How to Practice the Piano

Your Best Piano Practice

October 20, 2009

Ask the Piano Teacher: How to practice the piano

Question:

Answer:
Yes! It does get easier!

First, I will tell you, as I have written in many places on my site, that you need to be very patient with yourself and allow yourself to be a beginner. As adults, we are used to being good at most things we "put our hands to" on a daily basis - we aren't used to being beginners.

We also bring our own expectations to the learning process: usually, we expect to learn very quickly and easily - even when we know that learning usually is a long-term commitment.

Learning how to play the piano, even how to practice the piano, needs to be a long-term goal. Years, not weeks!

I don't say this to be discouraging - I say it to help you enjoy your piano lessons from day one. If you let go of your expectations of how well you'll play and how quickly, you'll enjoy the experience of learning much more!

The truth is, playing piano hands together is much harder than playing one hand alone. Your brain has to process multiple streams of information and give multiple sets of instructions!  It's so critical that you practice as slowly as you need to to learn without making repetitive mistakes.

Slow down! In fact, your practice may feel like "slow motion" to you. Great! That's how it should feel. You're building the mental process to play the song as well as the physical. I've written more about practicing slowly and the process of practicing hands together and achieving your best piano practice:

Practice Slowly
Why practicing slowly is so important and what it will do for your piano playing.

Practicing Hands Together
More details on why practicing with two hands at the same time is so much harder.

Hands Together Practice Tips
Techniques to help you have successful and encouraging practice times.

If there's one thing I wish I could convince adult students of, it's that lots of patience and good, solid, slow practice will ultimately give you success much more quickly - because unlearning those mistakes is much more time consuming than going slowly in the beginning and learning correctly.

Hope this is helpful for you!  I wish you every success in learning to play piano!

Best,

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