"When It's Easy, It's Fun!"

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Two Ways To Practice Piano – Part 1

There are many different ways to practice. Your practicing should be based on what you want to accomplish.

For me, I practice to become proficient at a tune as quickly as possible. This means being able to play the song without thinking about what I am doing. That is, with less thinking, improvisation and playing what I am hearing inside of my head become a lot easier and more fun.

“When you free the mind, the ears become available”.

If this happens to be one of your goals, how can you accomplish this?

The two ways I have found effective are:
1) Stopping after mistakes
2) Practicing to perform

Let’s focus on the first topic – Stopping after mistakes.

We all think about and become frustrated when making mistakes. One thing you should know is that you will always make them. This is especially true after you attain the professional level.

Mistakes, truth be told, are opportunities. What is meant by this? When you are performing in front of an audience or recording at a studio and make a mistake, you must, and I repeat must, think fast and be very creative. Once you can do this, most will not realize that you made a mistake.

Over all the years of playing, I have found that some of my best and most creative ideas have come as a result of making mistakes.

Now, let us get back to our first method of practicing. When you are playing and make a mistake, stop playing. Now, go back to this section of the song, and only play this section over and over again until you feel comfortable with it.

Once you feel comfortable with this section, start the piece over from the beginning and play all the way through until you make another mistake. When you make another mistake, go through the same steps. That is, stop, isolate this section, and play this section over and over until you are comfortable. Then, once again, start from the beginning of the piece, and play all the way through again.

As you can see, this process takes time. So, always take your time, and never be in a hurry to practice.

Experiment with this method of practicing and see how you like it. But, remember to always keep it fun. You will see good progress if you enjoy what you are doing.

In the next Piano Fun Talk article, we will focus on the second way of practicing.

Until then, have fun on your journey to becoming a better piano player.

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Have Fun!

Charley Wyser
easypiano.com

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