 by Jenny Leigh Hodgins If you’ve been following my piano practice blog series, you know my strategy for how to spend time at piano for the most effective progress. If you missed those, check out: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1, My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 & My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3, where I walk you through my effective piano practice strategy in detail. Continuing in your piano practice routine, you should practice each goal in this manner (as described in previous blogs above) for as long as you are able to muster full effort. Repeat the same practice process with your next goal, aiming to successfully play through several times in a row. Stop if you make a mistake, or when you lose mental concentration. Remind yourself of your selected goal and reset back to the start. If you’re unable to keep your mind on things after awhile, or continue making the same mistakes, it may be time for a change. This brings us to decide What To Do If You Keep Messing Up At The Piano! Starting anew without success after multiple attempts means you’re either doing something to block your progress, or you simply need a break to refresh yourself. If you simply didn’t achieve your goal, in addition to stopping and returning to the beginning, you must change your approach. Take A Closer Look At The Problem When I’ve chosen a specific practice goal, but continue having problems getting through the music successfully, I take a step back. By that I mean to take a closer look at the problem section. Analyze the trouble spot, looking for clues about what’s tripping you up. This often reveals a less obvious practice goal that you must focus on first, before moving on to your previously selected goal. In other words, you’ve taken on too much at once. Bite off only what you can chew, one morsel at a time. How do you find the trouble to know what to practice? Ask yourself questions relevant to your music and piano playing level. If you’re a beginner, you may ask;
If you’re more advanced, you must ask questions relative to your level, too.
Troubleshooting As A Target These are simply examples of questions. You must look at your music specifically to break things down, one issue or item at a time, deducing where, within the music, you are completely confident you’ve mastered each aspect of your analysis. When you find a point where you are struggling to focus or answer a question, you’ve found a trouble spot! An effective piano practice routine constantly involves this kind of reflection, and then zeroing in to practice only that section or areas that cause any issues. The way to accomplish more at your piano is determined by how much mental energy you’ve spent during your time at the piano. When you push yourself to be more conscientious of each moment and every phrase of your musical assignments, you will reap huge rewards with advancement as a musician. But what if you’ve gone through this intense effort and you’re still having issues? I know how frustrating that may be, but there are two solutions that usually resolve any trouble areas. Play It Slower, Sam Most commonly, the solution to the problem is a slower tempo. Your next best step would be to stay focused on the originally selected goal, but play through your musical section at a much reduced speed. Playing music at a slower than usual tempo is often the most challenging kind of practice. Quite the opposite of most people’s impression that fast is impressive. (Though it can be, often piano players of fast passages easily find themselves relying on physical muscle memory, which, as mentioned earlier, is like a fragile house of cards!) Sometimes we’ve made the mistake of relying solely on our muscle memory to play through musical passages. When the tempo is slowed down, that kind of false scaffolding is stripped away, leaving us to use our cognitive skills and tune in to refine our kinesthetic senses. This can feel like having the training wheels of a bicycle removed. We start off wobbly and lacking confidence or balance. But when you slow the tempo, you allow yourself enough space in your brain to be fully mindful of each practice goal, whether it’s the notes, rhythm, fingering, dynamics or all these combined. If you’re able to play slowly enough to completely master each aspect of the music (whichever goals you’ve chosen to practice), you will gradually come away from piano practice with a deeper grasp of the music, both internally and physically. But playing music that is familiar to us at a deliberately slower tempo can also cause us to trip up. This is even more basis for the argument to slow your playing enough to thoroughly choose and focus on one practice goal at a time until it is mastered. Underwater Slow Motion Effect One of the biggest problems with slowing down is that we’ve developed bad habits of playing at a tempo too fast. This tempo is stuck in our aural memory as well as our physical muscles. This makes for a tougher barrier to get through. What I suggest is to look at your music through a new lens. Go to the extreme with your imagination. Pretend you’re playing through the musical phrase as if you are in an underwater film scene using a slow motion effect. Yes. That slow. Be intentionally and dramatically slower than the slowest tempo you can feel. If it’s hard to keep the beat at that new tempo, set the metronome at the most ridiculously slowest tempo you can feel. Play the music along with the metronome. If necessary, count aloud before you play, clapping out or tapping the rhythm on your legs first. Then play through with this tempo using the metronome. Once you’re able to sense the steady beat of this willfully chosen slow speed, go back through the passage following your effective piano practice routine. Stop if you make a mistake or lose mental concentration. Aim again to play at this slow tempo correctly three times in a row. Discovering Your Musical Weaknesses Typically, playing slowly in this manner will reveal problem areas you hadn’t discovered while playing at the faster tempo. Even better, playing slowly will allow you to more deeply and clearly master previously chosen practice goals. This kind of practice brings you much more quickly to the kind of cognitive engagement necessary for lasting piano progress. Why? Because you’re finally going slow enough to allow yourself to fully think consciously and consistently toward your chosen practice goals. You may have thought you’d already surpassed this level of practice at your faster tempo. But the majority of the time, slower practice will take you further and, ironically, faster in piano progress. What Should You Do If You Keep Messing Up At The Piano? If you’re unable to keep your mind on things after awhile, it may be time for a break. This kind of prolonged, intensely concentrated effort cannot be sustained for long. Especially if you’ve just begun using this piano practice technique. It’s perfectly normal and advisable to take a break when you’ve hit a plateau, lost your ability to pay attention to your set goals, or make mistakes repeatedly. Our brains need a moment to refresh. You could choose to play through something without concentrating, just for the enjoyment of it. Choose something at a much easier sight-reading level, a previously mastered piece, or improvise for the sheer fun of it. Play It Again, Sam Once you’ve taken a short break, try again with renewed determination. You may find a burst of energy that helps you continue your intentional, slow tempo practice. You may notice already, a degree of improvement, fluency, muscle recall, or musicality emerging. This is a wonderful experience, bringing a joyful sense of accomplishment and newfound confidence as a piano player. Enjoy that! It will keep happening again and again, each time you challenge yourself to give your all mentally to your piano practice sessions. If you’re experiencing the opposite, unable to play without mistakes, or just can no longer focus at the practice goal with a slow tempo, you may need to leave the piano completely for a change of pace, scenery, a meal, drink, or even rest. Celebrate and acknowledge your efforts no matter what! Each day, each hour, each moment that you’re forging your complete focus on piano practice in the way I’ve described in this series is an incredible accomplishment. You’re making progress step by step, sometimes without realizing it until you look back and see how far you’ve come in your musical skills! I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! Annnnnd...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by sharing/liking/retweeting the link! Subscribe for more updates! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!
