Why Most Pianists Don’t Know What to Practice
1. Confusion
When I was first learning the piano it didn’t even cross my mind that I could choose my own pieces, scales and other things to do in my piano practice. I thought that piano lessons were there to provide you with exactly what to do to improve…and playing piano for the sole purpose of enjoyment rather than improvement never crossed my mind either (that probably says a lot about my personality type).
However, much later, when I did get to the point where piece selection was an expectation (for exams, recitals, competitions and other performances), I realised that not only is it possible to pick the pieces to play, but it’s also a skill in itself. This has become even more evident in the last 15 years of teaching students that have come to me after learning by themselves or learning with other teachers.
These days, many more players are learning piano self-taught and picking what to practice much earlier on. However, picking your own practice path has its benefits and its pitfalls. It can be a little bit like trying to find your way out of a forest…you know that if you keep going in one direction, you will eventually get out…but you can’t be sure you are going in the quickest direction or even if you are just going round in circles (exceptional analogy Matt).
This means that many players default to picking a piece that they like without knowing if that piece is at a good level for them. Then inevitably they will play through the piece, make mistakes and then repeat the parts that they already know. This is not because of a lack of effort, but because there is no clear feedback loop to help course-correct in the way that a teacher would.
2. Misunderstanding
For many, practice is unconsciously about doing more things, but as I have mentioned many times in both these Monday Music Tips and videos, it’s really about solving specific problems. Essentially, playing a game of whack-a-mole with your own mistakes. But, if there are too many mistakes to fix it can become overwhelming and it can become more likely that you default to just playing, and if there are too few mistakes…then the piece might be too easy and progress might be slow.
So how do you know if a piece, a scale or whatever you are practicing is going to be in the Goldilocks zone? Well it would be convenient if there were a straightforward answer, but nothing that you learn is 100% at the perfect level. But, you can ensure that you will learn a lot from it.
Firstly, let’s look at the macro level of practice. In order to become a well-rounded pianist there are several different skills you need to acquire. There is sight reading, improvisation, music theory, scales/arpeggios/technique and ear training.
In order to become a competent pianist, some of these are integral and some of these are for those that are interested or want to fully understand the instrument as much as possible. Some of these are also improved by doing general playing on the piano, for example, by learning pieces and understanding music, you are also training your ears and playing by ear becomes a lot easier.
So to hit all of these, you could formulate a practice session like this:
Scales/Arpeggios
Sight Reading
Pieces
Specialty (Improvisation, Ear Training or Music Theory)
This means that you are training all of the things that make up being a well-rounded pianist. Pieces cover many of these different elements. There is a little sight reading when you first look at the piece, there is a lot of music theory as you try to understand the piece and you will definitely be improving your technique.
3. Direction
This gives you the top of the funnel, however, how do you know what scales to practice, what pieces to learn and what level the sight reading should be?
Well, that comes down to your approach and requires you to answer some questions when you are practicing:
What is going wrong?
Why is it going wrong?
What do I need to change to improve it?
Along with these questions, you can give yourself a Difficulty Threshold Test (I made up that title, but it sounds cool). Periodically, you should be evaluating whether you are attempting to do something that is too easy or too difficult. Whenever you are playing anything, in order to improve, you want to be aiming for being able to play 80%-95% correctly.
If it’s lower than that, then the piece, the scale etc. might be too difficult or your approach needs to be adjusted by slowing it down or isolating more of it in order to bring it to roughly around that 80%-95% threshold.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are playing a scale and all of the notes are uneven, well playing each of the notes unevenly probably means that you are below 80% correct. So in order to bring that to the 80%-95% threshold, you can slow it down or play just 5 notes of the scale.
Here’s another example. If you are learning a piece and there are no dynamics, you are using the wrong fingers and the rhythms are wrong in several places, then this is likely below the 80% threshold. So, you can isolate one problem so that in that section of the music you are above the 80%.
This is just a rough guide to assess what you are learning, but the idea here is to be conscious of your approach to what you are learning. If you are covering everything you need to in a practice session and you are practicing those things where you have enough focus left to actively fix mistakes, then you will work your way out of that forest in no time.
Matt
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