Education Articles - Play Piano - Avoid the 7 Most Common Piano Practice Errors - Amazines.com Article Search Engine

Education Articles - Play Piano - Avoid the 7 Most Common Piano Practice Errors - Amazines.com Article Search Engine

Let's go over the seven most common practice errors and the secrets to unlock flawless and effortless practice progress:

As a piano teacher or student are we not hearing these daily?

1. I just want to learn to play a piece – I do not have time for boring scales or theory

2. Metronome practice? You must be kidding!

3. The most important thing is to get the notes right

4. If you practice and make a mistake, just keep trying, eventually you will get it

5. Only people who cannot play piano need to write in finger numbers

6. Never mind practicing technique or learning theory, just practice a piece until you get it.

7. If I play a piece often enough I will be able to play it from memory.

Ever heard of these before? - Please, read the article to find my explanations! Enjoy and play well!

National Piano Guild Auditions coming up

I don't know how you feel as teacher, if you have students entered in the National Piano Guild auditions? I do, I have once again some 26 gold medal programs, that's once again 10 - 15 piece programs. Year after year, I say the same thing - why am I so crazy to go for 10 piece programs with so many students.
Well, I guess, it matters to me and when I see a student can manage, I feel obligated to make it happen. This is just my personality.
Several years ago, I talked to another teacher and he told me - why bother with learning so many pieces, why bring old pieces back, time is so short, just learn new pieces.
I can understand this point of view. However, I really feel that it is absolutely necessary to be able to bring "old pieces back", improve them. These are various skills that come in handy. Sometimes, it is necessary to be pressured to learn a piece in a very short time; it amazes me how able children are, nowadays. They do need to be challenged and each one is different; no-one learns quite alike. Adding a skill to learning quickly, learning to memorize quickly, visualizing pieces, learning a memorization routine that holds up, all are imperative skills.
The ones who never get ready, they will most likely not be ready later either; there's always something that comes in-between deadlines and busy schedules. As teachers, we are always challenged with these situations.
In all the playing requirements, I always insist on scales, chords, cadences and arpeggios. My students start these patterns in the very first lesson and after some short 3 or 4 lessons they show me how they manage to move their fingers running up and down the keyboard in scales patterns with accurate fingering. That always makes me very happy. They learn reading notes while learning to play. These early mechanical times are my GOLDEN TIMES with a student - they cannot yet play pieces and they are happy to move those fingers!
This is where I set my foundation for later on. Good habits, enjoyment of playing, moving the fingers nicely curved - oh wait - that's usually on my wish list and when I have parents who supervise I get nicely curved fingers. I always try to involve parent as much as possible.
So now, the Guild auditions are around the corner and we are on a strict schedule practicing diligently each piece entered a minimum of 5 times when very young and later on broken into sections with many more repetitions at various speeds, error-free. If an error is made the piece needs to be slowed down. The mind simply needs more time to think and it will be error-free if played slow enough.
That is the single most important habit to master that will take a student through any 10 - 15 piece program at any level.
And the second most important skill is scales, chords cadences and arpeggios - or maybe this is the very first utmost important skill to cultivate.
The book Play piano In All Keys Scales Chords Cadences Arpeggios Fingering Charts is the single most important book to have in any piano library. Without this book, I would not be able to take all my students through their large programs for their Guild auditions. And mind you, my students are regular honor students in school who also want to excel in piano.
Before Play Piano in All Keys Fingering Charts books, I would hand draw the scales fingering, now i just turn pages and the students love it, they can effortlessly master these skills time and time again.

piano how to: developing your talent - a message to all adult students

Many adult students call me and purchase my piano books in order to learn how to play the piano and how to learn playing the piano correctly.  They tell me, I will work hard, I am now retired and I really WANT TO PLAY PIANO. I say, no problem - I am all here for you to help you out and to get you to accomplishing your goals.
There is truly nothing I want for you more than to see you play the piano beautifully!!! - When I get you to a point where your heart sings and your fingers are working for you and you understand how to get there - I feel that I did my job.

