When you sit at the piano, are you unsure where to begin? These practice suggestions can help you stay concentrated on making real progress. The most crucial step in learning to play the piano and developing as a pianist is practicing. To get the most out of your practice time, keep in mind these suggestions.
Establish a Goal
You won’t learn anything if you just sit down at the keyboard and declare, “I’m going to play for a while.” As an alternative, make a resolution like, “I’m going to learn how to play the opening song from Frozen.” You are committed to working toward your goal because you have set one. Additionally, you need to confirm that your objective is doable within the time allotted for practice. You shouldn’t attempt to study the complete “Planets Suite” by Holst if you just have two hours; perhaps only the lovely section in “Jupiter” will be enough.
Heat up
Boring! We comprehend. Although it is a laborious method to begin, doing without it increases your chances of tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Spending 10 minutes warming up is preferable to suffering for six months. This is one of the most crucial piano practice advice since a good warmup also provides you the chance to establish flow, a mental state that allows you to focus entirely on the work at hand, enjoy it to the fullest, and see the most growth.
Set Aside Some Time for the Basics
As part of your practice, be sure you alot at least 15 minutes for things like scales, runs, precision, and timing. Technical abilities can only be acquired by repetition, specifically unpleasant, annoying, monotonous repetition. You can play unbelievably technical pieces if you only include 15 minutes of fundamentals in every practice.
Reduced Rate
The key to mastering challenging songs is to start off slowly by learning them at half speed. You should slow down until you can play it flawlessly at that tempo. Once you’ve repeated it three times flawlessly at that speed, speed it up a bit. A TINY BIT. How much is a little bit? Happy you asked…
Use a metronome, then accelerate once more
A song cannot be performed if you are unable to play it in time. Depending on how you count it, “Flight of the Bumblebee” is performed at a tempo of roughly 500 bpm.
However, do not attempt to learn the song at 500 bpm right away. At 50 bpm, you begin. Tempo it up to 60 when you can play it at 50, then play it at the proper speed once you can at 60. This piano practice advice cannot be emphasized enough. Good musicians understand how to gradually speed up a fast song back to its usual tempo after practicing it at a tenth of its original speed.
Listen
List your top ten pianist favorites. You haven’t heard enough pianists if you don’t have the list. To sound great yourself, you must first understand what amazing sounds are like. Try conducting a quick search on YouTube to find outstanding pianists and great music now that it’s 2014!
After copying, innovate
Try to mimic outstanding solos you admire after listening to them, and then work to improve them. You discover your identity and what makes your piano lessons unique at this point. This is your chance to transform from excellent to exceptional.
Enjoy A Break
You’ve warmed up, gone over the fundamentals for 15 minutes, learnt how to play “Jupiter,” and are now ready for “Mars.” You listened to and imitated Fats Waller solos for twenty minutes. Next, what do you do?
Have fun throughout and after
Make sure to play something you enjoy both when you begin practicing and when you are finished, preferably something you are excellent at. This will maintain your self-assurance. The most crucial thing to keep in mind is that your capacity to entertain, inspire, and touch people with your gift is made possible by all of your hard work. When you are really good at the piano, it is also much more enjoyable. Go now and create some lovely music. Join TakeLessons Live or speak with a local TakeLessons piano teacher for professional advice on purposeful practice.
