Ideas for Practicing Piano Technique

Try as I might, some students just loathe practicing their technical exercises. You know the ones - scales, chords and arpeggios. I must admit that when I was their age, I wasn't too keen on practicing them either. However, if you want to "level up" and/or ace this portion of your music examination, you can't get away from it. You have to practice them. A lot.

If I have to ask my students to play a scale more than once in a lesson, I ask my them to play to play it differently. For instance, if a student played it legato the first time, they could play it staccato the second time.

But why stop there? Change the rhythm and make it sound like a real tune. Zig-zag back and forth so it doesn't sound like a scale. Change where you place the accents so that it's on every fifth note instead of every second or third.

The bottom line is that some degree of repetition is needed, so why not make it interesting for yourself?

A Time to Organize, A Time to Think

It's the beginning of a new year. My main goal for the Christmas Break was achieved - migrating all my blogs to Wordpress. Sure, there are things yet to tweak and widgets to add; but the hard job is done. My other main task - to attack all the loose paper I kept shuffling from one Bring Forward folder to the next. That too was achieved. My file organizers are significantly tidier.

I guess I shouldn't complain that I didn't get anything accomplished over the break. Between that and practicing madly for Christmas and New Year's church services, I deserved the imposed break that my cold gave me on Week 2.

This has me reflecting upon the ongoing struggle to stay on top of things. To just stay organized. Between loose papers, music books and emails - we have a lot of clutter in our lives - so much that it's easy to drown in it.

However, I continue to press forward at tidying up the back end of things. Strangely, it gives my brain time to wander and think about lesson or presentation ideas that have been floating just on the periphery of consciousness.

I've taken to using the countdown timer app on my phone. It has helped keep the daunting task of decluttering my mess somewhat bearable. 30 minutes to clean email, 30 minutes to tidy up my blogs, etc. Bite-sized chunks. That's the key to whittling this monster mess down.

Study Your Music Score

Score study, or studying the sheet music, is a useful way to practice music away from your instrument. Here are some tips on how to practice using scorestudy. Things to take note of:

• time signature changes

• key signature changes

• hand position changes

• the overall form (more on this later)

• tricky rhythms

• chords (especially) cadences

• patterns

• dynamics

• expression markings

Mark anything that you need to pay special attention to. Depending on your learning style, you may want to colour-code these, or make up some short code.

With regards to form, beginner students can look for repeating patterns. Intermediate and advanced students can label the sections as they know them (e.g. A section, B section, Exposition, Development, Theme 1, etc.).

I find it especially helpful to tap and count tricky rhythms away from any of my music instruments. Slowly and then gradually building in speed.

If you need more tips on how to scorestudy, don't be afraid to ask your music teacher.

Music Practicing 101: Organized Practicing

On behalf of music students and music teachers everywhere, I'd like to send out a huge thank you to piano teacher Josh Wright. He put together these two videos about organized practice.One thing my students hear me say - a lot - is to figure out how much time they can dedicate to practicing for a particular day, set their practice goals for that session and determine how they will assess whether they've met their goals."Mindful practice" is also key to practice efficiency. Let's face it, if you're paying attention to what you're doing, you'll meet your goal a lot sooner than if you're just noodling around, waiting for that timer to go off.For those still trying to figure out how to set up music practice goals and how to organize their practice time, look no further:

Organized Practicing - Part 1

Organized Practicing - Part 2

Music Practicing 101: The Three Different Ways Drill

When I was a young music student, I was often told, "Fix your trouble spots" or "This spot needs extra practice. Drill that spot 10X". However, one thing I've noticed, is that my concentration wanes after drilling something five times. I think that's even a bigger challenge for music students today as they are inundated with so much more information.I like the number "3". This week, I've had my students drill their trouble spots three times. However, the catch is that they must play it three different ways. For example:

• use three different registers

• use three different surfaces

• use three different levels of dynamics

• use three different types of articulation

• If you play more than one instrument - try it on three different instruments

My students and I have noticed that they are more focused for those three times since they are playing that spot differently each time. They are actively listening to what they are doing. 

The end result? In most cases, the problem spot was ironed out after drilling the spot only three times. 

In some cases, you may need to drill a spot up to five times. In that case, you'll make it the "Five Different Ways Drill".