MuslCJl! Sclentl.

C 1998 by ESCOM European Society

Spring 1998, Vol. II, n 0 1, 67-94 for the C0l"ltlve SCiences of Music

Preparation of a Public Piano Performance:

The Relation Between Practice and Performance

ANDREAS C. LEHMANN & K. ANDERS ERICSSON

Florida State University

e ABSTRACT
This study investigated an expert pianist's nine-month preparation for a public
music performance (redtal) through the collection of practice diaries and MIDI
recordings of the eight scheduled pieces. Recordings were made under the
experimentally varied conditions of solitary performance and public performance.
The practice diaries revealed that the expert (an advanced student performer)
allocated practice time consistently across the entire preparation period and tended
to use mornings to practice the pieces perceived as being more difficult. Total
preparation time for each of the pieces could be predicted on the basis of the
pianist's subjective ratings of complexity and independent ratings of complexity
given by other experts. An analysis of the performance data showed that, near the
time of the recital, variability in performance tempo was large between pieces but
very small for multiple renditions of the same piece, even under the different
experimental conditions. Thus, to attain a highly reproducible public performance,
the expert allocated practice time in response to task demands and engaged in
specific preparations that would safeguard the performance against unexpected
problems.

Although the main task of musicians trained in the performance tradition of Western
classical music is to play extensively rehearsed music in front of an audience. the process
of acquiring such music has received little attention in the research literature. As we
document with this study. the usually covert extensive process of rehearsing music can be
empirically investigated under certain favorable real-life conditions. When studying
expert performers. linking performance to preparation is central to understanding the

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mechanisms and prerequisites that allow superior performance (Ericsson & Smith, 1991;
Ericsson. 1997).
This paper reports on one expert musician's process of preparing a recital program
from the initial encounter with the pieces to the first public performance. The daily
practice by this musician (GM) was recorded in a diary for the entire preparation period
of nine months. Several weeks before the public recital. we recorded GM's entire recital
program twice under each of two different conditions. by herself (practice condition) and
under performance conditions with an audience of invited musicians (performance
condition). This study allowed us to accomplish three objectives: (a) to monitor the
amount and daily distribution of practice, (b) to analyze the recordings, and (c) to relate
the amount of practice to the performance of a given piece and to indices of its difficulty
level.
We will start out by addressing some considerations regarding the process oflearning
new repertoire and its relation to overall skill level. Then. we will revisit studies on the
initial stages of acquiring new music. and finally outline some research on the
characteristics of rehearsed performance.

INVESTIGATING TIlE PREPARATION OF UNFAMIUAR MUSIC

The preparation for a public performance of a set of new solo pieces is an extended
process that may last many months or even years. Figure 1 illustrates this process which
is-at all levelsof proficiency-an integral part of learning to playa musical instrument.
At the .onset of learning a new piece. the student already has some previous knowledge
that will allow mastery of the piece. Then. each new piece is taken from its initially
unrehearsed performance to the final stages of a polished performance (see shaded oval
in Figure 0, providing an increase in general performance skills along with the mastery
of the individual piece. Overall, general performance increases faster in the beginning
and slows (asymptotes) at higher levels of performance. The performance preparation of
an expert is therefore likely to be distinct from skill acquisition, because the technical
challenges that foster large improvements in general skills have been mastered prior to
preparation of a specific piece of music.
There are many factors that influence the amount of necessary preparation time
needed to attain the polished level of performance of a public solo performance. The
most important factor concerns the relation between the difficulty level of the piece
(considering its length and recommended tempo) and the skill level of the performer.
There are subjective estimates of how students and teachers perceive the difficulty of a
piece. However. music experts have tried to develop more objective consensual ratings of
complexity for a given set of pieces. The result of such endeavors for the piano are
educational plans or syllabi such as those of the Associated Board Exam in the United
Kingdom. the syllabus of the Toronto conservatory (Piano Syllabus. 1986), the P-F-
Guide (Pierce & Fuszek, 1987). or annotated listings of piano literature (e.g.• Wolters &

lilI
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 Relatlns practiceand performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN at K. ANDERS ERICSSON

unrehearsed polished
performance performance
Quality

General
performance Amount of ,~
preparation, , ,
skills ,,
,
,,

Level ofskill at the

start ofpreparation

Duration of training
Figure 1. Overview of learning trajectories for individual pieces in the context of instrumental
music skill acquisition with points of interest for studies on pradice and performance (shaded
columns)

Goebels, 1967). Our analyses indicate high and significant correlations between such
lisrings.! Surprisingly, there are no empirical data validating the criteria used for rating
pieces according to difficulty, nor for the real-life validity of these ratings. As it turned
out, complexity ratings and preparation time for a given piece were significantly related
in this study.
An hour-long representative recital program can require several hundred hours of
preparation time. This fact poses a challenge to laboratory studies of this process. As a
result (see shaded columns in Figure I), laboratory studies have focused on either the
early acquisition stages or memorization (e.g., Rubin-Rabson, 1940; 1941; Gruson,
1988; Miklaszewski, 1989; 1995) or the analysis of the final performance (e.g., Seashore,
1938/1967; Shaffer, 1981; Repp, 1990; Clynes & Walker, 1986). To reduce the necessary
time to memorize or initially master the pieces, researchers have selected short pieces (or
brief excerpts of regular pieces) at relatively low difficulty levels (e.g., Rubin-Rabson,
1940; Krampe, 1994). The difficulty level of the music used in laboratory studies is often
well below the musicians' maximal level, especially for studies involving experts. In the
following review of research on the acquisition of new music and the structure of

(l) An analysis of works mentioned both in the Piano Syllabus (l986) and Pierce and Fuszc:k's (l987) guide
revealed a significant correlation of r(44) = .84. P < .001. Relating independent ratings of difficulty for
Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas listed in Pierce and Fuszek (l987) and Wolten and Goebels (l967) also results
in a significant correlation of r(30) = .83. p < .00 1.

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polished performance we will carefully note the relation between the difficulty of the
music and the skill level of the performers. In contrast to most studies reviewed below.
our study will document the entire process of preparing a performance in a naturalistic
setting.