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 CLICK PIANO TO SEE MY "HOW TO PRACTICE PIANO" PINTEREST BOARD! Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins by Jenny Leigh Hodgins This is Part 3 of a series offering my best tips for effective piano practice. Read Part 1 & 2 here: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 Why Zoning Out Won’t Get You Anywhere With Piano Progress Playing through the passage while zoning out mentally, immersed instead in the enjoyment of music won’t advance your piano progress. When practicing piano, you must be vigilant about where you place your focus. You must have a clear focus. That’s why setting goals for your practice week and having a specific goal to work on for each moment of your current piano practice session are the first steps to your piano progress. In My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2, I walked you through the fundamental steps necessary for effective piano practice. As part of that process, you will sometimes need to stop playing the piano. As mentioned, there are two reasons to stop; you’ve either made a mistake or lost focus on your specific goal. How To Evaluate Your Piano Performance During and after you play your selected musical passage with a goal in mind, you must learn to evaluate your performance with regard to whatever goal you are focused on. Evaluation, as part of an effective piano practice strategy, is the active role you take in the constant problem state of getting your piano skills from your current level to the next. In other words, you must engage your own thinking about your piano skills. Of course, your piano teacher will be of tremendous help in guiding you toward what specific things to be aware of, in regard to your current piano level. But you must be a proactive learner for greater momentum in your piano progress. Going back to your piano practice scenario, after you play through the selected passage, ask yourself, “Did I successfully accomplished my goal?” Be Proactively & Fully Engaged At The Piano Check yourself carefully here:
If so, it was not a successful run-through, even if you made no mistakes! You must be cognizant of what you are doing at the piano so that your mind and your physical muscles store the memory of your successful playing! Many piano students (I’m guilty of this myself) develop the habit of playing something correctly, but without truly spending mental attention on the music. This regrettably often results in moments of a complete blank when attempting to perform under circumstances that are different or involve stage fright symptoms. It’s great that your physical muscles remember the music! But if you rely only on the physical memory alone, without engaging your intellectual concentration, you risk having a complete memory lapse. Back to checking yourself on whether you’ve played through the selected passage correctly:
In both these outcomes, making a mistake or losing mental concentration, you must return to the beginning and follow the practice strategy laid out in How To Achieve Your Most Effective Piano Practice in My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2. When A Mistake Is NOT A Mistake However, a word about mistakes. Be flexible with making a mistake if it had nothing to do with your selected goal. Let’s use the example of attempting to play the fingering correctly through a four-measure musical passage. If you played a wrong note, or stopped the fluency of the beat, or played too softly when the dynamic marking indicates a louder dynamic, but you still played the correct fingering, any of those mistakes are not necessarily worth noting. One Thing At A TIme, Not Multi-Tasking If you played the correct fingering despite those other mistakes, it’s a victory. You met your goal. Especially for beginners, the ability to focus on one thing at a time while playing is the most important practice habit. After playing through the passage with correct fingering a few times, you could then select the next goal to include one of the things that tripped you up earlier, such as playing:
How To Assess The Problem Or Unlock A New Approach At this point of your piano practice routine, you’ve evaluated your attempt. You either were successful at the initial goal and have been able to play through correctly three times consecutively, or, something went wrong. This is what you must think about:
This is what it takes to forge your ability to assess your piano performance and adjust yourself accordingly. How To Choose Your Next Best Step If you were successful with playing your chosen piano passage through three times successfully, you must then choose a new goal. Perhaps, practice something that gave you trouble as mentioned earlier. Your next piano practice goal will depend on what you need to master, or what is giving you trouble. Goals will also vary based on your piano skill level. Your previously established weekly or practice session goals will be your reference point for next steps. Some common piano practicing goals could include playing through the passage:
You should try to continue practicing each goal in this manner for as long as you are able to muster full effort. When you begin to lose your ability to concentrate, remind yourself of your selected goal and reset back to the start. If you are unable to keep your mind on things after awhile, or continue making the same mistakes, it may be time for a break. Stay tuned for my next blog in this series on effective piano practice, What To Do If You Keep Messing Up At The Piano! I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Summary of Effective Piano Practice Strategy  Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins by Jenny Leigh Hodgins This is the second part of a series offering my best tips on how to practice piano effectively. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 How To Achieve Your Most Effective Piano Practice I mentioned the importance of choosing relevant practice goals. Having goals for each piano practice session is crucial for both fast and lasting progress. Surprisingly, many piano students completely neglect this important step! Spending time at the piano without locking down on a goal is just spinning your wheels. It may be pleasurable for a short while, but in the end those who omit goal-setting will eventually stall musical progress. Let’s begin with the understanding of how influential your goals will be toward your piano progress as we launch into an effective piano practice strategy. You can use this strategy for any piano practice session at any level of musicianship or piano skills! Practice Piano Using Your Full Focus On Your One Goal Start with one goal for the current piano practice session. It’s pivotal that you select only one goal to begin your piano practice. Limit yourself to think only about this one goal. While deeply listening and looking at the musical notation or your hand (s) at the keyboard, place your full mental effort on the one thing you’ve selected as your goal. This is where multi-tasking goes out the window! Looking Ahead To Be Better Prepared Let’s say you’ve selected the goal of playing the correct fingering, for the right hand only, through four measures of notated music. Start by visually reading the selected fingering without touching the piano. Take note of any opportunities for making a mistake. Analyze that situation. Question why it would be a challenge and look for a solution around it. Once you’ve found the solution, decide your course of action (back to setting your first goal). Looking Before You Leap Prevents Falling The point is to think about the one goal of playing the right hand’s fingering through the four measures of music. Do not yet play the piano. Think through it first. Taking the chosen passage, let’s say that while you visually read through the fingering, you discovered one of your fingers would need to stretch to reach its key to accomplish correct fingering. Now that you’re aware of this potential problem, you’re better prepared to adjust your hand, wrist, arm or posture to assure you’ll be able to play the designated fingering. Play While Focusing On One Goal After this period of visual and mental preparation, begin toward your one goal of playing the musical passage mistake-free (with correct fingering in the right hand). As you play the passage, listen carefully and pay close attention to achieving the goal (correct fingering). During this time, do not focus on anything else. Don’t add the left hand. Don’t think about dynamics, the rhythm, or tempo. Just concentrate fully on the one goal (playing correct fingering) for the selected musical passage. Evaluate Your Performance Think about whether you either successfully met your goal or not. If not, you must stop. If you didn’t succeed in reaching your goal, you must stop. Do not continue through the passage or beyond it. CLICK HERE FOR MY RECOMMENDED MUSIC RESOURCES! Stop. —If You Make A Mistake Or Lose Your Focus There are only two reasons to stop practicing. The first is if you make a mistake in regard to your goal. In this case, you weren’t able to play correct right hand fingering through the four measures of music. The second is if you lost mental concentration. If you have lost your ability to mentally focus on your goal, you must stop. Continuing without a goal in mind is wasted time at the piano. This is one of the most important aspects of effective piano practice that so many piano players ignore, resulting in lack of progress, repeated mistakes, hitting musical plateaus and boredom. But if you are proactively and cognitively engaged with your goal, your piano progress will rapidly improve! You must THINK! As simple as that sounds, it is the essence of successful piano progress! It’s challenging to keep yourself intellectually disciplined. It’s also tiring. You are the best judge of your ability, so when you lose mental focus, the best course of action is to stop. Reset Back To The Beginning Once you’ve evaluated yourself to determine if you need to stop due to a mistake or a lack of attention, you must reset. Go back to the start and try again. Recenter your mind on the one goal and make a fresh attempt at it. How You Can Avoid Wasting Time At The Piano The point is to prioritize exactly one thing to practice and put your entire attention to that goal. Like walking a balance beam, if you lose your balance, you fall off. There’s no point in continuing. Just go back and start again from the beginning. When you choose one defined practice goal and create the restriction of not allowing yourself to continue unless you are successful, you will make faster and better piano progress. Repeat Your Effort To Focus On Your One Goal & Do It 3 Times In A Row! Once you are able to successfully reach your specific goal as you play the musical passage, go back to the beginning and try again to complete your goal. Stop each time you lose focus or make a mistake on your goal. Start again. Repeat this process until you’re able to successfully play through your passage with your appointed goal three times in a row. If you play successfully through twice but make a mistake or lose focus the third time, you must start completely over from the beginning! Do not move forward until you are able to succeed three times consecutively. When you’re able to play through your selected goal successfully and consecutively several times, your correct habit is solidified. This confirms you are ready to move on to the next goal! The Benefits of Attending To One Goal At A Time You will find that honing in on a specific task in this manner will get you much further in piano skills that mindlessly repeating your music multiple times. Using your entire effort to think about what you are trying to accomplish makes a huge impact on piano progress. If you apply yourself to this kind of full-on thinking strategy while at the piano, your piano skills will improve more quickly. Your improvement will boost your confidence in your piano playing abilities. This will motivate you to continue building your skills. The fluency you will gain from attending to each practice goal will give you an edge of greater musicianship. This leads to greater enjoyment and inspiration at the piano. When It’s Ok To Play Piano For Enjoyment Many piano players waste time by playing music without thinking about any particular goal. Or they lose their focus on the goal while playing. Or they become distracted by other musical aspects (like dynamics, rhythm, tempo, expression). This leads to wasted time at the piano and leads to little or no improvement of piano skills. There will be plenty of opportunity to play piano for enjoyment, and you absolutely should do this. But your piano practice session is not the right time for that. Reward yourself with playing piano mindlessly only after you've dedicated time to effective piano practice. First, give your all to reaching the goals you’ve chosen for your practice session! After you work hard in your practice session, treat yourself to the fun of playing through previous assignments, or improvising on the keys. You’ll feel a difference in your mastery of the music after having worked consistently within your practice routine. The key is to balance your practice between great concentrated effort, followed by the reward of relaxation and enjoyment of piano playing for fun. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! Read My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3 for more details on how to evaluate your piano practice... Annnnnd...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  CLICK PIANO TO CHECKOUT MY "HOW TO PRACTICE PIANO" Pinterest Board! Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins  Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins By Jenny Leigh Hodgins This is Part 1 of a series offering my best tips on how to practice piano.
