Infographic: How to Practice Piano for Your Best Results

What’s the best way to practice piano? If you really want to become a better piano player, you’ll need to have a plan in place when you sit down at the keys. Here, online piano teacher Crystal B. shares her recommendation for breaking down a 30-minute practice session…

 

Whenever you sit down to practice piano, it’s important to make the absolute best use of your time. For beginners, 30-minute practice sessions are a great place to start! Here are some tips to ensure that your practice time is effectively helping you become a better musician. Let’s break down a 30-minute practice time:

5 minutes: Warm up – Spend this time getting your fingers and wrists loose and ready to play! Your instructor will be able to provide you with some great exercises for this.

Tip: This is also a great opportunity to check for things like correct posture, that you’re sitting centered at middle C, and that you’re holding your hands/wrists in the correct position. If you’re not sure, imagine that you are resting your hand on top of a tennis ball. This is how your hand should look — and make sure to keep your wrists straight.

10 minutes: Technique/Theory – Technical exercises are so important to your development and improvement as a pianist. Unlike the warm-up time, this is the opportunity to really push yourself! I include piano theory during this time because so many times, these things can work hand in hand. For instance, you can incorporate things like practicing scales and chord inversions into this time. Doing this will not only help you solidify your theory knowledge (which is so important!), but you’ll also be working on strengthening your fingers and becoming a more versatile player.

Tip: Make sure you prioritize note accuracy,  correct fingering, and playing evenly over speed while working on technical exercises. You should try to increase your speed eventually, but only after you’re able to play the exercise correctly and evenly.

10 minutes: Song Assignments – If you’re taking piano lessons, most likely your instructor will have assigned you a song (or songs) to practice during the week. These song assignments will usually be given to help reinforce what you are learning in your lessons. If you have been given more than one song, try to spend some time playing each one so that you don’t lose any ground you’ve gained during previous practice times. Typically you’ll be working on songs longer than a week, so remember, just make sure you are making progress and having fun!

Tip: When working on songs (especially if they are difficult), don’t feel like you need to attack the whole song at once. Many times it’s best to work on songs in sections, and your instructor can help you in deciding how much is appropriate to tackle each week. Also, don’t forget you can start with hands separately at first, and then try them together. This will make learning new songs much more manageable.

5 minutes: Free Play – You’ve worked hard, and during this time I recommend playing something just for your own enjoyment. This could be anything from a song that you’ve already mastered to trying to write a song of your own! Doing this is a great reminder of why you play piano in the first place — because you love it!

Are you a more visual learner? Check out this handy infographic to learn how to break up your piano practice for maximum efficiency: