The repertoire and how to practice

[RowanSumner]

Hello, I've been playing for around two years now and dont have a repertoire more than 2 half baked songs. I'm not quite sure how that's happened, but I think I've gotten into the habit of learning a tune to an acceptable level and then moving on to something else without really perfecting the tune and making it into something worth listening to. How do you manage your repertoire? I've started writing down the tunes im working on and will try to keep playing them moving forward instead of becoming distracted with the next challenge.

I'm also intrigued to learn how you practice. I think ive been playing, and not practicing. Other than some scales and exercises I'm just playing for fun and enjoying the instrument, but I feel I could get more out of my play time. What is the structure of your practice sessions and how long are they?

I have been teaching myself using books, websites and videos so far. I would like to get lessons eventually when funds allow for it.

Thanks, Rowan

 

[oldbayan]

Well, you first have to ask yourself what kind of music you are interested in playing. One way or another, there are thousands of tunes you can play in very many styles. In lots of people's minds accordion tunes sound like "O sole mio" or polkas!

Exercises and scales are fine but you also need to have fun playing tunes. For me it often goes by "waves", like, I go on a spree of doing Italian tunes, or French, or gypsy... So I listen to many recordings on YouTube and pick some tunes I like, then either learn them by ear or buy the sheets from places like Musicnotes. I take notes of the tunes I went over and keep a list.

Lessons can indeed be a way of getting motivation, building a repertoire and polish your technique at the same time.

 

[Tom]

Hi Rowan, I went through the same things so can share some experience.

From other postings, it seems this is common, so not to worry.

About repertoire:

1. You pick the songs! This doesn’t necessarily have to do with how to increase repertoire but bears repeating. You will spend lots of time with these songs so pick well. Pick songs that you LOVE to play, that are within your difficulty range. Beware of just picking songs from the “accordion industrial complex.”

2. Keep a strong list. List the songs you can play well. That means you can play them at an acceptable level each time, even with not playing them for a couple days. Memorize them if you can.

3. Work on one (or maybe 2) new songs at a time. Let’s say you have 2 songs down. Pick one more and don’t leave it until you either have it or abandon it. This can be really difficult but is necessary. Have one song you are really working at, but take some time in your practice to have fun! You will get this new song to an acceptable level, but it needs to stew in your mind. You need to play it regularly for a week, a month, whatever.

4. Put the songs that you “have” in one notebook, separate from the others. This is your repertoire. Play through it every day or 2. If you can’t play one from your repertoire, stop, work on it before adding anything new. Keep another notebook of songs you would like to play. This second notebook will contain your “stewing” songs that are not ready for the “final” notebook.

5. When working on a song, make sure you can sing the words or melody by heart before you start working on it. Seems obvious, but took me a while to figure out.

Working at building repertoire is my life, only because like you, I didn’t have it. I was forced to by volunteering to play at the farmers market. You will likely need some motivation to build. If you don’t do gigs, no problem, play for your friends and family, post on YouTube. Do what ever you can to get your music heard in a non stressful way. This will verify your repertoire.

Imho practicing scales, chords and arpeggios is very helpful, and will serve you well regardless of what you play but is not “necessary” to building repertoire. Others have posted how to incorporate them in your practice.

Lessons with a good teacher are gold, but finding one at a price you can afford will be tricky. Like try to get a competent electrician to your house for an hour for less than $250. An accordion teacher deserves as much so it’s difficult unless you are a retired dentist.

Here’s how I practice. I start with some warm up. Almost always “Amore Mio non Piangere” and/or one or two other songs I “have.” Then I go on to working on the “stewing” songs which are marked in the second notebook. I may be able to move one to the final book. Then on to working on my “new” song. I may arrange it, listen to other versions, etc. Other posts discuss how to work out the parts of a song. Again, stay in your difficulty comfort zone. It’s ok to work on something way above your level, but not as a regular repertoire piece.

I also arrange all of my music. This helps with familiarity of look, and I always arrange in one of 4 keys only. At this point in your life do you really need 5 or 6 flats?

This is only my 2 cents for what it is worth. I hope I have provided some tips to make your journey easier.

