5 Tips For Learning The Piano
Focus On The Basics
Starting with the basics may seem obvious, but it is extremely important to start with the simple stuff. If you don’t start with the foundations of how to play the piano it can be easy to burn yourself out. Even worse you can do damage to your body from not having the correct technique.
Make sure to spend time on these little details such as posture, form, and they way you hold your hands and fingers while playing.
Practice Regularly
Practice makes perfect. If you don’t invest enough time into learning piano, you aren’t going to get too far with it. You can learn a lot while in lessons with a good teacher, but progress will be slow if you’re not practicing outside of your lesson time.
Malcolm Gladwell is famous for developing the 10,000-hour rule. This number the average amount of time it takes for someone to become an expert at something. It can put into perspective how much time is really needed to master playing an instrument.
At Surf City Music School we always suggest trying to practice every day, even if it's only 5-10 minutes. In our experience, practicing everyday for a little bit can have a much bigger impact than practicing thank once or twice a week.
Try to set a schedule and stick with it.
Play Slowly In The Beginning
Beginning students often have a tendency to play the piece they’re working on too fast. Worse yet, some students will get their song right, and then immediately try playing it faster the next time. The issue many students run into is that their accuracy while playing fast is poor, and they get discouraged and unmotivated very quickly.
We always suggest playing the piece a student is working on very slow to start with. Also, don’t increase the speed until you’ve played it a few times correctly. Bump up the speed by a few metronome clicks, and repeat the process.
As you rack up practice time, muscle memory will start to kick in. This is a phenomenon where the nerves in your fingers or hands start to memorize the movements, and your brain is able to catch on to these changes faster and faster.
4. Play Music That Interests You
One issue that students tend to run into is that they begin to not enjoy the songs that they are practicing. It is hard to maintain a regular practice schedule as mentioned above when you are not enjoying what you are playing. This makes progression extremely difficult and can lead to discouragement.
At Surf City Music School we always encourage playing and practicing songs that you are familiar and happy with. If you are into Jazz music, ask your teacher to focus on jazz chord and repertoire during lessons. The same is for any other genre or style of playing.
5. Find A Teacher
Learning to play an instrument on our own is possible in this day and age. However, there are some things that YouTube tutorials can’t do. A teacher, whether it’s in person or virtual, gives you a partner to rely on while you’re learning. Are you sure you’re using correct technique and have good posture while you’re playing? A teacher can help you with that and more.
If you are in the Orange County area and are looking for piano lessons, click here. We’d love to find the right teacher for you.