“Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.”
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish Composer and Pianist
Practising the piano and playing the piano are two different things. If a student plays through all their pieces each day they may well find at the end of the week there is no discernable improvement, even though they have spent hours at the piano.
So what is the difference between playing and practising? Playing is just that – playing the piece through over and over and hoping it improves. Practise involves breaking down the song and working on each weak area as a stand-alone section.
The phrase I probably use most often with my students is, “slow it down” as that is always the first approach to a troublesome section. When you slow down you can better pinpoint where the problem is. It can be difficult to do when you know how the piece sounds; your brain will push you to speed it up and it is easy to lose concentration, but the benefits are worth the effort.
A tongue-in-cheek view of practising
Isolate the problem area and separate the hands, playing each hand on its own until you are more confident with the part each hand is playing. Really think about what you are asking your hands and fingers to do. If there is a run or passage that follows the pattern of a scale or arpeggio, it can help to play that technical exercise a few times first. Then slowly put the two hands back together and work to gradually increase your pace.
While slowing down and/or separating hands, still aim to maintain all the expression (dynamics, tempo etc) required.
Once you feel better about that section, put it back into the whole piece and see how it sounds and feels. If it is improved, move on to the next problem section and go through the same process. Using this method, you will eventually play the piece fluently and with pride in what you have achieved.
If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW or mobile lessons are available in the eastern suburbs of Lake Macquarie.
Why practice scales?
Rhythm Cat teaches and reinforces the most commonly-used musical rhythm notation. The free ‘Lite’ version has 15 levels while the ‘Pro’ version works up to following three different colours in each rhythm, encouraging co-ordination of both hands.
The ‘Cat’ family also includes ‘Treble Cat’ and ‘Bass Cat’. I don’t tend to use Bass Cat with my beginners because it starts in a different octave, but Treble Cat is better suited. These games involve recognising the notes from amongst a group of notes, not just on their own. The notes also move slowly, giving you plenty of time to recognise the correct notes.
A basic note recognition app, NoteWorks is customisable for difficulty, including clef/s and range of notes. The interface and sound effects are fun for younger students, but the app still moves quickly enough to be challenging for older students and adults.
Tap that Note uses the device to identify notes, while Play that Note requires you to play to specified note on the piano (or whatever instrument you tell the app you are using). Play-a-day is a great sight reading exercise for intermediate students. As the name suggests, Hear It, Note It – also available as a standalone game – involves listening to what is played and notating it and has three difficulty levels within. Activities include tasks such as adding accidentals to correct a scale or completing rhythms with notes, rests and bar lines.
While it does contain basic note recognition, Tenuto is really suited to more advanced students, as the majority of activities are more complex.
In our late teens to early adulthood, these differences became our strengths. We worked together really well because we complemented each other and didn’t suffer from competition. Even when we sang, I sang the soprano to her alto. When she moved on to singing lessons, I accompanied all her practising. The picture on the right is a famous artwork that was on the cover of a card she once gave me.
While most previous studies had used only strongly-emotive music, this study had participants bring in music they preferred. This ranged from classical music through to techno, country, film soundtracks and heavy metal. The participants were then studied using MRI while listening to 60 different excerpts of new music, based on their musical taste. They also had the option to ‘buy’ a song in a mock online store, based on the 30-second samples.
Let them write on their music (in pencil, of course). While you don’t want them writing in every single note name, marking up spots where they are having trouble every time may help. It might be the note names of a tricky passage or an unusual timing count that trips them up. Having a little help written in may increase their confidence with the whole piece.
merri bell music 