Updated: May 7, 2024
There are many people who can play piano but few play well. When I say well, it means: to the minimum, the performance 1) conveys good musical ideas with effective dynamics and personal expression, 2) flows smoothly without hiccups, 3) shows good control of tempo. The real secret lies in the practice routine. It is not about how many hours you practice; it is about "how" you practice. I'd like to share eleven things you want to avoid in your practice hours.
Mindless practice means a mindset of "I'll just keep playing again and again and the magic will happen anyways." Such practice is much like automatic writing. It is not engaging your thoughts, curiosity, logic, and understanding. It is a passive way to practice. Passive practice can reduce into mundane repetition and dullness.
High reliance on your teachers is a habit that "goes a long way". Very often we are not aware of it. When we listen to everything our teachers tell us and always wait for our teachers to write out fingering, dynamics, to explain key signatures and time signatures, to point out wrong notes, to figure out ledger notes, we are used to a very passive mode in the learning. The result is that your playing sounds like your teachers', not yours. Why? Because there has never been anything that was yours! One of the most influencial pianists of the 20th century Vladimir Horowitz said, " I had been told that he was a wonderful pianist so I listened, but I wasn't really that impressed. There seems to be an element of sameness in many pianists today. It is difficult at times to distinguish one pianist from the other...Part of the education should be to learn to teach yourself. I think that a large part of the problem in this country is that people are taught how to be taught by someone else, but they are not taught how to be their own teachers." (Great Contemporary Pianists Speak For Themselves, Elyse Mach, 1991)
Genuine interest in music is essential because that is what makes the magic happen. Learning piano is all about hardwork and commitment. The motivation has to come from YOU, the one who is inspired to learn. If the passion is there, it pushes you to have the desire to do better, to be excellent. If there simply is no enthusiasm, you may want to consider doing something else. It is not a failure. I am not a believer of once you start something you have to finish it, even you find that it is not for you. I believe everyone has unique talent in different subjects. One shall invest time and energy to things that they are interested in and have passion about.
Reluctance to put in effort is most common. It is no doubt that while music itself is an art; playing an instrument is a practice of "mastering the mechanic techniques". I love music but I hate practicing. It is boring. Yes I get that! Well if you cannot accept there are times, a lot of times, you need to be very bored by hearing your own practice your technique can not improve. At a certain level, learning to play an instrument is not much difference from learning to operate a machine.
Playing through and through the piece and call it "I practiced" is also very common. This way of practice is the quickiest to rank down and away from the pro. You only know your piece less and less but dangerously think you are getting better and better. The drug effect playing is a disguised killer.
Ignorance of music theory is a huge mistake because you will miss a whole world of knowlege that not only helps you understand the music you are playing, but also stimulates your creativity. Theories give you tools and materials to construct ideas, take apart a piece and rebuild your own.
Trying to play a new piece up to tempo early on is also a common mistake. Ego and digital era anxiety makes us want things quick and easy. But piano is a classical art. Haste can easily kill result. The impatience hinders our fresh mind to read and understand scores. When we only vaguely know a piece, our understanding and performance of a piece is also only vague. The disaster is that once you are used to that kind of vagueness, it is hard to correct later on. This is the least efficient way to practice a piece!
Practice in a fast tempo is everyone's favorite. Why? Slow simply sounds awful and embarrasing. Well slow works; fast does not. If you want to be able to play fast in the end you have to practice slow. It works opposite ways. One of the greatest violinists of our time Itzhak Perlman emphasizes slow and section practice. The same rule applies to piano. (Please refer to Itzak Perlman's video https://youtu.be/h3xEHigWShM)
Ignoring sight reading skill puts many learners in dismay. No one likes doing sight reading exercises, because it is not fun. Sight reading is the most rewarding thing, really! Because the return of investment is huge. You only need to do a bit a day then the final result is that, this is exciting, you literally don't need to practice so much before going to your lessons and finally you can self taught any music you wish!
Let your metronome die and gone missing. A metronome is a smart little robot who tells you where you have rushed and where you have lost speed. I say embrace it. Make friends with them. Just close your door when you practice with it. Serious pianists use metronomes.
Lastly, most critically, avoiding section practice is the ultimate mistake. Section practice is the real secret for success. Sections could mean a section, a sentence, four bars, two bars, or just one bar. Practicing your decided one section unit at a time. This method does wonders! I can't say enough how important it is to practice in small sections.