 

[Rosie C]

I find if I don't play a tune for a couple of weeks it slips from my brain. I bought a set of A6 study cards - for students revising (about £3 from Tesco). Each time I learn a new song/tune, I write the name, key and instruments on the next card. When I'm have a few minutes spare I pick a card at random. Other times I set aside an hour and play through them all in turn. I guess as I get more tunes I'll have to change how I use it, but so far it works well.

Until last year I'd spent my practice time just playing. Then I did a course at Trinity-Laban and part of that was about effective practice and I realised I'd wasted thousands of hours with fairly ineffective pratice. The key bits I remember are - planning each practice session - what am I aiming to do, approaching a piece in a more logical way, splitting it up into sections rather than playing through, and working on my weakest bits. Playing to a metronome. Recording my playing then listening back and making notes. Feeding these notes back into my plan for the next practice session.

 

[RowanSumner]

Hi Rowan, I went through the same things so can share some experience.

From other postings, it seems this is common, so not to worry.

About repertoire:

1. You pick the songs! This doesn’t necessarily have to do with how to increase repertoire but bears repeating. You will spend lots of time with these songs so pick well. Pick songs that you LOVE to play, that are within your difficulty range. Beware of just picking songs from the “accordion industrial complex.”

2. Keep a strong list. List the songs you can play well. That means you can play them at an acceptable level each time, even with not playing them for a couple days. Memorize them if you can.

3. Work on one (or maybe 2) new songs at a time. Let’s say you have 2 songs down. Pick one more and don’t leave it until you either have it or abandon it. This can be really difficult but is necessary. Have one song you are really working at, but take some time in your practice to have fun! You will get this new song to an acceptable level, but it needs to stew in your mind. You need to play it regularly for a week, a month, whatever.

4. Put the songs that you “have” in one notebook, separate from the others. This is your repertoire. Play through it every day or 2. If you can’t play one from your repertoire, stop, work on it before adding anything new. Keep another notebook of songs you would like to play. This second notebook will contain your “stewing” songs that are not ready for the “final” notebook.

5. When working on a song, make sure you can sing the words or melody by heart before you start working on it. Seems obvious, but took me a while to figure out.

Working at building repertoire is my life, only because like you, I didn’t have it. I was forced to by volunteering to play at the farmers market. You will likely need some motivation to build. If you don’t do gigs, no problem, play for your friends and family, post on YouTube. Do what ever you can to get your music heard in a non stressful way. This will verify your repertoire.

Imho practicing scales, chords and arpeggios is very helpful, and will serve you well regardless of what you play but is not “necessary” to building repertoire. Others have posted how to incorporate them in your practice.

Lessons with a good teacher are gold, but finding one at a price you can afford will be tricky. Like try to get a competent electrician to your house for an hour for less than $250. An accordion teacher deserves as much so it’s difficult unless you are a retired dentist.

Here’s how I practice. I start with some warm up. Almost always “Amore Mio non Piangere” and/or one or two other songs I “have.” Then I go on to working on the “stewing” songs which are marked in the second notebook. I may be able to move one to the final book. Then on to working on my “new” song. I may arrange it, listen to other versions, etc. Other posts discuss how to work out the parts of a song. Again, stay in your difficulty comfort zone. It’s ok to work on something way above your level, but not as a regular repertoire piece.

I also arrange all of my music. This helps with familiarity of look, and I always arrange in one of 4 keys only. At this point in your life do you really need 5 or 6 flats?

This is only my 2 cents for what it is worth. I hope I have provided some tips to make your journey easier.

Thanks Tom that sounds like really sound advice. I think it would help to have everything written out like that to keep the songs I've got down current. It's also nice to have something to aim for so a list of tunes I would like to learn in the future will definitely help also

 

[RowanSumner]

I find if I don't play a tune for a couple of weeks it slips from my brain. I bought a set of A6 study cards - for students revising (about £3 from Tesco). Each time I learn a new song/tune, I write the name, key and instruments on the next card. When I'm have a few minutes spare I pick a card at random. Other times I set aside an hour and play through them all in turn. I guess as I get more tunes I'll have to change how I use it, but so far it works well.