STUDIES OF MEMORIZATION AND ACQUISmON OF PIECES OF MUSIC

Typical studies of memorization of music have aimed at documenting technical aspects

of mastery of a solo piece, carefully avoiding aspects of musical expression. In her
pioneering work on memorization of music, Rubin-Rabson (1940) found that, when
controlling for length, greater complexity of the music led to more memory trials prior
to mastery. Although the study did not give enough details to assess the complexity of
the pieces. the author emphasized their "simplicity" (p, 465). With different stimuli
(which we assessed to correspond to grade level 5-6. cf. Wolters & Goebels, 1967),
Rubin-Rabson (1941) found that when controlling for difficulty. length influenced the
number of trials necessary to memorize the pieces. In a replication with Rubin-Rabson's
(1941) original stimuli. Jones (1990) found a significant correlation between years of
piano training and learning times for pieces of varying length (16 ro 26 measures). The
subjects were skilled piano players "at or above the intermediate level" (p. 50). As the
present study will show. most laboratory results generalize to a real-life situation, even
when we control for skill level and add interpretive aspects to the performance.
The acquisition of specific repertoire by expen musicians has only been studied by a
small number of investigators (Chaffin & Imreh, 1996; Gruson, 1988; Miklaszewski,
1989. 1995) who focused on the structure of practice. Miklaszewski (I995) monitored
the entire acquisition process for four short pieces of about 5 minutes total performance
time, however. he did not study and analyze the final performance. The author found
that the preparation time for roughly one minute of performed music was about one
hour. Chaffin and Imreh (1996) studied the entire acquisition of two pieces by a
professional pianist and found that the pianist took about 35 hours to learn and
memorize the third movement of Bach's "Italian Concerto" which is about 3:14 minutes
long; only 3 hours were needed to learn a simpler but longer piece of 4:54 minutes
length. The pieces are rated at level 11 and 10, respectively (Wolters & Goebels, 1967).
Gruson (1988) found that players of a large range of skill-beginners to accomplished
pianists-differed in the way they practiced music when technical level was controlled.
Advanced players repeated more individual sections and talked more than less
accomplished subjects while practicing (also Harnischmacher, 1993, for similar results in
the context of a survey study), In a case study, Miklaszewski (1989) investigated one
phase in the acquisition of a complex piece (level 14 according to Wolters & Goebels,
1967) of about 5 minutes in length. 2 In agreement with Gruson's (1988) results, he

(2) Miklaszcwski (1989) reports rhat up to six pages were already memorized. implying that the subject was
in the final initial stages ofleaming the piece. The goal of the 4 practice sessions. totaling around 220 minutes,
was for the pianist to be able to "perform the composition from beginning to end without interruptions. and
with sketchy interpretation, but not necessarilyfrom memory" (p, 98).

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 RelaUng practice and performance
ANDREAS C. LEHMANN & K ANDERS ERICSSON

found that the expert pianist identified the difficult sections and devoted more time to
these sections than to the rest of the piece. Miklaszewski (1995) also investigated the
preparation of four short pieces to performance level by three expert pianists. 3 These
results essentially replicated his earlier findings and. in addition, indicated that the length
of sections practiced increased over time. Chaffin and Imreh (1996) also found that their
subject made central decisions regarding final performance very early on in the
preparation process. Supporting evidence for experts' ability to anticipate possible
performance problems also was provided by a study with an organ player (Nielsen,
1997).
Laboratory studies and studies involving short pieces and practice times suggest that
increase in complexity is related to increase in practice time. Initial evidence exists
showing that experts may possess greater insight into possible future performance
problems. This study replicated and extended some of these results in the context of the
naturalistic preparation of an entire recital program. In contrast to other studies, we also
assessed the quality and adequacy of the final performance.

CONSISTENCY AS A CHARACTERISTIC OF REHEARSED EXPEIrr PERFORMANCE

One of the primary challenges to the study of expert music performance is that the
polished performance of the same piece differs systematically among expert musicians as
a function of their intended interpretation of the piece (e.g.• Seashore. 1938/1967;
Gabrielsson, 1987; Repp, 1990). If the performer rehearses a single preferred
interpretation. the performance by a given musician should be very consistent when
observed on multiple occasions (at least in the laboratory). The most studied aspect of
repeated performances of expert musicians concern their tempo and expressive timing.
Large individual differences in the performance tempo (as high as 50%) have been
observed for recordings of the same piece by different professional pianists (Palmer. 1968;
Repp, 1990). In contrast. when pianists are asked to reproduce their own performances,
tempo is highly consistent across renditions (e.g.• Seashore. 1938/1967; Shaffer. 1981.
p. 358). Reduced ability to reproduce the tempo across performances by expert musicians
is usually attributed to inadequate rehearsal and preparation of the piece (Clynes &
Walker. 1986; Shaffer & Todd. 1987). Similar findings of high consistency of tempo for
different performances have been found for a string quartet (Clynes & Walker. 1986).
More detailed analysis of repeated music performance at the level of individual key
strokes has shown the high reliability of relative and absolute timing. Shaffer (1980)
found variation coefficients of 1 to 4% for beat length and bar length on repeated
performances. The remarkable reproducibility of the tempo for a given piece cannot be
explained by memory for the earlier performance, because Repp (1995) found a similar

(3) A1rhough no complexiry rarings are available for those pieces, they seem to have been easier rhan the piece
in rhe 1989 study.

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degree of reproducibility of tempo even when the renditions of a technically simple piece
were separated by the performance of other pieces. In sum, expressive timings and
performance tempi of expert musicians are highly reliable across multiple renditions. It
is currently unclear whether performance under experimentally varied conditions would
be stable and consistent between conditions as well. and how performers can initiate a
given tempo. The present study will investigate performance consistency under practice
and public performance conditions, since those situations could have differential effects
on the performer.
In contrast to the previous studies. the present focus is on the allocation and
management of time during the long period of preparation for a music performance, and
the reproducibility of performance durations and tempi for an entire recital program
under ecologicallyvalid (real-life) conditions. The assessment of the quality of the final
performance serves to lend credibility to the general findings. documenting that the
practice indeed led to a high level of performance.

METIlOD

• Subject. A pianist (GM) was preparing a program with eight pieces of music for her
degree recital (masters in piano pedagogy). keeping a detailed daily diary of her practice
times throughout the preparation phase. At the onset of this study. GM had already kept
a diary for six months and played her repertoire almost note-perfectly from memory.
Informed consent was obtained and the subject was paid for her participation in the
recording and interview sessions. Our subject was 25 years old at the time of the study.
She had started to play the piano at age 10 and had continuous instruction for 15 years.

• Repertoire. GM's selected repertoire was designed to produce a 45 to 50 minute lecture

recital; the typical format of a final degree recital at Florida State University's School of
Music. The program consisted of three works. The first work was a piano sonata by
Joseph Haydn, no. 58, Hob XVI/48 , in C-major. The first movement of this work
(HayI) is moderately slow and the second one (Hay2) is fast. Next followed three pieces
by Sergey Prokofiev from a collection of piano transcriptions from the ballet Romeo and
Ju/i~t. The pieces were entitled Scen« (ProI), Mercutio (Pro2), and Romeo and Ju/i~t at
Parting (Pro3). The last work was Claude Debussy's Estampes, a set of three pieces for
piano. The sequence of these pieces is Pagotks (Deb l), La soir/~ dans Grmatk (Deb2),
and Jardins sous fap/ui~ (Debd).

