Piano Practice Tips
WHOLE VERSUS PART PRACTICE: A skill or piece may be practiced as a whole or it may be practiced in pieces. Part practice in the beginning stage of learning a piece often is the most effective. Later, toward the end of mastering a piece, whole practice situations come into play more often.
CHUNKING: Chunking practice is essentially "part practice" - taking chunks of a piece & working them out individually. Determine the chunks or parts to practice before combining chunks into the whole. Take chunks of a piece of music & work them out methodically.
PROGRESSIVE PART PRACTICING: In this skill, practice the first step of a skill, & then practice the second part & put it with Part 1. Then, practice part 3 & put it with parts 1 & 2 and so on. A name here makes it possible to identify the specific skill to use when practicing.
BACKWARDS CHAINING: Practice from the end to the beginning, in other words from the last step to the first in a progressive manner but in reverse order. Learn the last "chunk" or part of a piece first, & then learn the next "chunk" followed by combining those two parts. Learn the third to the last section, & then combine the three sections. And so on.
SANDWICH PRACTICE: This practice technique is used when one wants to definitely master a certain difficult section in a piece. One might practice it (chunk it) many times in a single practice session, sandwiching it between compositions or practice segments. The chunk to be learned is reinforced over and over within a single day of practice.
SHOULD SOUND PRACTICE: The premise is this; if one could play accurately up to tempo, then one would not need to practice so much. The point is not to practice up to the tempo, but to practice the sound, and then the tempo will come in due time if the practice tempo requires relatively the same practice motions as the up-to-tempo version.
STOP PRACTICE: Play single measures or two in succession, up to tempo & stopping for several beats of rest between the groups before beginning the downbeat of the next unit that is played up to tempo. Imagine what the phrase will sound like.
PENNY PRACTICE: The premise is that one plays a certain passage correctly a specified number of times in a row, moving a penny from one side to the other side for each correct playing.
PLAY, HEAR, PLAY: This practice technique, used mainly in memory security practice, requires that you play one measure, internally hear the second measure, & then pick up, in tempo, & play the third measure, followed by aurally hearing or singing the fourth measure & so on. This establishes the security in starting a work on downbeats of measures.
PLAN, PLAY, EVALUATE: The step often missing is the accurate hearing or evaluation of what has just been played, so you discriminate what and how to practice next.
ONION SKIN PRACTICE: Play a phrase & add onion skins of sound as the phrase crescendos, and take away onion skins as the phrase decrescendos. This helps you to see, hear & then achieve fine gradations in sound variance.
ADD A GROUP PRACTICE: Play each beamed group of notes plus the first note of the following group. Work on this & then continue to add groups individually until all groups are linked.
RECORD/PLAYBACK PRACTICE: One of the best ways for you to objectively hear where you are & what you need to do next is to tape-record & play back your performance. Then listen to the music just played & practice from the tape recording. You'll discern what needs to come next in the practice from objectively listening to your own playing.
These are interesting and "CATCHY" names for various practice techniques. I hope these names give some SPICE and ENERGY to your practice!
What's Your Favorite Christmas Song?
Learn to Play All your Favorite Christmas Songs by this Holiday Season!
A Way To Sit Down At The Piano
And Easily Play All
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Without Sheet Music!"
Dear Fellow Musician,
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Jermaine just let me know about his brand new 3 H-O-U-R Christmas course, Christmas Keys Vol.1 - "Conquering Christmas Classics", which has just been released
After he takes you through his UNIQUE song learning process you'll not ONLY know how to conquer those songs but tons of other Christmas songs since most songs follow familiar patterns.
Christmas Keys Volume 1 is LOADED with tons of powerful tips, easy-to-do tricks, and techniques that will have you playing like an expert by this Christmas season - GUARANTEED!
In this course, you'll * Learn how to play every song, step-by-step, with no guessing (whatsoever) or any information left out! By the end of this course, you'll have what
it takes to fully play all of these Christmas songs by ear.
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* Beginners: How to play an entire song with only three-fingered major chords (...also known as "major triads").
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* How to add fuel to your bass by understanding how "power" chords work in holiday music.
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All the best,LadyD
A Note After the Fire
Rice Canyon Fire
My life is forever changed from the fire evacuation. The thought of not knowing if I would lose my home was devastating. Being forced to evacuate at midnight was a rough start and a feeling of being displaced.
But, God, who is rich in mercy, protected me and my home. I was a true musician, grabbing my keyboard and running out the door! I rejoice in His goodness and am filled w/ compassion for the loss of so many.
I am overwhelmed by the out-pouring of so many prayers going up on my behalf. I am indeed a very blessed woman!
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