Piano Practice Tips: The 12 Most Common Piano Practice Mistakes And How To Correct Them In this article, you'll learn the 12 most common mistakes made by piano students during practice time and how to correct them. If you want to make your piano practice more ecient eective and enoyable then this page is for you. !ead on my young "adawan. #istake 1$ %ot actually practicing &oth kids and adults lead busy lives, and conseuently it(s easy to make the mistake of not prioriti)ing piano practice, or making it a secondary priority relative to other tasks * activitiies. +e all go through periods where we struggle to nd time to practice, but once you being to really enoy playing, practice practice time becomes something to look forward to. -ry to allocate a certain time or times/ each day when practice is part of your routine much like brushing your teeth/. #istake 2$ 0etting keyboard up in a location that is out of sight( and therefore out of mind(/ 0etting the keyboard up in a back room you rarely go into, or worse, putting the keyboard away in a cupboard with the intention of getting around to practice one day soon is not the way to encourage the habit of practice in your home. Instead, set the keyboard up in a prominent position such as the living room or dining room, where it is easily accessible and where the mere sight of it will serve as a reminder to do your practice. #istake $ "racticing for long sessions #uch like pruning hedges, little and often is the key. 3ven professional musicians who practice 456 hours per day do not remain at the piano * keyboard for more than 78 minutes in any one sitting. -hey take regular breaks and come back to dierent aspects of their practice for each relatively short session. 9or most piano students, a reasonable amount of practice is around 8 minutes per day, and for adults, doing this in one sitting may work. 9or some students, especially kids, 152 short sessions of 1851: minutes per day is usually much more eective.
+hatever your circumstances, the rough guide is to only practice in any one sitting/ for as long as you can before you start to become mentally tired. #istake 7$ "racticing what you already know It may be fun to play through songs or chords you are already familiar with, but what are you really learning; #any students get et least once a week, allocate some time for refreshing( your memory by revising some of the pieces you have already learned ? not so you can get out of practicing * learning something new, but for the specic purpose of maintaining a repertoire that will enable you to share what you have learned with others. #istake 4$ @sing incorrect ngers In #usiah(s online piano lessons, all the ngering you will ever need is printed on the sheet music, and it is there for a reason. -here are many benets to using the correct ngering, one of which isA by deciding upon a set seuence of ngering for each piece, and using that ngering consistently, you are calling upon your muscle memory to help you learn and perform each piece with stability. In other words, in addition to the mental learning in a song e.g. the seuence of notes/, there is also a physical learning whereby we learn the physical shape of the movements reuired to play they piece comfortably reliably.
If you are inconsistent with your ngering, you will be much less secure and condent when playing in front of others.
-here are are also plenty of other reasons reasons for using using the prescribed prescribed ngers. ngers. -rust -rust me when I say, it(s a mistake not to use the correct * prescribed ngers. #istake B$ "laying the easy passages faster than the hard passages +hen playing a piece, many students make the mistake of starting o too fast because they have mastered the beginning of the song/ and then they have to slow down when they get to a dicult section in the middle. Carying the tempo for this reason, really highlights the sections where you have not yet fully mastered the piece, and should therefore be avoided at all costs. +henever you are about to play a piece through from beginning to end, look through the sheet music and nd the most dicult section. %ow visuali)e yourself playing that dicult section. =ear it in your head and take not of the tempo. -he tempo at which you are able to comfortably play that tricky section is the tempo at which you should start the piece D that way you will maintain once consistent tempo throughout the piece. #istake 6$ >lways starting from the beginning #ost students always start from the beginning of a song. -he problem with this is that students tend to become very good at playing the beginning of a piece, but tend to be less procient as the piece goes on. Eranted, #usiah(s lessons will usually take you through each piece in a methodical fashion from start to nish. &ut when practicing on your own e.g. in the "ractice >rea within the #usiah application/, application/, for variety, why not try practicing the last line of the piece rst. -hen when you are able to comfortably play the last line, try the last two lines. >nd so on, gradually working your way back to the beginning of the song. &F targeting the later or weak( sections within the piece in this way, your practice sessions will become much more ecient, and will promote a much more consistent level of prociency throughout each piece. #istake G$ "racticing too fast ? !emember, the slower you go the uicker you learn Het(s say there(s a section in a piece that is currently tripping you up, so you decide to practice it on your own e.g. within the "ractice >rea of the #usiah software/. -he thing to remember is the faster you try to play it, the longer it will take to learn, and you(ll probably have to unlearn mistakes along the way too.
0o go 0H+. Eive yourself a chance to take a mental note of each note, event or phrase within the given section. +hen you have it clear in your head at a slow tempo, then you can gradually try increasing the tempo.
#istake 18$ Hooking at your hands es much as possible, try not to look down at your hands, especially while you are still learning a piece. -he reason for this is when students look at their hands a lot, they tend to learn the piece with mistakes, mistakes, e.g. making up small parts of the piece, or playing it by ear incorrectly/ incorrectly/ because the piece has not yet been learned * memori)ed and the student is not looking at the sheet music. 0o mistakes are bound to occur. If you struggle with this, try asking a family member to hold a book ust above your hands, so you cannot look down at your hands. -his eectively forces you to look at the sheet music. %ow don(t get me wrongA it(s ne to occasionally look down at your hands, especially after the piece has been learned, but when looking down, there is a way of doing it correctly. +hen you look down at your hands, try not to move * lower your head to look at your hands, because if you do, when you look back up at the sheet music, the fact that your head has moved makes it much harder to nd where you are up to on the sheet music. Instead, when looking down at your hands, try not to move your head. !ather, ust look down your nose at your hands only moving your eyes. -hen when you look back up at the sheet music only moving your eyes ? not your head/ it is much easier to nd your place on the sheet music. #istake 11$ 9ailing to count out loud -he basic practice practice method ofcounting ofcounting out out loudshouldn't loudshouldn't be ignoredDeven ignoredDeven by advanced students. Jounting out loud, especially during slow practice during the early stages of learning a piece, is a very eective way to develop your sense of rhythm. "lus, by linking your voice and your hands, this techniue often helps you to master the coordination coordination between the two hands as well as the timing of the piece. #istake 12$ "racticing "racticing each hand separately all the way to the end
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