3 tips for learning a piano piece

Starting to learn a new piece of music can be daunting, particularly if the piece is at a higher level than you're used to. If you don't know how to approach this process it can quickly become frustrating and disheartening and ultimately you give up on the piece. This is exactly what I want to help you avoid with the following practise tips. I use these tips every time I approach learning a piece and I'm sure you'll find them helpful for your journey with piano.

Tip 1 - pick the best fingering

To truly learn a piece of piano music you need to know what your fingering will be. You can't get to a tricky passage and make the fingering up on the fly - the likelihood of making a mistake will be too high. You need to know ahead of time what you want your hands to be doing so that you can build the muscle memory that will allow you to play without hesitation. This ideal fingering will be different for every person because the mechanics of each individual's hands are different. You should strive to find positions that allow for the most relaxed and efficient movement of your hand and fingers. Work your way gradually through the piece, each hand seperately, and decide what the best fingering option will be for you for each passage. Some sections will come naturally whereas others will have many options that you will have to explore until you settle upon the best solution. This process can take a while but ultimately will give you the foundation that you need to be able to play the piece consistently.

Tip 2 - slow down

Slow practise should be a core part of learning any piece and particularly for mastering challenging passages. It is very tempting to try and play a piece at its intended tempo before you're ready which often leads to mistakes and rhythmic inconsistencies. It is much more effective to slow the tempo all the way down and practise the movements with intention and care. This allow you to build up fluidity and confidence and you can gradually increase the tempo as you progress. Slowly practising is an extremely important technique for approaching the hardest sections of a piece which would otherwise be too difficult or intimidating. Once you have mastered a passage at a slower tempo the process for gradually increasing the tempo is simplier because you already have all of the foundations in place. This will also allow you to be more expressive and emotional with your playing as you speed up because you won't be having to focus so closely on the pure mechanics of playing.

Tip 3 - remember to read the notes

As a piano teacher, one that that I have noticed in some students of mine is that once they start to build familiarity with a piece they start to rely upon their memory of the piece rather than the written music itself. I do believe that memorising pieces is a very useful exercise and ultimately an important part of mastering a piece but you should also have some caution about relying on your memory too much during the learning process. I've seen many times a student who has "memorised" a piece and has in fact remembered the wrong notes! This then gets practised and muscles memory gets built and it can be quite hard to undo. I would encourage you to always go through and really read the notes as you practise, even if you think you know them off by heart. This will not only continue to solidify your knowledge and familiarity with a piece but also help you avoid any scenario where you internalise the piece incorrectly, saving you time and energy.

These are just a few tips which will hopefully help you when you tackle your next piece. I'll be sharing more soon along with other advice about learning the piano!