- Here is one page from a printed journal made especially for musicians.
- This gives a place for weekly assignments and goals.
- The goals include tempos; you have to set a tempo goal for each piece.
Organize in your mind, or organize on paper. You need a plan
There are several books on organizing your practice time, if you feel the need for help in that area. I prefer to spend a certain amount of time warming up my fingers and hands. Then I go over difficult spots I know I must conquer. It may not happen in one day, but if I persevere I will get it right, at the right tempo.
A Sample Practice Journal Page
I don’t need to write down very much because I’ve been doing this almost all my life. When I practice to re-learn the pieces I give students, I do need to write down my own assignment. Because this is new for you, you may need some guidance, either from a planned assignment sheet or your own plan.
On Back of That Page . . .
In planning for practice time, don’t say that when you finish such-and-such, if there is time left you will practice. If this is a guideline for choosing a practice time, you will never practice! Write it in your daily schedule. It may vary as to length of time, but at least you will sit at the piano and practice something. If you are serious about learning to play, you have to commit serious time for practice.
Practicing is such a personal activity, and it can be lonely. You may need a friend who is also playing piano to play duets with. When you are feeling successful at your new hobby, try playing for someone close to you—family or friend. It gives a whole new perspective to practicing!
There are piano camps for adult piano students, from beginners on up to advanced. At one of these you will get private lessons and a chance to play in front of an audience.
There are also guides for practicing piano, in book form or leaflet form.
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The way you sit at the piano or keyboard makes a difference in your playing
I often tell my students, no matter what age, to sit tall. Inevitably the music they are playing sounds better. When you are well balanced on the bench or chair, feet apart on the floor or right foot on the damper pedal, sitting tall, the weight you have behind your fingers helps you to produce a better tone on the piano.
Even when you are practicing the exercises, five-finger patterns, scales, or chords, you need to be aware of your position and how you are sitting. If you are sitting correctly you won’t tire as easily. If you are relaxed you will have more stamina.
Check the height of your piano bench. The arms, when playing, need to be parallel to the floor. If they are not, you need to either change the bench or chair to a lower one, or stack a pillow or two on the bench to make you higher.
Now check your distance from the keyboard. You need room to move your arms freely, out, in, up, down. Don’t sit far back on the bench; you should only use the front half. This makes for more comfortable pedaling and playing. Your hands and arms should feel free to float above the keyboard, and to easily move up and down the keyboard.
When your sitting posture is adjusted to perfection, look at a page of music. Can you see it clearly? Do you wear glasses to read books and newspapers? These are often not good for music reading, since the music stand is farther away. I use reading glasses for books, and different glasses for reading piano music and for working at the computer.
Bifocals can be a problem; you can see the music but the keyboard and your hands are a blur! These are things to discuss with your optometrist and other pianists.
March
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How you practice makes you confident as a piano player
I have emphasized the importance of playing slowly throughout the book. It isn’t just your fingers that you are training, but your brain, and you need to play a passage, an exercise, correctly seven times. You must play slowly so that the brain doesn’t learn the mistakes too well!
For an excellent example of slow practice, read the section of Abram Chasins’ book, about his visit to Rachmaninov.
I suppose the point is: slow enough for long enough. We all (me included!) have trouble in that area.
When you have practiced a piece for a couple of weeks, if you are feeling comfortable playing it, then sit down at the piano at a different time of the day and just play it. Don’t think too hard. Let the muscle memory take over.
Gigue
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Mistakes will be made; we know this and accept this. We are only human. We are simply cutting down on the number of times we make mistakes, and on the number of mistakes.
There is a time in the practicing of a piece, in which you just play it, or in practicing a chord progression, you just play it, no thinking, no worrying, just play it. If mistakes are made, who cares?! Keep playing, and keep the beat. This is what you have been practicing for—the ability to not worry, and just DO IT!
If you have played in a band or an orchestra, you know the feeling of keeping the beat, going on no matter what mistakes have been made. You can reach this stage in your piano playing, where you keep going no matter what.