For all these scenarios, I have some useful suggestions. Why Should You Believe I Know How To Make Piano Progress? I’ve taught piano for more than half my life. Piano is a way that I best express myself, whether through performance or my original compositions. I performed as a pianist (and vocalist) and owned a private piano teaching studio for 25 years. I taught group piano (Musikgarten methodology) to kids from 5 to 11, too! If you’re interested in checking out my piano-based original music, or looking for proof to believe me when I say I know how to make piano progress, go to: JLMusicStudio.com Or have a listen to: My Piano Performance of Clair De Lune. Why Does Your Piano Practice Make You Feel Like A Loser? I know from my early piano practice sessions what it feels like to be overwhelmed, or stuck, or frustrated by a particular musical challenge. I was familiar with spending chunks of fruitless time at piano, not being able to accomplish something. I’d practice musical passages, scales, etudes, fingering, rhythmic patterns, or dynamics relentlessly and repetitively, only to hear myself play the same mistake after mistake. I’ve had some great piano teachers, though, and one of them was quite instrumental (What? A musical pun here?) in teaching me how to make progress with learning piano. I finally learned how to practice piano effectively. I’ve seen this dilemma from both sides. Having taught piano and music for 25+ years, I’ve met many piano students who felt overwhelmed by piano practice. I’ve had students come to me with angst from their lack of progress with former piano teachers. I’ve had adults come to me with feeble hopes after quitting piano lessons as a child. I’ve had teenagers joining my studio initially complain that piano was boring and they couldn’t get any better at it. How To Practice Piano With Confidence I learned to practice piano effectively. My private piano students overcame issues with getting stuck or insufficient progress, too. They succeeded because the driving point I taught in each piano lesson was how to practice piano effectively. Do You Know Where The Musical Magic Really Happens? First, you need to know that the magic never happens in the piano lesson. You will not be illuminated musically by exposure to the brilliance of your piano teacher. Sorry, no unicorns here. Piano improvement comes directly from the student. So… You. You, as the piano student, or you as the parent of the piano student, are the key to continuous piano progress. The piano student has full responsibility for developing piano skills. Having that self-motivation is 90% of the musical betterment battle. Of course, a quality piano instructor will be critically helpful as an experienced guide on your musical journey. A good piano teacher can inspire your consistent piano progress. Your piano teacher can help you avoid mistakes or break habits that stunt your piano development. Your piano teacher can use your strengths to help you advance more dynamically, or help you polish your weaknesses into tools for improvement. But the real result is up to the piano student. Not the teacher. If that has fully sunk into your brain, now you are ready for my piano practice tips! Please first take a look at these blogs if you are just beginning piano: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How To Find A Good Piano Teacher Necessary Steps To Achieve Your Most Effective Piano Practice Having read through the blogs above, hopefully you’ve found a great piano teacher, have a quality instrument or a plan to upgrade to one, and have sorted out a regular practice routine that is supported by those in your home. Now you must begin to establish an effective piano practice strategy that produces progress within your regular practice sessions. In my next blogs of this series, My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 & My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3, I walk you through my effective piano practice strategy in detail. Why You Need To Choose A Goal Relevant For Your Level Before you begin toward your daily piano practice routine, you will need to define the goals you will concentrate on. As you read through these piano practice tips, it will become evident that your goals will change and develop as you practice. Choosing and changing goals helps keep your interest and promotes the greatest progress while practicing piano. The most critical part that will vary from student to student, or from one practice session to the next, is choosing relevant practice goals. The goals you select depend on your level of musicianship, and will vary from beginner to advanced levels of piano skill. Beginner to intermediate level piano students will typically have a few piano goals assigned by their piano teacher to achieve before the next piano lesson. As you advance in piano proficiency, you’ll be able to use more self-volition in selecting appropriate piano goals. As you advance, and with the guidance from your piano teacher, you’ll learn the art of narrowing your focus to what goals are necessary for your current piano playing level. Before you begin, you must determine your specific goals for each piano practice session. You’ll need to break your weekly goals down into smaller, digestible chunks. Either using what your piano teacher has offered, or devising your own, make a list of targeted piano practice goals you will work on during your piano practice session. In the next blog, I will offer a few examples of relevant piano practice goals. Checkout next steps in my effective piano practice strategy in My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2, & My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! Annnnnd...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
If you’re interested in learning piano, or your child or teen is interested in music, there are some basic things that can help you start your musical journey with confidence. Whether you studied years ago, have a child who had sporadic lessons, or a teen suddenly expressing interest in learning an instrument, the options and information provided in this article will guide you toward having everything needed for your successful start with piano lessons. Find A Good Piano Teacher Although there are plenty of resources available at your fingertips for online learning, you will need to find a good piano teacher. There is nothing wrong with taking advantage of online tutorials, methods, and music education games. I recommend using them as well as piano and music apps as supplements to your piano education. But initially, beginner to intermediate-level students especially benefit from the guidance of a qualified piano teacher. A good piano teacher helps dramatically with the accountability factor. Having someone who knows what they’re doing can help you avoid making mistakes or overcome inevitable barriers more quickly than you would do on your own. This is especially critical in the area of piano technique. There are a variety of ways to find a capable piano teacher. Although local music stores may be the obvious choice, and they can provide wonderful educators, they may not be the best fit for you. Be aware that a music store’s goal is not to provide a quality piano education, but to sell products to you. Go into the search for a piano teacher like you’d search for a new doctor, massage therapist, or realtor. Have the mindset that you are interviewing for the right match to your piano goals and for the student. This includes personality, qualifications, location, cost, policy and communication. You or your child should feel completely comfortable and motivated when interacting with your piano teacher. Read Find A Good Piano Teacher for more details on where to look for a qualified instructor. Get The Best Quality Instrument That You Can Afford Many beginner or returning piano students wonder what instrument is best to start with until the student is fully committed for the long haul of music education. You must consider your budget, living space, family schedule, and preferences before purchasing a suitable keyboard for piano lessons. There are pros and cons to both using a digital piano keyboard or an acoustic piano. For the development of good piano technique and finger muscles, it is important to use a piano keyboard that has good action and tone. Even the best digital pianos are still no match for the authentic feel of a wooden instrument with quality craftsmanship. However, the benefits of electronic keyboards include the convenience of headphones, size, portability, and an abundance of beautiful, quality piano samples that may be used through a computer connection. If budget is an issue, I recommend purchasing an electronic keyboard for the first six months to one year. This is enough time to decide if you/your child will make the commitment to piano learning. After no more than one year, I recommend upgrading to a higher quality instrument within your budget. If you’re considering purchasing a piano or digital keyboard, I recommend you invite your new piano teacher to accompany you to the music store for guidance on your purchase. Piano quality varies dramatically from piano to piano, pending the age, brand, or care of the instrument. Whether looking at a piano under $3K, or a $30K Steinway, it’s helpful to have an experienced piano teacher’s input, as they know how the action and tone should sound. For more information, read What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? What Piano Books Do I Need? A competent piano educator will know good method books to recommend and may even provide them (for a fee). Click here for a list of some quality piano methods I have used and recommend. If your teacher recommends any of these, rest assured you are learning from an appropriate, quality, piano instruction curriculum. This list is not a complete list, but includes those I have used as both a piano student and piano teacher with great success. You Will Need Family Support You will need harmonious family support for successful piano progress. Everyone must agree to place the musical instrument in a location that is conducive to concentrated music practice. This means keeping it separate from TV or video game interference, or interruptions from other family activities. The family must be in agreement to support your daily practice schedule. Make sure you discuss your piano practice routine and allow for it to be incorporated into and around family activities or obligations. Decide On A Regular Practice Schedule Decide on a regular time of day to practice. Stick to it everyday or at least 5 days per week. It will take a while to get used to practicing consistently (or get back in the groove of practicing), but if you create your own schedule based on the time of day that works best for you or your family, it will become habitual fairly quickly. The good thing about learning any musical instrument is that the more consistently you do it, even if it’s a short amount of time, the more quickly you make progress. Part of the reason behind that is due to muscle memory. If you skip even one day it’s harder for your muscles to remember what to do. That’s why it’s important to first establish a consistent schedule. Your cognitive memory is also at play, so keeping a consistent schedule helps with memorization and retaining information. How Much Should Children Practice Piano? Young children need about 15 minutes of daily piano practice, which may be chunked into 5-minute increments throughout the day. Older children should aim for 30 minutes each weekday. Splitting the practice session may be helpful for family schedules or to accommodate the student’s learning style. Children, especially those from ages 5-9, particularly need the assistance of a parent throughout the practice session in the beginning. How Much Should Teens & Adults Practice Piano? I recommend 30 minutes to an hour for adults who want to play piano as a hobby. For teens and young adults aiming to acquire piano scholarships for college, I recommend dedicating an hour daily on weekdays and 1-2 hours at the piano on weekends. Practice Piano Effectively Learn how to practice piano effectively. A good teacher will guide you from the start on how to practice for greatest impact toward your piano progress. Make sure you are clear on your practice goals before the piano lesson ends. Clarify what you aim to accomplish by the next lesson. Your teacher will help break that down into actionable practice tasks. Mind Spent Is Better Than Time Spent Time at the piano is not as important as “mind spent” at the piano. Even though a consistent daily practice schedule is necessary, just sitting at the piano during your allotted practice time doesn’t lead to progress. Many piano students waste time at the piano, leading to frustration from their lack of piano progress. Spending your time at the piano with clear, practice goals and concentrated mental focus is what leads to piano progress. For each practice session, you must know your practice goals and focus on each one with full mental effort. When you lose your attention span, refresh your goal focus and try again. If you’re unable to keep your concentration after several attempts, take a short break or call it a day until your next practice session. Practice also includes mental activities away from the instrument, including listening to quality musical recordings of the music you are learning. See What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury for more ideas on how to practice away from the instrument. