How would you start learning a piece like this:

How would you start learning a piece like this:

Ligeti: Devil's Staircase

I thought I would at least provide you with the 'cool' video.\

I don't understand how even amazing pianists take this kind of literature and transfer it from the paper to the hands of the performer.

I'm afraid I don't understand the question. Do you mean that you want advice on how to learn it?

No, I want advice on what people do when they first see a piece like this. Do they start by reading the notes and plunking out rhythms, do they find an .mp3 and listen to the song and try to get a feel for it, or do they plunge in and try to sightread the piece? etc,

Read the score of course! Sight reading won't really work unless you want to hit random pitches... This takes memorising A LOT! And it is so complicated that an mp3 wouldn't really work, although at the very initial stages, it might be beneficial to have in your head what goes on in the piece, very roughly!

I have to disagree with you, I usually sight read it, at least at first. I also like to have some kind of idea of what the piece should sound like.

Read the score of course! Sight reading won't really work unless you want to hit random pitches... This takes memorising A LOT! And it is so complicated that an mp3 wouldn't really work, although at the very initial stages, it might be beneficial to have in your head what goes on in the piece, very roughly!

I agree with this. Check out his other vids too, this guy's amazing and very versatile. He is a composer too.

Four hands. The girl's hot :w00t:

EDIT: How do you embed the video?

WHOA WHOA WHOA!

In order to learn anything, like Nikolas said, READ THE SCORE!!! From there, you go VERY VERY VERY SLOWLY!! ... SLOWLY!! :w00t:

The thing about practice is you can learn something without ever hearing it before- You simply have to understand what's written, especially in something like this. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the video to play, but I sense that it is difficult by the way Morivou advertised it.

I'm only a second year student of piano, and my teacher has already assigned me a Chopin waltz of great difficulty. She expects me to practice very slowly (there it is again!!), and if you make a mistake, GO BEFORE IT AND CORRECT IT!! The first time you look at a piece is the most important, so you MUST play everything 100% correctly for the first few times practicing it!

Onto practice- In something like this, ALWAYS USE A METRONOME ON A LOW SETTING TO START!! Evil things can happen if you decide to just start going 60 mph when you haven't learned it fully. It takes a lot of patience to learn a piece, no doubt, and if you have the patience, it pays well.

Besides, do you know how long it took the pianist to learn it...? I might be able to give you an estimate if I could play the video. I've spent two months on the Chopin waltz, and I'm only half-way through it, but I know it securely, and could play 100% perfectly at the tempo I practiced. So after you know a section nearly perfectly (though you should really know if you are playing it perfectly, and not letting yourself get away with near-perfection), just turn the metronome up ONE CLICK- Very important- some people tell you three, but that doesn't work at all!- and play the same thing THREE OR FIVE TIMES PERFECTLY. Then repeat this until it is at tempo...

I've said too much... Oh well, I feel food that I've retained everything that my Piano teacher has said! :D

I got the vid working. On another note, the guy can play, but he isn't very expressive... Then again, it gets better later on. Never mind.

I have to disagree with you, I usually sight read it, at least at first. I also like to have some kind of idea of what the piece should sound like.

Hem, sight reading is always what one does when they don't know the piece. You simply don't know it so you sight read. But when I talked about sight reading, I meant going to a workshop, or recital, or concert and sight read, or something. And having the mp3, as I said, is helpful, but could be seen as a bit of a criple aid. What if you don't have the mp3? You do need to be able to "understand" from the score what goes on, even if after a while...

What you said, IHoldThePenHaHa, contains some good advice, but you should see it so dogmatically. There's more than one way of learning a piece of music, and different pieces and different players ask for different methods. Some things can be learnt easier at a more fluid tempo (complex divisive rhythms for example), and making a fault once or twice won't kill you or the piece. Sometimes it may be more helpful to break the piece into tiny parts and practice them at original speed, sometimes it may be helpful to practice the two hands seperately, sometimes it helps to hum a piece before playing it, sometimes it helps to practice the rhythms first, especially if they are very complex. Analysing a piece before playing it can be useful in many cases, as can be playing it with different rhythms, articulations, dynamics.

Personally, if I was facing a complex piece like this I would, like Nikolas, read the score first. I'd try to play the piece in my head. Then I might tap the rhythms, etc. But there isn't a recipe, everyone has to find their own way how to best learn a piece. I think the most important part is not -how- you do it, but that you do it -consciously-. Any conscious method will have a greater effect than mindless playing. Don't rely on a simple method too much either, but approach it from different angles, if it's something so complex. Repetitions tire the mind, so by changing your way of approaching the piece from time to time you stay more fresh and learn more. Regard it as a creative process, don't rely on a single method, but invent new ones.

What you said, IHoldThePenHaHa, contains some good advice, but you should see it so dogmatically. There's more than one way of learning a piece of music, and different pieces and different players ask for different methods. Some things can be learnt easier at a more fluid tempo (complex divisive rhythms for example), and making a fault once or twice won't kill you or the piece. Sometimes it may be more helpful to break the piece into tiny parts and practice them at original speed, sometimes it may be helpful to practice the two hands seperately, sometimes it helps to hum a piece before playing it, sometimes it helps to practice the rhythms first, especially if they are very complex. Analysing a piece before playing it can be useful in many cases, as can be playing it with different rhythms, articulations, dynamics.

This is very true, you are right, and I forgot to mention it. I think I was annoyed that no one was answering the initial question, and overreacted a bit. Thanks for pointing that out!