How to Practice the Piano

Your initial formula for navigating practice will be:

1. • Counting Outloud
   • • Fast and Slow
     • • Getting a good grasp of the rhythm slowly is crucial
       • Use the metronome to push yourself to a higher pace
       • Slow practice is good, but you also have to be able to play fast. (See how fast you can play, and increase the tempo on your next practice session)
2. • Transpose
   • • Travelling Near, traveling Far
     • Starting with easy pieces, transpose your piece to other key signatures
     • Imagine a Tonality (a.k.a., a key like C Major) is like a country or a family with different people. Some countries or families have overlapping individuals (Chords). See more on Music Theory on our Resources page.
     • On the white keys:
     • • C major - All white keys
       • D major - has F# and C#  (This is near)
       • E major - has F#, G#, and C#, D#
       • F major - has Bb (Flat)
       • G major - has F#
       • A major - has F#, G# and C#
       • B major- has C#, D#, and F#, G#, A# (This is Far)
3. • Invert
   • • Right over left, left over right.
     • This is an incredible exercise that will make you smarter and more aware.
     • • Inverting hands - Play with your left what you would with your right, and viceversa.
4. • Pattern Building
   • • Building Up, Building Down.
     • These are the building blocks of musical composition.
     • This is useful for those passages that never seemed to get fixed. Avoid frustration with a little bit of creativity.
     • Find little building blocks in your music and make a pattern out of them that can be repeated on multiple keys.
     • Change the pattern slightly. Have fun changing the notes around, inverting them, changing the rhythm, playing it backwards.
       E.g. just like a word can be inverted — breakfast to tsafkaerb- you can invert the notes in a melody and hear something very interesting.
     • • Repeat rhythmical and melodic patters starting on different keys.
       • Use both hands- first with identical notes, then mirrored.
       • Invert the melody or the rhythm. If the notes go up, down, up, up. You play down, up, down, down.
       • Overlapping patterns- start a pattern with the right and enter in the middle of if with the left hand (more advanced)
5. • Memorize
   • • You'll never play to your maximum potential until you can detach yourself from what you are looking at. Memorizing is the ultimate step towards internalizing a piece of music, or anything else.
     • • • Start by memorizing small passages every day.
         • Set a target of memorizing one small piece every day. Doesn't matter how well. The more you do it, the better it'll get.
         • The beauty of memorizing music is that, there's no argument on whether you know the piece perfectly or not.
         • We'll have another section on how to prepare for performance. Sometimes, unexpected things happen and you must be ready.