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Kansas Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers. Photo courtesy of D. Ivers. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
Today’s Piano blog features five best piano practice tips from Veteran Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers, of Kansas. I recently featured Ivers in my blog, What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury. Ivers runs a successful piano studio in Kansas. She includes online lessons and technology as part of her piano pedagogy. 1. What are your top piano practice tips for beginners? Frequency, Chunking Goals & Finding Tricky Spots For beginners, Ivers suggests practicing piano frequently in small chunks throughout the week. She recommends setting small, manageable goals for each practice session. She suggests learning how to identify your tricky spots and work them carefully. 2. What are the basics for someone who wants to begin learning piano? Quality Instrument, Family Support, Interest In Learning Piano Fundamentally, Ivers recommends that beginner piano students have "an in-tune instrument to practice on, parent support, and an interest in learning piano." She accepts students as young as three for piano lessons, "because we can teach skills like counting and finger isolation (fingering) through music. As long as the student is interested and able to follow simple instructions, piano lessons can begin." 3. What are your thoughts on online learning for piano? Ivers considers online learning a terrific option, whether it be for regular lessons, or an inclement weather or sickness option. Flexibility Plus Responsibility “Online (piano) lessons provide flexibility of location for the student, and with video chat technology being what it is, piano teachers can accomplish the same goals with only small variations to their usual methods.” “In my own piano studio, I started offering online piano lessons after I moved across the country and several of my students in my former area wanted to continue on with me. So I tried it out with students ranging from age 7 to 16, mid-beginner to advanced piano levels, all have continued to show consistent (piano) progress and lessons continue to be fun and engaging.” “One added bonus is that a few of my online piano students have really stepped up and taken ownership of their music and learning process because there is a little bit of added responsibility when a student participates in distance learning.” 4. Do you have any technology you’d recommend for piano students? Metronomes Ivers says she recommends “every student have access to a metronome, be it a traditional one, a beat generator like the Super Metronome Groove Box app or just telling their Google/Alexa to set a metronome.” Apps, Games, Notation Software, Accompaniment = Engagement “Besides that, there are a lot of excellent technology-based resources like music theory apps, sight reading games, music notation software, backing track generators, etc.” “While I don't think any of these are the single secret key to becoming a well-rounded musician, anything that helps a student engage and enjoy the piano learning process is worth investing in.” “In my (piano) studio, I use a combination of the resources mentioned above so students are getting to use them in lessons. When they go home, they are not required to have access to them (though many enjoy the apps or notation software so much, they do download them for practice purposes at home).” 5. What are your thoughts on time and schedule routine for piano practice? Set Weekly Piano Practice Routine & Reminders Ivers says the details of this are “going to vary by family and individual schedules and situations. But generally, I recommend that students look at their weekly schedule, and set the times throughout the week they are going to practice (piano).” “Set digital or visual reminders if necessary for these set times, and then stick to it.” Practice When Inspired “Students should also practice piano when they're feeling inclined to in addition to the scheduled times, and with this combination of following a schedule and allowing inclination to bring them to the piano, they'll get plenty of practice each week.” Ivers' blog on four ideas for scheduling practice time goes more in depth on this topic. For more information from our featured piano teacher, Dawn Ivers, her piano studio and informative blog, click here. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Hobbyist Pianist Tommy Doyle, of Manchester, United Kingdom Tips For Adults Who Want To Learn Piano
by Jenny Leigh Hodgins In my quest to see if what I’ve learned in 30+ years as a pianist and piano teacher is in sync with other piano teachers and pianists, I’ve checked out Facebook piano groups. This is where I engaged in a thread on piano practice with hobbyist piano player, Tommy Doyle, of Manchester, United Kingdom. Doyle’s website, https://tommyspianocorner.com is where he shares his journey as someone who studied piano in his youth, left it behind for many years due to ‘adulting,’ then returned to the piano as a hobby. His blog offers his insights on how to approach learning piano while juggling the working adult’s non-music-related daily responsibilities. Although not a piano teacher, hearing from Doyle’s personal journey with striving to fit in his love for piano minus the hyper-ambition of a classical piano career gets at the heart of what many aspiring pianists want to know. I asked Doyle five questions that are useful for those wanting to progress at piano playing. The first sentence of his first answer hit the essence of my philosophy and teaching strategy for effective piano progress. YCC: What are your top piano practice tips for beginners? DOYLE: My top tip for anybody wanting to learn to play piano is to learn how to practice piano. This might seem a self-evident thing to say, however, the reality seems to be that many of us never learn the art of practicing. In my experience, we often find intuitive ways of doing things and in these cases if we just repeat a few times, we soon acquire a new skill. However, when we don’t find that intuitive means, we have to find a way to learn a new skill. This is where practice techniques play a big part. If you’re unable to do something, then just repeating it incorrectly isn’t going to help. I found a couple of really useful resources in this respect that I’ve talked about numerous times on my blog. YCC: Doyle specifically recommends the Practicing The Piano ebook series by pianist/educator, Graham Fitch. Fitch is highly qualified as a graduate of London’s Royal College Of Music who continued his piano studies in the USA on a Fulbright Scholarship, and travels as a performing pianist and lecturer on piano and music. I haven’t personally used Fitch’s series, but on first glance at the preview on Amazon, some of his top tips for practicing include; choosing a specific fingering, attention to practice only correct notes or rhythms, isolating hands separately before playing hands together, choosing a slow tempo for new repertoire, and using soft dynamics for a loud section. Each of these methods is something I’ve used myself and in teaching others, and resonates with my teaching and practicing approach to focus on mastering one goal at a time, and to eliminate practicing mistakes robotically. Doyle especially likes the ebooks for their direct links to audio and video demonstrations as part of the piano learning process. This is in sync with both how my piano teachers taught me, and my approach as a piano teacher to model for students so they may grasp concepts aurally, physically and visually. Today’s online capabilities can be a useful source of help for piano students. For more information on the series, Doyle himself reviewed it here. YCC: What are the basics you recommend for someone who wants to begin learning piano? DOYLE: I highly recommend that anybody start by getting a teacher. I’m not saying you can’t teach yourself with sufficient research and trial and error, with the myriad of resources now available online. It’s definitely possible. However, I think there’s an absolutely massive learning curve at the beginning (depending on your starting point). Not only is there the issue of actually playing the instrument, there’s also the question of learning to read music. Finding a good teacher to get you over these two massive initial hurdles is to my mind a well worthwhile investment. A teacher is there to help you master the very basics - how to sit at the piano, how to hold your hands, how to play the notes. You teacher can also explain what those odd dots on the page actually mean and give strategies for absorbing the ability to translate these into notes at the piano. A good teacher will also help you get to grips with lots of the basics you need; Scales, Arpeggios, 5-finger exercises and the like. Learning how to do these well gives you the absolute essential building blocks for the rest. Your teacher will also help you with choices of pieces (music repertoire) to learn that are both within your grasp but also in terms of styles of music you enjoy. YCC: What are your thoughts on online learning for piano? DOYLE: I’m a firm believer that we should embrace the possibilities that the new online world offers us. Starting with YouTube, there is an enormous wealth of quality tutorials for people of all levels. YCC: Doyle has his favorite channels, but mentions the importance of checking into the background experience of videos to confirm credentials of expertise. He recommends Josh Wright, who is both well known on YouTube, has a doctorate in piano, and is an experienced teacher. Doyle doesn’t use apps himself, but “as a supplement to a proper teacher, I’d imagine they’re a great extra source of learning and certainly a very fun way to approach piano. Of course, claims that you can go from ‘beginner to pro in no time’ are total nonsense.” Doyle quotes Vladimir Horowitz (considered the king of classical piano) the piano is “the easiest instrument to