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!

Piano Guild Practice instructions Intermediate F, IS Scales Chords Caden...

The Piano Guild auditions are just around the corner. And as a teacher I am always searching for efficient solutions that will take my students to the desired results effortlessly -- well as effortlessly as possible. We still need to practice, but even there Play Piano In All Keys Fingering Charts make all the difference in ease of preparation. I get clean fingering; even very young students can effortlessly learn and review their 1 - 4 octave scales, refresh fingering, patterns, speed, security and sound. I also get effortless chords and cadences and arpeggios.

Before using my fingering charts books, it was quite challenging to say the least, to take students through their 7 piece repertoire and 3 musicianship phases (scales, chords / cadences, arpeggios). but I am adamant about working scales chords cadences and arpeggios and playing repertoire. This is in my opinion the only way how my students can progress so quickly.

Once a student can play a few scales, we can start learning a piece that uses those patterns. How quickly can my students play a scale? Well, I start my scale patterns in the very first piano lesson all ages - so within 2 weeks they can play 1 - 2 octave scales hands separate and together. That's the golden time learning to play piano - they do not know pieces yet and they do not know notes yet and they want to play!!! So it's mechanical patterns first! And at the same time we learn a few notes and beginners method books. Suddenly within a few weeks they play fantastic! - I am talking about ages 5 years on up.

I am posting my Piano Guild instructional videos using my fingering charts books. I hope many students will find how easy it is to accomplish piano scales, chords / cadences and arpeggios and then improve in leaps and bounds learning pieces.

Russian virtuoso pianist performs in Taiwan

"The 25-year-old musician started learning the piano at the age of five and made her first public performance when she was six.

For the Chopin Piano Competition, Yulianna Adveeva said she had spent a year studying Chopin's life and work so that she would be able to interpret his work to the standard demanded by the contest."

http://english.rti.org.tw/Content/GetSingleNews.aspx?ContentID=117222

I thought it was interesting that she prepared 1 year intensely, studying the life of Chopin - I remember my days when I was in my twenties working towards my own competitions. It gives tremendous insight, reading up on the lives of composers and spending time with contemporaries who write about individual composers, their lives and observations. I highly encourage my students to read about the various composers, their lives, reprints of personal letters, so that composers can be understood and interpreted better. 

Play Piano

Why is playing piano so important?

Well for one thing, you are creatively engaged. You are working each side of the brain - you could say you are giving your brain a workout! The right side of the brain controls the left hand and the left side of the brain controls the right hand.
When you are working scales, chords / cadences and arpeggios you could go through this checklist and find that each are is being improved with piano playing. I am not saying piano playing is the only activity that would improve these areas -- no, not the only one, but a good one:
1. working the brain: right / left
2. working the fingers - obviously
3. eye co-ordination - with your inner eye you are projecting how it should be and with your physical eyes you are observing
4. ear control - you know how you want the sound to be and are imagining this sound with your inner ear and then your physical ears are checking up, that it all actually turned out the way you imagined it
5. oh yes, you are working with imagination!
6. you are projecting your emotion into the tune
7. you are raising your emotion as you relax more and more into the music - the scales - the tune you are playing
8. you are detaching from problems of daily life while playing or practicing piano
9. you are breathing with the pulse of the music you are playing
10. you are adjusting your heart rate up or down; in my opinion, piano playing regardless of the piece or speed, it is relaxing -- even if you play a piece in top speed, your heart rate is not necessarily flying with your piece. You adjust your heart rate by breathing and practicing with the metronome, counting out loudly so you know your count and playing aligns perfectly with the metronomic clicks.
11. So it is important to practice breathing, relaxing arms, shoulders, upper, lower arms lose wrist, hands just enough tension to maintain effortlessly good pianistic hand position.
12. Sit upright, comfortably feeling slight body weight over your feet (well grounded), upper body / shoulders lose - your body is lose enough to vibrate with the sounds you are making - to tune in - in contrast if you are all stiff, shrug shoulders and tense your sound will be wooden and have no ring, or it will sound forced.
13. Think of the beauty and quality of your sounds, the music you are playing. - the esthetics in your playing.

This is what I can tell you today about the importance of playing piano.
Playing Piano is an important and creative step in your daily life.
Enjoy, Eva

Play Piano Today – creative problem solving

Play Piano Today – creative problem solving

"As usual, I am reading through the various articles of interest. And there is one that stuck to my mind more than others: It described how children in America, nowadays were notably less creative in early childhood than other children. I’ll post the link to the study, shortly.

As a piano teacher, I have been diligently working on developing each piano student’s ability to make independent decisions. Most of my students are K12 and adult. Being able to evaluate on an ongoing basis what works and what does not work, in my opinion, is a great ability to develop and bring out more. It takes creativity to look at a situation from various angles and find solutions. This is one perspective that I am taking my students through. I want my students to have tools to evaluate, tools to understand how to improve and how to schedule and target to get from here to there..."

Please, follow the link to read the rest of my story... Happy New Year. Eva