Practicing is crucial to learning to play the piano. We work on how to practice in lessons and students receive individualized tips depending on their needs that week. This suggestion list is a good place to get started and good for reminders of what to do.
Table of contents:
- I. The three stages of practicing
- II. The basic principles of practicing
- III. Early beginner students
- IV. Beginner to early intermediate students
- V. Intermediate to Advanced students
I. The three stages of practicing: Introduction, problem solving, and maintenance.
The introduction stage is when you first sit down to a new piece of music. You need to become familiar with it, make friends with it. This can involve counting before playing, playing hands separately, noticing the symbols like dynamic or articulation marks, and sight-reading the piece.
The problem-solving phase is when you discover passages that might need finger numbers written in, a technique reexamined for smoother playing, slower playing to coordinate hands together, closer attention to a difficult rhythm pattern or large leap on the piano, among other possibilities.
Once the piece has been mastered at a slower pace, you can increase the tempo. After the piece is at performance tempo, then the maintenance phase can begin. This will look different based on the goals of the student. Is this a homework piece or is it for a recital or competition? Pieces with a longer timeline such as those for a competition will require different tips to keep the work “fresh”.
Beginner students learn their pieces during their lesson, so they do the introduction and problem solving with their teacher. The students only need to maintain the piece by doing correct repetitions at home. This is where young students can develop the habit of playing a piece through “3 times” or “5 times” and are able to say they practiced their homework. Yes, they did. Assuming, of course, all repetitions were correct. If not, then they need to go back to the problem-solving phase. Giving a set number of repetitions to young students can help them gauge if they have “done enough”. As they get older and more musically knowledgeable and independent, it’s easier to be more goal-oriented with practice.
Ideally, we are working towards goal-oriented practice rather than a set number of minutes or repetitions. Specific goals will vary from student to student, but overall I am looking for fluency, the ability to play the music accurately and with expression.
II. Basic principles of practicing:
- Listen to what you are playing. It sounds simple, but is very important.
- Play the correct notes and rhythms from the very beginning by slowly playing small sections. You learn what you practice.
- Understand the music. Look for the key signature, chords, scales, intervals, and any kind of pattern (rhythmic, accompaniment, sequences, etc…).
- Write things down. You will remember better if you do. Write down: things we discussed in lesson, things you figured out about the music, and things you want written in the music (finger numbers, letters, arrows, phrase-shaping markings, etc…).
- Be a problem-solver:
- Identify the problem – Can you tell if you’re making mistakes?
- Figure out what’s causing the problem – Accuracy? Technique?
- Fix the problem – using the practice suggestions. Still stuck? Ask me.
- Ask yourself two important questions:
- Does it sound right? Even tempo, accuracy, dynamics, etc…
- Does it feel right? Relaxed with no jerky movements or struggles to find the right notes. Good technique.
III. Early Beginner students: Students in a Piano Adventures primer level or early level 1 book
- Check how you’re sitting at the piano. Are you the correct distance away from the keyboard? Are your wrists bent too much in either direction (up or down)? Is your back straight with shoulders down and elbows at your side?
- Practice slowly at first. Really focus on finger number/letter/rhythm accuracy.
- Try playing the piece higher and lower on the piano.
- Try singing along with your piece. Make up your own words or just sing “La La La” if the piece doesn’t have them (or you don’t like the words that are there!)
- Try tapping the rhythm using your hands on the closed piano lid, with a wooden spoon on a cooking pot, or whatever method your imagination comes up with.
- Make sure you understand what is written in the music like finger numbers, dynamic marks, time signature. If there is something in the music you don’t understand, circle it and show me in your next lesson.
- See if you can play your piece from memory.
IV. Beginner to Early Intermediate students: Students in Piano Adventures level 1 through 3B
1. Practice slowly in small sections: Divide music into sections that make sense such as a phrase or two phrases. The sections should be small enough that you can play it almost perfectly the first or second time through. If you can’t, then you are playing too fast or you have too large of a section. Work out the counting and fingering first. While paying careful attention to what you’re doing, play the section over at a slow tempo 3 to 10 times. You should have it basically memorized by then. Move on to the next section, then combine the sections. Make sure your sections overlap like puzzle pieces. As you become a better sight-reader, you will begin with larger and larger sections. Use this method every time you learn a new piece.
2. Practice hands separately: Take a small section and work hands separately. Only put the parts together when you can successfully play them separately. Use this method when you are having trouble putting hands together or trouble with a particular section.