• Procedure. Three interviews were conducted beginning six weeks prior to the recital;
the final one occurred two days before the public recital. The interviews covered
biographical information, estimates of difficulty of the repertoire. and retrospective
estimates of practice.
1. Interview. The subject gave biographical information regarding her musical
development. reported on her practice habits and practice times, and estimated amounts
of prior practice for the pieces in her program.

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 Rel.tlns practice andperformance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN l!< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

2. Interuieto. Information were requested about the difficulty of the recital music. and
new estimates of past practice for the recital program. During this interview. GM ranked
all pieces according to how difficult they were to learn.
3. Interuieu; The last interview occurred immediately after the second recording
session (audience condition. see below) and focused on GM's retrospective reports her
performance. The result section of this paper does not include a qualitative analysis of
interview data; however. the interesting details about the performance preparation that
GM provided in the interviews are shared in the discussion section to support our
statistical findings. On three occasions. the entire recital program was recorded.
Recordings. The three recording sessions used a Yamaha Disklavier interfaced with a
computer. At each session. GM played through the entire program twice with each piece
being separated from its repetition by all other pieces. The pieces were always performed
in the order planned for the recital. During the first and second recording sessions. only
the experimenter and an assistant were present. We will refer to these private
performances as the practicecondition. The first session took place when we met GM six
weeks before the recital; the second occurred a week before the recital. For the third
recording session, which took place three days after the second. we simulated a
performance situation (henceforth audience condition). GM played in front of a new
audience in the first and second rendition. and a video camera was installed to increase
realism. When not otherwise stated. only the last two recording sessions were analyzed.

• Analysis of the data. In her daily diaries. GM listed the date. starting and ending times
of her practice separately for each of the eight pieces. and occasionally added metronome
markings and personal observations and evaluations. Typical entries after the date read as
follows: "9 - 9:35 Haydn 2" or "10:55 - 11:05 Break" or "11:10 - 11:55 Haydn 2. 6
rhythms." Dates. starting times. ending times. and piece information were entered into
a statistics program. Next. the computed practice durations were log-transformed prior
to further statistical analysis as recommended in earlier studies of skill acquisition and
expert performance (Newell & Rosenbloom. 1981; Ericsson et al., 1993).
Ratings ofcomplexity. Independent ratings of difficulty were obtained for the Haydn
and Debussy pieces by consulting a list of graded repertoire (Wolters & Goebels, 1967).
No ratings were available for the Prokofiev pieces. and two expert pianists were asked to
generate ratings based on the score for the Prokofiev pieces. the rating criteria (Wolters
& Goebels, 1967. p. 13). and the other graded pieces as a reference. The experts' ratings
were very similar and therefore averaged for use in the analyses. The final difficulty
ratings on a 15 point scale were as follows: Hayl: 11.5; Hay2: 11.5; Pro1: 7; Pro2: 9.5;
Pro3: 10.25; Deb l: 12.5; Deb2: 11.5; Deb3: 13.5 (x = 10.9; SO = 2).
Durations and tempo. Performance durations were measured for each piece for four
renditions (two in the second practice condition and two in the audience condition).
First. each piece was divided into a number of musically meaningful segments. Next. we
corrected for a small number oferrors and omissions (e.g.• omitted repeats) made by GM

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which would have impacted the duration of the segment. Durations for individual
segments were extracted from the MIDI files using note onsets for their starting and
ending points. Next, we computed an overall adjusted mtasure ofduration for the entire
piece. In addition, we divided the duration by the number of quarternote beats in the
piece to calculate an overall measure of alltragt tempo. Average tempo is an indirect
indicator of the performance duration which controls for length of the piece. To arrive
at an index of the starting tnnpo, we extracted inter-quarternote onset intervals
(quarternote lOis) for the first 26 adjacent quarternote onsets in each piece using
information from the MIDI files (see Repp, 1994). Typically, the top voice was used as
a data source, but when no note was played on a specific beat in either hand, the onset
time was interpolated by using onset times of adjacent notes. One piece (Deb I, Pagodts)
contained a notated slowing down (ritard) and the corresponding data points were
eliminated from the data set prior to analysis. Finally, we deleted the first six data points
of each set. This was done to eliminate any possible tempo adjustments the pianist might
have made upon hearing herself. 4 The resulting number of data points (inter-
quarternote onset intervals) extracted for each piece was 18, which corresponded to the
final number of data points available in the well-defined opening section of the second
movement of the Haydn sonata. The average across the lOis is referred to as starting
tnnpo. Tempo indices were log-transformed to normalize them. 5
Quality ofpnformanct. A listener evaluation of the final performance was undertaken
to assess whether GM's rehearsed final performance was indeed an expert performance
which is comparable in quality to performances of established artists. Only Debussy's
Estampes were selected for this evaluation, since they were the most difficult pieces.Three
experts, were presented two-minute excerpts from GM's performance under audience
condition, a commercially available recording by A Weissenberg (I985), an expert
recording from a MIDI archive (The Pianist, 1993), or an advanced student's practice
performance. The 12 excerpts (four performers x three pieces) were given twice in
different order and rated for overall quality of performance on a six-point scale (I = II"]
good, 6 = II") poor).
RESULTS

The result section is organized imo..ftve parts. First we show that GM's level of
accumulated practice is representative for music students at her school of music. Then
we describe GM's allocation of practice time on the repertoire pieces over the entire
period of preparation. In the third section we analyze the relation between difficulty
ratings of pieces and practice times. The fourth section assesses the quality of GM's final
performance, and the last part reports results from analyses regarding consistency of
starting tempo and average tempo.

(4) A parallel analysis to all the foUowing ones was done without deleting the first six lOis. The pattern of
results remained the same.
(5) Conducting the analyses on the raw data instead of the log-transformed data yielded similar patterns of
results, Unless otherwise indicated. the following sections only report the analyses done on log-transformed
data.

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 Relating practice and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN ll< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

• Comparing GM to other subjects of similar skill levels

GM's practice history and amount of accumulated practice were similar to other
advanced music students at the same institution (Lehmann & Ericsson. 1993; see Fig. 2
below). After approximately 15 years of practice her total amount of accumulated
practice approached 10,000 hours. The trajectory showed a slowing typical for many
music students during adolescence, when extramusical and social aspects of life become
important and practice is reduced.

......··0·····.. Lehmann & Ericsson (1993)

1‫סס‬oo
• GM
fI.l~
Io4CJ 8000
==
OCJ
.c~
-=104
...
~c.
~
~"!U
6000

=104
~:S
CJ-
4000
CJ~
<~0 2000

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Years of training
Figure 2. GM's amount of deliberate practice accumulated during her years of training compared
to a sample from a previous study (Lehmann & Ericsson, 1993).
Note. Error bars indicate standard deviation.

