Is there such thing as..

[Claiken]

overpractising something? i find if i practise the same thing for an amount of time - i find myself making stupid, minor, dumb mistakes that i dont make if im reading through the whole piece. so, my question is, is there such a thing as over practising something?

(of course teachers would probably say 10 hours a day isnt overpractising - but im speaking realistically here...)

any thoughts/opinions/advice?

im trying to learn a piece in a short time and im finding myself making these little mistakes alot, when im working on a bar or 2, as apposed to reading thru the whole piece...

[brina]

well, maybe your not in "good shape". Playing an instrument is like playing a sport. And if your tired you start making mistakes. That's normal. Try to play it very slowly and than increase the tempo very slowly. It will help. When your doing mistakes is also very helpful to take a small brake, to it something or whatever. That's how I do it and it helps me. I hope I helped you too.

[fluttiegurl]

It may not be overpracticing as much as under-thinking. Going over the same section agian and again will not help if mistakes are not corrected. Take a moment to analyze what you see, hear it in your head, then give it a stab (at a slow tempo at first). I find that my students who tend to do this try to work too fast or are not taking time to actually think about the piece. If you are on a limited time frame, this is crucial as you will probably be more likely to learn mistakes if you are trying to learn it quickly because you overlook things that you may not if you had more time.

[Claiken]

i always feel like im shooting myself in the foot by playing slow though (after the initial learning the piece) because when I do that, im more comfortable, then i find id rather play slower than faster. so basically ive been trying to force myself to play fast, and correct.

does that help? lol

[fluttiegurl]

Afte you initially learn the piece (assuming it is correct) you should attempt to up the tempo, but in most cases, gradually. You should not expect yourself to go from 60 to 144, for example. I have had teachers that who asked me to read the piece at tempo first to see where it would need the most work, but spending time working on something at tempo when you are playing mistakes over and over will not help in the long run. If you know the piece (correctly) you should concentrate on getting it to tempo as well as playing through. This goes back to knowing what the piece is supposed to sound like an dtrying to interpret it accurately.