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This will help you keep a steady beat
If you wish to play the piano “in time,” the metronome can help. Invented in 1812, the mechanical metronome was made portable in 1816; Beethoven was the first well-known composer to use metronome indications in his music in 1817.
Keeping time with the metronome involves listening closely. Don’t use it when you are playing a piece that you have not perfected. I suggest using it as you warm up with five-finger patterns. Set the metronome at 100 and play the pattern slowly, feeling two ticks per note. This forces you to listen for the beats. When you feel confident with two ticks per beat, go to one beat per tick. Now set the metronome to 72 and play two notes per tick. During this time you can be changing the five-finger patterns you are playing.
Metronome Types
When using it with a piece you have learned, choose one measure, decide on a comfortable beat to set the metronome, listen to one full measure of ticks, then play the one measure. If the piece has hands together, play only one hand. You should gauge how it feels and if you can attempt more than one measure.
Here are my suggestions for using metronome with the piece below:
Choose one measure, perhaps the first one, and play hands separately until it feels easy.
Turn the metronome to 80 and clap the right hand part with the tick, which equals a quarter note. Now play the right hand with the metronome. Always count 3 or 4 beats with the metronome before you begin.
Now play the left hand with the metronome. When this feels easy, try the measure hands together.
You can continue with each measure in the piece; then start playing two measures with the metronome.
Clementine
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Read a little on the brain to find out how important and useful playing music is
It is so important for you to play as much as you can with all ten fingers. Each digit needs to play slowly and hold down its key for a couple of beats. In this way you strengthen each finger and make each one more independent. Of course, the fingers are dependent on each other, on the whole hand, on the wrist, on the arm. But each finger needs to be able to “hold its own.” There are many studies on the value to the brain of playing music. Music, even just listening actively, uses many parts of the brain. Playing the piano uses more parts of the brain than most other activities, including sports. Think about it: You read from two different clefs at the same time; the arm muscles and tendons work together and independently; your right foot activates the pedal; and you have to choose where in the music the pedal is used. If you think anymore about it, you won’t be able to do it! I’m only kidding, but it makes me realize how much work this is, and how much automation takes place.
Country Gardens
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We all benefit from this “brain exercise.” Fortunately, it is more than simply an exercise, for it involves emotions. What a wonderful way to express yourself!
In order for you to express yourself there needs to be a certain amount of automation; by this I mean that you practice certain elements over and over until it is automatic. Only then will you feel free to express yourself through music.
So you go to your piano or electric keyboard again, to practice your exercises, study the piece you want to play, practice each hand alone, play very slowly through the piece. One day you can just play it! That is a wonderful feeling, but you must be patient.
Jig
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We have analyzed and theorized, but in the end it’s the music that is important
Here is your opportunity to use everything you have learned and practiced. Use your eyes and brain to see what is in the piece and what the piece is about. Use your ears and brain to tell you what is correct, what is wrong. The pieces below are in two different styles: “Oh! Susanna” is a folk song, fairly simple to remember, and sung by just about everyone.
“Allegro” is a piece written during the classical period (app. 1750–1850) by a teacher and composer, Anton Diabelli (1781–1858) who was very famous at the time. It has a simple left hand that accompanies a lovely melody.
Most classical music has a tempo and mood marking at the beginning, just above the first line on the left side. As with other musical terms, these are usually in Italian. The most common are: Lento, slowly; adagio, at ease or in an easy, graceful manner; andante, at a medium walking pace; moderato, at a moderate tempo; allegro, fast and cheerful; vivace, lively; presto, fast as possible.
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There are many subdivisions of these, and if you have one, a metronome gives approximate numbers to these tempi. But choosing a correct tempo is a very subjective decision. Ifyou listen to several recordings of the same piece you will realize how different the performances can be. It all comes down to this: What mood are you trying to project, and how easily can you play the piece at the tempo you want. You can play a piece in a lively manner, but the tempo does not have to be so fast to project the mood of liveliness. Also, your moderate tempo may be someone else’s lively tempo, and yet someone else’s slow tempo.
Allegro
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