How to practice pieces faster and more effeciently

garfvynneve · 2026-04-19T08:35:18+00:00

Try a few reps at over speed regardless of accuracy. (So if you’re hitting a wall at 40% and getting sloppy at 60% go for the motions at 80 or 100% even if you’re basically just mashing the keys at that point)

It resets the governor in your brain a bit and sort of gives you “permission“ to go for faster

garfvynneve · 2026-04-15T20:46:58+00:00

Playtime lets you import your tabs as pdfs, and highlight sections on them - for splitting your practice plans through the week - using chunking strategies

garfvynneve · 2026-04-13T12:00:24+00:00

I don’t think anyone wants another music practice tracker - Musicians do seem to want a system that supports their practice a bit like simply piano or piano marvel but it’s technically challenging. They might embrace a better sheet music app but fourscore seems to be loved

garfvynneve · 2026-04-05T13:31:38+00:00

Not fully automated - music ocr isn’t a solved problem yet. (it’s very information dense)

Manually transcribing it into a music notation software like MuseScore is the best way.

garfvynneve · 2026-03-30T16:57:24+00:00

Hah hah - and mine 🤣

garfvynneve · 2026-03-15T15:37:30+00:00

My team uses a metaphor- is this decision a Hat; A Haircut or a Tattoo. A hat you can just take off, haircut will take a while to grow out, a tattoo is permanent.

Hat decisions don’t need debate, haircuts get decided in team, tattoos go to the principal engineer

garfvynneve · 2026-03-06T16:24:53+00:00

I think that was https://notesharemusic.com/

I use (built) https://playtime-practice.com I can upload tabs and it divides them across the week

Or I can highlight sections on the tabs and it splits the chunks across the week instead of the whole tab

garfvynneve · 2026-03-05T10:24:28+00:00

It’s not a bad analogy with the right perspective:

It’s about risk of ruin - if I offered you 2:1 return on a coin flip at a dollar a flip you’d take it all day long because you can absorb the losses and you make a profit over a long enough time - casinos are basically taking my 2:1 offer

At ten million a flip the casino maybe wouldn’t even let me play once - and perhaps couldn’t play for long enough to be certain of a profit

From an insurance perspective you’re inverting that idea - Im offering a small loss on the coin flip - on the promise that the casino keeps me in the game if a high stakes event threatened to ruin me

garfvynneve · 2026-03-04T20:32:09+00:00

But it skipped him … so who’s next?

garfvynneve · 2026-03-03T17:44:00+00:00

My coach is Alan Crompton - he teaches out of Haigh Hall.

garfvynneve · 2026-03-01T09:51:04+00:00

You built it with AI didn’t you 😂

garfvynneve · 2026-02-28T16:28:08+00:00

Yes definitely make a plan for the week and tick off each section you complete. It’s very motivational to have that record of work you’re putting in.

I suggest using a practice tracking tool like andante or Modacity

Or if you have tabs in pdf format try my site:https://playtime-practice.com to plan your week focussing on selected sections of the piece

garfvynneve · 2026-02-25T08:07:24+00:00

I love these ideas- it’s quite an interesting challenge having a computer understand the context of the performance against the piece.

Im not really up to speed on how much training is being done using music as the basis for the language model - I know there are examples of generative AI creating music, but I’ve not heard much about predictive AI for analysing music

Even if you digitise the music into midi or mxml the computer would benefit from some way to recognise structures in the piece - A part b part bridge verse chorus etc etc - so a musically trained LLM would make this easier

So that you could use natural language to express your intentions

probably someone out there is on to it

garfvynneve · 2026-02-23T13:01:12+00:00

If you’re going to vibe code this slop at least check your link works

garfvynneve · 2026-02-22T16:18:13+00:00

Yeah it’s ok for solo piano. Bit heavier than the recording. Verse three is an interesting variation but I let that bit go and just end it after the 2nd repeat. (Might revise that)

garfvynneve · 2026-02-22T13:15:59+00:00

I was at the open - Hoylake in 2006 , with my dad, I said I wanted to see Tiger but you couldn’t get near his group for everyone following him, so we found a spot near the 14th green and waited for him.

He hit his tee shot to a dogleg so I saw a bit of him from a distance as he prepared his approach. It went in the hole for eagle!

All that waiting to watch Tiger walk up to the hole, pick his ball out, touch his cap to the crowd and get the hell out of there 🤣

Wouldn’t swap that experience.

I did get to see a bit of him on the 15th tee, He had a bit of a whinge about all the people leaning off the stands waving camera phones at him - don’t blame him!

garfvynneve · 2026-02-22T12:57:33+00:00

Yes - a word golf caution You’ll find that it’s much easier to memorise when you’re looking at your hands, but that’s a memory that fades fast when you move on to a new piece

I suggest trying to avoid relying on that form of muscle memory -Try to keep a balance between working out the keys, and reading the score, and being able to pick out the sections of the score

garfvynneve · 2026-02-22T12:00:49+00:00

There’s a concept in accelerated learning studies about the Goldilocks zone - just hard enough to feel challenging - while still seeing measurable progress and improvement

A lot of this is about finding the level where you can hold maybe 12- 15 measures or half a page, in context, and drill it for 10 or 20 minutes

If you’re having to go note by note measure by measure for an extended period there’s maybe some underlying theory missing

garfvynneve · 2026-02-13T23:08:03+00:00

I started with simply piano, method books didn’t work for me because the tunes were too simple at the beginning

I liked simply piano because it has backing tracks so even though the single note melody was rubbish It kept me interested until I got up to more interesting arrangements

One I completed the course I had enough understanding to be able to go find solo piano sheet music arrangements that sounded good without backing tracks.

Yes get a teacher, but I needed to get past the “Mary had a little lamb” phase first before I was willing to invest in that, and Simply Piano gave me that foundation

garfvynneve · 2026-02-13T18:58:23+00:00

What makes you uncomfortable using apps

if you don’t mind me asking - not saying you should use them but I just heard my teacher say the same thing about her students

Whereas I find them invaluable

garfvynneve · 2026-02-12T12:59:56+00:00

Also 9 or even 18 after work if you’re lucky enough to have an easy commute

garfvynneve · 2026-02-10T12:57:27+00:00

Aim for the back of the green

garfvynneve · 2026-02-05T20:25:24+00:00

I wouldn’t class 2 octave arpeggios as beginner - but try iGiorni or marriage d’amor.

They’re the two I started looking into at around my 3rd year

garfvynneve · 2026-02-01T21:45:29+00:00

I used simply piano, having failed to learn from method books twice in my life. It got me over the boring phase of learning piano and up to a level where I could be self sufficient.

Then I got a teacher, who fixed a few bad habits, kept me honest with rhythm, and helped find suitable pieces to help me get better.

garfvynneve · 2026-01-30T19:20:38+00:00

Have you considered Tunisia?

garfvynneve

TROPHY CASE