learn in the beginning and the hardest to master in the end.” YCC: Do you have any technology you’d recommend for piano students? DOYLE: Technology is one of my pet subjects. I even created a category on my blog for this. What I find amazing even now is the absolutely amazing ways technology can be used by pianists now. I have an iPad Pro that I use as an integral part of my piano routine. This one piece of technology has replaced my need for sheet music (I download directly to my iPad), for a metronome (I use a free a metronome app). I keep my practice diary on it. I use it to record my practice so I can self critique. It’s pretty much always on my piano music stand. You can use it for things such as streaming music services, watching YouTube videos, reading magazines, the list goes on. You can even record your own orchestra into your computer and play along. I think that sometimes we more ‘mature’ learners fail to embrace what technology makes possible and stick with the ‘old way’. It’s a bit like my dad, who refuses to use a SatNav (GPS), just because he’s never used one and, on that basis, would never need one. It’s not about whether we need something, but about whether it makes what we’re trying to do easier. If technology can make things easier, then why not embrace it? When I used to play piano publicly, I needed to carry two massive plastic bags of music around with me with all sorts of photocopies and creased and wrinkled books. Now, on my iPad, I have all of my music organised, with the added advantage that I can search and find a piece in seconds rather than needing to sift through a lot of paper. YCC: What are your thoughts on time and schedule routine for piano practice? Doyle shares that reading Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible by Alan Rusbridger inspired him to create his weekday before-work practice routine. He says he gets up an hour earlier in the morning so he can practice. DOYLE: I found that before I started doing this I had two major problems. The first was that it was always in the back of my mind that I still needed to fit in my practice at some point. Secondly, work would frequently take over, and by the time I actually got home from work I was too tired to sit down at the piano. My practice routine before was pretty much sitting and randomly working through things, which quite often was not actually making me any better. YCC: Doyle says his research into piano practice taught him the importance of having a proper plan. He says having defined goals and strategies for every practice session is a “real game changer.” Doyle emphasizes that “piano is an amazing hobby open to anybody. It’s definitely a lot of hard work, but the rewards are more than worth it.” Click here to read more about Doyle’s approach to piano practice. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! Annnnnd...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury DEVELOPING PIANO TECHNIQUE TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION COMPOSING FOR PIANO Connect with YourCreativeChord on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Piano Practice When You Have An Injury By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
Today’s Piano blog features the ideas provided by Veteran Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers, of Kansas, in her blog, Broken Arms & Sprained Wrists. Ivers runs a successful piano studio in Kansas and was recently featured in her local newspaper, McPherson Sentinel. See Iver's article on tips for handling stage-fright (featuring ideas from my blog, How To Turn Your Nerves Into Good Energy.) Yikes! What do you do about piano lessons when you (or your child) have an injury like a broken wrist, a sprain, or jammed fingers? Is it best to take a break until the injury has healed? Or would it be best to press on with piano practice and lessons? Piano Teacher Recommendation I recently came across Kansas Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers’ blog about this on her website, dawnspiano.com. Of course, performances would obviously need to be postponed, unless the program consists solely of one-handed repertoire. But I wholeheartedly agree with Ivers’ recommendation to press forward with both practice and lessons. Why and how are the important questions to ask. Why Should You Continue Piano When You Have An Injury Stopping piano practice when you have an injury risks the loss of momentum with your piano progress. It’s challenging to get your groove back if you’ve sat it out for more than a week. Our muscle memory, not to mention our brain’s recall, suffers from inactivity during gaps in time. Absence Makes Learning Harder This issue was never more apparent to me than during my years as a public school music educator. Students returning to music class after winter, spring or summer break had glaringly forgotten large chunks of information, musical and even social skills. This is why the first several weeks of public school music classes were spent on review and hands-on immersive practice. Moving forward without these refresher activities caused more frustration for students and decreased successful learning in the music classroom. Fortunately, with piano lessons, the student or parent of the student has the option of moving forward despite an injury. The critical point is how you focus your piano practice to accommodate the injury. How To Practice Piano Is Key If you’re dealing with an injury, fortunately, there are lots of ways to move forward while working around it. In her blog, Ivers offers no less than eight piano practice strategies for continuing musical progress while accommodating an injury. Often, budding pianists get in the habit of relying on two-handed playing, leaving other weaknesses unattended. The healing period for an injury provides a great opportunity to strengthen those areas. Ideas For One-Handed Piano Practice In her blog, Kansas-based piano teacher, Dawn Ivers suggests practicing sight-reading, one-handed duet practice with a partner, pedal practice, technic and solo pieces for one-hand, and honing scale and musical theory while building improvisation skills through one-handed practice. Duet Practice Helps Sight-Reading & Rhythmic Skills I agree with Ivers focus on using the opportunity for duo playing. In my piano studio, I often honed in on a piano student’s sight-reading, rhythmic, or technical skills by having them play one hand while I played the opposite part. This is a great way to have the student focus on developing better notation reading skills, or to provide more practice for those struggling with maintaining fluency with rhythm. By playing duets with the piano teacher and only having to play with one-hand, the student’s technical skills may be addressed. This works particularly well when the teacher guides the student with a slower practice tempo. One-Handed Improvisation Opens Creative Expression I often found students more engaged when providing the chance to improvise in a duet. One strategy is for the piano teacher to provide a simple, harmonic progression while the student is assigned an allotted key signature and a specific range of notes and/or fingering. The student practices improvising in this manner, learning from limitations with the use of specific form, fingering, rhythmic or melodic phrasing. The restriction of having only one hand to practice takes the pressure off the student. I have found that many students open up more creatively with this type of stress-reduced activity. Forging Musical Comprehension Through Music Theory Ivers also recommends more time spent on games and exercises to develop musical theory expertise. Often, time runs out during a piano lesson before the piano teacher can fully address the student’s musical theory needs. Using the injury healing period to work on those music theory topics is time well spent toward greater piano mastery. Assigning music theory worksheets or other theory-based work throughout the week gives the student the chance to build their musical understanding. As the student grasps theoretical aspects, he or she expands musical comprehension on multiple levels, contributing to a greater performance mastery, and a deepening confidence. Students Tap Self-Expression Through New Approach Ivers also points out the opportunity to develop musical composition abilities while a student’s injury heals. This is a great way to encourage students to try something new, engage their personal interests and encourage self-expression. Lessons could be spent teaching compositional aspects and allowing the injured student time to learn more about notation, intervals, chords, scales, fingering, form, key analysis, melodic phrasing and rhythmic patterns. Lastly, Ivers suggests taking time to work on rhythm and sight-reading. This is one of my favorite ideas, as students can solidify understanding and better grasp rhythmic and meter issues when the focus is narrowed to the use of only one hand. If you or your child has an injury prohibiting piano practice with one hand, consider these suggestions as encouragement to continue musical progress throughout the healing period. For more information from our featured piano teacher, Dawn Ivers, her piano studio and informative blog, click here. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: More tips on effective piano practice can be found in my blog on left and right hand coordination here. What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults Learning To Be Creative You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  My Baby Grand Piano Speaks. By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
This is a poem I wrote from the viewpoint of my piano instrument. My piano is encouraging me to make time for music-making despite my busy schedule. Responsibilities can pile up but regular music-making has tremendous benefits. I look rusty, dusty, cold and untouched You’ve been away from me far too much I have voluminous sounds to reach your ear A wealth of richness for you to hear But you have left me in the corner Covered up, like some kind of mourner Grieving death with silence Leaving me in the distance While you scurry and scamper around Burying your heart deep underground Look this way! You'll miss me, friend! Recall the melodies we have penned! Rhythms pulsing, drumming, beating Music flowing, moving, defeating everything that tried to bring you down Remember me--our joyful sound! That's it--I see I've caught your eye-- You know you need me as well as I So meet me here upon this bench Sit down, relax, release, unclench Share with me your hidden story Tap your creative repertory at once, when you connect with me with fingers placed on key to key Of bliss, of love, and spiritual height When you release your inner light to me--I'll feel your every thought, Kindly untie the angry knot That's twisted up your soul And spun you out of control If you would meet me here again You'd alleviate your abysmal yen Cathartically, simultaneously, Immediately and beautifully Bringing dimensions to life from experiences inside to fruition, realization satisfaction, revolution. Just sit with me and feel The true, authentic, real. And when you open up to this, The flow of music's gentle kiss upon your fragile heart will mend the broken, then you will transcend beyond confusion, doubt or fear illuminating perfectly clear; Your strength, your power, Your Treasure Tower-- As you listen from within. How does your piano speak to you? Share in the comments! SIGN-UP HERE to get your FREE download of YCC's Top 10 Things To Help You Reach Your Goals! Plus get more more strategies for creativity, piano, caregiver and spiritual wellness! CLICK HERE for a list of piano and music-making resources I use and recommend. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!
