Hi everyone,
I would like to take piano practice more seriously and make it a priority to improve as a pianist. I am self-taught, i don't know much about music theory and also can't read sheet music. To be honest, i know how important and beneficial it is to know how to read music but i'd like my main focus to be on piano technique.
is there anything you would recommend for me to focus on a daily basis so i can work on my technique? It's very hard for me to sit at the piano without a 'plan', i feel like i'm just wasting time and i always end up just working on my music but i'm not improving at all as a pianist.
One of my main issues is tension in my playing and dynamic control (ex: too much attack and difficulty controlling the sound from each note) So if you have any advice or exercises for me, i would appreciate it.
I know i can pretty much find anything online, there's thousands of videos on youtube too. But having access to so much information makes it hard for me to know what to focus on or where to start, so yeah, hopefully someone can help me get some kind of structure for my practice sessions. I am really determined to improve, i just need a plan.
Thanks for your time!
I have the same gaol and pretty much the same problems: I can’t stick to it when I want to improve technics and learn other’s pieces; it pretty much always after 20 minutes start going into an improv , and I end up composing instead of sticking to the practice. I used to have a teacher as a kid for 2 years from 8 to 10 so I force myself to practice scales and so on. Having done guitar later on with a great teacher learning a bit a music harmony it gave a different perspective on how to improve; but honestly I think that finding a teacher and learning again all basics and playing classics will help us sticking to it and do our homework . Playing on an actual piano ( and not an E piano ) really helps too, trying to p’ay it soft like it sound on an E piano , controlling the sustain pedal and the notes…. A lot of work ahead of us ! Bur yeah in terms of wrist the key is to have it relaxed and place a rubber on your hand, it the rubber falls well U have to do it again. That was the technic of my old 80years + piano teacher I had as a kid.
I'm not one to give much insight really as my piano technique is going by the wayside! I watch videos of myself playing and the fingers I'm using are ridiculous! I'd tell my students off for that but I've got so used to manipulating my hands in weird ways that I also need to join you on the journey of technique improvement!
However, one thing my teachers used to use was covering my hands with a book so I couldn't use my eyes to find the notes. I had to start to rely on muscle memory and feel to improve my accuracy.
I'm also starting to suffer with arthritis in the thumb in my right hand which makes turning under quite painful so I'm trying to adjust how I'm moving now. That's another reason I'm probably getting lazy with the technqiue side.
My piano teacher put coins on the back of my hand and would let me keep 'em if I made it through the piece without dropping them :) Of course this is not possible if your playing ragtimes... but it steadies your hand and smoothens your wrist movements. It helps with playing smoother legatos, especially if the notes take a wider span and you will improve your dynamics as well.
If you upload a video proving you didn't drop the coins, I'll paypal you the amount of the coins as motivation :)
If you want to focus on improving tone quality, use the weight of your hand. It is really important to have relaxed wrists. Just pick one of your own pieces and play it slowly, listen to the quality of your sound. Think of the keys as made out of memory foam and let your fingers sink into the keys and then slowly bounce back. This is especially good when playing long notes and chords. If you have an acoustic piano, it is better to practice on one, because it is more sensitive to the smallest changes of hand weight. Always think about what sound you want to produce and hear it in your head before actually playing. As piano players we don't have the luxury of altering the sound once we have pressed on the key, so everything has to be imagined or thought of beforehand.
I know some find this really boring but from age 7 to 14 I practiced scales every day. I’m convinced that that developed muscles and coordination that would not have developed without doing them. This then allows expression and dynamics to be applied in a more controlled way. Your hands and brain are conditioned together and you don’t need to think about communicating your feelings through the piano, it happens automatically because of their training.