Practice Tips

Tip of the month:

February 2025: Mix it up! Don't stay on one task for a long time. Instead, work on a piece you're memorizing for a few minutes, then move on and work on a newer piece you're learning, then maybe some scale work, then back to the memory piece, etc. When we stay too long on one thing, we lose focus and are not as efficient in our learning. By mixing it up, our attention stays fresh longer and we actually accomplish more. So try mixing it up!

January 2025: Great time to make some resolutions regarding practice time and habits. Remember that how much you practice is important, but HOW you practice is even more important. Learn new pieces slowly and carefully so you don't have to relearn a bunch of corrections.

November/December 2024: It's not just me that says you need to count and keep a steady beat, even Santa agrees!

October 2024: Are piano lessons "just for fun" or "hard work"? The correct answer is BOTH! Think about some of your favorite hobbies, your favorite things to do are things you are pretty good at. We usually like doing things we are good at and dislike those that we "don't get". If we work hard at piano (or anything else) we get better at it and that's when we really start to enjoy it the most. If you work hard at it, your skills improve and you enjoy it more. Then when you enjoy it, you'll work harder at it and improve even more and enjoy it even more! The students who stick with piano lessons the longest are those that practice regularly, enjoy playing, and feel successful. The ones who drop out early are usually less dedicated to practice and don't feel very accomplished. In a nutshell, Competency=Fun.

September 2024: Welcome back to those returning after a summer break! As we start a new year, it may be a good time to make some "New Year's resolutions". Think about your schedule, when is the best time of day for you to practice? Set a goal to practice at least 5 days a week. Try to do each of the practice challenges during the year as a fun to motivate yourself. Doing some of the "extra" activities offered such as Piano Club, Student Achievement Testing, Piano Club competition, etc can give us concrete goals to push us throughout the year. Let's make it another strong year of fun and learning!

April-May 2024: I'm challenging everyone to Practice Your Age again this spring. It's a fun way to push yourself to practice just a bit more so we're all ready for the end of year recital. Remember to track your daily practice and earn the prize!

March 2024:  "Interleaving" is a new term I've been hearing a lot lately. The idea is to practice one piece or section of a piece for just a few minutes, don't stay at it for a really long time. Then move to another piece and work for a few minutes before moving to the next. Then go back to some of the ones you did earlier and do them again. There have been studies that show (and describe in detail with fancy jargon) why this works. But it makes sense to me! When we work on something for a short time and then come back to it later, our brains process and remember better than when we work for an extended time on one thing.

February 2024: Sometimes we agree with this little chicken! but the only way to improve our skills is to practice them!

January 2024: How many days a week should you practice? How long each day? The answer will depend somewhat on your age and level. But for everyone, the best habit is to make it a DAILY HABIT, try to practice at least 5 days a week. By not having breaks of more than a day, your brain and your fingers will better remember what you learned in the last practice session. As for the average length of your practice time, beginners should do at least 20 minutes, advanced high schoolers and hour or more daily, everyone else somewhere in the 30 to 45 minute range.

November 2023:  Practice the HARD stuff until it's EASY! In other words, don't repeat the whole piece over and over, zero in on the HARD part and try to make sense of it. You'll learn new music more quickly when you practice the hard parts the most!

October 2023: The 30 Day Practice Challenge just started this week, your goal is to practice EVERY DAY! Can you imagine how much more quickly you would learn new pieces and concepts if you practiced every day? Try it!

September 2023: Whether you're a brand new beginner student or are just coming back to lessons after a summer break, think about establishing a routine for practice. Choose the best time of day for you; for some it's the early morning, or it could be right after school, maybe after some free time and just before dinner....If you think about the best time of the day, you will be fresh and ready to go whenever you practice. You're less likely to "forget" to practice if it's a daily habit at the same time every day.

May 2023: as we near the end of the school year, some students will choose to continue lessons during the summer and some will take time off. Make it a goal to keep your skills up during the break. Find some fun ways to stay active with the piano: play all your favorite pieces from this year, practice your sight reading skills by learning easier music, buy or download whatever popular music you are interested in and learn it. Surprise me in the fall with something new you've learned all on your own!

April 2022-May 2022: I am challenging everyone to Practice Your Age. For this challenge, each tries to get a total number of practice minutes equal to their age time 10. They have 6 weeks to do it. It's a fun motivator as we get to the end of the school year and are preparing for the spring recital.

March 2023:  Use your practice time wisely. It's not always how MUCH we practice but often how SMART we practice. Mindless repetition is a waste of time. We want to have a specific goal, are just you trying to figure out the notes in a new piece? are you working through difficult spots? are you polishing your dynamics and touches? Know what you're trying to improve and how to do it. You'll get more done in less time if you have a practice plan.
February 2023: Let's all remember to SLOOOOOOOOOOW DOWN! When beginning a new piece, fast practice is usually sloppy and full of mistakes, slow practice tends to be more thoughtful and careful. Even when we have learned a fast piece well, always practice slowly some of the time, it reinforces your memory by making you think again rather than rely mostly on finger memory. Slow and careful is a faster way to mastery than fast and careless!

January 2023:
When we're practicing piano, what' s more important? quality or quantity?
Many of you have heard the old saying "Practice makes perfect" is that really true? or is it more accurate to say "practice makes permanent"? We learn what we practice, so if we practice with missed notes, inaccurate rhythms, sloppy technique, that's what we learn! So let's work with specific goals in mind and always try to practice at a slow enough tempo that we aren't making mistakes that will become permanent!