• Allocation and estimates of practice on current repertoire

During the diary period (243 days) GM recorded 531.15 hours of practice combined for
all eight pieces, excluding additional time spent with other materials (e.g., sight-reading,
technique). This amount of practice corresponds to an average of 14.4 hours of practice
for every minute of performed music (36.9 minures) during her public recital.
Comparisons of retrospective estimates of accumulated practice times for each piece with
accumulated times from the diary data showed high and significant correlations with a
10 to 15% error in the estimate. This is consistent with earlier studies (Ericsson er al.,
1993; Krampe, 1994). GM averaged 17.14 hours (SD = 6.8) of weekly practice, when
two weeks with no practice during winter break are excluded (see below).
A more detailed analysis of her practice behavior revealed how GM allocated practice
time to different pieces. A visual inspection of Figures 3a, 3b, and 3c shows a relatively
steady accumulation for the three sets of pieces. The noticeable stagnation from diary day

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130 to day 147 (December 10 to 27) coincided with the school's winter break. during
which GM did not record any practice.

6000

j
3a

5000
--- Hayl
---0--

.e ~
Hay2

j 4000
~
:::l
e=- 3000

I
2000

1000
-e
0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Diary day

6000
3b
J1:1 5000 Prol

--- Pro2
---0---
'i Pro3
.S 4000
~

j
~ 3000
:a
u
f
=-2000
J
=" 1000
~
u
u
-e 0
0 50 100 ISO 200 250
Diaryday

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 Relatlns practice and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN l!< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

6000
3c

i 5000 ---0--
Debl
'i Deb2
-~=
CU 4000
----.-- Deb3

CU
CJ
;:I 3000
CJ
f
Co
2000
]
as
:I
§ 1000

-e 0
0 50 100 150 200 250
Diary day
Figure 3. a-c. Accumulated practice times in minutes for all eight pieces, grouped by composers
(Fig. 3a: Haydn; Fig. 3b: Prokofiev; Fig. 3c: Debussy), showing relatively stable increasesacross
the entire diary period except for Deb3, Pro3, and Hay2.
Note. No practice times were available between day number 130 and 147, when GM was on
winter break.

For many of the pieces, GM appeared to allocate approximately the same amount of
practice every week during the preparation period. To identify possible deviations from
this pattern, the amount of recorded practice for each week was correlated with the
consecutively numbered index for the diary week. In the case of similar amounts of
weekly practice throughout the diary period, no significant correlations would be
expected. The correlations for three pieces were significant, indicating for those pieces an
increase in practice time over the preparation period (Deb3, r[29] = .79, P < .001; Pro3,
r[29] = .65, p < .001; and Hay2, r[29] = .49, p < .Ol). Follow-up r-tests comparing the
average weekly practice time before and after the winter break were only significant for
Pro3 and Deb3, with higher means after the break, t(28) = 5.38, P < .001 and t(28) =
4.14, P < .00 I, respectively. This finding suggests that GM selectively increased her
practice on these two specific pieces rather than to increase it overall.
How did GM distribute her practice time across weeks and days?The average length
of GM's individual practice sessions, of which there were often more than one each day,
was 1.82 hours (SD = 1.43). An ANaVA revealed no significant difference in the length
of practice sessions for the different days of the week, suggesting a comparable length and
variability of individual sessions across the week. As a consequence, the average number
of sessions for each day of the week correlated highly with the average amount of practice
for that day, r(5) = .96, p < .001. Average practice times for all seven days across the diary

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period were analyzed next. Generally. GM practiced on weekdays and Saturdays, but she
hardly ever practiced on Sundays (sec Fig. 4). A significant main effect of day was found,
F(G. 180) = 21.4. P < .001. G The average number of practice sessions per day was 1.3
(SD = .44). Sundays and Thursdays. however, were significantly different; Sundays had
fewer sessions and Thursdays (the day after her weekly lesson) had more. Even Saturdays
were not significantly different from the rest of the workweek, when Thursdays were
excluded.
Next. we investigated the allocation of practice as a function of the time of day. The
number of times that practice on a given piece was initiated before noon (AM) was
compared to the number of times it was initiated in the afternoon (PM). The frequency
of AM practice onsets did not differ reliably from that of PM practice onsets.

3.5

3.0 a

2.5

0.5

0.0
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Days of the week
Figure 4. Number of practice sessions averaged across the entire diary period for each day of the
week.
Note. Error bars show standard deviations; (a) Thursday differs reliably from the rest of the week;
(b)Sunday differs reliably from the rest of the week.

• Difficulty ratings and their relation to practice time

To assess factors influencing the allocation of practice time among pieces, the total
amount of log practice time for each piece was related to GM's subjective ratings and
experts' ratings of complexity (sec Table 1). Experts' ratings correlated significantly with
total practice time, reG) = .72. P < .05. as did GM's own ratings. reG) = .82. P < .05.
Surprisingly, the correlation between the two measures of complexity was not reliable,
reG) = .34, n.s.. When we regressed both GM's difficulty ratings and the experts' ratings

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 Relating practice and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN ll< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

on total practice time (R2 = .85, F(2,5) = 20.87, P < .01), both complexity ratings
contributed unique variance (p < .05). This suggested, that each type of complexity
rating explained a different part of the variance in practice time.
The amount of information to be learned is one primary factor that theoretically
influences the total amount of preparation time, and the next analysis controlled for this
variable. To arrive at an independent measure of the information contained in each piece,
we averaged the number of keystrokes performed for each piece across all four renditions.
(Admittedly. this measure contains some redundancy since pieces may contain repeats
and repetitive patterns.) A hierarchical regression analysis was performed using practice
time as the dependent variable and complexity ratings and number of keystrokes as
independent variables. First, the number of keystrokes was forced into the equation to
control for the amount of information contained in the pieces (adj. R2 = .56, Fine[l, 6]
= 9.82, P < .05). Then, both difficulty ratings were entered such that the one with the
highest partial correlation would enter first. GM's subjective complexity rating entered
the equation first, f1R2 = .29, F(1,6) = 16.58, P < .01. The experts' ratings did not enter
after that, most likely due to the high correlation between number of keystrokes and
experts' ratings, r(6) = .87, P < .01. Together, the amount of information and GM's own
ratings of difficulty accounted for 88% of adjusted variance in total practice times (F[2,
5] = 25.95. P < .OI), leaving little room for additional explanation.
Based on their review, Ericsson et al. (1993) have suggested that mornings are
especially effective for improvements of performance. To evaluate this claim, the two
difficulty ratings were related to the number of sessions starting before (AM) or after
noon (PM) for each piece. As can be seen in Table 1, GM's own ratings predicted practice
before noon, while afternoon practice was reliably correlated with the experts' ratings.
Hence. GM preferred to practice those pieces in the morning that she considered to be
the most difficult and challenging (see Discussion section for explanation of correlation
between PM practice and expert ratings).

• Quality of final performance

A repeated measures ANOVA with performers (GM, commercial recording by A.
Weissenberg, MIDI archive recording, and student's practice performance) as within-
subjects factor revealed a significant main effect of performer. F(3,18) = 7.37, p < .01.
However, planned contrasts showed no significant difference between GM's performance
and the two expert recordings, but significant differences between the practice
performance and the other three performances. Thus, the quality of GM's was found to
be comparable to the other expert performances.

