Piano Practicing Tips

What To Do When a Piece of Music Isn’t Working

by

We’ve all been there, whether as a student or someone who has been playing the piano for years, that we are working on a new piece of music and even though we are trying it is not coming together and it can be really frustrating. The first bit of advice would be that this happens … Read more

Practicing is not Playing and Playing is not Practicing

by

So how can practicing the piano not be playing the piano and vice versa? The really simple answer is that both fulfil a completely different function. Playing a piece of music really happens once you have learned how to play the particular piece of music. You play a piece of music when you know it … Read more

The Good News About the Fact That Everyone Has a Weakness

by

I’ve been teaching many years and one of the many things I have noticed over the years is that everyone has a weakness. What I mean by this is that everyone will have some aspect that they really have to work on, while other areas they will master quickly. I don’t mind admitting that my … Read more

How to Instantly Make Your Playing Sound Better

by

I was watching a You Tube video the other day and it featured this woman starting to play the beginning of Beethoven’s Fur Elise, which you might not be familiar with the name, but you would have definitely heard it before. I could tell that this woman had only been playing the piano for a … Read more

Can Poor Technique Cause Paralysis and Pain?

by

Years ago I heard a story of a professional violinist that developed RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) where the pain and strain got so bad that the muscles in her arms and shoulders locked up and that some everyday tasks became impossible. For a whole year she couldn’t play at all. For several years she had … Read more

Do You Really Need to Follow the Fingering on Piano Music?

by

It really doesn’t matter which style of music you like to play or how easy or complicated it is, there is bound to be some sort of fingering added to the music. Sometimes there is a little and sometimes there is a lot. Let me be clear: The fingering that you see on the page … Read more

Why Learning to Play the Piano is a Lot Like Getting Fit

by

I know that this seems rather strange, but for quite a while now I have thought that there is a number of similarities between learning to play the piano. Both learning to play the piano and getting fit are goals that people can set without knowing what the process is going to be or how … Read more