December 2022: Enjoy playing the Christmas music you've been learning and be sure to share it with your family! Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and New Year!

November 2022: Practice only on the days you eat:) Make practicing a habit that you do every day!

October 2022: Practice what you don't know! It's surprising how many students think they should "play each piece 3 times" and they're done. But is that really the most efficient way to use our practice time? Instead, pick out the parts of a piece that you are struggling with. It may be just a measure, a line, or a whole section of a longer piece. Concentrate on that part for a few minutes thinking about fingering, rhythm, dynamics, articulations, etc. Can you work on it slowly to figure it out? Maybe some hands separate? write in some fingering or circle it if it's already written in? are you counting it correctly? After spending some time on the challenges in the piece, go back and try to play straight through. You can accomplish MORE in LESS time if you PRACTICE WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW!

June 2022: Many of you are taking the summer off from weekly lessons, enjoy your break from school and lessons. But remember to keep playing the piano at least every few days. Summer is a great time to review or to explore new music. Go to the music store and find a book of whatever style music interests you and then learn something new!

May, 2022: Recital season is a good time to share some memorization tips.
1. Start early, the sooner you begin, the more secure your memory will be.
2. Practice the piece you are memorizing daily. If you take 2 or 3 days off in a row, much of what you've just recently memorized will be forgotten. Frequent short practice sessions will be the most effective in strengthening your memory.
3. As with all practicing, have a plan! Divide your music into sections, work on each section separately. Set a goal for how much you can do in a week and when you want to have it finished. (Hint: try to have the memory finished at least 2-3 weeks before the recital)
Confidence in memory leads to confidence in performance!

April 2022-May 2022: I am challenging everyone to Practice Your Age. For this challenge, each tries to get a total number of practice minutes equal to their age time 10. They have 6 weeks to do it. It's a fun motivator as we get to the end of the school year and are preparing for the spring recital.

March 2022:: You've all heard the old saying "practice makes perfect" but is that really true? I would suggest that only "perfect practice makes perfect". Try to think and plan very carefully as you begin a new piece, if you play it over and over with the same note errors, missed rhythms, etc, what are you learning? You are learning to play the same mistakes consistently. SLOW practice of SMALL sections with NO ERRORS is a much better way to learn a new piece. You'll actually learn it faster and with fewer mistakes that become hard to break habits.

February, 2022: As with other things in our busy lives, sometimes it's hard to get started. There's so much going on that we feel like we don't have time to spend practicing. But it's also true that once I sit down and begin playing, I relax and really enjoy it. So try for short sessions almost every day, once you get going you will notice the difference in your playing and your confidence will grow!

January 2022: Happy New Year! Wishes for a healthy year for all!
Just as when traveling, when practicing it helps to have a destination in mind and a map to tell us how to get there. Always have a goal and some ideas of how to accomplish them. Don't practice aimlessly.

December 2021: I love this quote from Pablo Casals (a legendary cellist in the early 20th century). When he was 90 years old, he was asked in an interview, why do you continue to practice? His answer was "Because I think I'm making progress." We're never too old (or too young) to enjoy making music!

September 2021"
Not really a practice tip this month, more of an inspiration

Why Music?
1.Music is a Science
2.Music is Mathematical.
3.Music is a Foreign Language
4.Music is History
5.Music is Physical Education
6.Music develops Insight and demands Research
7.Music is all the things, BUT MOST OF ALL, MUSIC IS ART.

That is why we teach music:
Not because we expect you to major in music….
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life…
But so you will be human…
So you will recognize beauty…
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world…
So you will have something to cling to…
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good---in short, more LIFE.

June 2021: For those taking a break from weekly lessons, keep playing often! Play whatever YOU want to play, choose something fun to learn. We never want to completely take a break, we forget too much, but just change your focus to playing the piano for the fun of it!

April 2021: Not really a practice tip this month, but a beautiful quote about why I teach music and students love to learn music:

Why Music?

Music is a Science
Music is Mathematical.
Music is a Foreign Language
Music is History
Music is Physical Education
Music develops Insight and demands Research
Music is all the things, BUT MOST OF ALL, MUSIC IS ART.

That is why we teach music:
Not because we expect you to major in music….
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life…
But so you will be human…
So you will recognize beauty…
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world…
So you will have something to cling to…
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good---in short, more LIFE.

December 2020: Thinking back to our 30 Day Challenge that just ended, it's really helpful to practice EVERY DAY. Think of your exercise routine, do you work out once a week? once a month? of course not! Making practice part of our daily routine helps us remember mentally what we have worked on and to "remember" physically as our technical abilities grow faster with regular "workouts"

Want some ideas on HOW to practice? Take a minute and watch this video of Itzhak Perlman talk about practicing.
https://www.facebook.com/ClassicFM/videos/10154191589649260/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

This is just a copy of a Steinway ad but it has some great reasons to take piano lessons!

Wynton Marsalis, the famous jazz trumpeter, has listed 12 ways to improve practice, it's a short article with some great ideas to inspire you:
http://arbanmethod.com/wyntons-twelve-ways-to-practice/

Think scales are just booooooring?! Read this article and maybe change your opinion!
http://mic.com/articles/108022/science-just-discovered-something-ama
zing-about-what-childhood-piano-lessons-did-to-you

Did you know that playing an instrument is not only fun but great for your brain health!?
http://www.lifehacker.co.in/life/Why-Learning-to-Play-an-Instrument-is-Good-for-Your-Brain/articleshow/42063890.cms