Practicing Ideas for Playing Lightly

Anyone who has played a piano sonata (or its smaller cousin, the sonatina) knows that sometimes, it's really difficult to make your left hand play softly. There is the usual practice technique of ghost playing, otherwise known as "air piano".

When that doesn't work, there are a few other ideas. Usually, the first thing I try with students is the Mixed Media Drill. The "offending" (hand that is too loud) plays the notes on a different surface, such as the music desk or one's lap. The other hand plays on the keys normally.

Another thing you can do is change the keyboard surface where the loud hand plays. I placed a scarf on top of the bass note keys and asked my student H to play an excerpt of a song that required balance work. We only met with marginal success.

I was about to pull out some band-aids, but came across my roll of bandage tape. You can see the results of our handiwork in the photo. H played through the excerpt once again.

It's amazing! We subconsciously are more careful when there's a bandage of any sort on our fingers. In this case, there was a noticeable difference between the left hand and right hand. H's melody rang through more clearly, while her left hand played that Alberti bass groove more delicately.

Here's a piano tutorial on the Alberti bass:

Using the Circle of Fifths to Practice Technique

This popped into my head while I was teaching a lesson  last week. I asked my student to play her Grade 8 piano technique by going through the Circle of Fifths. Not only was it quickly evident that my student needs to review her key signatures, but it also was clear that she was used to practicing her technique in a certain order. However, during a music examination, you have no clue which of the required technical elements you will be asked to play. It is important to mix things up regularly.

In this piano lesson tutorial, I demonstrate what how my student practiced her piano technique using the Circle of Fifths approach.

Music Practicing 101 - Alternating Hand/Bar Drill

My students and I started playing around with this practice drill last week. It's an accuracy drill to clean up notes, fingering and wonky timing. Try playing the left hand alone in bar 1 and then right hand alone in bar 2, etc. Check out this video for a demonstration.

Music Practicing 101: Every Other Bar Drill

This week, I've been working with my students to either increase the tempo of their repertoire or improve on the flow in their music. This is a drill that I did learn about at a piano teaching workshop or conference - the Every Other Bar Drill.

It also works well if you do every other beat.

Music Practicing 101 - Keyboard Harmony Demo

Another quick demo primarily for students studying through the Conservatory Canada system (although anyone interested in chording can still benefit from this).ConCan students in Grade 5 and up have to demonstrate that they can harmonize a melody. In Grade 5, they use the Tonic (I) and Dominant (V). As they progress to higher grades, they must be able to harmonize using a wider selection of chords.From a speed learning perspective as well as a piano accompanist perspective, I must say that keyboard harmony is a necessity! It's saved my bacon on numerous occasions.This video shows you how to practice when you are just starting out with keyboard harmony.