Piano Practice

15 Tips On

How To Get the Most Out Of Your Practice Time

1. Sit high enough on your piano bench or stool so that your arms are not reaching upward. Make sure that they are at least level, and preferably at a slight angle down from your body to your fingers.

2. Position yourself at the piano so that your belly button is pointed directly at Middle C. That gives each arm and hand equal room to move up or down as required.

3. Your hands and fingers should be slightly curved over the keyboard -- you won't be able to get any speed with flat hands. I call it "parachute position".  Your hands should resemble the shape of a parachute as it lands on the keyboard in front of you.

4. If you have music in front of you, keep your head pointed directly at the sheet music. If you need to look down at your fingers, do an "eye flip" -- don't crank your neck or move your head -- just glance quickly down at the keys and then back up. (By the way, if you are not reading music, you can look at your hands as much as you want. Just watch some professional pianists and you'll see them look down, look up, look anywhere -- so the eye flip only applies if you are playing from a written score.

5. Use "spaced repetition" when you practice. It is far better to practice in 4 segments of 15 minutes each than to practice for an hour straight. It's difficult to maintain intense focus for an hour, and besides, your rear end gets tired. You'll be much fresher and get better results if you spread your practice time out instead of doing it all at once. (I realize in some cases this isn't possible, but if it is an option for you, I recommend it.)

6. Get a metronome and practice with it at times -- but not all the time. It can be very helpful when it comes to keeping a steady beat. I like the kind that has both an audio and a visual signal, because that way you are training two of your senses at the same time to keep the rhythm steady.

7.  Practice slowly -- more slowly than you think you can play. If you could see some of the world's greatest pianists practice you would be astounded at how slowly and methodically they practice sections of pieces. Speed comes only by mastering each part, and mastering comes from practicing slowly.

8. Practice with each hand alone at times. Make sure you can master each hand along before putting hands together.

9. Practice a phrase at a time when you are just beginning a piece. Don't practice the entire song -- just phrase by phrase.

10. Include technique practice in your schedule. I use Hanon with my students, while other teachers use Czerny or other methods. Learn one technique exercise at a time, then add a new one and so on until you can play through the entire book of exercises at one sitting. In Hanon that would mean 20 different technical exercises, which is enough to give you pretty good dexterity for most needs.

11. Include sight-reading as part of your practice regimen every day. Practice sight-reading some new piece or song, and do it with a wide variety of music styles -- some classical, some pop, some folk, some gospel or country or....

12. Make sure you are working on a variety of areas when you practice: some sight-reading, some technique, some music theory, some chord-playing, some improvisation, etc.

13. Set goals when you practice, and then new goals when you reach the old goals.

14. Develop a repertoire of songs and pieces you can play by memory. Don't make the mistake of practicing so many different pieces that you never learn to play one piece well. It is SO satisfying to be able to sit down at the piano and play a few songs by memory when people ask you to play. A good rule of thumb is to try to master one piece per month and add it to your

15. Review! If you don't spend a little time during each lesson reviewing the pieces and concepts you have already learned, you can "backslide" easily. You've put hard work (but fun) into learning those songs, so don't let them slip away!