I am working very hard myself on this area of marketing, so you can all have access to my knowledge and can take advantage of my skills. On the great side - the payment gateway is working on the www.playpianoinallkeys.com website, so you have access to all my available print books - and there will always be a book on sale! I am also offering FEDEX shipping now and International shipping. The shipping rates internationally are quite high and - guess what I am looking at solutions to make my products available at a reasonable cost.

Wherever you are, feel my compassion reach you, so I can be there for you helping out.
Now back to you, developing your talent, so you can play all those songs that you always dreamed of:
I am firmly telling you, that I strongly suggest you spend the 12 weeks getting through all the scales, chords / cadences and arpeggios.  Work a little bit each day. And if you need extra time, take extra time.

I always say: don't run your head into a brick wall:  "But I have to,... No way I can't,... Let me try again,...." well you see, my little ones have to learn the very same lesson. The younger they are, the quicker I can tell them, the older they are the more resistance I get, because the EGO of adult accomplishments gets into the way, well sometimes.  In a nutshell, the answer is simply this: -- and it works EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!! --- WHEN YOU WANT TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW VERY QUICKLY, YOU NEED TO SLOW IT DOWN, UNTIL YOU FIND A SPEED WHERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO IT.  If you have NO TIME, or if you go too fast - you cannot control each little detail and you will "crash".  This is how I attempt explaining this to my little ones:  when you learn to drive, you need to learn how to stay on the road, or you are not going to be driving for very long - if you crash into everything because YOU GO TOO FAST!!!! Well, piano learning is very similar:  You must give your body and mind the slow motion time to actually do everything correctly -- and once you have one slow metronome speed, - well by all means go 1 click faster (the metronomes I use are the regular old fashioned metronomes: the clicks are 60, 63, 66, 69, 72, 76, 80, 84, 88, 92, 96, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120 - there are more but these are the ones you are mostly working with.
You can play 1 note per click at 60 -- GREAT! -- move to 63 -- can play at 63 -- move to 66 -- starting to mess up -- move back down to 63, etc.  You see - if you go slower your mind has more time to control the physical motion and finger number translation - if you go too fast - you cannot control the translation or physical motion and errors occur.  And just to put your mind at ease -- Just naturally you will be going faster as you get more familiar with everything. So zigzag your way faster, slower until you have good control and then faster again, a little step, until you can control all speeds eventually -- and remember this is not the first and last time you will ever play scales -- it all goes in rounds -- first round introduction -- go through all scales / chords / cadences / arpeggios -- get familiar, enjoy working each set until you feel you accomplished something - even if you are many clicks below where you want to be, eventually. You will get there, eventually - playing accurately at very high speeds comfortably takes a little more know-how than I am able to communicate to you at the very early introductory lessons. Just think of all this this way, like learning to drive - you learn to drive a little at a time and you keep driving - and you will get better at it.

But stay motivated! Play piano every day a little bit -- if you are stressed with time -- the very best advice is to set the kitchen timer for a block of 5 minutes -- hey 5 minutes, you can do this -- block out the world and everyone else - 5 minutes for yourself -- everyone else can wait -- and I promise you, you will find out how LONG 5 MINUTES REALLY ARE! 5 intense minutes, you will get lots accomplished and you stop before your mind gets too tired.  You know, then come back and practice another 5 MINUTES!!!!! And soon it will all become easier for you and you will be able to work blocks of 10 minutes.

If you feel BORED:  then you need to go faster - you need to check your relaxation - are your muscles relaxed or tensed? Maybe it is time you call me for a quick piano lesson and I can help you create your next challenges. Maybe you need to go a little faster - do not stay at one speed forever -- start going faster when you can play one scale in 1 tempo.
SIMPLY PUT: IF YOU CAN PLAY FLAWLESSLY IN 1 TEMPO CHANGE THE TEMPO: trust yourself, try it faster and if it did not work, go slower. You are working with the metronome, so you can keep track of where you are.  The formula is: no errors, you can go faster, error equals stop and go slower, until no error, then speed it up again.

