On Dec 3, 2009, at 5:43 PM, Laurence Libin wrote: > Concern for concert pianos and for workloads is very understandable, > but perhaps college and university technicians might also consider > the value to students of a couple of hours of practice time on the > special instrument they might otherwise be playing for the first > time in what for them might be a milestone performance. In my > limited experience, playing an unfamiliar instrument in an > unfamiliar acoustic sometimes makes me rethink tempo, articulation, > dynamics, balance, so I suppose it could also take a student more > than one hour of practice time to adjust to the situation. Obviously > unessential use of concert pianos has to be restricted, but surely > college techs can try to cut the kids some slack so they can appear > at their best in recital. > > Laurence Libin Yes, I agree whole-heartedly with the above. The distinction is between "practice" and "rehearsal." Practice is still learning the notes, or working on technique. Rehearsal is when the music is already learned and perfected to the degree possible. In our case, rehearsal time is allowed liberally, limited by the available time in the hall. If there were more available time, we might need policies setting limits. As it is, a single two hour rehearsal is more or less the norm, with an additional one if time is available. And I think that is quite reasonable. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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