Piano Lesson: Practice Tips
by Lady D
August 25th 2011
When you come home from a piano lesson, it’s probably a real good idea to practice right after the lesson. I’m not saying that you have to pound the keys for hours but just for a few minutes, visit your piano for a practice session.
Why Should You Practice?
1. To Get Better
If you want to play the piano well and have fun with music, you just have to practice to get better. Practicing is homework for your lessons. If you don’t practice reading or math, you will not get better. Your fingers won’t learn the notes if you just play the piano once a week at your lesson.
2. To Learn New Stuff
A piano teacher can’t teach you new music until you have really learned the previous lesson. One of the best parts of playing music is learning exciting new pieces. If you get stuck playing the same thing each week, you’ll get very bored.
If you don’t remember exactly what your teacher wants you to work on, you may not practice correctly. It probably is a good idea to have an assignment book or record book of some kind.
A sample practice plan to follow:
Play D Major scale, 2 octaves, right hand, 3 times perfectly.
Play D Major Scale, 2 octaves, left hand, 3 times perfectly.
Minuet, pages 9-12.
Sonatina, pages 1-8, each hand separately with the metronome.
Most importantly, don’t watch the clock. Time will just drag for you. Remember school days? What I have found to be true is that practice makes perfect,or to put it in another way, practice makes permanent.
It seems that whatever we put into our brain, that is what we will learn. So, if you practice something well, you learn it well. When it comes to mistakes, if you practice them, then that is what you remember.
It is frustrating to keep making the same mistakes. It is more fun to play easily through a piece. If you make a mistake in the same spot more than once, this should inspire you to play it several more times until you can get it right, playing 3 times without a mistake.
Fix mistakes by repeating them slowly and correctly. Add some measures before the trouble spot and make sure you can play more than just that measure.
What are the best ways to practice?
1. Slowly — then you have time to think about everything.
2. In small sections – so you can focus on a detail that needs work and learn it very well.
3. Each hand alone – because to play well together, each hand should know its part very well.
4. Every day – you should play piano every day because your brain will forget things if you skip days. Then you’ll have to work even harder.
To practice a certain piece, play the hands separately at first and then later play the hands together. Some students like to practice with a card game. First, split your song into 4 sections: A, B, C and D. Put the letter A on the back of three cards. On the front of one card write “right hand,” on the next one, “left hand,” and “both hands” on the third card. Do this for each of the other three sections. Then put all the cards into a bucket, and play the one you pull out. If you get it right, keep the card. If you play it wrong, the card goes back into the bucket.
Good Planning
Definitely doing something in several shorter sessions is much easier than cramming it all into one sitting. If you try to do an entire week’s practicing the day before your lesson, you won’t learn it very well and will probably forget it almost at once.
Piano students looking at their huge music projects sometimes feel that they have plenty of time to learn the song or that there is just too much to learn and they’ll never get it done in time.
What seems to happen next is that students put off practicing until the last minute and then rush to do it at the last minute feeling tense and upset. The end result is music that isn’t ready for the teacher or they receive a poor grade on their assigned piece.
The solution to the problem is good planning and breaking up big projects into smaller ones. Right after your lesson, while the assignment is fresh, divide it into smaller portions. If your teacher asked you to learn a new piece that has 4 phrases, work on one each day and learn it well before moving on to the next section. The last two days are left for polishing the whole thing and fixing problem spots.
Also, remember to play on your fingertips. Curve your fingers when you play. This way, your fingertips are touching the keys. When your fingers are straight, they don’t stand on the tips but lie flat against the keys instead. Ladies who have long acrylic nails usually play flat fingered to prevent hearing the clicking of the nails!
When you play on the tips, your fingers can strike the keys with lots of energy, speed and precision. This makes the piano sound crisp and exact. When you play with flat fingers, your sound and rhythm can be sloppy and uneven.
If you’ve been frustrated with some practice sessions, perhaps this is how you’ve felt:
• You’ve practiced your piece many times, but there are many mistakes and it is driving you crazy.
• You’ve been playing the same piece for several weeks, and it is not getting any better.
• You learned a piece and could play it well before, but now you are having trouble again.
• A difficult section of your piece is making you tense even when you just think about it.
• The piece you are learning is so difficult that your brain can’t focus on the music and starts thinking about other things. You feel like you’ll never be able to play the music.
Well, if this is how you have felt before, then you’re not alone. All musicians get frustrated at times. When the notes are hard and practicing is just not going real well, we all get tense, angry and upset. However, getting frustrated doesn’t make things any better.
When you are more relaxed and ready to try again, remember these tips:
1. Slow down.
2. Make small goals.
3. Practice small sections of the piece.
4. Play each hand alone until it is perfect.
5. Repeat each thing you practice a few times.
I hope these piano tips have been helpful in experiencing a pleasant, fun time of piano practice.
About The Author:
http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/
I am a very nice Greek lady! I am a piano teacher in San Diego, California to all ages and at all levels. I'm also a Kindergarten music teacher.
