The Piano Place - How to Practice

How to Practice

Now comes the everyday-life part of being a pianist -- practicing. The best ways of practicing are discovered by trial and error, but there are some general tips, which I will try to provide here.

There's no definite amount of time for practicing -- it's different for everyone. Generally, your practicing time should be long enough that you can go through all your pieces and fix the bad spots, and not so long as to cause high levels of pain. For ergonomic reasons, your average practice session probably should not last more than 3 hours.

Start with technique -- scales, chords, arpeggios, etc. It is good warm up and prepares you for your pieces. Unless it's close to a performance, audition or exam -- then I find it preferable to practice the piece that you're going to start with first. That allows you to get used to playing without warming up, which is common in recitals and exams.

For playing scales, chords, and arpeggios: they can sometimes be very boring if you have lots of them to play, so here's how to make them interesting: add dynamics. Crescendo on ascending scales, and decrescendo on decending scales. Take care not to bump the last note -- but rather fade the last few notes out gradually. Listen carefully to make sure that your hands are exactly together. Gradually increase the speed over time. For chords: keep hands landing exactly together, be strong and stable. For arpeggios: same dynamic as scales, increase speed if it gets boring. Explore key relationships with chords, etc. Lots can be learned by practicing technique.

Always listen to yourself when you're practicing and don't get distracted. Think about interpretation as well as technique. Ask yourself: what more do I have to offer for the music? What needs more work on? What is the composer trying to tell us?

Listen to famous pianists on recordings and write down what they do at certain places for the pieces that you are working on. You don't have to copy what they do but it will make you notice things.

Don't get tense when you play. Make sure that you're not holding your breath (I know this sounds weird but it happens). When doing octaves or tremolos, this is especially important. Also make sure you're aware of what your body is doing -- where the tension is and try to relax it. Excessive tension could lead to stress-related injuries.

When practicing very fast pieces, start slow then gradually build up. If after a while you find that one short passage is still catching you, then practice that VERY slowly on the metronome, then increase the speed by one or two notches each time you can play it perfectly at the slower tempo. This method might seem a little annoying at first but it really works! It'll solve your problem faster than you think.

A note on ornaments: trills, turns, etc are best learned by practicing. As for fingering, when doing trills, avoid trilling with your 3rd and 4th finger if you can -- try to substitute with 3rd and 5th. And glissandos: up glissandos are played with fingernails only -- otherwise it will really hurt (I tried it); down glissandos are played with the fingernail of your thumb. This will take some practice.

Watch out for bad habits and try to correct them. Common ones are bending knuckles down (this one has to be practiced), and holding your fingers too high when they're not playing.