The 3 Essential Go-Tos in Your Piano Practice

This is LivingPianos.com, I am Robert Estrin with a quickie today that can be invaluable for you. The three go -to's in your piano practice.

Now, of course, there's a host of things that are involved in piano practice. You know, I talk about working with a metronome and a system of learning and practicing sight reading, have a variety in your playing. But what I'm talking about now is fundamental when you have a piece of music, you're playing through it and there are things that just aren't gelling, things aren't solid and there are three essential things that you can always go to in your piano practice and I promise you that one of these techniques is bound to solve your issues if a piece is good but you have certain places that need brushing up. That's exactly what this is for. So, one of the most obvious things in the world and it is a huge help in solidifying your music is to go more slowly. Seems really obvious, doesn't it? But sometimes when you're playing you almost feel as if you go a little bit faster it's easier because when you go slower it makes you think more and that's exactly the point. Instead of just going in muscle memory and where your hands naturally go, it makes you think about what you're doing.

Take out the score, get your foot off the pedal, play slowly, perhaps use the metronome, but that slow practice is incredibly valuable for solidifying your music. What else can you do? Well, you're still having trouble, you're trying to go slowly, it's a struggle, it's just not coming together. Of course, work hands separately. Maybe initially you worked hands separately when you were learning it, but now you've been playing it and playing it and figuring, oh, I don't have to go back to hands separate. Well, you know what? If it's still not solid, practicing hands separately, if you get each hand separate really flying through it with total ease when you put the hands back together, you'll have a fighting chance of getting it really on a high level. And the last of the go -tos in your practice is if you're having trouble with something, a section of music, take a smaller phrase. You may be able to solve it if you don't try to do the whole section or maybe it's only an eight measure phrase and you're thinking, I should be able to do that. Well, maybe if you just took four measures or even two measures, you know, sometimes if you ever heard me practice, you would be astounded because sometimes I literally practice just two notes, getting from one note to the next and having my hands over the next keys and practicing just that.

Sometimes listening to me practice can be very odd because I will take little snippets and try to gain total ease and comfort in the smallest possible phrase.

So getting back to this, what are the three go -tos in your practice? Go more slowly. Did you know about Rachmaninoff? Ruth Slanchinska, as a matter of fact, when she was a very young child got to study with Sergei Rachmaninoff. Ruth Slanchinska, fantastic pianist and teacher who I had the privilege of studying with. I have an interview by the way, check out the description if you want to see more about Ruth Slanchinska and also about my Living Piano Mastermind Club, which might be of interest to you as well.

Anyway, she was outside of his studio waiting to come in and she waited because there was obviously a beginning student in there.

Well, little did she know when the door opened, the towering Rachmaninoff was the only one in the room. He was playing so slowly she couldn't imagine that was anything more than a beginner playing. But Rachmaninoff with his incredible playing and refinement, the secret to his mastery of the piano was slow practice. So do it for any piece that you have trouble with or passages of pieces.

Of course, hand separate is a perfect and important component of piano practice and you can revisit going hand separately whenever you have issues with a certain section of music.

And finally, you can't take too small a section, just get security no matter how small it is, you can build piece by piece and gain mastery and comfort in your playing. Once again, I'm Robert Estrin, this is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Thank all of you subscribers and we'll see you next time.

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