The Reasons Why Piano Practice Is Recommended
October 10, 2011 at 8:00 am | benefits for children, Buying Piano, gift of music, music lessons, Organs, Piano, Piano Lessons | No comment
Regardless of how you learn to play the piano – be it self taught with online resources or being privately taught – for many it isn’t the learning piano that can be hard, rather the commitment. Anyone would love to have the ability to play the piano well and beautifully. However, to actually play the piano well, with good technique and skill, takes practice. It isn’t something which can be learnt over night. In addition, many of the skills and techniques – especially the more advanced ones – will probably requires regular playing and repetition to ensure that the respect skill isn’t forgotten about and unable to played. Its seems that to reach a certain standard of piano playing – in fact for any musical instrument – you are going to need to practice which will develop your playing technique and skill.
To help overcome the potential “daunting” practice, some people may consider classing the actual practice as a learning process. Rather than just playing and practicing the same skill over and over again, they may almost “research” it more by considering other pieces in which the skill is used as its primary melody, or sourcing different performances of the piece in question to compare and learn from them.
One thing is for certain regardless of how you are learning to play the piano, is that you are going to need to be committed and you will need to push yourself just like any other learning process. For some the phrase “it is better that you practice what you don’t know rather than what you do know” is used. As an example, the only way you are going to learn to master certain techniques and skills if by doing them and not sticking only with the ones that you know. Sure, it sounds obvious. If you structure your learning process and vary the aims and goals of various pianistic techniques, then your actual practice of the piano can become more interesting and varied.
When we talk about structuring your piano practice, we mean that it can be more effective if your piano practice is actual planned rather than just being spontaneous. By being able to plan your practice you can determine what you want to learn by the end of your allotted time. In addition, by having a more structured practice session you can concentrate on the areas which need more practice than others rather than constantly playing and practicing parts which you are relatively competent with – which often happens if you do not structure your practice sessions.
For some, what makes piano practice “boring” is the repetitive nature in which it is often administered. However, repetition is one of the most effective ways of learning. You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn just by repeating as your brain starts to commit things to memory after repeating something 3 or more times. Think of when you started to learn to ride a bike. The only way to learn and get used to it was to do regardless of how many times you fell. Eventually the balance – which is what you are learning – comes naturally and because you kept at it, your brain can automatically know that you are riding a bike. Another analogy maybe talking. The words that you have learnt come naturally when you are talking and conversing with other people. Most people learnt words by repeating them, eventually committing them unconsciously to their memory.
Practice is the key to developing your piano skills and technique. If you don’t practice then you’re going to be unable to develop your playing ability further. It’s unfortunate but true. The chances are that it isn’t always the practice that you find boring but rather the learning as often mistakes will happen as you are learning. It is a matter of using them to understand any playing weaknesses, and remember, every pianist regardless of their capabilities have been in exactly the same learning place as you. It is whether you decide to use it too your best ability that will matter.
