Bug hunting in your piano practice - part 2

When playing a piece through to your teacher, it's often surprising to find unexpected bugs and tricky spots which didn't seem obvious at home during practice.

"You can't solve problems you don't know are there." Philip Johnston

Last time, we looked at the 'Spotting' piano practice strategy, and how to use this to identify the places in your current piece that have the most mistakes, problems or insecurities. This works fine when the problem spots are obvious when you play through - you hear a wrong note, or a thumped accent, or the fingering trips you up. But what about the hidden bugs?

Here's how to find the problem spots that you can't obviously spot.

'Record yourself' practice strategy

Sometimes, it's easier to hear problems when you're not busy concentrating on playing at the same time. In this strategy, record yourself play the piece, or section of the music. Listen back as you follow the score, again marking the problem spots with a pencil dot. One recording is not a sufficient sample, so repeat this strategy at least 3-4 times to get a representative assessment.

'Stress testing' practice strategy

Imagine you are going to perform this piece live to an audience. With the extra adreneline and nerves, unexpected bugs can suddenly appear that you didn't know were there. So, either put this piece through a live simulation to a family member, a cuddly toy, a pet (or other sympathetic audience), OR stress test the piece by putting the metronome on at the required final performance tempo, and see what cracks appear.

With these three piano practice strategies in your toolkit: spotting, recording yourself, and stress testing, you now have a comprehensive plan to find those problem spots and bugs in your current piece. And every future piece you learn to play.