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• Consistency of performance tempi within and between conditions
Our analysis concerning the consistency of performance tempo assessed tempo increases
for individual pieces over the diary period, and examined the overall consistency of
individual performance durations. Because duration included all the possible tempo
changes (rubati and prescribed tempo changes) within a piece and the pianist could
theoretically arrive at the same durations by speeding up and slowing down different
parts of the piece in consecutive renditions, the second analysis looked at GM's ability to
initiate a consistent starting tempo for each piece. Starting tempo was analyzed both
within and between the two recording conditions. Finally, we tried to account for the
variability in the average tempo using starting tempo and other variables as predictors.

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 Relating pradlce and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN II< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

Performance tempo was increased throughout the diary period, and alrhough there
were not enough data available from the diary to trace the increase for every piece.
plotting the available points revealed an increase in mastered tempo over time (see Figure
5). Not all pieces showed the same dramatic increase in tempo; for example. the initial
tempo for Hay1 approached its final tempo. The final tempo obtained under the practice
condition in the laboratory was indicated to the right of the diary data in Figure 5. The
spontaneously initiated tempo was very dose to the practiced tempo, differing from it
between 0.4 and 4 beats per minute. This validates the diary entries.

140 140

iB 120
-
-
--0-

-
DolI1
!'nlII2
Dob3
Hay1
•
120
~
I
J;~ !.~
j.~ 100 100
1·1
•
-ell
Il c

~
11:1 80 80
~! • 11
! 60

40
60

40
~
S
rI.l
llII

0 5 10 15 20 Z5 30 35 MIDI
DIary week recording

Figure 5. Diary data indicating increases in tempo over time for four pieces. The observed starting
tempo from the second recording under pradice conditions is plotted at the right hand side of the
graph for reference. It was calculated using lOIs.
Note. Enough data points were available for only four of the eight pieces.

The correlation of overall performance durations on adjacent renditions for second

and third recording session was very high (borh r[6] = .99, p < .001) and standard
deviations averaged 1.83 sand 1.63 s for the second and third recording session.
respectively. The summed deviations across all eight pieces of 18.7 s under the practice
condition and 9.0 s under the performance condition represent less than 0.8 and 0.4%
of the total performance duration of the program. Standard deviations of durations
across all four of GM's renditions ranged from 0.2 to 2.8% of the length of a piece and
these deviations did not correlate significantly with either practice times or with ratings
of difficulty, when the overall duration of the piece was statistically controlled for. Thus,
GM was very able to reproduce the durations of the different pieces. albeit the
performance durations in the audience condition were significantly shorter than in the
practice condition. t(7) = 3.09, p < .05. This finding indicates that our manipulation of
performance situations had an influence on the performer.

8'
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 To assessthe detailed mechanism that allowed GM to achieve consistent performance
durations, her ability to reproduce the starting tempo was analyzed. Our first analysis
assessed the effect of individual piece, condition, and rendition on the starting tempo
(quarrernote lOis). A MANOVA was conducted using lOIs (l through 18) as the
dependent variables, and the between-subjects factors were condition (audience
condition, practice condition), rendition (first, second rendition), and piece (the eight
pieces performed). Not surprisingly, a significant main effect of piece was found and an
effect of condition, F(7,119) = 144.84, P < .0001 and F(l, 119) = 7.73, P < .025,
respectively. The effect of condition indicated a reliably faster performance under the
audience condition (x = -.311, SO = .464) than under the practice condition (x = -.327,
SO = .430). This finding is consistent with the one mentioned above concerning the
duration of the pieces. Figure 6 shows the corresponding means for each piece for each
condition. The differences between conditions are indeed small, with the possible
exception of piece 6 (Deb I: Pagodes). In fact, a series of post-hoc tests corrected for
multiple comparisons revealed significant differences in starting tempi only for piece 6,
which had reliably shorter quarternote lOis (i.e., faster starting tempo) in the audience
condition compared to the practice condition (see Figure 6). This was already implied by
a marginally significant interaction of piece and condition, F(7, 119) = 2.44, P < .059.
This is an interesting finding that cannot be due to an order effect, because the pieces
were always played in the same sequence. For the other seven pieces, the differences
between conditions were not significant.

0.4 Reliable post-hoc test

~ lor Debl (Pqoda)
it
~ 0.2

II 0.0

J~ -0.1
je
9 -0.4

1 -0.6 Conditions
- - Audience
.. -0.8 - - 0 - - Practice

i
roli" -1.0
Bayt Bay2 Prokll"rala I'k'ukJ Debt Dcb2 DcbJ
Pieces

Figure 6. Means illustrating the significant effect of piece and condition. Error bars indicate
standard deviations.
A similar analysis was conducted to compare the recordings under practice
conditions, the first ofwhich was made around the time of the first interview; the second

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 Rel.tlns practice and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN l!< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

dated from shortly before the recital. Again, the between-subjects factors were recording
session (first, second), adjacent rendition (first, second rendition), and piece (8). There
were no reliable differences in starting tempo across time, suggesting that the tempo had
already stabilized when GM was recorded for the first time.
The next analysis tried to explain differences in performance under the two
conditions of practice and performance. This analysis predicted average tempo from
starting tempo, piece, condition, and rendition in order to establish how much variability
in overall duration remained unexplained after controlling for the measures we had
collected. Using average tempo rather than duration controlled for the length of the
pieces.
Both tempo measures, log starting tempo and log average tempo for each of the 32
performances (8 pieces x 2 conditions x 2 renditions), were included in a regression
analysis. The dependent variable was average tempo, which served as an index for the
performance duration of a piece. In the first step of our hierarchical regression analysis
(see Table 2), we entered the starting tempo; in the second step, we forced our piece
variable in the equation; in the third step, we entered the condition and rendition
variables. Taken together, starting tempo, piece, and condition accounted for virtually all
of the variance in average tempo, R2 = .99. All three blocks showed significant regression
weights and the final F was significant (F[lO, 21] = 11392.04, P < .OOOI).

Table 2

Summary Table of Hierarchical Regression

Analysis for Variables Predicting Average Tempo

Variable B SE B Beta F(rcm) Sig F

(n; 32)

Step 1
Starring tempo .685 .089 .599 59.336 .0001
Step 2
Piece 2815.76 .0001
(dummy coded)
Step 3
Condition .006 .001 .013 15.203 .001
(practice. audience)
Rendition .001 .001 .002 .484 .494
(firsr. second)

Note. R2; .821 for Step 1; ~R2 ; .173 for Step 2 (p < .001); ~R2 ; 00013 for Step 3 (p < .01).
Final F statistics: F(l0.21) = 11392. P < .0001; adj. R2 ; .99.

