What should a beginner pianist do?

My 13 Piano Tips For Beginners Invest In A Good Teacher. A lot of times beginning pianists like to learn things on their own. ... Play Music You Actually Enjoy. ... Don't Stress Over Technique Books. ... Perform As Much As You Can. ... Chunk Your Measures. ... Listen To Piano Music. ... Practice Slowly. ... Invest In A Grand Piano Whenever Possible. More items... •

joshuarosspiano.com - 15 Piano Tips For Beginners - Joshua Ross

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Having played piano for the majority of my life I guess you could say I’ve seen just about everything there is to see with the instrument. I’ve been through the highs, lows and those inexplicable situations over the years. One of the reasons I’ve been successful at what I do now though is due to my training and approach to the instrument. As a beginner pianist, it’s important that you have some basic principles you follow so that you can be successful. It’s honestly really easy to get caught up in different methods, and books and techniques that don’t work for everyone. Everything you do in the beginning actually matters, and if you can put in your time to the right places you’ll be successful too.

My 13 Piano Tips For Beginners

I want to share with you some really helpful piano tips for beginners so you can improve the right way. Some of these tips are going to be obvious, and perhaps you’re already doing some of them. If that’s the case then great! I can tell you right now that growing up I didn’t even approach the piano quite this way, and these are things I’ve learned over the years. The point I’m making here is that it’s okay if you don’t have everything figured out right now because piano playing is a constant learning process. With these beginner piano tips though you’ll at least be heading in the right direction! Have a look at those below. Interested in quality digital pianos for easy learning? You can find them by clicking here#ad

1. Invest In A Good Teacher

A lot of times beginning pianists like to learn things on their own. With the wealth of information online, YouTube videos and resources it’s entirely possible. There’s plenty of benefits to learning on your own too such as saving money, and other times it revolves around the mentality of “it can’t be too hard right?”. This is where the biggest mistake is made though because investing in a good teacher can really help you. Teachers have the ability to observe your playing, give you sound advice and also provide you with the right kinds of approaches to fix your problems. Watching a YouTube video isn’t always going to answer your specific questions like fingering and tempo. I’ve said this in the past, but everyone plays differently and there is no one size fits all approach to playing; especially as you get into the advanced repertoire. I understand that not everyone can afford a good piano teacher which would run you about $60/hour, however you could always purchase some really good training programs and upgrade to a teacher from there. As your playing improves and you take the instrument more seriously the need for a teacher will become even more logical to you. Take Time Off

2. Play Music You Actually Enjoy

Do you know just how much music is out there for pianists? I don’t either, but I do know that it’s so much that there’s no way we could play it all in our lifetime. With that said, find something you enjoy and work on it. Too many times pianists for beginner and advanced force themselves to learn repertoire that they really don’t enjoy playing. Sometimes you have to if it’s a competition or music audition, and other times its for the sake of impressing people with your amazing technique. Music that you don’t enjoy is really hard to work on though. When it comes to delivering something poetic and you can’t connect with it your playing comes across dull more often than not. From a practicing perspective, it really diminishes your focus and work ethic too. Those pieces we really don’t like tend to get less work and less attention to detail unless you’re a trained professional concert pianist like myself. I recommend as a beginner you get a good mixture of music. Grab some Classical, Pop, transcriptions and also mix in some advanced repertoire too just for exposure. Sometimes you’ll discover a piece you thought you hated actually turns into a piece you love. Get your hands active and try new music out whenever you can.

