Piano Blog

Practice - The Last 10 Percent Is The Most Important

If you've read much of pianoblog.com or are one of my students, you know how important repetition is to me.

What many people don't understand about practice, is that the last 10 or so percent is where the majority of improvement occurs. Repeating a section 10 times vs. 5 times doesn't mean it will only be twice as good. In fact repetitions 8, 9, and 10 might add an extra 200 percent. (If you can't tell, I'm making these number up, but you get the point).

Its very similar to building muscle at the gym. The last repetition determines the majority of the muscle growth. How much should you repeat? There's an art to this. After a certain number you reach a point of diminishing returns, and you'd do better to work on a different section for a while and then come back. After a lot of practice, you'll get a sense of what is enough…there's a sort of "locking" in that occurs, where you can tell you actually learned something. As against a sense of murkiness and uncertainty about the section at hand.

But in general, I'd say most people err on the side of not enough repetitions. So, go forth and repeat.

Planning vs. Doing

There's a time to plan and a time to do, and those times don't usually overlap.

At least for my dull mind, there's not enough mental bandwidth to do both at once. 

On top of that, the mind is a tricky animal. If I'm at the gym, in the middle of a workout, and my "planning" brain switches on, I can find all sorts of reasons why I "shouldn't" finish the workout. I'm too tired. I might be getting sick. I don't have much time. Is this workout even working? Maybe I should try a different one. It would feel so good to stop right now.

If you're having trouble practicing, I bet one on reason is that you are overlapping planning and doing.

The Best Practice Advice in the World

After many years of teaching, and hundreds and hundreds of students, I can say with complete certainty that this is the best practice advice available.

It is simple, reliable, and when executed will improve your playing many times over.

This method can be implemented regardless of age or skill level.

More than any other factor, this method correlates to success at the piano. And further, those who rarely implement this technique show markedly less improvement than those who do.

In fact, in all my years of teaching, I can say that students who implement this method are *gaurunteed* to surpass those who don't many times over.

This technique has been used by successful concert artists for hundreds of years with incredible results.

I am giving this advice, confirmed by years of hard work and an enormous amount of real-world data, to you the reader for no fee. Are you ready?

This practice technique is as follows:

Practice! 

:-)

 

Transposition for Theory and Ear Training

Want a rewarding, practical,  theory lesson? Try transposition. 

The great thing about transposition is that you can apply it to whatever level you happen to be at. Are you learning a Chopin Mazurka? Take a phrase and try to play it in every key. Still on simpler pieces? Do the same. Not only will you learn more about the piece you're working on, you'll get a deeper understanding of how its elements apply in every key; an understanding that will come in helpful in the future. 

Remember to have a good idea of how the piece sounds, and a harmonic understanding of what is going on. (If you don't understand what's going on harmonically, get some help with that.) By having this knowledge before transposing, you'll get an incredible lesson in applied theory, as well as some great ear training. You can often learn more by transposing a small section through all the keys than you can from hours of book study. 

More on Piano Muscles

 Along the lines of the previous post, here's a quick tip:

If your practice isn't "sticking", maybe you aren't doing enough "reps". Many people will take my advice on working in small sections, but won't repeat enough. They'll figure out how to get through a section, repeat it maybe once, and then move on. But really, they ought to play it through several more times. These "reps" are where the real muscle gets built. Don't spend several minutes figuring out how something goes without repeating it. If you do that you are wasted most of your time! 

Alternately, if you're moving at a glacial pace, learning a measure a week or something like that, maybe you are doing too many reps. Its much better to cycle small sections. Maybe repeat a two-measure bit 6 times, move on to the next bit, and then after a few minutes review the first bit again. You have to find your sweet spot - a good balance between repeating and covering a decent area. There's an art to this kind of practice.

Now go pump up your piano muscles. 

Piano Muscles

Right now I'm in the middle of my teaching week, as well as full of Mexican food and ice cream. So the chances of a long followup to yesterday's post are a bit slim at the moment.

But here's a quick thought from one of my lessons today. In weight lifting, a lot of attention is paid to exercising your muscles enough so that they grow, but not so much that they over-fatigue and can't recover. If you do it just right, its the last repetition of a movement that accounts for the majority of muscle and strength gains.

This is like piano practice. Some students (very few) over-fatigue themselves, but most don't do quite enough. Just like that last 10 percent of work can account for 50 percent of muscle growth, that extra 10 or 20 minutes of practice, or those extra 2 or 3 repetitions of a section, can make an enormous difference in practice output.

Not progressing like you'd like at the piano? Up your daily practice time by 10 or 20 minutes. Try 6 repetitions of a section instead of 4. Go over a section slowly for 10 minutes before bed, etc. etc. Try this out for a few weeks, and see if it makes a difference. You might be surprised.

When do you practice?

I've been talking with several students lately about what time of day they practice in. When do you practice?

