Suggested Practice Techniques

Please note:  The following material was taken from –  http://pianoeducation.org/pnotchld.html#Practice%20Techniques .

HOW OFTEN AND HOW LONG SHOULD I PRACTICE?

Practicing needs are different for each student, but a good starting goal is 30 minutes a day. You may wish to split the time up into 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. As you advance, you may wish to set musical goals for yourself instead of a specific time limit. For example, you might decide to practice one day until you have learned the notes of a piece at a slow tempo. Make the most of your practice time by focusing on the hardest things to play.

You can learn faster and easier if you do a few simple things. These suggestions are not time-consuming and easily carried out if you schedule time for them in your day on a regular basis. The most important thing to remember about practice is that it’s not the amount of time you spend, but how well you use the time that counts. If you practice several hours a day and simply repeat the same mistakes each time through, you have not practiced effectively.

• Take the time to read your assignment book. The specific assignments and practice suggestions are intended to assist in practice.
• When practicing, make sure that the environment is free from distractions and noise. Turn off the TV, put the answering machine on, and give yourself a quiet environment to work.
• Make sure the music is legible and well-lit.
• Set aside a specific time each day for your work at the piano and stick to the schedule. If you are a morning person, practice in the morning. Avoiding or delaying getting to the piano will just make you run out of time.
• Unlike studying for tests or exams, piano practice cannot be crammed in at the last minute or day before the lesson. Plan the time to do practice every day.
• Don’t try to learn a piece all at once; take it in sections and practice a section until you can do it without mistakes three times through. Then move on to the next section.
• Remember the value of taking a section slowly, making sure that you play all the notes correctly and that you count through difficult sections. Worry about playing to tempo when you have the notes and the rhythm right.
• A very valuable way of knowing whether you’ve learned a piece is to learn it well enough that you can play either hand independently starting at any place in the music. When you can do that, you can begin to work on being musical with the piece.
• Learning a new piece of music is hard work. Reward yourself after a good practice session by playing a familiar and favorite work just for the fun of it. Think of this as the dessert after meal.
• Above all, don’t simply repeat mistakes. Use practice to work out mistakes, not to reinforce them by continually repeating them. When you repeat mistakes, they are just that much more difficult to get rid of later.
• Take the suggestions from your teacher seriously. After long years of training and teaching experience, chances are your teacher’s suggestions will prove successful, if followed.
• If possible, participate in concerts and recitals at your teacher’s studio, even if only to audit. So much can be learned by performing yourself and listening to others perform.
• Attend as many recitals and concerts as possible. Given the large number of musical organizations sponsoring concerts there is ample opportunity to hear music. The more music that you hear, the more of an idea of the musical concepts you can get.
• Read biographies of composers, performing artists and conductors. Also, rent movies that are related to the lives of musicians. There are so many wonderful movies and books readily available, that really no one has the excuse not to know more about the composers, their lives and music. If you can’t find the time to read books, classical CD’s and records usually have useful and interesting information about the composer, the musical structure and ideas expressed, and the performers in the recording.
• Obtain a musical dictionary. The dictionary will give the meaning of the Italian terms (for example, Allegro vivace or Molto espressivo) which are used in the score to indicate how the piece of music should be played and how it should sound. You’ll find your playing of the music will improve faster if you understand how the composer meant the music to sound in the first place.

Article taken from:

–  http://pianoeducation.org/pnotchld.html#Practice%20Techniques