Top tips to make the most out of your time at the piano
Slow down
You’ve probably heard your teacher say it countless times before. But for good reason – it really works. Instead of rushing through that tricky section, take the time to play each note individually and deliberately. It gives your brain time to take in what you are doing. Only increase the tempo once you have established the right technique and are hitting the right notes. This will ensure you are consciously deciding to move your fingers and not just relying on muscle memory to get you through. When it comes to the time to perform you may overthink and get thrown off track. But if you’ve made sure to practice deliberately you’ll be able to play through any potential stumbles.
Break it into smaller sections
Instead of playing through the entire piece again and again try breaking it up into smaller bite-sized segments. By focusing on a couple of bars at a time you can work out the errors and fix your mistakes before moving on. If you were to continue through the whole piece to the end you will likely have forgotten what your mistakes were in the first place!
Shorter practice sessions more frequently
Repetition, repetition, repetition. More specifically – spaced repetition. It’s proven to be the most effective way to move something from short to long term memory. Sure there are advantages to longer practice sessions that you won’t get in shorter time slots, but the key is to practice effectively and efficiently. More time on the piano doesn’t necessarily mean better outcomes. It’s best to focus on one thing at a time. If you try to do too many things at once, they’ll all improve a little bit, but you’ve lost all your progress and hard work by the time you get back to them. You’ll make much faster progress if you practice the same piece/scale/concept for 15-20 mins a few times per week than if you were to sit down once for a longer session.
Make it ridiculously easy
What’s the smallest possible thing you could work on? Do that. Create a 5-10 minute practice plan for those days when you can’t quite find the motivation to sit down for a long haul practice session. The chances are that once you sit down at the piano, you’ll stick around for longer than 5 minutes. The hardest part is starting.
Vary your practice
Playing the same thing over and over again can quickly become boring. This is especially true for scales, where you are playing the exact same notes in the same order often with the same emphasis and dynamics. Find ways to vary your practice by adding challenging elements to your scales or arpeggios or even songs you are learning. Variety is key!
For example, try mixing up your scales by:
- playing them staccato
- playing an ostinato pattern in your left hand while playing the scale ascending and descending with your right hand.
- playing in a swing rhythm
- playing quarter notes in your left hand and eighth notes in your right (or triplets and eighth notes if you’re up for a challenge!)
- starting your scale on a different note
- using different fingering
- playing the notes out of order
- playing in intervals (harmonic or melodic) You could try 3rds, 4ths 5ths
All of these exercises will make sure you really know the notes of each scale, not just going through the motions. By adding these into your practice you will be more equipped to play scales when you’re under pressure. So when it comes time to play scales in your exam if you stumble or start with the wrong fingering you will be able to get back on track.
Record yourself
You can’t hear what you sound like when you’re playing because you’re busy focusing on what you are doing. So, by listening back to a recording you will be hearing it as it is. Nothing is filtered through your imagination. This is particularly useful to fine-tune your rhythm, dynamics and expression, all elements of your ‘performance’ of the piece. Once you’ve reached the stage where you are confidently hitting the right notes record yourself and listen to it as an audience would. You might pick up some areas where you’d like to hear a pause or shift in dynamics. Get some fresh ears to give it a listen to, and take any feedback back to the piano.
Learn something easier (but not too easy!)
Keep motivation up by having some simpler pieces that you can achieve within a shorter time frame. If you’re only working towards pieces that will take you months and months to master you might experience a loss of motivation. Try to include some easier pieces in your repertoire that you can finish within a month. This is an ideal time frame, you don’t want it to be so easy that you can learn it straight away. This will also help you progress faster than if you were only going straight for the challenge. You will grasp the concepts and techniques by playing more pieces at a lower level before moving on. Try to make sure you have at least one of each at all times – an easy piece (for quick wins) and a challenge piece (to stretch your abilities).
Embrace Incompetence
All of these tips will help you get the most out of your time at the piano. But overloading yourself is also a surefire route to burnout, which is something we all want to avoid. So don’t try and take on all of these tips at once! Try picking one or two concepts to work on this week so you have the time to really grasp them and see how they work for you!
That’s the feeling that accompanies all growth and learning. Especially when you’ve set yourself a particular challenge, it’s hard. We know it. The trick is not to let it get the best of you. You have to be comfortable with not knowing how to do something to learn how to do it. We only get better if we persevere through the incompetence.