ABRSM Piano Practice Tips For Beginners

Posted on June 29, 2015 Updated on July 4, 2015

If you really wish to do well in your piano playing, practice is the first step, first of all practice and playing are two different matters. Practice usually shouldn’t sound ‘all right’, in terms of speed (it should started slowly), notes ( you might make mistakes during the practice session), and normally there are a lot of thinking, memorizing, analyzing process during the practice session..But playing is something that is enjoyable, and the piece ‘supposed’ to be sounded good. And we always say, Practice makes perfect, yeah, I partly agree that, because ‘how to’ practice so that you can make it perfect is a very long subject. I personally think practice a piece should follow these few steps:-

1. Know your piece. For beginner, at least try to understand the title, the background of the composer, and the period of the music, the art of that period, though it is technically, i think, will not help your piano playing skills, and MAYBE it’s just a matter of music appreciation, but if you know more about the piece, that means you get to know more regarding the style of the period, the instrument that used in that period, the genre of the music, yeap that means you more likely knowing what you are doing and eventually turn into a music scholar! (who knows?!)

2. Dealing with the fingering and notes. This is a very IMPORTANT step, make sure you know your notes CORRECTLY, and at first just adhere to what is written down for the fingering, CIRCLE the tricky or difficult part after playing at least twice or thrice SEPARATELY hand ( I’ll always do it separately first when concerning my notes and fingering). For FINGERING, always move or change your position only until you see another fingering indication ( PLEASE don’t anyhow change). Then try to adjust some uncomfortable fingering based on your hand size and JOT DOWN on the scores, STICK TO IT! Normally for beginner, your teacher can help you to fix the fingering, but if you learn piano by yourself, my suggestion is to watch a few video clips to see how other players play the same piece and TAKE NOTE of their fingering, you will realize how different fingering can come out from each player,at the same time, you get the chance to see how they play on the piano, their hand shape and movement etc…

For repetition of the same pattern of notes, I’ll encourage myself as well as my student to copy down again to ensure that we stick to the same fingering to and identical passage. (e.g. ABRSM exam piece, the fingering only printed for the first time but not for the 2nd identical time).

3. Analyze the piece. For beginner, at least you can recognize some basic scales pattern, arpeggios and simple chord progression, for me, I’ll always write down the chord to make my practice more ‘EASY’ to go with…then slowly you will realize that there are always a few patterns (rhythmic or melodic) you will always encounter. Once this become a pattern or form in your mind, it will then getting easier for you to tackle with any new pieces. REMEMBER, we always pick up a PATTERN of notes or structure, NOT many many many individual notes.

4.  What to do other than Practice Slowly? Improve your basic technique first! Yes, all we know we have to practice slowly at first, but WHAT really can improve our playing is the ‘control’ or TECHNICAL issues of the piece, for instance, if the piece is full of  double notes and 6th apart, make sure you can work on 6th apart technical exercise first to enhance that, if the piece is in Db major and it s involved some scales passages in Db major, you must ensure that you CAN PLAY Db major scales flawless first ..

5. Playing up to the speed. Yup that’s right, please follow metronome at first, you can even challenge yourself by following a professional recording and play along, and see whether you are able to keep up the speed or not ( at the same time, you can make sure whether the dynamics, rhythm and notes are playing fine :))

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6.Dealing with interpretation of a piece.INTERPRETATION includes music shaping, dynamics and articulation. As for beginner, normally they can just follow what teacher do, and that is nothing wrong at FIRST, because at the beginning stage, we need to tackle more for the groundwork, e.g. technical studies and ways get a good control of your playing, but after you have got your experience gained, you understand the different interpretation styles for different periods and genre of music, after you have listened to so many artists performing, here is when you can start developing your own ‘way’ to play. It is important to make sure to find what is really in you, but you might ask HOW? MMMmm, it’s just like when you grow older, you know what style of clothes you like to wear, what music you like to listen, you tend to like some singers’ singing styles than others…if not then why, and if you like then what is the reason?…something like that, hence, if you want to develop your own playing style, listen to different pianists playing the same piece, try to comment on their playing, and choose a few that you LIKE THE MOST, in my opinion, you most probably like not just one but a few players, then IMITATE exactly how they interpret the music at first (yes learning always started with imitation). This is the first step you develop your style, secondly try to combine some ideas from different players so then that will turn out to be your OWN style, yeah!

The next post I will make an example for a piece by following the practice tips given here. Stay tuned.

Additional reading resource! 10 Practice tips from the master

http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Article/317393,ten-piano-practice-tips-with-jonathan-plowright.aspx

Wish you have a Happy DAY ahead!