 Prepare well to overcome stage-fright. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
HOW TO HANDLE STAGE-FRIGHT Throughout my music teaching career, my music students have either asked me how to overcome stage fright, or have been nervous enough to warrant a discussion on the topic. Getting performance jitters is a common experience among performers. I have personally experienced it, so I understand the concern! When I first starting performing as a solo pianist/vocalist in my twenties, I used to get so nervous I’d throw up before a performance. Onstage, my legs and hands felt like they were shaking so hard I feared people saw me gyrating! Playing piano for performances, my right leg and foot shook like a hyper-active sewing machine pedal. Performing as a vocalist was similar. My heart beat so loudly, I thought it would fly out my throat the moment I started to sing. Fortunately, I learned to tame the stage-anxiety beast. I have four suggestions that worked so well for me, I wound up as a professional solo pianist/vocalist for 25 years! I also taught and spoke for many years in front of global audiences from 50 to thousands. Of course, I’d still sometimes feel nervous before a performance or presentation, but I employed the four suggestions I’ll share here to help you completely win over stage-fright. RINSE, REPEAT, OFTEN! My first suggestion is to get as many performing opportunities as possible and frequently! Desensitizing to the scenario, performing frequently, takes the sting out of it. Find a way to play for family, friends, church, spiritual groups, libraries, schools, meet ups, anybody, and anywhere! If you can’t find someone to perform for, video or audio-record yourself and pretend it’s a performance! Ignore any mistakes and continue on without stopping. Later, watch or listen to your performance for tips on sections where you may have tripped up. Analyze why. This is also a great way to evaluate your practice routine! Making mistakes is usually due to lack of thorough preparation. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! This leads to my second suggestion; prepare well. In hindsight, most of my nerves were due to lack of confidence in my performance because I simply had not prepared well enough. I tackled that aspect with a vengeance in my practice routine, determined to master every note of a performance. I especially practiced any particular section where I did not feel fully confident, because when nervous, I’d lose it on those sections! I practiced enough to memorize every detail of a piece. Any section that I was even slightly unsure of was what I went after with a gusto—until I knew the music inside and out! I NEVER relied solely on finger memory for a performance. I made sure to memorize everything, including key, scale, harmonic analysis, form, melodic phrasing, fingering, dynamics, patterns, etc. If I did not know the piece fully inside my mind away from the instrument, I knew I was not prepared well enough to perform it. SEE YOURSELF…THERE I visualized myself in the specific performance scenario. Even better if I could actually practice in the performance venue. This eliminated the element of surprise and created a familiarity (back to ‘desensitizing’). I practiced performing while envisioning it as the real performance, including as much detail as possible. I imagined the people there, the color of the walls, the lighting, the aromas, my piano, the stage, and that the audience was loving the performance. I especially imagined feeling confident, enjoying the music, and performing successfully. I practiced this kind of visualization while playing the music repeatedly, until I felt a sense of assured mastery over the music. Once I had prepared well, practiced consistently, memorized entirely, and used imagery, I knew I had tackled the music enough to perform. FIND THE TRUE PURPOSE Lastly, I shifted my focus away from myself and directly fixated on the music for the audience’s benefit. To me, nerves simply indicated my ego. If I was focused on judging my musical ability, that was my vanity or ego, which is completely irrelevant in musical performance. Why? Because for me, the musician is only the middleman, the vessel, or messenger, of a much greater purpose; the MUSIC reaching the audience’s hearts. Once I learned to shift my attention away from myself, I could center all my being on bringing the power and spirit of music to life. The purpose of the music became connecting with or giving something positive to the heart of another human being. I reminded myself that performing music has less to do with the performer than it does with human connection. It doesn’t matter whether there may be several, or a hundred, or a thousand human beings in the audience--it all comes down to heart to heart communication brought alive through the universal medium of great music. FIND THE BIGGER PICTURE Whenever I concentrated this way, I humbled myself sincerely to achieving the task of sharing the great power of music with another heart. Focusing on this true purpose of musical performance took every ounce of my sincerity and effort, leaving no room for vanity or ego to get in the way. I’m a Soka Gakkai International - USA Buddhist, so I still chant before every performance (or when I compose or write) to use my best life-state in harmony with the music as a tool for uplifting the audience, and to spiritually communicate human potential. This has never failed me. Prayer of any kind shifts one’s heart toward a greater purpose, and to view things from a perspective different from ego. Any performance I have witnessed that truly moved my heart or life was one in which the communication through music was the focal point--not the performer. NERVES ARE GOOD ENERGY One last comment; I’ve taught music/choral/piano students never to be afraid of or attempt to escape nerves—because that incredible energy can be transformed into an exciting, moving performance. Nerves are GOOD because they make you alert and aware of doing your very best! SLOW YOUR ROLL WITH BREATH Even a seemingly negative thing like nervousness can become positive when you choose to direct it. Use your nerves as a wonderful sign that you care about doing a good job! Turn that sincerity into exciting energy for a performance that inspires with vigor. Breathe deeply and slowly while keeping the above points in mind to help control the physicality of excitement. Be intentional as you practice these four suggestions to transform stage-fright into supportive energy for your successful performance! Share your victories or tips on how you handle stage-fright in the comments below! SIGN-UP HERE to get your FREE download of YCC's Top 10 Things To Help You Reach Your Goals! Plus get more more strategies for creativity, piano, caregiver and spiritual wellness! More Tips On Handling Stage-Fright Featured In Dawn Iver's Piano Teaching Blog Here. CLICK HERE for a list of piano and music-making resources I use and recommend. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!   Photo by Jenny Leigh Hodgins By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
This article originally appeared in the September/October issue of LivingWell60+ magazine. If you’ve always wanted to play piano, taking lessons as a senior adult has more benefits than you may think. Beyond the sheer joy of musical experience, there’s a good chunk of science behind the benefits of learning piano as an older adult. Aging adults who learn to play piano experience enhanced cognitive function, slowed deterioration in the fight against the aging process, stress relief, improved mood, and a boost in self-esteem. Learning Piano Makes You Smarter A study by Frontiers in Psychology journal on aging adults reveals that learning a musical instrument enhances the activation of brain regions related to memory, attention, language processing, motor function, and emotion. Listening to music has been shown to activate these multiple brain regions, but learning to play an instrument further increases these functions. Neuropsychologists found such significant brain function activity enhancement from playing an instrument that the use of music training is under scrutiny for understanding brain plasticity progression. An institute in Barcelona, Spain found that participants who were assigned piano practice as opposed to others who did sports or painting showed greater neurological and psychological improvement on the scale they were using. University of South Florida assistant professor of music education, Jennifer Bugos, studied the results between aging adults who did or did not take piano lessons. Bugos discovered that six months of piano instruction for seniors showed impressive enhancements in memory, verbal fluency, information processing speed, planning ability, and other cognitive functions, over those who had not learned piano. Playing Piano Slows Deterioration Musical training improves the cognitive reserve in aging adults. Cognitive reserve, the term for how the brain fights against deterioration of function, is improved dramatically in aging adults who take piano lessons. Engaging in activities like reading, writing, or crossword puzzles is known to improve cognitive well-being and reduce risk of dementia development. But, seniors learning to play piano yield even more extraordinary improvements in multiple brain functions. Additionally, learning piano enhances auditory working memory, which may reinforce the memory capacity that facilitates communication, conversation and the ability to distinguish consonants and vowel sounds. In other words, learning piano fights against hearing loss and strengthens communication skills despite the aging process. Piano Study Reduces Pain Older adults learning piano have increased amounts of human growth hormone, which is connected to reducing aches and pains that come with age. Higher human growth hormone levels slow the progression of osteoporosis, and increase energy, sexual function and muscle mass. Learning Piano Boosts Creative Thinking Learning piano is a complex activity, requiring the ability to read as you play. This multi-tasking trains eye-hand coordination and develops independent hand coordination. This stimulates multiple brain sections, improves reaction and productivity while strengthening neural pathways between the left and right brain hemispheres. Playing piano uses a creative technique called divergent thinking, that forces the use of both sides of the brain. By exercising this technique regularly, players become better at creative thinking, improving the ability to problem solve. Learning Piano Makes You Happier And Healthier Those who play the piano regularly improve their mental state. Experiencing the victory of learning to play a piece of music encourages self-confidence. Engaging in music affects mood, and provides stress relief. Playing piano is a kind of ultrasound therapy, sending sound vibrations to the player’s body that improve circulation, and relax muscles. Playing music soothes and stimulates primary senses of touch and sight, causing the brain to release beta endorphins and dopamine, which leads to decreased anxiety, depression and loneliness. These aspects of mood affect overall wellness by stimulating the immune system to improve players’ health. The advantages of taking piano lessons as an older adult go beyond simple enjoyment. The health benefits and effect on cognitive abilities are a greater incentive. There are private piano instructors who offer group lessons as well as in-home instruction. See How To Find A Good Piano Teacher and What Keyboard Do I Need For Piano Lessons? for more information. Piano Method Books I recommend: For the Adult For the Older Beginner For Young Children For Very Young Children I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 1 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 2 My Best Tips On How To Practice Piano Part 3 What Should You Do If You Keep Messing Up At The Piano? What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook! ************************************************************************************************** Source: NAMM Foundation https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/2014-06-01-why-play-music-seniors Source: Music and Health http://www.musicandhealth.co.uk/articles/WatsonReview06.pdf Source: Science Nutshell: http://www.sciencenutshell.com/piano-playing-benefits-for-cognitive-function/ Source: NCBI https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3814522/ Source: The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/12/scientists-creativity-pianists-brain-activity Source: Linde Blad Piano https://www.lindebladpiano.com/blog/benefits-of-playing-piano TIPS FOR LEFT & RIGHT HAND COORDINATION Practice piano by isolating one hand at a time. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins Single-Minded Focus Learn to play piano with both hands based on a single-minded focus on goal-oriented, multi-step tasks. Approaching piano practice in this manner has proven highly effective for me. One Hand Only For example, choose one hand to work on at a time. Isolate the bass part in the left hand. Then, break down your left hand practice into feasible chunks; work on only playing the correct notes for example. Practice the left hand part while fully focusing on the first selected goal (correct notes). Don’t worry about the rhythm, the fingering or any other aspect other than what you’ve chosen to focus on practicing (correct notes).  STOP. Evaluate. Stop. Evaluate. After you play through the section with full focus on that one goal, stop and evaluate. If successful at playing that particular section with no hesitation, move on to the next goal and repeat the process. Multiply Your Focus Then add the first two goals together (correct notes and rhythm) and practice that until you are able to play through successfully without any hesitation. Add the third goal, and so on. Repeat Procedure With Opposite Hand Switch to the opposite hand and repeat the process of focusing only on one goal at a time, stopping to evaluate, then repeating until you master each section and goal. Then repeat until you are successfully able to master multiple focus goals with the musical section chosen for that hand. Put Both Hands Together Finally, choose a small section, one goal (correct notes) and play both hands together. Do not jump to this part of practice until everything prior to this point has been successfully mastered. The same process applies when practicing hands together. Handling Mistakes If you make mistakes, stop immediately and evaluate why, then go back and practice until that issue is resolved. For example, if you played through a few measures correctly and then made mistakes, determine what happened. Usually the problem is that mentally you dropped the ball. Were you daydreaming about lunch? Were you distracted by someone walking past your window? Refresh Focus Go back to the trouble spot and refresh your single-minded focus on the practice aspects you’ve chosen. Once you achieve success, play through a larger section, or the entire musical composition. Be sure to apply the exact same practice strategy and address any mistakes immediately. Otherwise, you may make the common mistake of practicing your mistakes repeatedly, ingraining them further into your mental memory and making things more difficult to correct. This is how many students typically practice and defeat progress! One Last Note (heh heh) Practicing piano with clear goals, one hundred percent mental focus, evaluation and troubleshooting issues is an incredibly effective way to progress as a piano player. However, if you run into difficulty, besides lack of focus on a particular goal, the most common culprit for difficulty in piano practice is practicing too fast! If you are having problems with the above-described practice strategy, SLOW DOWN and try again! Most of the time, slowing the tempo resolves the problem. Many students have difficulty slowing their practice tempo. Use a metronome to set a defined, slower tempo. This enables you to reset your pace at a manageable speed. When you slow down, it allows you to master your goal of choice without repeatedly making mistakes due to a faster tempo. If you are still having problems slowing down, change your mindset about tempo. Students often are deluded that a faster tempo is equal to mastery. The opposite is more accurate. Playing purposefully at a slower tempo while focusing fully on one specific goal takes greater concentration, discipline and patience. Use Imagery Make setting a slower tempo an exciting new mission, to frame your attitude around it. Practice deep breathing in sync with your metronome as you set your inner pace with the new, slower tempo. Envision yourself playing under water in slow motion as a fun way to switch gears from playing faster to embracing a slower pace. From there, it can be amazing to see how simple and easy it is for you to master your chosen practice goal. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  The right piano keyboard is essential for successful piano lessons. By Jenny Leigh Hodgins Are you an adult who’s looking forward to finally learn piano? Do you have a teenager eager to explore music? Are you a parent looking to start your child’s first piano lesson? Having a quality instrument is critical for successful piano learning. There are many ways to learn piano. From note-reading to aural training, from digital exploration and beyond. Regardless, the quality of a keyboard instrument is essential to successful music progress. Some of the most important points to consider are:
WHAT’S YOUR COMMITMENT? If you have always wanted to learn piano, and now have the time and energy to devote to it, a piano may be a great investment. For adults, buying a quality piano is a beautiful addition to decor, adding value to your home. Practicing on a quality-crafted piano inspires hours of dedicated musical progress. Making a strong commitment to your love of piano music is a great reason to buy a good piano. If you have a young child, or a teenager with sudden interest in piano, your child's attention span may not be clear. How long will your child stay motivated for the long haul of musical study? For these cases, consider an electronic keyboard. A digital piano may be an inexpensive investment to explore your child's interest. An electronic keyboard is usually less expensive than a piano. A 61-key, light-action digital keyboard would be acceptable as a smaller investment for initial music exploration. After a year of piano study, I recommend investing in either a piano or an 88-key, weighted-action keyboard. Over time, a student’s repertoire grows. This will encourage accurate, physical technique, and the full piano range. CHECK YOUR SPACE & SURROUNDINGS A beautiful grand piano brings artistic flair to a large room. Piano playing brings lively fun to the entertainment of guests. Playing piano in the home adds festivity with holiday music. It also fills the home with beloved musical expression year-round. If you’ve got the space and the budget, no investment brings as much enjoyment to a home. If you don’t have a large space, consider a smaller baby grand, or an upright piano. Playing a real piano offers authenticity. The action of a real piano (how the wooden keys respond to the touch of your fingers) lets the player achieve healthy piano technique. An acoustic piano sends an organic, gorgeous, sound reverberating throughout your home. For even tighter spaces and budgets, consider an electronic keyboard. An extra advantage of having a digital piano is the use of headphones. This feature allows music practice at any hour without disrupting others.  Digital keyboards open the door to computer-based music. WHAT’S YOUR STYLE
Consider your personal preferences when choosing the right keyboard. If the touch of a real piano is inspirational for you, buying a piano may be infinitely more satisfying. Traditional classical and jazz repertoire is often preferred played on a real piano. The popularity of modern music is another point in favor of buying an electronic keyboard. Teens and adults may be more inclined toward digital music production. Digital keyboards open the door to computer-made music. Using a digital piano and a computer allows you to create music with virtual instruments. In our technology-driven world, much of the future's music-making will be digital-based. This offers opportunities for electronic music-production. Music technology offers opportunities in composing for video games, commercials, film and TV. HOW BIG IS YOUR BUDGET When selecting a keyboard, consider your budget now. Weigh that budget against the longevity of the instrument’s life and use. One of the best investments you can make is buying a piano. This is because craftsmanship and longevity add to the value of a piano. The piano's beauty as an aspect of your home decor adds artistic value, too. If you’re tight on funds or space, start with a smaller digital piano or upright acoustic piano. Consider upgrading a necessity when your music skills progress. Get an instrument that suits your current needs, to last as long as possible, based on what you can afford. WRAP IT UP Are you looking to explore contemporary music with a digital piano? Delve into the vast musical repertoire from the traditional masters? Or tread lightly into the first moments of piano learning? Whatever your interest, there is a perfect instrument for you. You will make the best piano keyboard choice for you when you consider your commitment, style, available space, and budget. Piano Method Books I recommend: For the Adult For the Older Beginner For Young Children For Very Young Children I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative Listen to my original piano music here. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Improve Your Piano Technique With Multiple Strategies But Singular Focus by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
These are a few things that I have done over the years as a pianist and they have worked well to improve my technique and keep dexterity and fluency in my fingers. Consistency Counts One of the most critical things you can do to improve your technique is practice it consistently. In other words, practice every single day. Do not miss a day. Even if you can only play for five minutes, do not miss a day. Another critical aspect is to practice effectively. See more detail and tips on that here. How Much Technique If you have two hours to practice daily, start with the idea of one hour of technique practice per day. The second hour spent on actual repertoire makes sense toward decent progress. During your piano technique practice, incorporate scales, etudes and other exercises such as those found in a good Hanon exercise book. Scales, Accents and Varying Accents Start learning all major and minor scales in 4 octaves. Play around with the rhythm patterns of the scales. For example, try playing a scale using the rhythm pattern of straight quarter note rhythms. Then accent the first beat (quarter note) as you play all four octaves of a scale. Then play the scale again (or another scale) as you alternate the accent to the second beat, then to the third beat, then the fourth beat as you play through each scale. Use Varied Rhythmic Patterns Use alternating rhythms; i.e., play your scales using the rhythm pattern of a dotted eighth note followed by a 16th note. Then switch to the rhythm pattern of a 16th note followed by a dotted eighth note. Then try an eighth note followed by two 16 notes. Then reverse that to two 16th notes followed by an eighth note. Use Varying Accents For each of the previous rhythm patterns, place an accent on the first note of each pattern. Then alternate the accent to fall on the second note of the rhythm pattern, creating a syncopated feel. Then, accent the third note of the rhythm pattern, and so on. Try using a triplet rhythm pattern, placing an accent on the first note of each triplet pattern. Then accent the second note, then the third note of each triplet pattern as you play a four-octave scale. Go Slow Choose some of these varying rhythm patterns for your four-octave scale practice. Use a metronome at a very slow tempo and focus on very clearly articulating each of those accented notes within the rhythmic patterns with relaxed hand placement and curved finger-tips. As you get more fluent, speed up the tempo. Using Dynamics Another idea is to use the above rhythms and accents at the same tempo adding dynamics. For example, start your scale at fortissimo and as you play your scale going up the keyboard, decrescendo until you are playing pianissimo at the high range of the keyboard. Then reverse those dynamics. Or play the entire ascending scale passage fortissimo then alternate when you descend by playing the entire descending scale passage at the dynamic level of pianissimo. Change the dynamic levels to whatever you’d like, incorporating crescendo, decrescendo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, and so on. For more practice tips, visit my Pinterest Piano Practice Tips board. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative Listen to my original piano music here. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Explore composing at piano by blueprint or improvisation. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