Until last year I'd spent my practice time just playing. Then I did a course at Trinity-Laban and part of that was about effective practice and I realised I'd wasted thousands of hours with fairly ineffective pratice. The key bits I remember are - planning each practice session - what am I aiming to do, approaching a piece in a more logical way, splitting it up into sections rather than playing through, and working on my weakest bits. Playing to a metronome. Recording my playing then listening back and making notes. Feeding these notes back into my plan for the next practice session.

I have actually just started recording myself and I've found it really helpful, taking notes and using them for the following session sounds like a great idea

 

[Giovanni]

Hi Rowan, I went through the same things so can share some experience.

From other postings, it seems this is common, so not to worry.

About repertoire:

1. You pick the songs! This doesn’t necessarily have to do with how to increase repertoire but bears repeating. You will spend lots of time with these songs so pick well. Pick songs that you LOVE to play, that are within your difficulty range. Beware of just picking songs from the “accordion industrial complex.”

2. Keep a strong list. List the songs you can play well. That means you can play them at an acceptable level each time, even with not playing them for a couple days. Memorize them if you can.

3. Work on one (or maybe 2) new songs at a time. Let’s say you have 2 songs down. Pick one more and don’t leave it until you either have it or abandon it. This can be really difficult but is necessary. Have one song you are really working at, but take some time in your practice to have fun! You will get this new song to an acceptable level, but it needs to stew in your mind. You need to play it regularly for a week, a month, whatever.

4. Put the songs that you “have” in one notebook, separate from the others. This is your repertoire. Play through it every day or 2. If you can’t play one from your repertoire, stop, work on it before adding anything new. Keep another notebook of songs you would like to play. This second notebook will contain your “stewing” songs that are not ready for the “final” notebook.

5. When working on a song, make sure you can sing the words or melody by heart before you start working on it. Seems obvious, but took me a while to figure out.

Working at building repertoire is my life, only because like you, I didn’t have it. I was forced to by volunteering to play at the farmers market. You will likely need some motivation to build. If you don’t do gigs, no problem, play for your friends and family, post on YouTube. Do what ever you can to get your music heard in a non stressful way. This will verify your repertoire.

Imho practicing scales, chords and arpeggios is very helpful, and will serve you well regardless of what you play but is not “necessary” to building repertoire. Others have posted how to incorporate them in your practice.

Lessons with a good teacher are gold, but finding one at a price you can afford will be tricky. Like try to get a competent electrician to your house for an hour for less than $250. An accordion teacher deserves as much so it’s difficult unless you are a retired dentist.

Here’s how I practice. I start with some warm up. Almost always “Amore Mio non Piangere” and/or one or two other songs I “have.” Then I go on to working on the “stewing” songs which are marked in the second notebook. I may be able to move one to the final book. Then on to working on my “new” song. I may arrange it, listen to other versions, etc. Other posts discuss how to work out the parts of a song. Again, stay in your difficulty comfort zone. It’s ok to work on something way above your level, but not as a regular repertoire piece.

I also arrange all of my music. This helps with familiarity of look, and I always arrange in one of 4 keys only. At this point in your life do you really need 5 or 6 flats?

This is only my 2 cents for what it is worth. I hope I have provided some tips to make your journey easier.

great advice Tom .......I agree with your approach ......gotta smile about the Keys ....the sheet music for for Deborah's Theme is in the Key of E
I struggle to play it in that key !! I wrote out the music in the Key of F.........................I'm now a happy bunny !!!
Keep Squeezing and Pleasing your Audiences !!!

 

[RowanSumner]

Thank you all for your comments on this. I've really focused on two tunes since writing the post, both of which are now, on a good day, in the 'worth listening to' category. It really is just slowing it down, and practice, practice, practice.

I've been whittling down the tunes in my 'to learn list' to those I think which are realistically within my ability at the moment also. I was a good exercise to write out the tunes I'm learning or have learnt, because there were a few that had slipped my mind as I haven't played them in so long, but they're still there and I can still play them.