Thus, after controlling for starting tempo, systematic variability associated with a given
piece, and the condition under which it is performed, there remained almost no variance

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which could be used to explain the performance duration of the piece. This means that
there was virtually no unsystematic variability throughout the duration of GM's well-
rehearsed piano performance.
As shown in Figure 7. there was a significant correlation (r[6] = .80, P < .05) between
mean log lOis (starting tempo) and their 50s (calculated across performances),
indicating that slower pieces (with larger lOis) showed more variability than faster pieces
(with shorter lOis). A similar correlation was obtained with raw lOis (not log-
transformed) and their 50s. No reliable correlations were found between SOs of the
starting tempo lOis and practice times or any of the difficulty ratings when controlling
for average duration of performance.

0.25
•
§ 0.20
.=
=0.15
~
CU
•
•
"d
'E=0.10
] 0.05 •
rI..l

0·0f!1.0 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4

Faster Log of average 101 SlDwer
Figure 7. Significant correlation between quarternote lOis averaged across renditions and their
standard deviations, suggesting that lOis of slower pieces tended to be more variable than lOis of
faster ones.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

This case study monitored the nine month preparation of a recital program by an expert
musician (advanced student performer) and also analyzed the attained music
performance observed in a situation simulating public performance. Case studies have
previously led the way for research on music performance (Shaffer, 1981) and analysis of
the detailed structure of practice (Miklaszewski, 1989; Chaffin & Irnreh, 1996). Unlike
experts in the domain of sports, it is unusual for musicians to keep detailed records of
their practice and improvements in performance. Therefore. GM offered the unique
opportunity to investigate a usually undocumented process in more detail. The fact that
GM kept her diary voluntarily adds to the external validity of our findings. Finally, her

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 Relating practice and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN II< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

program of eight pieces was sufficiently varied in terms of complexity and tempo to allow
meaningful statistical analyses.
The data analysis showed that
1. Accumulated practice times for a specific piece could be predicted largely by subjective
and objective complexity ratings, and complexity ratings were highly correlated with the
time of day when a piece was practiced.
2. A listener evaluation by experts of our pianist's quality of final performance found it
to be comparable to that of other established expert pianists.
3. The pianist showed a remarkable consistency of tempo across repeated renditions
(non-adjacent) of the same piece on a given occasion as well as under different
performance conditions. Only one out of eight pieces was played reliably faster under
performance conditions.
4. Starting tempo, piece played, and performance condition explained almost all of the
variability in average performance tempo, which was used as an indicator of duration.
5. There is a tendency for faster pieces to show less variability at the quarrernote inter-
onset level than slower pieces.
In our discussion we will review the results of this case study in light of general
principles proposed in prior research on expert performance and point out how future
research on the relation between practice and attained performance in public recitals can
be extended. We will first discuss GM's practice and then the analyses of the consistency
of her performance.

• The structure and optimization of practice during the preparation of a solo recital
GM's history of practice during the development of her piano performance was
representative of other students at the School of Music at FSU which we have
investigated (Lehmann & Ericsson, 1996). Also, her level of weekly practice was
comparable to that of other expert musicians from a previous study (Ericsson et al.,
1993). Therefore her practice diary offered a unique data set to evaluate the claims of
consistency of practice that previously have only been based on interviews and one-week-
long diaries.
The most striking result is the consistency of GM's weekly amount of practice across
35 weeks of preparation. GM was found to practice, on the average, the same amount
every day of the week, except for Thursdays and Sundays. Her practice was irregular on
Sundays and was most extensive on Thursday, the day following her weekly lesson. One
might speculate that the lesson provided her with new ideas that she did not want to
forget or new goals that had to be met. Practice on the individual pieces tended to be
initiated more frequently in the morning compared to the afternoons, yet this finding
was not statistically significant. The pattern of results regarding GM's practice habits is
consistent with results by Ericsson et al. (1993) for academy students preparing to
become music teachers (see Sloboda et al., 1996, for younger music students). Future

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 research should allow us to assess how many expert musicians, like GM, have a stable
idiosyncratic pattern of weekly practice habits.
To what extent did GM optimize her practice to attain her best possible performance
on the eight pieces in her recital program? GM reported that she did not have any prior
knowledge of the pieces at the start of the preparation. Our listener evaluation revealed
that the final level of performance was an acceptable expert performance; it is thus likely
that the preparation for performance was representative of other experts. Optimization
seems to have involved more practice on more difficult pieces. On two pieces, practice
times were selectively increased during the second half of the diary period. Those two
pieces (Deb3, Pro3) are technically challenging because they contain many large jumps
and fast passage work. Practice may have been increased during the second half of the
preparation in response to technical problems that became more obvious once all the
notes had been mastered and a final tempo needed to be reached.
Experts' and GM's own ratings of difficulty accounted for 88% of the variance in
practice times for the pieces. Somewhat to our surprise, we found that difficulty ratings
made by experts and GM's subjective difficulty ratings were not significantly correlated.
It is possible that the experts' difficulty ratings are not valid for expert musicians who
should be able to master all the rated pieces. At advanced levels of proficiency, the
difficulty of mastering a piece: should be a function of the skills and particular
characteristics of the performer. This hypothesis of idiosyncratic problems is supported
by additional data from one of the interviews, where GM was instructed to indicate with
different colored pens particularly easy or difficult sections for each piece in a set of
photocopies of her original music. On the basis of her markings and explanations it
seemed that those sections containing large spans in some pieces were difficult for GM
who had small hands and therefore required more practice time. Other places were
harmonically complex or confusingly similar to other sections, causing problems
primarily during memorization. GM's reported strength was developing and practicing
interpretation, which may account for additional discrepancies between her and the
experts' ratings. Thus, GM's playing experience and anatomical constraints did create
problems and facilities not captured by our lists of graded repertoire.
GM's subjective experience of difficulty appears to have prompted her not only to
devote more practice time and a larger number of sessions to certain pieces, but also to
allocate the mornings to practice the pieces that she perceived to be most difficult. The
supporting correlation between difficulty level and time of day has not been previously
demonstrated with expert musicians. However, it matches findings with experts in other
domains (e.g., authors), who use mornings for their most demanding activities (sec:
Ericsson et al., 1993, for a review).Afternoon practice was correlated with expert ratings,
which in turn correlated highly with the amount of information (number of keystrokes)
contained in the piece. A plausible explanation is that longer and faster pieces tend to
contain more keystrokes, which may hamper memorization and attainment of final
performance speed, both of which GM may have prioritized in the afternoons. Within

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 Relatlns pradlce and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN oil: K. ANDERS ERICSSON

her stable practice habits, GM seems to have responded to encountered task demands
and perceived difficulties by differentially allocating effort and time.

