Advice For An Efficient Piano Practice

(1) PRIVACY: practise in a private room, also well ventilated, which allows for better concentration, the principle source of good practice. For the child beginner, the supervision of a parent is recommended. (2) NO DISTRACTIONS: Do not do anything else when practising, e.g. do not have a picture in front of the piano or something that will distract your concentration. (3) THE RIGHT TIME: practising in the morning is generally better, when the brain is fresh. In general do not practise after a strong physical effort, as practising requires relaxation. It is also better to practise continuously for a significant amount of time, at least 45 minutes, except for the young child who will probably not be able to keep a good concentration for more than 15 minutes. Do not practise if you are not well! (4) PRE-STRETCHING: practising needs a warm-up of the body as well as the fingers. At the same time, it can release some muscular tension. (5) PLANNING: the quantity of work you would like to realise depends on the amount of time you have. For this reason, it is essential to plan in advance, making it a more effective use of your practice time: - It is recommended to spend a quarter of the practice time to exercises (by Hanon, Czerny, Tausig, Brahms, Busoni, etc.) e.g. 1 hour of practice time = 15 minutes of exercises. - You do not have to practise all your repertoire everyday (depending on your level), but it is crucial to work consistently on two or three pieces in a day rather than 5 minutes on each piece of your repertoire. Do not just run through the piece, do some real work (see section 'How to practice'). - When practising for several hours, it is highly recommended to have a break of about 10 minutes every 45-60 minutes. Take this time to drink some water, to relax and to plan your next work session.

How to practise?

(1) Constantly check that the position of your back, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands and fingers is correct. (2) Be as relaxed as is compatible with speed, control and tonal dynamics. (3) When you are doing exercises, listen carefully to the line and precision of the articulation. This way, you will not be bored. (4) Whatever the manual of exercises used, one always needs to practise scales, five-finger exercises, chords, octaves, broken octaves, arpeggios, trills, double notes (very important in difficult repertoire), repetitions (of the same note) and tremolos. (5) Always try to attain an absolute equality of tone when practising exercises. (6) You should often stop and listen - you will find out a great deal for yourself. (7) When learning a new piece, notate the most suitable fingerings as soon as possible and stick to them. In some cases, however, you may need to change it when playing faster. (8) It is very useful to sing in your head beforehand. (9) Use the metronome to ensure a good stability of tempo. In a difficult passage, it is worth using the metronome to speed up your playing very gradually from slow to fast tempi. (10) Use the pedal only when the piece is secure - this avoids over-pedalling and forces you to make a legato with the fingers (very important in polyphonic pieces). (11) Always practise with the score, even when the piece is memorised. Practising without the score may cause misreading or oversight. (12) Use 'urtext' editions to ensure you are practising the right music! It is also useful to compare several editions (they may have alternative/better fingerings). (13) Practise phrase by phrase. (14) Practise slowly (to check the articulation) and in the 'difficult pace' (not slow and not fast, somewhere in the middle where it becomes uncomfortable). (15) Practise hands separately, legato or staccato, in groups, in chords, with accents, voices or lines separately, at different speeds, at different levels of tone (forte - mezzo-forte - piano) and at different levels between the hands, in other keys (transposition), with one finger only, using different rhythms, with the 'wrong' hand (useful to develop the left hand or to test the memory), by duplicating notes or chords, sight-reading etc. (16) To memorise the piece, it is useful to practise the left hand alone by memory. (17) Also practise the piece as a whole by playing it through without obsession for correctness - this helps maintain unity (unbroken lines). (18) Change the piece or exercise when concentration begins to tire.

What should be avoided?

(1) Practising at speed beyond your control. (2) Moving your arms/fingers unnecessarily high; use rotary and lateral movements with control and economy, using as much as is required to assist the fingers, but no more. (3) Singing out loud is not recommended as it could incur the habit of audibly singing during performance. This habit is often incurable! (4) Too much relaxation can causes uncontrolled fingers. (5) Do not practise with your fingers only, always use your brain, and be imaginative. (6) Do not repeat passages infinitely; when it is good three times successively, continue! (saves a lot of time). At the same time, do not ignore passages with mistakes. (7) Continue practising with muscular pain; if your muscles begin to tire, stop at once. Shake the arm and hand loosely and continue after a short rest, or change the exercise.

This advice will only be helpful if the student learns CONSISTENTLY and EVERY DAY.