LESSON #4:

Goals for Practicing

1/24/2025

There are many skills and methods you can apply to your practice time to make it productive, enjoyable, and preemptively prepare you to learn future songs faster and easier.

First of all, practice your Hanon exercises! Play them in all twelve major keys. When you get started, I suggest you play #1 in C, G, and F. Next, play #2 in C, D, and Bb. Third, play #3 in C, A, and Eb. Continue adding a sharp and a flat to each key as you begin another exercise. When you get to #13 start back on G and F, and add D and Bb (four keys). When you are working on a song, play a multitude of exercises in the key that the new song is written in. Playing one exercise in all twelve keys will come easily as you build your keys methodically.

Using this same idea, practice the difficult passages in the songs you are learning by moving them around the keyboard. For example, I may have a difficult measure or two to rehearse. I will practice that passage as written, then move it up an octave. Then I will move it back down an octave. Then down again and up. This forces me to find my position and fingering over and over again. Believe it or not, it makes it easier to put it back into the context of the song.

The advanced version of this exercise is to change the key and rehearse it several times. Change the key at least three or four times. If you feel that you will use any motif from the passage in your improvisations, play it in all twelve keys! If you feel strongly that this is a cliche’ or widely used sound in a particular genre; it will be important to play it in several keys as well.

As you rehearse any and all parts of a song, repeat it often. Speeding up the tempo of a song is not what you think! You are not speeding up the song; you are simply changing tempos. Change your tempo every time you make a pass. Never play it so fast that you make a mistake. If I am making three passes playing a phrase, I slow it down each time I play it. Only then will I speed it up a little bit. Eventually, the tempo will not be an issue at all, because you will have never played it wrong. Remain in control of your fingering and the rhythms. Also, stay relaxed. Your muscles must never get the idea that they are allowed to tense up while you play. Your body learns what your mind allows. If you tense up, stop and shake it out. If you intend to build your speed and technique, work at remaining relaxed every time you play your instrument.

Now, VERY important… practice the song from the ending first. Play the last two measures first! Play them in a few different keys. If it is a cadence, it’s important to play it in all keys since you will most likely run into it again. Rehearse the ending until you are super comfortable with it. Then, back up a couple measures and start working on that part, slipping seamlessly into the last two bars of the song. When you are ready, move back another two measures, and continue to rehearse in much the same way as we discussed earlier in this article. Working backwards ensures that you will not make mistakes and stop, only to return to the beginning of the piece to play the part you already know! You also can see more clearly how the song progresses from beginning to end. This is an excellent way to test the fingering you worked out when you first learned the song.

If you play the last two measures twelve times, back up and play the last four measures twelve times, back up and play the next four measures twelve times, etc… imagine how well you will know the ending of the song by the time you have reached the top of the page. Better yet, how well will you know the ending of the song by the time you have rehearsed the beginning of the song! Many people continue to start at the beginning of the song to rehearse it. They teach their fingers many mistakes along the way; mistakes that muscle memory will not allow them to eliminate entirely. The best they can do is reduce the number of mistakes to a smaller percentage. When you practice “backwards”, you introduce small sections of the piece that can be perfected easily with repetition and then immediately reconnect it with the rest of the piece with little or no threat of adding mistakes to the mix.

You will be surprised how good you can be.

Use these three suggestions to FIX mistakes as well as rehearsing new material. Playing unique passages, cadences, and desirable ideas for improvisation in several keys will serve you well as you build your repertoire. Each time you learn a new song you will find it easier and easier to absorb new material and perfect your performance of the piece. Changing keys will force you to test your fingering. Learning and perfecting your knowledge of scales by using Hanon exercises is much better than playing scales with a standardized fingering. You will always be using motifs to play through a key. Teach your body to relax while you play; speed and technique will develop faster and remain. Take breaks often. Enjoy your time at the piano. It is one of the few times of your day where you can be free of criticism and stress. Art is messy, exploration is fun. So get dirty and dare to suck!