Practice Tips for Better Piano Playing
1. 20-20-60
There are many ways to practice the piano and sometimes your practice may look very different to other times depending on what your current goals are. However, for those that lack structure in their practice or are just starting out and don’t know what to do, I would recommend the 20-20-60 method.
20% Scales
The first part of practice is for scales and technical exercises. At the start of a practice session, it’s a good idea to get your fingers and brain working. Scales are one of the biggest time:benefit things that you can do. They help with understanding key signatures, piano geography, finger dexterity and control.
20% Sight Reading
Sight Reading is a weak skill for the majority of players and this is because it’s the most neglected skill and requires a lot of focus. The idea behind sight reading is that you are attempting to read sheet music having never seen it before so that you can improve your instant recognition of notes, rhythms and other elements in the music. This is another skill that has an excellent time:benefit ratio. Imagine if you could sit down at the piano and just play the piece of music rather than needing to work out what’s happening? This saves you a lot of time and means you can learn pieces much quicker, therefore you improve your piano playing much faster.
60% Pieces
The vast majority of practice should always be on pieces. The reason for this is because they take the most time to perfect in a practice session. While scales and sight reading are ongoing practices that you will do alongside any piece of music you learn, learning a piece requires you to actively use all of your musical abilities in a practical situation. It’s also an opportunity for you to refine your approach and practice methods for the next piece that you learn.
2. Lost Elements
It is often the case that many players attempt to just bash through the notes in a piece of music that they are learning in the hopes that they will go back and make those notes sound nice afterwards - this never actually happens.
Once the notes have been learned, for many learning players the motivation to continue spending time on that piece to make it actually sound nice is lost. This is why it is important to make sure that all of the details are learned and baked into the piece of music as you learn it.
There are many features that you might come across in a piece of music; chords, melodies, rhythms, articulation, dynamics, tempo, shaping, musicality etc.
Each of these elements make up how the music feels. Many players will ignore the dynamics (for example) and then it becomes very tough to change the way that you are playing the piece to include them.
The best way to ensure that you include all of the features in the music is to work out the overarching character and story rather than the specific elements that make up that character themselves. If the music is getting louder then the story might be that it is becoming more extroverted. If the music is very staccato, then the story might be that it is a bouncy and cheerful day.
Grouping the elements within the music into one overarching character idea is the best way to ensure that you learn and remember to include everything that is on the page. It will also help you convey the story of the music much better!
3. Structure & Repetition
Most music isn’t written randomly, they will often follow a very formulaic structure that works. For example, a sonata has an A-B-A structure whereas a pop song has a verse-chorus structure.
Looking for patterns, themes and repeating features in the music will help you understand the narrative and the structure as well as making it easier to learn.
Often in classical music, this can be seen on a more granular level as well. You may have one particular theme or melodic idea that reappears in fragments over and over again within the music. It’s a good idea when you first start learning the piece of music to work out where these ideas repeat and why they are repeating.
Is the music trying to reinforce the idea?
Is it exactly the same or has it changed slightly?
Why has it changed, what does that tell us?
Is the music returning to something that feels safe and familiar?
Understanding the structure and the intension behind repeating features in a piece of music will help you find the character of the piece and the overarching story that the music is trying to convey. It is this characterisation of the music and the technical requirements that come along with trying to play in a more sensitive and specific way that will transform your playing and help you improve very quickly.
Matthew Cawood
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