 

[Jim S]

Appreciate all the earlier comments as it’s easy to practise without a real aim and not feel you’re advancing. I go frequently to open mics because prractising at home isn’t enough for me - I need to play in public to really say I have mastered a tune, no matter how nervous I would feel. And once I get home I write down exactly how I felt it went. I also try to focus on the difficult parts do break a tune down - it was easy to always start from the beginning, which would be fluid, and skip the later difficult section. One final point - a very good friend is excellent on the violin but still takes lessons after after 50 years playing - he asked his Russian teacher about a difficult passage and she simply asked if he’d tried it 200 times. If not, he already had his answer!

 

[JerryPH]

200 times, huh? Hmmm... a little extreme I would say, one should know well before 200 perfect replays if they can play something or not. As far as performance playing... depends on the person. I've performed a TON under severe pressure (competitions) and played live to numbers from two people to thousands of people. I need to know I can play it well on stage before I go on stage... finding out that I am 98% of the way there in front of a group of people... not the best idea. I also found out that I don't need to gig regularly to be performance ready for a gig. Maybe that comes from experience, maybe it's my ADHD personality... lol

Practicing is never easy, it's not supposed to be... it should be like a wave, start easy, grow and end intense, take a few seconds mental break and do it again. Rinse repeat until it becomes easy... move on to the next goal. I wonder how many of us could sit down and put 100% focus on 3 goals/passages in one song for 30 minutes and not feel at least a little bit mentally drained? If done right, you feel that with every good practice.

I'm really enjoying the book that cestJeffici mentioned ("Learn Faster, Perform Better by Molly Gebrian)... couple more days to complete it and then I go through it one more time to make my personal notes and then start using the method to see how well it works for me.

 

[Jim S]

Thanks for the book recommendation- I’ll order later today! When he told me about the 200 practices, I should clarify that it was attempts, absolutely not perfect renditions! And for me an open mic is ideal to try something out - the audience is very supportive and happy to bear with mistakes; if I’m being paid at a real gig I want to feel absolutely secure in what I’m doing, which is probably how you also feel.

 

[tcabot]

I found my ability to bash out a tune has increased tenfold when I switched from chromatic to a diatonic. Part of it was that I did not need to find my way through a spaghetti bowl of chromatic notes and could fake my way out of any trouble by flying up & down the diatonic scale, and part of it was the rather simplified bass line of a melodeon compared to an accordion Stradella system.
It did make me think that more advanced bass lines take a huge amount of time for me to learn that can instead be used to learn & play a new tune with some simple I-V-IV oom-pah bass. I don't even dig Stradella that much, so it's hard to motivate myself to invest time in learning it.
It also made me think that I need to spend a lot more time on etudes & exercises on a chromatic to become a lot more fluent in each key.

I'm giving a PA a try this year, with a view of using it for freebass and for stuff I can't play on a diatonic, but 2 weeks into it I'm already bashing my head against some very basic stuff in C maj and G maj that I could squeeze out of a diatonic with very little effort.
Of course, it's a new type of keyboard that's likely overloading my limited brain capacity, but I'm already longing for the simplicity of a diatonic.

Most likely, lack of talent and moral fiber on my part .

 

[JeffJetton]

I'm really enjoying the book that cestJeffici mentioned ("Learn Faster, Perform Better by Molly Gebrian)... couple more days to complete it and then I go through it one more time to make my personal notes and then start using the method to see how well it works for me.

I just started reading it too. Good so far!

Note that a lot of the same ground (so far at least) is covered in other books I've read. I like to read a few different perspectives on a topic to get things to sink in. Specifically, I can also recommend:

• First, Learn to Practice by Tom Heany
• The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, or his The Little Book of Talent (or both!)

As far as honing pieces, yeah, there's nothing like a gig or open mic to light a fire under your butt.

I've also done the index card method like Rosie C. You can even take those cards to the next step by using something like the Leitner system.

 

[JerryPH]

I just started reading it too. Good so far!
Note that a lot of the same ground (so far at least) is covered in other books I've read. I like to read a few different perspectives on a topic to get things to sink in.

