Tips for Playing the Piano

Muscle Memory is Useful for Playing the Piano

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Recently I have seen online various adverts that talk about secret knowledge of being able to successfully remember how to play pieces of music that you have already learned months or even years ago. It is no big secret, it is just using what is called muscle memory. (As an aside, it is purely a … Read more

Keeping a Beat is Important

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Keeping a beat is important, but so is playing the right notes and adding adequate expression. But keeping the beat is possibly the most important aspect, for a number of reasons. The first reason why keeping the beat is important, is that it maintains the flow and integrity of the piece of music. This is … Read more

Some Thoughts on Practical Fingering

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This can be a bit tricky to work out whether you should follow the fingering or not on any given piece of music. On top of this, everyone also seems to have an opinion on what is best practice, so here is what I think should be the case. First of all, if you have … Read more

Is Learning Theory Important?

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The answer to the question of whether you need to learn any music theory in order to play the piano, the answer is simply yes. Many ads for online apps that can teach you to learn to play the piano will tell you otherwise. Yes I am saying that they are not being completely honest. … Read more

Chords and How to Play Them

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There are all sorts of online piano course that teach you to play the piano by chords, which is a perfectly valid way of learning to play the piano. From what I gather they teach you about various rhythms that you can use but what I have not picked up from their advertising is how … Read more

How Quickly Can Someone Learn to Play a Piece of Piano Music?

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Learning to play a piece of piano music is hard to pin down because there are just so many factors that have an influence on how long it takes a person to learn to play a piece of music. How frequently someone practices and how long a person has been playing for are two of … Read more

The Magic Ingredient to Learning to Play the Piano

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Over the years, I have had many people be amazed that I can play the piano, when they first meet me. It’s not because they think I am stupid in any way – it is more a case that they cannot fathom how anyone could possibly play the piano. Some people tend to have the … Read more