You may have piano joy, but have you found discipline in your studies?
Daily, yes daily, practice required
Playing the piano can be pure delight. But here’s the caveat; playing the piano will not be enjoyable without daily, weekly, and monthly discipline. Without this discipline, piano studies quickly become an exercise in frustration.
This is because playing the piano requires three types of knowledge: intellectual, aural, and muscle. Adult piano learners are generally quick to grasp intellectual knowledge, and children are quick to pick up songs, but there are no shortcuts with muscle memory. This only comes with time, and focused time at that.
I have worked with students of all ages who, for whatever reason, are not getting the daily, focused practice. As you might expect, we spent lesson after lesson reviewing the same assignment. But over time, something more frustrating occurs; these students not only fail to make progress on their current piano projects, but they also slowly lose the knowledge they’ve accumulated before the practicing hiatus. Basic facts and motions that used to be solid slowly fade away. Which leads to more frustration, self-criticism, self-doubt, and, sadly, often a permanent retirement from the piano. These students walk away from the piano with the incorrect idea that there is something wrong with them and that they are incapable of learning the piano.
The simple truth is that anyone can learn to play the piano. It just requires ongoing, focused, discipline. So roll up your sleeves, embrace your inner “grit”, and commit, or recommit, to the following tasks:
Regular Practice. It’s a very simple fact that often students fail to grasp- you will not progress in your piano studies if you don’t practice regularly. Perhaps you might progress through some easy material at the beginning of your studies, but you will quickly hit a wall if you try to omit the regular practice step. Remember the three types of knowledge required to play the piano? The muscle memory required for playing progressively more complicated pieces will never develop without that daily practice. Yes, daily. (Well, shoot for six days of regular practice, and allow yourself one day to either take a break, or just play through old pieces for fun.)
Focused Practice. Getting to the piano each day is a good start, but if your mind is wandering while you play, you could be doing something I call “negative practice.” Negative practice is when a student repeats the same mistake over and over again in their daily sessions, which reinforces…the mistake. Try these tricks to make your practice sessions truly effective:
If possible, practice when you are at your most alert. Sitting down to practice at the very end of a long, busy day will not be as effective as playing when you are fresh.
Don’t play too fast, too soon. Take it slower than what you think slow should be, and keep it there until it’s 100% perfect. Then bump up your tempo gradually. A metronome is a very useful gauge for this; start at 60 bpm and increase by +2 or +3 once it’s perfect. Don’t increase again until it’s perfect. Repeat until you have the piece, scale, or improv pattern, perfect.
Have a weekly practice plan and a daily practice plan. Consult these plans at the start and end of each daily session. At the end of the week, objectively assess your progress and weak areas, and create a new plan for the week based on this. Having a dedicated notebook for this is helpful.
Regular listening. Daily listening is essential to learning the piano. Through listening, you not only get the notes in your ears but also the musical subtleties that differentiate the beginners from the musical artists. Technology has made focused listening very accessible to craft playlists of the pieces you are working on or want to learn or artists you admire. (Back in the day, I’d have to go to my college’s music library, give them my ID, and request one record at a time that I could only listen to there in the music library.)
But don’t limit yourself to the ease of recorded music. Live music is an experience that even the best recording can never duplicate. Try and hear live performances on a regular ongoing basis as well.
Regular sharing/performances. Playing for others can be nerve-wracking, but is essential. Players who perform regularly learn pieces on a deeper level than non-performers. Their overall playing is more confident, and they are less quick to abandon musical projects. Non-performers can quickly devolve into a place of never learning songs thoroughly, or only learning passages instead of entire pieces.
What if you make a mistake? What if you forget the entire song? Use these moments as data for where you should start your work at your next practice session.
Reality Checks. Lastly, be realistic about your practice, or your child’s. Set practice goals that are realistic to where you are in your studies, the length of the piece, and the difficulty of the piece. Keep in mind that a beginning student’s pieces are shorter and less complicated than an advanced player’s; a daily practice session for a beginning child is going to look a lot different from a pianist who has been playing for four years.
Life changes might affect your practice routine, and it’s important to be OK with this instead of resentful. Did you just start a new job? Have a baby? Start college? Fantastic! Enjoy your new challenge, but remember that you’re probably not going to make major progress with your piano for a bit. Busy periods of life require pianists to go into maintenance mode, not progress mode. Reset your practice objectives to simply playing through old pieces as time allows. Rest assured that there will be more time in the future for you to get back into a more dedicated practice!