3. Don’t Stress Over Technique Books

As a beginner piano player, it’s really easy to get caught up in the method books. We want to establish good technique, and those books are excellent for this. However, piano playing goes beyond scales and finger dexterity exercises. My recommendation would be to filter in the technique books here and there, but don’t spend an insane amount of time on them. What I like to do when I feel my technique slipping some is to warm up with some Moszkowski and then add in some basic Hanon exercises. For me, this really gets the blood flowing if my fingers are stiff, but it’s always a chance for me to isolate some bad habits that can easily develop if I get lazy with my playing. It’s not random either as I try to implement techniques that my current repertoire is demanding of my fingers. So for example, if it’s falling thirds then I’ll locate something that has that in the music. If you want you can even turn your current repertoire into technique exercises. Try turning the music into short rhythms rather than playing it as normal. For example, if you have a measure with 16 notes, try breaking it into groups of 4 and so forth. You can always split chords up too.

4. Perform As Much As You Can

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Just because you’re just starting out don’t think you can’t perform for people. Even a C major scale is worthy of getting in front of a group of your friends and peers. Music is something you should want to share with others and not just keep to yourself. I would encourage you to take any opportunity to perform some of what you’re working on for people. Not only does it give you public confidence, but it kind of reassures you that you can actually play the piano well!

5. Chunk Your Measures

I spoke in a little more detail about chunking measures in this article, but it applies to all levels of players. Chunking gives your brain a chance to really understand what’s going on in the music. As a beginner piano player having to digest a full page of notes is really a big deal. It looks downright intimidating at times. If you break it up into small pieces though and make small achievements along the way then it’s not bad at all.

6. Listen To Piano Music

Some of my early teachers would encourage me not to listen to any other pianists. They never wanted me to listen to recordings because they didn’t want me to just copy what I heard. I’m somewhat in the middle on this advice though. I’ve never been one to copy a single pianist, but I think listening to recordings can be really helpful for beginners. Sometimes you might wonder how to interpret certain markings in your music, articulations, dynamics and mordent markings. Also listening to recordings of pieces you don’t know could help you discover repertoire you didn’t know was out there! The answer might be right in front of you in your sheet music, yet still, be tough to fully grasp. For that reason, I love listening to other pianists; getting inspiration across the board and seeing where we have similar approaches. Before listening to any music I recommend getting yourself familiar with the music on your own for a while so you’re not swayed in one direction or the other.

7. Practice Slowly

Speed kills, and I mean that literally. There are some things you can practice fast without much thought to it, but there’s plenty of things that need a slow approach. Playing slow helps you stay even, become more accurate and eliminate minor mistakes. I can speak from experience, but there have been plenty of times I’ve played a measure quickly thinking I had it all right. Upon further analysis, though I discovered incorrect rhythms, no dynamic control and a severe lack of evenness. For me, slow practice is the ultimate way to prevent those mistakes from happening. I don’t overdo it either. I just run through the measures enough times to get a firm grasp on everything and connect with it mentally and musically and then start to pick up the pace. If something still isn’t going right then I slow it down again and try to fix the issue. Beginning pianists should always start slow so that they can really perfect their music.

8. Invest In A Grand Piano Whenever Possible

This particular tip might irk you, but as a concert pianist, I think it’s really important. I’ve taught many students over the years, and they tend to come into the lesson playing poorly from a technical standpoint. At first, I thought my teaching wasn’t getting across to them, but after further discussion, I found out they were using keyboards or upright pianos. Keyboards might be a small investment, and you could easily pick up a good one for less than $100. The problem though is that even their synthetic hammer actually never quite replicates what a grand piano can do. When you have a recital and you’re presented with a gorgeous Steinway you think you can tackle the piece just like you do at home. Soon after playing you realize that nothing is even in your playing, and all of the expressive musical playing you do at home just isn’t translating. That’s because you have not been playing a real piano! At the very least try to acquire an upright piano with good action. Keyboards are good temporary solutions, but especially as you advance the need for a real piano is going to be there.