About The Author
I am a very nice Greek lady! I teach piano lessons in San Diego, California to all ages and at all levels
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<p>When you come home from a piano lesson, it’s probably a real good idea to practice right after the lesson. I’m not saying that you have to pound the keys for hours but just for a few minutes, visit your piano for a practice session.</p><h2>Why Should You Practice?</h2><h2>1. To Get Better</h2><p>If you want to play the piano well and have fun with music, you just have to practice to get better. Practicing is homework for your lessons. If you don’t practice reading or math, you will not get better. Your fingers won’t learn the notes if you just play the piano once a week at your lesson.</p><h2><strong>2. To Learn New Stuff</strong></h2><p>A piano teacher can’t teach you new music until you have really learned the previous lesson. One of the best parts of playing music is learning exciting new pieces. If you get stuck playing the same thing each week, you’ll get very bored.</p><p>If you don’t remember exactly what your teacher wants you to work on, you may not practice correctly. It probably is a good idea to have an assignment <a href="http://ladyd-books.blogspot.com/">book</a> or record book of some kind.</p><h3>A sample practice plan to follow:</h3><p>Play D Major scale, 2 octaves, right hand, 3 times perfectly.<br />
Play D Major Scale, 2 octaves, left hand, 3 times perfectly.<br />
Minuet, pages 9-12.<br />
Sonatina, pages 1-8, each hand separately with the metronome.</p><p>Most importantly, don’t watch the clock. Time will just drag for you. Remember school days? What I have found to be true is that practice makes perfect,or to put it in another way, practice makes permanent.</p><p>It seems that whatever we put into our brain, that is what we will learn. So, if you practice something well, you learn it well. When it comes to mistakes, if you practice them, then that is what you remember.</p><p>It is frustrating to keep making the same mistakes. It is more fun to play easily through a piece. If you make a mistake in the same spot more than once, this should inspire you to play it several more times until you can get it right, playing 3 times without a mistake.</p><p>Fix mistakes by repeating them slowly and correctly. Add some measures before the trouble spot and make sure you can play more than just that measure.</p><h2>What are the best ways to practice?</h2><p>1. Slowly — then you have time to think about everything.<br />
2. In small sections – so you can focus on a detail that needs work and learn it very well.<br />
3. Each hand alone – because to play well together, each hand should know its part very well.<br />
4. Every day – you should play piano every day because your brain will forget things if you skip days. Then you’ll have to work even harder.</p><p>To practice a certain piece, play the hands separately at first and then later play the hands together. Some students like to practice with a card game. First, split your song into 4 sections: A, B, C and D. Put the letter A on the back of three cards. On the front of one card write “right hand,” on the next one, “left hand,” and “both hands” on the third card. Do this for each of the other three sections. Then put all the cards into a bucket, and play the one you pull out. If you get it right, keep the card. If you play it wrong, the card goes back into the bucket.</p><h2>Good Planning</h2><p>Definitely doing something in several shorter sessions is much easier than cramming it all into one sitting. If you try to do an entire week’s practicing the day before your lesson, you won’t learn it very well and will probably forget it almost at once.</p><p>Piano students looking at their huge music projects sometimes feel that they have plenty of time to learn the song or that there is just too much to learn and they’ll never get it done in time.</p><p>What seems to happen next is that students put off practicing until the last minute and then rush to do it at the last minute feeling tense and upset. The end result is music that isn’t ready for the teacher or they receive a poor grade on their assigned piece.</p><p>The solution to the problem is good planning and breaking up big projects into smaller ones. Right after your lesson, while the assignment is fresh, divide it into smaller portions. If your teacher asked you to learn a new piece that has 4 phrases, work on one each day and learn it well before moving on to the next section. The last two days are left for polishing the whole thing and fixing problem spots.</p><p>Also, remember to play on your fingertips. Curve your fingers when you play. This way, your fingertips are touching the keys. When your fingers are straight, they don’t stand on the tips but lie flat against the keys instead. Ladies who have long acrylic nails usually play flat fingered to prevent hearing the clicking of the nails!</p><p>When you play on the tips, your fingers can strike the keys with lots of energy, speed and precision. This makes the piano sound crisp and exact. When you play with flat fingers, your sound and rhythm can be sloppy and uneven.</p><h2>If you’ve been frustrated with some practice sessions, perhaps this is how you’ve felt:</h2><p>• You’ve practiced your piece many times, but there are many mistakes and it is driving you crazy.</p><p>• You’ve been playing the same piece for several weeks, and it is not getting any better.</p><p>• You learned a piece and could play it well before, but now you are having trouble again.</p><p>• A difficult section of your piece is making you tense even when you just think about it.</p><p>• The piece you are learning is so difficult that your brain can’t focus on the music and starts thinking about other things. You feel like you’ll never be able to play the music.</p><p>Well, if this is how you have felt before, then you’re not alone. All musicians get frustrated at times. When the notes are hard and practicing is just not going real well, we all get tense, angry and upset. However, getting frustrated doesn’t make things any better.</p><h2>When you are more relaxed and ready to try again, remember these tips:</h2><p>1. Slow down.<br />
2. Make small goals.<br />
3. Practice small sections of the piece.<br />
4. Play each hand alone until it is perfect.<br />
5. Repeat each thing you practice a few times.</p><p>I hope these piano tips have been helpful in experiencing a pleasant, fun time of piano practice. </p><p><u>About The Author:</u></p><p><u>http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/</u></p><p>I am a very nice Greek lady! I am a <a href="http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/">piano teacher</a> in San Diego, California to all ages and at all levels. I'm also a Kindergarten music teacher. </p><p><br />
</p><p><strong>About the Author</strong></p><p>(CityNext.Content #87)</p><p>Article Source: <a href="http://citynext.com/">http://citynext.com/</a> - <a href="http://citynext.com/arts-entertainment/music-articles/piano-lesson-practice-tips">Piano Lesson: Practice Tips</a></p>