Some of my students are so busy in school - most of my students are Honor Students in school with many extra curricular activities and challenge classes - they really work and accomplish tremendous things. OK - piano practicing suffers - so they have VERY little time to practice -- so they try to RUSH THROUGH EVERYTHING, because there's no time -- and then we DO NOT PROGRESS, it is impossible to progress this way UNTIL I GET THIS FORMULA ACROSS, THAT WE MUST, MUST, MUST SLOW DOWN until there's no error, then we have made progress, then we have acquired a foundation to start speeding up from.  AND THEN WE GET RESULTS - our RESULTS as usual, fabulous playing beautifully and error free. SIMPLE!!!!
Quite in an extreme, I had some students where it literally took me 5 years or so to get this idea across - well the other thing was, that besides no time for practicing - they WANTED TO PLAY the piano, so they PLAYED AS FAST AS POSSIBLE - and unfortunately that exactly prevented them to fully correctly learn the piece and memorize and the results could not occur. Once I had them SLOWING DOWN and realize that: well - my head was still harder than theirs... - and they finally DID SLOW DOWN - AND I MEAN SLOWING DOWN AS IN SLOWER - NOT QUITE THE SAME SPEED, MEANING MORE TIME FROM ONE NOTE TO THE NEXT,... you see, the hard work getting this across - but once they got that,  they started to learn 4 to 7 measures a week - suddenly, the miracle could occur and the pieces were DONE, nicely - they were satisfied they were playing nicely, their talent and emotion was feeling complete with a sense of accomplishment -- and everyone listening to the pieces, could feel the pulse and accurate notes and a nice sense of music. And all, because I could help them GO SLOWER 1 click, when a mistake was made and then speed up 1 click at a time, back and forth until the desired tempo was accomplished.

You see, I can PROMISE YOU to take you there! - Because I have only DONE IT a few thousand times with all the pieces we performed. I counted 210 National / International programs (that is 10 -20 piece programs performed from memory without error). That is more than 2000 flawless pieces with all types of students from 3 years of age to grandma - practicing hours a day or minutes - if that.

For your application as an adult - you want to play piano, play YOUR tunes, your pieces, develop your artistic creativity on the piano, play all the music you are dreaming of - and this is the exact way for you to get there. First a little foundation - make it a goal get through it once. Then you can build on it, then learn notes, note reading, theory, a little ear training, sight reading, rhythm and all the various musical genres where your heart is.
Please, visit my site, enjoy my blog, sign up, so you can receive many more helpful emails helping you to play piano.
Sincerely, Eva

"Play Piano in All Keys": From the first piano lesson to playing fantastic1

Hello all:

Playing Piano in all Keys is EASY!

For me, as a teacher, I will always ask the question: "How do I get my students to a proficient level as quickly as possible?" - and I truly believe, the missing link is in the early start, the very beginning months of learning to play piano.

I used to, just like every other piano teacher, start with one or the other method book, attempting to teach the basics of LEARNING NOTES and PLAY A LITTLE. Or simplify playing pieces, just to start playing immediately. After 10 years of literally taking students through over 200 10-20 piece programs in the National Guild auditions, I have updated my strategy.

I feel the first weeks and months while a new student (any age and level) starts to learn to decipher baby pieces, learns the musical symbols (notes, Grand Staff, rhythms,...) these are the most important times. There is nothing wrong with this way of starting a piano student, everyone works that way, one way or another.

BUT - THERE IS A BETTER WAY!

Learning the musical symbols takes time. Many teachers opt to "teach" one little piece a week, the progress is marginal. students after 2 years of lessons play in the second level method books - and are still struggling with weak fingers.

