Piano Techniques To Steal From Famous Pianists
As they always say, practice makes perfect. Being one of the most interesting, sometimes easy-to-learn musical instruments on the planet, playing the piano requires regular and frequent practice for anyone to be great at it. Unfortunately, the quality of your practice is far more important than the amount of time you put in it. If you get it right, you can learn to wow the crowds and advance your skill level much faster. And what’s better than learning anything from the famous experts, especially when it comes to music?
Speaking of experts, here are some awesome hacks you can borrow or “steal” from famous pianists to make you better.
1. Vary Your Practice Techniques
When playing the piano, it doesn’t matter what you change while playing as long as you change something. Coming up with a new technique may appear to be difficult to start but later on, you may see rapid improvement. Renowned pianist, Ignaz Friedman says, every time you progress with a new technique, at first you don’t need to be that fast, there is always time to change. For instance, if you always play with both hands, then try each hand separately and at the end and the results will be fruitful.
You should resist the urge to move on to the next section if you have not yet passed the old one, fix it immediately before moving to the next session. The best and scientifically tested technique involves listening to your conscience in your head warning you about a problem area and stop before you hitting it. Vary your techniques and work it out, practice it, and only move on when you get it right.
2. Set A Specific Goal for Every Session
To succeed in literally anything, one has to have a key specific goal or a vision that they want to achieve. By setting a goal, you will create morale for yourself and this enhances your ability to get the outcome much faster and in a more satisfying way. As a matter of fact, according to an article on piano lessons by FindATutorNearMe.com, the motivation for learning is one of the most important things to consider before taking piano lessons as a beginner. And for what it’s worth, goal-setting always provides motivation and in this case, tends to work better if you set goals for every session.
When you’ve achieved your goal for the session, complete your session with a warm-down slowly, improvising or playing something that you’ve already mastered and this will make you admire to practice in the next session. In the end, remember that goal you set at the beginning and reward yourself whenever you manage to achieve it.
3. Practice with Full Concentration
As Claudio Arrau said, a great individual who plays piano requires having incredible emotional tension without getting physically tense or easily distracted. Distractions in our lives are limitless and may come from a wide variety of issues, some of which are unavoidable. Make sure that anything that may delay you from practicing or disrupt you from your core business of playing the piano is either wholly eliminated or avoided. For instance, if you see, you’re addicted to your smartphone, try to discipline yourself and keep it far away until you complete your piano lesson. Distractions are hindrances to achievement.
4. Focus On One Task At A Time
A thousand miles’ journey starts with a single step and needless to mention, even the piano playing requires a step by step approach of learning. For instance, It took Chopin Frederic, a famous pianist, a couple of hard years of composing and performing before he had worked himself into the highest level in the piano industry. This process of practice, therefore, does not only drastically improve your brain function, but it’s also a physical workout of your muscles and ligaments that are used to move your fingers on each hand. It is important to set your mind that this is your work and dedicate all your effort to it. Do some exercise to loosen up your wrists and warm up your fingers with stretches and hand exercises before starting a practice or performance session.
The piano is clearly not the easiest instrument to play and be perfect at it. It takes time, practice, passion, and resilience. If followed to the letter, the above tips can help you to become a better pianist.