Introduction
How should I practise the piano? For how long? How often? How much time on scales and exercises? These are just some of the questions which have generated years of research, many volumes of literature and a huge variety of opinions based on actual experience. Music practice is a complex subject in common with many other forms of mental and physical training. I have found in my own reading and experience that there is no magic solution, and the practice needs of each individual will vary.
I spend a lot of time in lessons teaching students how to practise, often at a micro level with specific methods and techniques to address each challenge. In some ways this is the most important part of learning, because most progress is made between lessons. Students should aim to come away from each lesson with a good list of specific tasks. There are also some general themes which come up regularly, mostly concerning how we organise and plan our practice.
Make time
I’m afraid I’m likely to be a little sceptical when students tell me they haven’t had time to practise! There’s the old saying “if you want something done, ask a busy person”. Similarly, I find that those students with particularly busy lifestyles and multiple commitments (caring, work, other pastimes etc.) are often the best organised with regard to scheduling in practice time. There are 168 hours in a week, and it’s usually possible to find the odd 15 minutes at the piano once or twice a day – everything is a matter of priorities. Enough of the preaching – the great news is that if you use that short period of time effectively, you can achieve an awful lot, even if you’re tired! Personally, I will even use the 2 minutes it takes to brew a cuppa to go and solve a problem at the piano, which is an added bonus.
Use the time well
Confession time: When I was a young piano student, I used to sit down at the piano and play through my pieces over and over again in the hope that they would get better. It was fun, I was a good sight-reader and there was an element of instant gratification. Only later did I realise that I was wasting a lot of time. Also, I found that I was baking in the mistakes which I made on each of those mindless repetitions, and these took time to “unlearn”. Nowadays I have a plan. I analyse and break down each new piece into chunks. I decide which parts need practice and what sort of work is needed (e.g. solve fingerings, hands separate, specific methods, slow, fast etc.). If necessary I break down into smaller chunks and small problem-solving tasks. Then when I sit down at the piano I choose a task which fits the available time. Some things can be fixed in that time it takes to boil a kettle! Your teacher can help you with your planning. Some tasks will need repeating a few times, and maybe a task or approach will need to be tweaked if it’s not working, but it’s never wasted time.
Make Space
It helps to remove physical barriers to piano practice. Ideally we would all have a private piano room with a nice acoustic piano which we can access at all times, but that’s not always possible in the real world. Look for ways to make ad-hoc practice as accessible as possible. If playing on a digital instrument, can it be set up and ready to play at all times? Can you use a spare room? Can you use headphones to avoid disturbance? Can you set aside a special time where you can play without disturbing (or being disturbed by) other members of your household? Try to avoid having to make a special effort to get set up for practice and sometimes it will just happen.
Listen carefully
When we practise the piano, we need to know when we have achieved an objective, and the best way to do this is to listen to what we’ve done and compare this with the desired outcome. It’s sometimes difficult to listen to ourselves critically when we are concentrating on playing. How do we know whether our notes, dynamics, expression, articulation, tempo and rhythm are those we are aiming for? One solution is to test ourselves in very small portions of music, only a few bars, so that we’re not trying to take in too much at once. Another option – easy now smartphones are commonplace – is to press the record button and listen back. This can be quite revealing!
Don’t overdo it
Many pianists find it most effective to practise either in short sessions, or to have regular breaks in long sessions. Playing the piano requires a lot of concentration, and for most of us, this will dwindle after twenty minutes or so. Personally, I achieve most on the “little but often” principle – binge-practising just doesn’t work for me.
On a related subject, I try not to overdo the size of the task I aim to achieve in each session. I’d rather learn four bars of music securely than try to learn a whole page inadequately. Overdoing the task size creates more work in the long term. If you finish the task with time to spare, there’s always something else on the list. Finally, if you’re working at a specific task for more than ten minutes without hearing results, have a rest or change the approach.
Technical Exercises and Warm Ups
I personally prefer to integrate technical work into actual music rather than plough through technical exercises. There are, however, benefits in using such exercises for addressing specific technical issues. Some repertoire kills both birds with one stone, for example the Chopin Etudes. Scales and arpeggios can help with learning patterns in different keys. Warm ups can be useful for long practice sessions or performances. Be guided by your teacher on this.
Reward yourself
We have to allow ourselves some enjoyment too. At the end of a practice session I might play through a piece of music I know well. This has the added benefit of helping to maintain repertoire.
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