THE MISSING LINK:

Simply put, you must train fingers, fingers must be taught to move, the motions of the arm need to be taught, how to relax the forearm and the shoulders must be taught. THE MOTIONS of PLAYING MUST BE TAUGHT! This has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SKILL OF READING NOTES. Frankly, reading notes will only be an initial hindrance to fully focus on the motions of PLAYING. How are the motions of PLAYING PIANO taught? You must learn the basics of scales, arpeggios and then chords / cadences.

I remember, when I started my piano lessons. The lesson book was either too easy or too difficult (The Beyer Preparatory School) - I had to learn notes to play, I had to immediately learn key signatures to play in other keys. I was extremely frustrated when I had to put hands together and read notes at the same time. And all I wanted was to play really well. 48 years later, today, I have resolved this issue. "Play Piano in All Keys" is the answer to this problem. EVERY STUDENTS ANY AGE CAN LEARN TO PLAY and play accurately.

How does it work?

Yes, at the same time we start playing the usual way with some method book or another - they all teach the same things from day 1 on - at the same time we take time to only focus on the motion of playing. I use fingering charts that teach which finger goes on which key! Yes, we start with the white keys, simple: RH finger 1 on C, finger 2 on D, finger 3 on E, finger 1 turns under on F, finger 2 on G, finger 3 on A, finger 4 on B, finger 5 on C. Now, we go down: finger 4 on B, finger 3 on A, finger 2 on G, finger 1 on F, finger 3 turn over the thumb on E, finger 2 on D, finger 1 on C.  The charts are set up, so you can see the finger number in HUGE LETTERS. The white keys are white, black keys are black. OK, C Major is on white keys.

Then you learn the left hand, the same way.

This way, you are ALLOWED TO FOCUS ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT! MOVING YOUR FINGERS! Concentrating on which finger goes on which key, the co-ordination of right hand - left hand once you play hands together! The added difficulty of READING IS REMOVED! Finally, a way to start playing, to start practicing the motions and know you are doing it right!. No, you do not need to have piano lessons for a year to play the C Major scale finally.

And by the way, the moment you can play 1 octave C Major, you are adding the second octave in C Major hands separately, then together. YOU ARE WORKING THE FINGERS! Fantastic! From day 1 on! While you are learning to "read" the musical symbols.

And in order to keep your mind from getting bored, as soon as you have mastered the C Major scale, you are moving on to playing the C Harmonic Minor scale! The E key becomes the E flat key and the A key becomes the A flat key! Same motion, same fingering. Within a few days, you can play two scales. Then you can add arpeggios, a little finger gymnastics - very easy, learn the motion of the thumb turn right away. EASY!

The charts also teach immediately the correct name for the next key to play. you will not accidentally mis-name the scale keys F, G, A, A sharp, C,... no, you learn immediately to see the note names correctly: F, G, A, B flat, C,....

"Play Piano in All Keys" includes ALL Major, Harmonic Melodic, Natural Minors SCALES AND ACCURATE FINGERING, ALL PRIMARY TRIADS, INVERSIONS, I-IV-I-V-I cadences in root and 1st and 2nd inversions and all Tonic Major and Tonic Minor Arpeggios in 3 positions. All enharmonic scales are included!

What are the results: Usually after 6 months my students can play all whites keys 4 octave scales in slow and medium speeds which in a conventional way is learned in the 6th or 7th year of playing. And typically, since they learn to move the fingers and practice right - left co-ordination, their reading skills come along quickly, because the physical motions are already rehearsed. After 1 year of lessons my 9 or 10 year old students test in Level 3 in the MTAC Certificate of Merit (TM), a 4th year exam, besides their National Guild 10 piece programs (that include scales, chords / cadences and arpeggios). And they practice 20 minutes - 1 hour a day.

I wish, I had had this book to learn piano when I started to play piano almost 50 years ago, it would have made all practicing, all Conservatory requirements so much easier. 

All the best and let's PLAY PIANO!  Eva