Practice Tips

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/

Tip of the month:

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.

March 2021: 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 2021: 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!

January 2021: 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!

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"

October 2020: In 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!

March & April: Our state and nation have been rocked by this unique health situation! Kids are out of school for the rest of the school year, their sports have all been cancelled, most extra curricular activities are on hold indefinitely, they can only communicate with their friends and relatives remotely! (That especially breaks this grandma's heart to only "visit" via FaceTime!) But it helps us all if we can continue with at some of our "normal" routine. Also, music can soothe, calm, and heal our hearts and souls. So keep to your piano lesson and practice schedules as much as possible. I've even noticed during our online lessons that some of my students seem to be practicing more than usual!

December 2019: 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.

November 2019: 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 MISTAKES! 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 habits.

September 2019: 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!

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!

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