• Relation between practice and characteristics of attained music performance

This case study showed that the amount of practice preceding a solo recital can be
massive. with nearly 15 hours of practice for every minute of actual performance time.
What can the performer gain once all notes are mastered and memorized? According to
our interview information. substantial practice time was devoted to additional
memorization and other types of over-learning designed to minimize the chances for any
performance errors or lapses. For example. GM reponed that she had memorized her
repertoire a second time after initial memorization. The second time. both hands were
memorized separately, which would allow the music to continue even if one hand made
a mistake or a memory slip occurred. Also, GM practiced what she called "starting
points." that is, predetermined entry points to which the pianist can skip forward in the
piece in case of a memory lapse. Finally, our subject practiced all pieces at a very slow
tempo from memory. This method is advocated by many teachers and it requires high
levels of concentration and attention. Thus, it appears that GM spent considerable
amounts of time safeguarding the acquired pieces against performance problems, which
is consistent with reports in the literature (Marcus. 1979; Chaffin & Irnreh, 1996).
Most previous research has only studied the initial mastery of relatively brief excerpts
or simple pieces. excluding the acquisition of a complete program and the sophisticated
safeguarding mechanisms documented here. Therefore. amount of practice observed in
other studies to reach an acceptable levelofperformance is only around a couple of hours
with the exception of the professional pianist studied by Chaffin and Imreh (I 996), who
took almost 10 hours per minute of performed music. Also. the goal in other studies was
usually a performance in the laboratory with only the experimenter present, rather than
a public performance as in this study. Based on laboratory research we know that
successful memorization requires a disproportionately long time as the amount of music
increases. Even if GM's time for mastery had been less than half of the recorded rime of
over 400 hours, it would be practically impossible to monitor and analyze the detailed
relation between training and attained performance improvements during those 200
hours.
An issue that was not addressed in this study is the maintenance of a repertoire and
improvement of problematic sections once a program can be publicly performed. Some
of the time GM invested during the last weeks before her recital may have already
included aspects of maintenance rather than the acquisition of the pieces. When Shaffer
(I981) had one of his pianists playa piece that he had allegedly not played for a long
time, the results indicated a highly reliable performance. However without tempo data,
practice data. and information regarding the subjective difficulty of the piece, it is
difficult to assess the implications of Shaffer's results for the discussion of the
maintenance of a repertoire. Contrary to the present study. the single piece played by the

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 pianist in Shaffer's study did not contain larger tempo changes. Thus, it remains to be
investigated how maintenance of a repertoire differs from the initial acquisition, and
whether variability in performance tempo and duration changes with lack of rehearsal.
A second focus of our study was on the tempo and, in particular, the consistency of
tempo across multiple renditions. The analyses of GM's diaries documented expected
increases in tempo for several of the pieces during the preparation. In order to allow an
examination of the development of consistency. it would have been very valuable to have
MIDI recordings of the pieces from the time well before our initial testing session in the
laboratory. However, based on published research (Shaffer & Todd, 1987) one could
expect to have seen that less practiced performance is less consistent.
The findings on GM's consistency of tempo are in agreement with earlier results (e.g.,
Shaffer, 1981; Ericsson et al.• 1993; Sloboda. 1994, Kopiez, 1996, for reviews) and
extended them in several ways. With the exception of Shaffer's (1981) classic study, most
laboratory research on tempo consistency has studied the performance of familiar pieces
where the complexity of the piece was well below the skill level of the expert musicians.
In this regard. the music played by GM was ideal in that it was varied and selected to
match her technical and artistic abilities. We also recorded her performance under
experimentally varied conditions. The regression analysis documented GM's consistent
performance durations, suggesting that she could reproduce the tempo throughout the
performance of the piece (including its beginning). It remains to be explored whether
GM's consistency in this study is characteristic for experts or whether it can also be
observed at lower levels of instrumental music performance once a piece is sufficiently
rehearsed.
The standard deviations in duration were approximately 2% of the performance
duration and often well under 1%. These results are consistent with other values reported
in the literature (e.g., Clynes & Walker. 1986; Shaffer, 1980; Wagner, 1974). Standard
deviations of lOIs in this study were found to correlate with the magnitude of the lOIs
in accord with earlier findings in music performance (Clynes & Walker. 1986) and
psychophysics (Wing & Kristofferson, 1973). It generally appears to be more difficult to
reproduce and maintain a slower tempo than a fast one. Note, that this was true even in
our study for complex pieces that have been extensively rehearsed. However, given that
the lOIs in the present study were not extracted from isochronous sequences, it could be
that the specific musical structure of the pieces with slower lOIs influenced the observed
variability.
The tempo which was extracted from the opening measures of a piece was especially
interesting, because it was here where the performer broke the silence after internally
generating the correct performance tempo. Final performance tempo also was very
similar in tempo to the practiced tempo. Experts have reported invoking an internal
representation of the starting tempo by imaging parts of the piece (Marcus, 1979). GM
indicated a similar procedure of imagining ("singing") the music to herself before
starting. The pattern of high consistency of tempo appeared whether or not the initial six

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 Rel.Unl pradlce and performance
ANDREAS c. LEHMANN &: K. ANDERS ERICSSON

keystrokes were included in the tempo analysis.Thus, the correct tempo was not adjusted
very much as the piece unfolded. but was produced at the onset. or even before. This is
conceptually important, because one might have hypothesized that the performer starts
out with an approximate tempo and adjusts the tempo to match an internal
representation only after hearing herself. As casual observations reveal. this does not seem
to be the case with our expen or expert musicians in general. However, it happens to
novices who start out at some tempo and then adjust. Often, novices are anxious during
public performances and stan out too quickly. Incidentally, a somewhat faster speed was
also noticeable for our subject. which provides evidence that even experts have to cope
with and compensate for higher arousal levels.
Are consistent tempi related to practice times? In our case. there was no reliable
correlation between the standard deviations of the performance durations or the lOIs
and the practice times extracted from the diary. But we cannot rule out that there may
have been a relation during earlier phases of the acquisition. At some point in the
acquisition process. tempo may become part of the performance plan and a stable
parameter. As Shaffer and Todd (l987) succinctly put it: "... an expressive form can have
a precise mental representation and can be precisely executed" (p, 142). The authors
argued for a stable and accurate timekeeper, and Shaffer (l981) has demonstrated
experts' superior skills with regard to the timing of motor programs.
The present paper has extended the groundbreaking case studies by Shaffer (l98l)
on temporal aspects of rehearsed music performance by describing its lengthy
preparation in real-life and examining its relation to the consistency of performance
under experimentally varied conditions. Contrary to most other studies that have looked
at performance of an individual piece. this study has investigated a collection of pieces.
It also complemented and validated existing work on practice by relating performance
under representative conditions to practice as it occurred in a largely unconstrained real-
life situation. Our subject knew what preparatory activities to engage in and for how
long in order to generate a high quality performance. The results are in general agreement
with research in other domains of expertise that show that experts are maximally adapted
to the representative conditions under which they perform (Ericsson & Charness, 1994;
Ericsson & Lehmann. 1996). I

(I) We wish to thank GM, whose artistic efforts are the topic of this paper, for her patient and friendly
cooperation. The Center for Music Research at Florida State University generously offered use of their facilities.
Ben Pringle extracted the many lOIs. Helpful and critical comments on previous drafts were provided by
Bruno Repp, John Sloboda, Robert Woody, and two anonymous reviewers. This study was in part presented
in June 1995 at the SMPC95 in Berkeley, CA.
Address for correspondence:
Andreas C. Lehmann,
Department of Psychology;
Florida State University,
Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270;
phone: (850) 644-9850; fax: (850) 644·6100;
email: Lehmann@psy.fsu.edu

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 Relating practice and performance
ANDREAS C. LEHMANN II< K. ANDERS ERICSSON

• Preparacl6n de una Interpretacl6n planlstlca:

la relacl6n entre practlca e Interpretacl6n.

