Why Your Practice Routine is Wrong!

Welcome to LivingPianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin with a bold statement. Why your practice routine is wrong. Now there's an exception to this. If you are completely satisfied with the results you're getting out of your practice and you're totally satisfied with your piano playing, then you can click off of this video. This does not pertain to you. But for any of you who really strive for another level in your playing, you want the kind of refinement that you've always dreamed about. Or there's music you'd love to play that's always been out of reach. Or there's problems with your reading. You can play music that you've memorized but reading is a struggle or vice versa. If there are fundamental weaknesses in your playing, then stay for this video because this pertains to you. Now I've met so many people who are so attached to the routines, they love their practice routine.

And some aspects of routine can be beneficial. For example, just the act of practicing on a regular basis itself has physiological and mental benefits. That is an achievement all of its own.

But the question is this, are you getting the results you want? And if not, how is your routine going to change that? One definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results. And so it is with your practice. So what do I mean by getting rid of your routines? What do you do instead? What is practicing? This is the fundamental question. Practicing is a discovery. It's a learning process. It's being able to assimilate something that you didn't have before by the end of the session. If you're doing exactly the same things on a daily basis, you can't really realistically expect to be able to get to a new place. So how do you break free from this? Well first of all, you want to analyze what your routine is all about. There may be aspects of it that are very helpful. For example, maybe you like to start with slow scales or arpeggios to get your hands warmed up, to be able to make sure you don't do any injury to yourself, to be able to listen to the tone of the piano, dig your fingers in and get comfortable in your seat, the right position and all of that is good. There could very well be aspects of your routine that you definitely don't want to discard.

But in order to get to that next level, discovery. And how do you make these discoveries? You must try things even if they seem crazy.

Don't be afraid to experiment in your practice. If for example, every day you go through the same routine, you do your warm up of scales and then maybe you go to your piece and you play through all the pieces you don't want to forget and then maybe you do some reading to make your reading better or whatever your routine is, you might figure, wait a second, the second thing, taking your pieces and playing them through to make them better, is that really making your pieces better or is it just maintaining them on a certain level or is it even doing that? Ask yourself that question and if it's not, what can you possibly do differently? Well, for example, if you're used to just playing through your music, maybe going through very slowly without the pedal, looking at the score, take out the metronome, there are so many different things you can do, but it doesn't even all have to be work. You can for example, take a piece you've played that you know well, but somehow it's not quite where you want it to be. Try playing all of it a little bit faster or slower.

Slower, of course, to reinforce things, but sometimes going faster will reveal the places that are the weak points because maybe you can play all of it a bit faster except for two or three key sections. Well, you've just discovered which sections to spend your time with. Instead of scatter shot, going through everything equally, if you just focus in by identifying those weak points, right there, that could be a game changer for you, spending exactly the same amount of time at the piano, but accomplishing exponentially more by zeroing in on what needs work. Now, another common problem in practicing is not having a clear intention of exactly what you're doing at each moment of your practice. For example, when you're playing through music, are you refining, are you refreshing, are you reading, are you memorizing? What are you doing? Knowing specifically what skill you're trying to accomplish at every stage of your practice is critical. So for example, if you're learning a new piece of music, maybe you should take it from the beginning and just take a very tiny section and really perfect it and work phrase by phrase.

I've explained this process in many videos where you take a phrase right-hand alone, learning all the details, left-hand alone, getting that memorized, putting them together, getting that solid, and going section by section, connecting as you go. This can be invaluable for really developing security in your playing. Now if you have pieces you can already play, as I mentioned, going through and reinforcing the memory by playing with the music and slowly without the pedal and with the metronome, fantastic way. Slow practice is a tremendous, tremendous saver of time. Now there are many other things you can do in your practice that could be a game changer. Listen for different lines in your music. If you've always brought out the melody on top, is there a counter melody on the bottom you can listen for? Listening is key. Anything that can get you to listen to your music with new ears, with fresh insights can be so valuable. If you have another piano around, maybe even a digital piano or a friend's piano, playing on a different piano can open up new horizons of sound. You may have a whole different idea of how to approach the next time you sit down at It just feels different. The whole mental activity is different, the emotional experience is different, and you will gain insights in how to work on your music differently.

So the lesson for today is don't feel that you have to be a prisoner to your routines. If you have some that are working well, by all means build on them. But try new things. Incorporate them into your playing. Make practicing a discovery. Always listening. Trying new things. I'm Robert Estrin, this is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Thanks for joining me.

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