A Thirteen-Week Performance Practice Routine for Students Majoring in Piano

Abstract

Increasingly, students who are music majors are looking for highly efficient strategies to prepare for their scheduled performance. This thesis introduces a well-organized, thirteen-week routine of (piano) performance practice for a brand-new piece. This routine draws on Aaron Copland’s What to Listen for in Music, Anders Ericsson’s PEAK: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, and Noa Kageyama’s online course, Beyond Practicing (v2.5). It uses Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata op.1 as an example of how to create this routine. There are four dimensions to this routine—building an artistic image before execution; deliberate practice in the practice room; achieving solid, stable memorization; and mental practice for the final performance