La preparaci6n durante nueve meses de un experto pianista para un recital, fue

investigada a traves de los ejercicios diarios y grabaciones (MIDI) de las ocho piezas
programadas. Las grabaciones fueron Ilevadas a cabo en condiciones
experimentales variadas: interpretaci6n en solitario y en pcebllco. EI estudio diario
revelaba que el experto -un estudiante adelantado- repartia el tiempo de estudio
de forma consciente a 10 largo de todo el periodo de preparaci6n del recital, y que
tendia a estudiar las obras que Ie resultaban subjetivamente mas complejas por las
ma-anas. EI tiempo total de estudio para cada una de las obras podria ser predecido
basandonos en 105 grad 05 subjetivos de complejidad de cada una segcen la opini6n
del lnterprete y en 105 niveles de dificultad dados per otros expertos. Un anallsls de
105 datos de interpretacion muestra que cerca de la fecha del recital la variabilidad
en el tempo de la interpretaci6n era mayor entre las piezas, pero menor entre
diferentes versiones de la misma obra, incluso bajo diferentes condiciones
experimentales. Asi, para alcanzar una interpretacion pceblica altamente
reproducible, el experto repartia el tiempo de practice respondiento a tareas
demandadas y relacionadas con la preparaci6n especifica que podrian salvaguardar
la interpretacion de problemas inesperados.

• Preparazlone dl un recital:
la relazlone tra pratlca ed esecuzlone

Sono stati studiati i nove mesi che un pianista esperto ha dedicato alia preparazione
di un recital, basandosi sui diario da lui scritto relativo alia propria pratica, e sulla
registrazione (M.I.D.I.) di otto pezzi da lui messi in programma, registrati in diverse
condizioni sperimentali -individuali 0 pubbliche. Dal diario risulta che I'interprete -
uno studente di grade avanzato- si e dedicato a tempi di pratica regolari e che i
pezzi giudicati piu difficili tendevano ad essere studiati di mattina. II tempo di
preparazione dedicato ad ogni pezzo e dipeso dall'apprezzamento soggettivo della
sua complesslta: il pianista, cioe, non ha tenuto assolutamente in considerazione i
giudizi di complessita emessi da altri interpreti. L'analisi dei dati registrati dimostra
che, in prosslmita dell'esecuzione pubblica e indipendentemente dalla condizione
sperimentale, Ie variazioni di tempo sono maggiori da un pezzo all'altro e minori tra
Ie diverse interpretazioni delle stesso brano. Se ne deduce che per arrivare a
un'esecuzione pubblica perfettamente riproducibile, I'interprete esperto si dedica a
tempi di pratica scelti in funzione del compito richlesto, assicurandosi una
preparazione che salvaguardi I'esecuzione da ogni dlfftcolta inaspettata.

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 • Preparer un rkltal de plano:
la relation entre pratique et eXKutlon

On etudle ici les neuf mois de preparation qu'un pianiste experirnente a consacres
a la mise au point d'un recital, en se fondant sur Ie journal qu'i1 a tenu de sa
pratique et sur I'enregistrement (M.I.D.I.), sous diverses conditions experirnentales
• travail solitaire et execution publique -, des huit pieces qu'il avait rnlses a son
programme. II ressort du journal que l'lnterprete en question - un etudiant avance
- s'est astreint a un temps de pratique regulier tout au long de la periode
preparatoire et que les pieces jugees subjectivement les plus difficiles tendaient a
etre travaillees Ie matin. Le temps de preparation alloue a chacune des pieces est
fonction de l'appredatlon subjective de sa complexite: c'est dire qu'i1 ne tient
aucunement compte des jugements de complexite emis par d'autres interpretes
experlmentes, lndependamment de la condition experimentale, I'analyse des
donnees enreglstrees montre que, a I'approche du recital, les variations de tempo
sont importantes d'une piece a I'autre, alors qu'elles sont infimes s'agissant des
multiples interpretations d'une meme piece. II en decoule que, pour parvenir a une
execution publique parfaitement reproductible, l'lnterprete experimente se soumet
a un temps de pratique qui est fonction des exigences de la tache et qu'll securise
en outre son execution par une preparation visant a pallier toute dlfflculte
inattendue.

• Der Zusammenhang von Obung undPerformance

bel derVorbereltung elnes offentllchen Klavlervortrages

Die vorliegende Studie dokumentiert die neunmonatige Vorbereitung einer jungen

Pianistin auf einen Offentlichen Auftritt. Es wurden Tagebuchaufzeichnungen mit
Obezeiten sowie MIDI-Aufnahmen der acht MusikstOcke ausgewertet. Die
Aufnahmen wurden unter zwei unterschiedlichen experimentellen
AuffDhrungsbedingungen gemacht, namlich mit und ohne Publikum. Die
Auswertung der Obezeiten ergab, daB die Expertin (eine fortgeschrittene
KlavierschDlerin) Dber den Untersuchungszeitraum hinweg gleichmllBig viel geubt
hatte und sie dazu tendierte, die von ihr als schwieriger eingeschlltzten Stocke
vormittags zu Dben. Die Gesamtvorbereitungszeit fOr die einzelnen StOcke konnte
auf der Basis der subjektiven Schwierigkeitsurteile der Pianistin sowle unabhanglger
Schwierigkeitsurteile anderer Experten vorhergesagt werden. Die Analyse der
Performancedaten ergab, daB zum Ende der Vorbereitungszeit hin die Variabilitat
im Hinblick auf das AuffDhrungstempo zwischen den einzelnen Stuckert groB, bei
wiederholtem Spiel eines gleichen StOckes, selbst unter verschiedenen
Auffuhrungsbedingungen, jedoch sehr gering war. Um eine zuverlasslge,
replizierbare Spielleistung bei der Offentlichen AuffDhrung zu erlangen, teilte sich
unsere Expertin ihre Obezeit entsprechend den Anforderungen der StDcke ein und
benutzte spezielle Obestrategien, um im Faile unerwarteter Probleme die
Auffuhrung sicherzustellen.

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