How To Practice The Piano The Smart Way- And Get Results

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Here is a transcript of the video if you would like to follow along:

Good morning. This is Duane and today I’d like to talk about goal oriented piano practice; practicing with specific goals in mind using the spaced repetition method. For years, I owned a piano studio called Piano University and taught hundreds of people in person, at least hundreds, and then thousands through a program that I called Pros in Progress where I would send that person a stack of books and then record a lesson on cassette and they would listen to my cassette and then practice methodically through those books that I sent them. Then when they were ready, at the end of the month or so, they would send it back and I’d listen to that and we would repeat the process. It worked very, very well.

I remember one particular guy, he was a retired : He always wanted to play the piano and he’d worked for Southern Pacific all his life and he retired at 65. He wanted to take a piano, so he asked me if used too old and I said “Absolutely not.” He started right from square one. He didn’t know where anything was, middle C. By the time he finished taking piano lessons at about 75, I guess he took them for about 10 years, he could play most anything. He could play pop songs, classical pieces and so on. Of course, he was sloppy because his fingers : He hadn’t grown up playing the piano but still it was satisfying to him because he could do all that. So I want to talk about how you get results like that.

In the first place, you need a method. If you don’t have a method, you need to get a teacher of some sort. That teacher has to have a method in mind. I always used a series of books by James Bastian. Not always, but I usually use that. This is an old book; you can see it’s well used. All my books are well used here. The advantage of a method book is it takes you methodically through the things you need to know. For example, the first unit is about basic styles using the broken base in the wall space and so on. Then you get into syncopation and minor chords and how to use minor chords and triplets and intervals, chord names and so on and so forth.

So, I’d like to talk about how to practice. When you practice, you need to use the principle of spaced repetition. That is, if you have an hour to practice, don’t practice straight through that hour. It’s far better to break it up into two or I’d prefer three sessions of 20 minutes each. Why? Well, because you can only concentrate so much for so long. Your seat gets tired too. So, practice for 20 minutes and do something else and come back for 20 minutes. And you may say “Well, I can do that.” Well, do the best you can, but at least break up the practice. When you practice, you need to practice by phrases.

For example, let’s say that I’m playing this beginning song here in the book called Juanita, okay? And it shows both hands : Don’t try both hands at once. Just play one hand. The first time, just get the notes right. The second time, make sure you get the rhythm right. Two, three and one, two, three. One and two, three. One and two. The third time, make sure you get the fingering right and it gives fingering there and so on. Only after you do that, then you do the left hand. Only after you’ve mastered each hand alone for that one phrase, then put them together slowly.

One reason I like the Bastian method is because the chord symbols are above the line of music. You probably can’t see that, but the chord symbols are above the treble clef there. So I taught not only how to read music, how to play it how it was written, but how to add chords to it. So, after they could play it as written, they started out by playing the chord and holding it like that. Then, maybe breaking up the left hand chord to single notes. Then, eventually, maybe the Alberti bass and then eventually maybe a swing base. Then I’d show them how to put chords on the right hand until they could play that first phrase quite well. You want to use that spaced repetition, goal oriented spaced repetition : Excuse me. I’m choked up here. : to master each phrase and then to understand the chord structure as you go.

That’s one part of the assignment. That I would always have a technique assignment. I usually use a Hanon book as well, called the virtuoso pianist. This is Book 2 and it was start out with Book, 1 of course. Hanon gives exercises; finger exercises. You get your fingers in shape. So, I’d always instruct them how to place their hands on the keyboard, so in a nice curved position and so on. And then they’d play this exercise; both hands playing the same thing. Very orderly and methodically, not fast at all. First, very slowly and then later I would have them play staccato and then later on I’d have them play syncopated. Later on I thought the play chords on the left hand while they played that on the right-hand and so on so you build up gradually understanding how things work while getting your fingers in shape.

So, that would be the second element. Then, the third element would be to work out of some book like a classical book of some sort. This is Piano Literature Volume 1. Let’s say they were playing Echo, say, in G, say. Instead of playing : Right off the bat I’d have them practice slowly; hands alone and then together. Then, we would master the accents. Not just the notes, but the access. You know, there are some notes that are accented more than others. Listen to this. That’s important in music; dynamic and accents because it makes it come to life. So we work through a book like that that has classical music. This is Book 2 and it goes through Book 4. So, we’d work all the way through Book 4. It gets pretty advanced.

Then we would work on some sort of popular songs, more than one usually. I had them work through a fake book like this. This is called Professional Chord Changes and Chord Substitutions. If they were playing The Day of Wine and Roses, I’d assign it : This is after they are a little bit more advanced but I assign it like this. Then, I’d teach them how to echo the melody. Then I’d teach them how to break up a core going up the keyboard. Pretty sloppy, huh? Then I’d teach them how to block chords. You see, you’d just take it step by step and then you can get to where you want to go. It’s not automatic, it’s not necessarily easy, but it’s fun. If you are accomplishing something each hour you practice, each day you practice, then you feel that accomplishment. You feel like your fingers are getting better. You feel like you are understanding things and so on.

So, my argument is to use spaced repetition in your practicing. Don’t practice all at once; spread it out. Then, practice very methodically and orderly. Don’t skip around at all but take what’s assigned and learned; right hand, left hand, practice slow until you get it. Learn the chords, understand the chords and so on. That’s my advice and it got results for me and my students. That’s it for today. If you enjoy this sort of thing, come on over to playpiano.com and you usually won’t get a sermon like this but you’ll get some piano tips of various sorts that I think you’ll enjoy it. So, bye-bye for now.

Here is the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldCbuMxE6PY&feature=youtu.be
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