For me, the best time to practice is the time that will happen every day. Just like going to the gym, practice is something that can easily be put of just "one more day." Which quickly turns into "one more week"

For me the best time to practice is first thing in the morning. A lot of my students who work full time 9-5 jobs say the same thing. Its tough to get up at first, but the reward of having freedom in the evening and seeing real improvement over time makes it worth it.

Whenever you practice, make it consistent! Don't make piano a "floating" item on your agenda, but rather a part of your daily routine. Not only will you achieve more over the long haul, you'll come to see your practice routine as an enjoyable part of your daily life.

So Pianobloggers, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. When do you practice? Are you fresher in the morning or do you use it to relax in the evening? When are you able to be more consistent? Let me know!

Scale Fingering

Do you get your fingers mixed up when you play scales?

Here's a quick tip. Say the fingers to yourself in groups as you play, instead of one finger at a time.

For instance if you're playing the F Major scale, don't think:

1 on F

2 on G

3 on A

etc...

Instead think

Starting on F: 

1-2-3-4

1-2-3-4

or for C Major:

1-2-3

1-2-3-4

etc...

Thinking in groups of notes before playing is much easier than thinking one finger and note at a time.

Try it!

Piano for Adult Beginners - A Summary

I used to have a teacher who told us that one of his primary jobs was to repeat things in as many ways as possible in the hope that someday we'd take his advice.

In that spirit, since my last two "Piano for Adult Beginners" posts were fairly long-winded, let me summarize.

-Understand basic harmonies and scales as early as possible.

-Learn basic elements extremely well before moving on (keys, notes, etc.)

-Know what your music sounds like. Listen over and over

-Repeat hard things until they are easy. Work often in small sections.

-String these sections together.

-Don't play before you understand. Keep your mind ahead of your fingers.

-Take your time, go slowly. Very slowly.

-Focus on problem areas. Make them your friends.

-Practice every day for many years.

Piano for Adult Beginners - Part 2 - Practical Applications

In my first "Piano for Adult Beginners" post I listed several unique habits of successful piano students. In this post I'll attempt to show how these habits can be used in practice. 

Habit: Successful Students are Ear Oriented

Practice: Listen to recordings of what you are learning. Listen listen listen! If there is no recording available, you have to be your own "recording". Do this by taking a very small chunk (say a measure) that is easily manageable and repeating it many times. As you repeat, *listen* to what you are repeating so that you build up a solid "sound idea" of that section. Do this with individual sections and then string them together.

At the same time, always listen as you play. You'd be amazed at how hard it is the really listen to your playing, instead of what you "think" you are playing. 

Habit: Successful Students Automatize

Practice: Repeat small sections ad infinitum until they become as natural as tying your shoes. Repeat from several angles. Hands alone, hands together, visualizing in your mind, etc. etc. "Repetition is the mother of all learning."

Habit: Successful Students Look for Patterns and Harmonies

Practice: Get very familiar with the basic scales and chords of the keyboard. The sooner you do this the better. Learn the notes and fingerings for all the major and minor scales and repeat them as much as possible. Learn all the major and minor triads in every key - practice them in every inversion over and over again. 

Learning these basic triads and their inversions is very powerful. Almost any chord can be reduced to one of these primary chords. This means that if you know these chords well, you'll easily understand the harmonic underpinnings of any piece of music you play. This knowledge will improve your musical abilities many many times over. 

Habit: Successful Students Understand Before Playing

Practice: Know how your piece ought to sound in and out. Understand as much as you can about the scales and harmonies of your music. 

On a smaller level, don't guess. Guessing puts your mind in a mini "fight-or-flight" state and is the opposite of the correct mental practice. Always know the notes your are about to play, and how they will sound, before you play, even if this means pausing. Take your time. Often this means working in very small sections (a measure or two or less) and repeating them until they are easy.

Habit: Successful Students Understand Hierarchy

Practice: Never move onto one element of piano before having a firm grasp of what precedes it. This means automatizing that information. You shouldn't try to read complicated music before you know the notes of the keyboard like the back of your hand. You shouldn't try to play Chopin before you have a firm grasp of basic harmony and scales. Sure you can do these things, but the process will take forever and you won't get much from it in terms of applicable knowledge. (A good teacher will know what comes before what in the learning process, since this can be a complicated subject.)

Habit: Successful Students Focus on Problem Areas

Practice: Learn to target small problem sections (often less than a measure). Make them your strongest points, and attack them from all possible angles. (Hands alone, in parts, slowly, mental practice, etc.) 

Habit: Successful Students Look for the Big Picture

Practice: After practicing a small area like above, take the time to try it out in a larger context. In other words, play it repeatedly with the surrounding material. 

Habit: Successful Students Practice

Practice: Practice! Rudolf Serkin used to tell his students "Practice until you can't stand it anymore, and then practice another hour." Thinking about practicing won't do. There's no way to get it right without lots of trial and error. Get to a piano, listen hard, and focus. Over and over and over again for many years. This is the way to get good at the piano. There are no shortcuts.