How to structure your piano practice?

This can be a subjective area, but since you are reading this, you have probably nothing against some guidelines.

This article will present some suggestions of piano practice schedules. The purpose is not to make you to a “slave”, but to point out some possible ways to approach piano practice in a more systematic form.

It’s problematic to create a universal schedule that suits all players since there are big variation in ambition, level and preferences among leaning musicians. Thus, threat this as a resource which you can get ideas from as a starting point from which you can deviate and modify as suitable to you.

Tips

Don’t practice as a routine that “must” be done. You will not extract very much from the time at the piano if you don’t understand that the quality of your sessions is more important than the time.

  1. Try to concentrate and do the exercises accurately. Five minutes of accurately and concentrated playing will be better than fifteen on auto-pilot.
  2. Play regularly. If your motivation isn’t immense, try to play almost every day and preserve your enthusiasm for the instrument by not play too long.
  3. Playing at the same time every day may help your long-term continuousness.
  4. Take breaks when doing long sessions to avoid losing concentration and extending your energy.
  5. Try to develop by playing what is hard for you rather than what you already master. Find your weak spots and train extra to diminish them.
  6. Play slowly until you can play it very well. Anything you do at the piano will be absorb by your brain and by time being something you do automatically. By playing slow at start, you will feed your brain with the right habits.
  7. Record what you play and analyze.
  8. Study different genres, by which you will learn you new concepts.
  9. Improvise, for example by combining scales with backing tracks.
  10. Listen to as much music as possible.
  11. Study scales, primarily major and minor.
  12. Study chords and arpeggios.
  13. Study music theory.
  14. Study sight reading.
  15. Train your ear.
  16. Don’t forget to warm-up.

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