Priceless Piano Learning Gems That Are Often Overlooked

Learning the piano is an exciting journey you are bound to enjoy, no matter what age you begin learning the instrument. The adventure that comes along with every challenge you give yourself is something to look forward to. While all this is true, it is also very easy to see little or no progress in your piano learning, and this can be quite frustrating. So why the failure? Many piano students find themselves stuck in a rut and end up getting discouraged, often resigning the learning of the instrument to “other talented people”. In this post, we will dig into some of the often overlooked areas that hinder progress in learning the piano and what you need to do instead. The tactic of thinking first More often than not, piano learners do not consider this as something of primary importance. It is common to see a piano player just hit notes and hope they got it right. This really doesn’t help you master the notes. It ends up as more of a trial and error experiment. It is like leaping before you look. What do you think will happen? Here are insights from Albert Frantz: How many times have we all heard “Think before you speak!” while growing up? This rule holds equally for piano playing: Think before you play. Thinking before playing is about achieving clarity. It means creating mental certainty before so much as moving a finger. It involves anticipating the next notes by hearing them in your mind first. Only then, at the very moment you play them, should you touch the keys, always shaping the hands first. Via Key Notes The discipline of ear training Ear training is very important in learning any instrument since it will help you know the correct sound of the piece you’re playing. Failure to do this will end up in quite some unpleasing music. Ear training is priceless and should guide your playing so that you don’t end up learning mistakes instead. One of the essentials of ear training is that we should play because we hear, not hear because we play. This means hearing in our mind’s ear first, and only then playing. Our knowledge of right or wrong notes should not come after we’ve already made a mistake—it should be decided with absolute certainty in advance of touching the keys. Via Key Notes “Slow but sure” during practice Another common pitfall that piano students fall into, is playing really fast. It is understood that there is always the desire to play a song in its original time and that is a great achievement. However, during practice, there is no need to rush. Take your time. If you are going to think before playing, you need to take your time and master what you’re playing instead of competing with time. The only solution is slow, highly focused practice. The value of slow practice is that it gives us time to think each note in advance of playing it. I find […]

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