I recommend two approaches to composing for piano: Improvise to generate free-flowing ideas, or Create a blueprint based (strictly or loosely) on music theory (i.e., form, key signature, tempo, range, motif/themes). COMPOSE BY IMPROVISING (Listen to my original piano music here.) A: Determine A Chord Progression Start simple. For example, use C major key and this chord progression: C, Am, F major, G7. Typical ‘Heart and Soul’ chord progression. If you can’t remember the order, write these on paper. B: Practice Playing Play each chord’s bass home tone (C,A,F,G) with your LH, and perhaps the chord triad itself in your right hand. Play each chord/bass tone for one measure. Experiment within that perimeter by using RHYTHM only to alter the feel/groove of your progression. C: Use MELODY Once you have a chord progression and a bass line mastered, drop the chord triads from RH and use RH to play around with notes in the C major scale as you continue playing your LH bass line progression. For me, I like to use a DAW’s drum loop to find a groove and play along with that for tempo and rhythmic phrasing/groove. You can also alternate between playing the chords and the melody to make things more varied. D: Practice Specific Piano Styles Since you are interested primarily in PIANO, use the above basic improvisation exercises to practice specific piano styles: walking bass, chords with color tones (7, 9, 11, 13ths), arpeggios, triads, 6ths, octaves, doubled notes, etc… Simply repeat the chord progression using one or more of those (or other) piano techniques. These are some of my ideas for improvising outside of the jazz tradition. Of course, pick your own chord progressions for more challenging, intriguing and fresh music. COMPOSE BY BLUEPRINT A: Song Form For the blueprint approach, either on paper or using a DAW, I like to map out a song FORM (ABAB, ABABCBB, AABB, et) first to set a parameter of structure. Write out 16 blank measures and call that A section. Follow that with another 16 bars as B section, and so on. Or limit to 8 bars per section. Possibly add a C section with few or more bars or equal–whatever you want for your structure. An even numbers of bars seems to feel better for most contemporary music, though. Alternately, you could copy the form of a favorite song or blues style as a template. B: Determine Harmonic Progression Once you have a form or structure for your music mapped out, determine a chord progression for each section. Usually the B section changes keys to the dominant chord or something else to be less predictable and sound different from the A section. For example if A section uses that C major progression above (C, Am, F, G), then the B section would start in the key of G major (or often Am, the minor 6th of C major). Then go back to your original chord/key in the next A section. C: Discover Melodic Motifs Once your form, key and chord progressions are drafted (this may change, pending how your melody transpires! Be flexible and go where you musical ideas take you, of course!), using notes within that progression/key (C major in the A section), play around with melodic motifs that fit within that key/chord progression. A good rule of thumb is to make something, then repeat it, then CHANGE it very slightly. AAA1. Or, same, same, slightly varied. The ear likes patterns and repetition. But not TOO much! Continue until you have a few motifs/lines to complete your A section. Then CHANGE to the new key in the B section and play around with creating a motif/line/melody that is completely different than what you did in A section. For example, if you used lots of busy, faster rhythmic phrases in the A section, use longer, slower rhythmic phrases with lots of rests and breathing space within the B section. Or, if your A section note ranges are low, then use higher ranges of notes within the B section. Another idea for creating the melodic motif is to limit the amount of melodic notes used and focus more on the rhythmic patterns of those limited notes used. Think of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony: only 2 melodic notes used in the opening line (dun dun dun DUN) and four rhythmic notes/durations. But WOW he repeated that phrase and developed it into a massive symphony of greatness! There are SO many things you can do, and so many books have good suggestions for your question, so check some of them out! Hope this gave you good food for thought! I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Find A Good Piano Teacher Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative Listen to my original piano music here. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook!  Learning piano requires the right keyboard. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
WHERE TO LOOK As a piano teacher for 25+ years, I’ve looked at this search from the opposite direction of marketing my studio to attract able piano students. So when someone asks me how to find a good piano teacher, I know the places to look. (Also important: what keyboard do I need for piano lessons?) SEARCH BASED ON YOUR GOAL There are things to consider when narrowing the search for a good piano teacher, such as your goals and the characteristics of a teacher that put you at ease or motivate you best. For those looking for a grandiose career as a concert pianist, consider a move to a city well-known for accessibility to a professional music career track such as NY, LA or Nashville. Alternately, you may find a quality piano teacher through your local university's fine arts department. For those interested primarily in the merits of music study and/or uninterested or unable to live near a music industry hub, try your local university’s music department. Typically, the music department will have a list of graduate students available for teaching as well as local piano teachers. Look especially for graduate level students who are studying piano pedagogy in particular. VALID RESOURCES Another option is an online search for reputable sources. The Music Teachers National Association’s searchable online database of teachers by state has earned the association’s National Certified Teachers of Music credential (NCTM). Teacher members of The National Piano Guild aim toward non-competitive goal-setting and awards. Teachers involved in national music organizations such as these tend to be motivated at a higher level toward student success. Another good piano teacher resource for young children in particular is MusikGarten. The MusikGarten teaching method is holistic, kinesthetic, and frankly, fun for children ages 5 to 9. Similar to Suzuki method, MusikGarten’s approach is to begin learning music aurally. However, MusikGarten also incorporates movement, drumming, singing, notation-reading, in a small-group, eventually combining all these layers of foundation into piano performance. Teachers who are certified in this method tend to be excellent instructors, and teach a well-rounded musical education. WORD OF MOUTH There are other resources, such as church or grocery bulletin boards/newsletters, ads in local family-directed newspapers, and local music stores. But whether you have children looking to start music lessons for the first time, to continue lessons started, or for adults wanting to learn the instrument, the best way to find a quality piano teacher is the old fashioned way; word of mouth. One of the best ways to find a quality piano teacher is through hearing and seeing an educator’s efforts with your own eyes and ears! Find someone who plays piano well. Ask for their teacher’s contact info. If you don’t know anyone who plays piano, watch local newspapers or church announcements for local piano recitals or concerts and attend (Holiday season is a great time for this!). Check local university, music school and music store websites for upcoming events. COMPASSION IS QUALITY Teachers who are dedicated enough to host recitals are usually quite capable, and care enough about students to enable regular progress in pIano study. Pay attention to each student’s finger dexterity, posture, reading, memorization, hand position (Watch out for tension!), and especially confidence and poise. The proof is in the pudding! Check with retirement center activity directors for a list of teachers who’ve brought student piano recitals to the facility. That is a great way to find a quality piano teacher because someone who cares enough about students to host performance opportunities is a teacher who works toward results. Going the extra mile to incorporate community service by bringing music performances to retirement home residents shows a compassionate, contributive quality teacher. WRAP UP In summary, you’ll find a good piano teacher through word of mouth, a local recital, an internet hunt for MusikGarten teachers, National Certified Music Teachers, the National Piano Guild, a local university, music school or, music store. Next Steps: Having found a teacher, you’ll need to make your own goals for piano study clear. I’d love to hear from you. It means a lot to me that my content is helpful and empowers you. Please take a moment to join the conversation below to let me know if this blog is helpful to you, or if you have questions or suggestions! If you’re a piano teacher, feel free to leave one of your favorite piano practice tips in the comment section! THANK YOU FOR SHARING this with a friend on social media or email! Recommended articles: What Do You Need To Know, Have, Or Do To Begin Piano? Your Top 5 Best Tips From A Piano Teacher What’s The Best Way For A Busy Adult To Learn Piano? What Keyboard Do I Need For Successful Piano Lessons? How Learning Piano Benefits Aging Adults What To Do About Piano Practice When You Have An Injury Learning To Be Creative Listen to my original piano music here. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook! |
PIANOIn my PIANO blogs, you'll find ways to overcome boredom, get past musical and mental blocks, explore the creative process with piano, and improve musical progress through piano teacher recommended best practices and effective piano practice tips. Archives
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