9. Understand Basic Theory

Growing up I was always good at playing, but I didn’t really get the theory side of things. Honestly, I didn’t think it was all that important. I can tell you now though that 20 years later, it’s something I wish I had done sooner. Theory is important to understanding everything about your music. Basic theory is great for breaking down how your music is structured, the chord structure, and understanding exactly what’s going on with your music. Beginner pianists especially need to know the importance of key signatures, accidentals, markups and more to really get the piece under their grasp. There’s a ton of great online resources for studying music theory. Even a basic Wikipedia search will yield some great information. I’m going to list some helpful theory resources below to get you started:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory

https://www.musictheory.net/

10. Memorize Everything

Reading music is important, but to some degree, it holds you back. For me especially if my head is buried in the music then I have a really hard time being musical. The worry is always about missing a note or cue and you have a much harder time overall. Focus on memorizing your music as fast as you can. Once you do that you’ll be able to start playing with dynamics, placement and choreography too. This is really where you can connect fully with your repertoire and take things to another level.

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Music is all about internalizing, and if you can do that sooner then the poetry will really come to life. So I just talked about how important it is to memorize music as a beginner pianist, but sight reading is important too. As you learn new music you’ll be presented with this task over and over again. Having the skills to identify rhythms, notes, and key signatures will make the process of learning this music even faster. If you don’t have good sight reading skills then you’ll find yourself really stuck in the music trying to figure things out at a snails pace. I like to take a brand new piece of music or set of measures and read over them a couple of times per week. I do this for maybe 5 to 10 minutes just to keep my sight reading skills sharp.

12. Use Good Posture

Posture really matters when you’re playing the piano. Try not to slouch over the instrument if you can help it. If the bench is too low then consider investing in one that you can raise or lower. Remember to always keep your arms parallel to the keys and your upper body stable. It’s really easy to develop lazy playing habits, especially if the repertoire is really not that demanding. That’s why beginner pianists tend to face posture issues more often than not. Whether it’s a whole note or a flurry of 32nd notes you should always try to play in the correct position.

13. Use The Correct Fingering

Fingering seems like such a nuisance, but it’s actually really important for piano playing. There’s some situations you can get away with it, but poor fingering is not a replacement for good playing at all. There’s certain parts of the music that require legato lines and proper phrasing, and if you’re jumping all over the place with your fingering then your piece might come off sounding bad. I always instill proper fingering techniques into my students. We work on ways to figure the fingering out so that I’m not just giving them the answers all the time. Trust me, once you establish good fingering, then the choreography of your playing is really going to improve and you’ll be more musical! Many times the repertoire and technique books you read will have fingering already in them. For the most part that fingering works, but occasionally it’s not going to fit your fingers. Rather than forcing it, take some time to experiment with which fingers work for you and then make the amendments.

14. Don’t Look At Your Hands

Some new pianists have a difficult time playing without looking at their hands. Staring down your fingers isn’t really a good idea though because the moment you look away you might screw up. Try to look around and move your body around here and there. Getting a bigger scope of your space can really help you not sound so focused either. Besides, you should be relying on your memory and ear and not just what you physically see going on with your fingers.

15. Sing The Melody

Playing is one thing and singing is another. If you really digest what’s going on though you’ll find that there’s a clear melodic line in your music that you can sing. For beginners, singing is important for a couple of reasons. It helps you keep your place in the music, it aids in memory and it also plays into your dynamic process too. If you look at your piano music as a song rather than notes on a page you can really improve your playing drastically.

Let’s Recap

Well, there you have it! These are things that I think any beginning piano player ought to know and implement into their routines. None of it is terribly difficult, but your approach to playing should be well thought out or you’re just wasting your time. If I could suggest the most important tips from this list it would certainly be investing in a good teacher and getting a grand piano. Those two tips are going to have the most impact on your development from a novice player to a pretty darn good one. In addition to that developing your sight reading skills and slow practice would probably be my next most important suggestions. Pianists need a solid foundation and technique, but that really can’t be established without knowing how to read music efficiently and how to digest those measures the right way. I hope these tips help you guys out! If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I’ll gladly answer them the best I can!

joshuarosspiano.com - 15 Piano Tips For Beginners - Joshua Ross

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