, you may find that you have difficulty hearing music clearly in your head. If you’re not used to it, it’s hard to conjure up anything at all when trying to imagine sound without playing along or listening to a recording.
And that’s okay! Like any other musical skill, you can practice developing your inner hearing and it will become more and more vivid over time. You will be surprised at how fully you can develop your inner hearing. This is a topic I will explore at greater length in a future post.
2. How is this different from how I want it to sound?
This question is a natural follow-up to the first one. Once you have a clear sense in your mind about how you want it to sound, you have created a benchmark that becomes a basis for comparison.
Now that you have a specific idea in your head of how you want a phrase or note or musical gesture (or whatever it is that you are practicing) to sound (again, being super specific is the key), then the next step is to play it.
After you have played the phrase or the note or the musical gesture in question, ask yourself: “How is this (what I just played) different from how I want it to sound (my ideal imagined in my head)?”
This is where our inner critic can emerge. During this step: avoid judging yourself. By playing it once just now, you got a result. This result is not inherently good or bad; it’s just a reflection of how you are playing it today.
If your inner critic is being mean, simply note it and change the channel. Turn your attention to what you can objectively measure.
You will start to be able to discern more differences. For example, did you intend for this particular phrase to have an even crescendo, or did you want to save the crescendo for the end? Did the staccato touch you just played match the one in your imagination?
Did you want an angular, aggressive sound at the beginning of the note, or did you want a gentle, melodic sound? How did your tone compare with the imaginary one in your ideal?
Did you want even, rapid 16th notes? Are you imagining a steady, flowing tempo? How was your version different from that? Be as specific as possible.
3. What do I need to change in order for it to sound more like how I want it to sound?
The third question is my favorite: it’s the action question.
Think about the comparison between your ideal and the result you just got from playing. What do you need to change in order for it to sound more like your ideal?
Do you need to change something technical, such as the angle of your hand, the speed of your touch on the key, the use of your wrist, arm, or fingers? Did you intend to move your hand quickly to the next hand position, and if you weren’t successful, what adjustment will you need to make for the next repetition?
Do you need to change something musical? For example, do you need to start your crescendo sooner or later? Do you need to grow to a louder dynamic at the top of the phrase?
Do you need to change something in your sound? Compare the two results: the imaginary one and the one that you got by playing. How is your sound different from the ideal? For example, maybe your tone is harsher than you want it to be. To change this, you will need to adjust the speed the key goes down, which in turn means you need to adjust something technically in your approach in that moment.
Do you need to change something in the way you’re feeling the music? Maybe you need to further examine the musical character of the specific segment of the piece you are working on.
After you’ve asked yourself those three questions and come up with an answer to the third question, play it again.
Go through the three questions over and over as you practice. Compare your new result against your ideal (as established in Question 1) as opposed to your recent result. In this way you can make rapid progress, because you are remaining engaged by constantly sending your brain off in search of answers to new questions.
A couple of final tips:
- Remember: be specific. The biggest mistake students often make in this area is to think in general terms. Really go through your piece phrase by phrase and demand specificity of yourself on how each moment in your piece is going to sound.
- This way of practicing can be mentally fatiguing, especially if you are not used to imagining sound in your head without playing. So, try it out for a few minutes at a time, and gradually build up your stamina. If you find that your attention is flagging, take a break from this kind of practice before coming back to it.
- I recommend writing down these questions and putting it on the desk of your piano while you are practicing. That was really helpful to me while I was developing this habit in my own practice.
This week, try asking yourself these three questions and see how it affects your practice. Feel free to share your results in the comments below!
This is something to really think about! A new way of looking at practicing!