This one is more or less my 2nd foray into something similar. I tried using the Bulletproof Musician method.. some different, some the same, but it wasn't for me.

• The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, or his The Little Book of Talent (or both!)

Hmmm... nice coincidence. I saw a video this morning mentioning that very book and was going to add that to the list as it did seem to have a good overlap of concepts and methods, that one is next on the list, but I want to give this system a fair try.

I suppose that there really aren't like a million ways to practice, if you really think about it. "Place nose to grindstone, press hard. The harder you press, the faster you learn". That is a universal sentiment that all the most successful musicians use.

 

[Tom]

Based on the recommendations from this forum I’m reading the Molly Gebrian book too. Makes a lot of sense. I agree that hard focused practice for 30 minutes will burn me out. Definitely. In fact Molly says “Take lots of breaks, that’s when you learn.” A little counterintuitive maybe but makes sense when you think about it. Another thing she stresses is “Don’t play wrong. The more you play a phrase wrong, the harder it is to play it right in performance.” What I get from this is: If you can’t play a phrase, stop, analyze it, figure it out slowly slowly, without playing it wrong. Then slowly bring it up to speed. When you have it repeat it using a formula you’ll have to read, kind of complicated, but definitely does not require 200 repetitions.

Comes down to “intentional practicing” not just blindly playing through, hoping you’ll get it eventually. Stop, focus, figure it out and play correctly every time you hit a snag. Never play it wrong again. Easier said than done. If you can’t figure it out, it’s over your level. Play something easier or improvise.

 

[Ventura]

something old Perkins taught me when i was
a pump jockey/mechanics helper

if you can't get the bolt/fitting started after fighting it
for 15 minutes, just walk away and do something else
for awhile

when you come back to it and reach up under that dammed
master Cylinder again, SURPRISE, it threads right in

our brains work on stuff even when it is in the background,
and not our "focused window" and our natural feel for something
often comes into play when we just reach out for it again

so your intentional practicing makes sense to me

 

[Tom]

something old Perkins taught me when i was
a pump jockey/mechanics helper

if you can't get the bolt/fitting started after fighting it
for 15 minutes, just walk away and do something else
for awhile

when you come back to it and reach up under that dammed
master Cylinder again, SURPRISE, it threads right in

our brains work on stuff even when it is in the background,
and not our "focused window" and our natural feel for something
often comes into play when we just reach out for it again

so your intentional practicing makes sense to me

Yup, I think that’s exactly what she’s saying. Thanks for the example Ventura.

 

[Giovanni]

Based on the recommendations from this forum I’m reading the Molly Gebrian book too. Makes a lot of sense. I agree that hard focused practice for 30 minutes will burn me out. Definitely. In fact Molly says “Take lots of breaks, that’s when you learn.” A little counterintuitive maybe but makes sense when you think about it. Another thing she stresses is “Don’t play wrong. The more you play a phrase wrong, the harder it is to play it right in performance.” What I get from this is: If you can’t play a phrase, stop, analyze it, figure it out slowly slowly, without playing it wrong. Then slowly bring it up to speed. When you have it repeat it using a formula you’ll have to read, kind of complicated, but definitely does not require 200 repetitions.

Comes down to “intentional practicing” not just blindly playing through, hoping you’ll get it eventually. Stop, focus, figure it out and play correctly every time you hit a snag. Never play it wrong again. Easier said than done. If you can’t figure it out, it’s over your level. Play something easier or improvise.

Hi Tom do you have the link so I can order the book by Molly Gebrian ?.................. best regards Giovanni

 

[Tom]

Hi Giovanni,

You can find the book here on Amazon. There may be other places too but I don’t know.

Amazon.com

 

[JerryPH]

I don't know other people, but my brain definitely comes up with a lot of answers to questions for me. Mostly early mornings as I am just waking up and review the past day's challenges, it just pops in and says "hey, here you go... do it this way, and it will work fine". Lately, its done it for more than one thing at a time.

Now... if only I could come up with the numbers for the winning lottery, I'd be all set (hear that Jerry's brain??? WINNING LOTTERY NUMBER!) ...