3. Use synthesis-analysis-synthesis or whole-part-whole: Play your piece, work in small sections, then play the whole piece again. Use this method when you are trying to polish a piece or relearning an old piece of music.
4. Count out loud: It is very helpful to be able to count out loud at different levels. For example, in 4/4 time, count 1+2+3+4+ if you have 8th notes. With that same measure you can also count only on the beat 1 2 3 4, feeling larger beats. Another thing to try is only count the first beat of each measure 1 1 1 1.
5. Subdivide: Instead of counting numbers out loud, try saying a syllable like “tah, tah, tah” for each 8th note beat or whatever rhythm you are trying to work out. You can also do this silently. Make sure you are still breathing while you do this. You can still say “tah” on an in-breath. Use this method when your rhythm isn’t secure, instead of counting, to make your ritardandos more gradual, or when your hands are having trouble playing exactly together. You can also use words like Gummy for eighth notes and Bear for quarter notes or make up words that mean something to you like ap-ple pie, pup-py dog, run-ning walk.
6. Record yourself: Sometimes it’s hard to pick up on everything you need to listen to while you are concentrating on playing. A recording doesn’t lie. If your tempo isn’t even, if there are note errors, if there are no dynamics, you will quickly pick up on those things listening to a recording.
7. Practice occasionally without the pedal: If it sounds good without the pedal, it will sound even better with it. You will be able to hear wrong notes, lack of legato, and rhythmic unevenness easier without the pedal. Sometimes we let the pedal ‘do the work’ for us holding out notes and sometimes they need to be held. Ask your teacher when it’s okay to ‘cheat’ if you’re not sure.
8. Freeze at random places while playing and see if you can start up again at the same tempo.
9. Look up all of the terms and symbols in your piece. Make sure you know what everything on the page means and be sure you are playing them correctly.
10. Listen to recordings of your piece and follow along in the music as you listen. Is anything different from how you have been playing? This can be a good way to catch rhythm or note errors partway during the week.
11. Check your posture at the piano. Is there any tension or positioning that may be interfering with your ability to play?
12. Mentally practice. Run through the piece in your head, either looking or not looking at the music. This can be a good thing to do riding in the car on the way to soccer practice or to pass the time when you’re having to wait for something.
13. Play for as many people as you can. Put on concerts for your family, friends, stuffed animals.
14. Metronome to help with a steady beat: Choose a small section – a few measures, a line. Set your metronome to click on every quarter note or every eighth note. See if you can play through with the metronome keeping the steady beat. Slow down or speed up the metronome as necessary. If you’re having trouble with this, let me know and we can work on it together in your lesson.
15. For chords, especially with larger intervals, start with the two outside notes to get the hand shape. Then try to fill in the middle note(s).
16. If you’re having trouble getting hands together with a complicated rhythm or Alberti bass, try drawing lines to connect where hands are supposed to come together or are offset.
17. When moving from one beat to the next, especially with left hand chordal harmony, look for what the chords have in common or how far to shift.
V. Intermediate to Advanced Students: Students in Piano Adventures level 4, 5 and those who have graduated out the lesson books.
All of the tips in the Beginner to early intermediate section are excellent tips for these students as well.
1. Metronome for increasing tempo: Start with a small section. Figure out how slowly you need to play to get all the correct notes and rhythms, articulations, dynamics, and pedal. Set the metronome at this speed. You can play along with the metronome or just use it to find your starting tempo (speed). Increase the speed setting one “click” and play a few correct repetitions. A click on a metronome is usually an increase of 3 – 4 numbers (like 100 to 104). A digital or app metronome may just be sequential numbers (like 100 to 101). If that’s the case, try increasing a few numbers at a time. Try to increase several “clicks” (number settings on your metronome) at each practice session. Begin your next practice by going back a “click” to warm up, then keep increasing the speed after a few correct repetitions. Keep doing this (over time) until you reach performance tempo. If you make mistakes, slow the tempo down. You can’t fool a metronome. It helps develop your sense of rhythm and forces you to be precise when you play. Use a metronome often.
2. Research the composer and time period of your piece. What do you know about the common compositions and performance practices of the times that might help you better interpret your piece?
3. Write out difficult passages on manuscript paper. Sometimes it just takes looking at the music in a different way to help understand what is actually happening.
4. Play your piece on as many different pianos or keyboards as possible, especially if you plan on being in a performance or competition. This will help you learn to adjust to the differences in the feel of the keys and pedal and hopefully help you adapt to a new piano more quickly in the future.
Lawson Music Studio 