Practicing the Piano Effectively

There is a story about a gentleman who had tickets to a Carnegie Hall performance. On his way to the concert he became lost and asked a gentleman on the street, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The man replied, "Practice, practice, practice." Although this is a funny anecdote, it has a serious message: Persistent practice is the only way to acquire any skill, especially playing music. Here are a few ideas on how to practice the piano effectively!

Make Up a Practice Schedule!

Everybody is so hard-working these days. If you realize that you do not have time to practice on a daily basis, put together a schedule that you know you can follow and keep to it! First jot down a schedule of your current daily activities and find time when you would normally watch television or something of the like.

You ought to practice the piano on a daily basis for whatever amount of time your teacher advises. There will be days when it will not take place and that is ok. Just do not skip days regularly! If you often skip a day or two of practice, playing more the next day will not make up for it. When practicing on a daily basis, you will be able to get the notes into your head and under your fingers.

Get Prepared to Play!

Practicing takes a lot of close attention!. This means that you should not be be thinking about other things. Turn off the television or radio before you start. Try to practice the piano in a undisturbed area without a lot of interruptions.

Loosen Up Those Fingers!

Begin with easy warm ups because they develop technique; without proficient technique you will never be a satisfactory musician. Scales are a fantastic way to warm up before you start practicing. Hannon has many books that include fantastic warm up techniques to develop the muscles in your fingers. Hannon is just one suggestion. There are many other books on the market with great warm ups as well.

Plan Out Your Pracitce Session!

Go over your week's assignments and determine what to work on this practice session. Look through your song and locate problematical spots that will take special attention. Practicing piano effectively takes planning before you start.

How to Begin a Brand New Piece

One of the hardest and most interesting parts of playing the piano is learning a new piece. Look at the key signature to check how many sharps and flats are in the piece. Make sure to look at the time signature! Look through the whole piece to get an indication of what you will be playing. To practice effectively you must play each hand alone and subsequently put them together. Take it SLOW!! Do not hurry through the piece because you might learn mistakes. Once you learn a mistake, it is difficult to correct. Plus, it is not necessary to play it seamlessly the initial time. It definitely is not going to materialize!

Work on Your Fingerings!

When something simply is not working at all and even slow practice is not helping, discontinue to determine what is causing the difficulty. Then you can conclude what to do to fix the predicament. Play the passage bit by bit, almost machine-like, until you can determine the problems. The size of your fingers can affect what types of fingering will work best for you. I have tiny fingers and so some of the standard types of fingerings are not effective for me.

Don't Get Dispirited!!

At the start of the week, it may appear that you have barely learned a few lines of a song and will never get through the entire thing. Don't be concerned! If you continue to working regularly, you will understand it all. When you start practicing, play through the sections you have already learned, but then work on a different section. You don't want to end up playing the opening of the song very well, but have difficulties with the ending. At the last part of the practice session, play through all of the songs thinking about dynamics and other musical instructions.



I hope that all of this information will help you to practice the piano effectively and competently! They are all tried and true tips! Just remember that playing the piano is designed to be a fun hobby!



Playing the Piano can be an emotional, invigorating experience that every person should be able to get pleasure from! Trust me, I know. I have been playing for over 25 years and love every second on that bench! I love making music that soothes me in those roughest of times. How would you like to learn? Want to try a new way of learning piano? Try click here