Piano Guide Review

You probably heard the old stereotyped saying, “Why don’t you practice your piano?” These are words most piano students hate hearing, unless they really love to practice.  It’s true though, that for most of the  time,  the more you practice the better you get! But here’s some tips and best utilizing your practice time so you don’t have to practice an hour a day.

How can you best exploit your practice time so you can get some positive results?  Well, for starters set up a time from your schedule where you allow some time (I won’t say how long you should play, because it depends on your assignments and your pieces) that is uninterrupted. For each individual that may vary, as some set up time before they go to school or work every day or only certain days of the week only. Just get some time planned for yourself on the piano.

Next, once you’re starting your practice do some warm-ups or scales that will get you fingers limber and ready to play.  I am not telling you how long to do this, but you will know when you’re ready to play your pieces. Even the most beginning students will have some way of warming up on the keys, whether they have a piano teacher or if they are taking an online piano course. After the warm-ups, choose one of your pieces where  you need the most work.

When you play your piece that needs the most work, try playing each hand alone  a few times to get over the ‘the trouble spots’.  Find a difficult part and isolate it so you can master it.  Some piano students like to skip the left hand and just play the right hand.  Big mistake!  No matter how  you feel about the left hand part, please practice  and play it.  The next day do the same thing again, but then play both hands together.  

You can also listen to the audio or CD that comes with your book just to get a clearer idea how it should sound. Repeat this technique with another piece that you feel needs more work. If you can’t get every assignment played during one practice, save it for the next day.  Get a small notebook and make little goals for each day, and after a month or two you will see how far you have gone. 

Lastly, accumulate a list of several favorite pieces you like to play, memorized or played with music. Place some bookmarks on the pages and play a couple of these pieces  once a week so that you still know how to play the pieces.  You can also play some of the pieces you know and like for your friends and family. It’s common for adults to be extremely shy or reluctant to play in the presence of others, but make yourself do it—you will get new found confidence in your playing. 

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