Some Common Piano Practicing Pitfalls - and Their Solutions

Not Having Short-Term Goals

I think this is perhaps the most common practice mistake. It is obvious that the ultimate goal is to play the piece you are learning well, and communicate your musical ideas. There are however a number of smaller goals that need to be addressed along the way. When you practice with only the ultimate end-product in mind the task becomes overwhelming and frequently leads to a sense of inadequacy and frustration. If you give yourself a precise and realistic goal as a part of learning an entire piece, there is a greater chance of success since you will have a clear and manageable idea of what the practice is trying to accomplish.

Small section with RH and LH clearly marked - leaves less to chance.

Solutions:

Say or write down exactly what you intend to do and stick with it. Perhaps something along the lines of:

I am going to play mm.1-3 slowly and steadily with the RH focusing on the fingering. 
I am going to play those same measures again focusing on maintaining the pulse - listening carefully, and trying to count out loud. 
I am going to see if I can hear mm.1-3 in my head yet.
I am going to decide and write in my fingering for the LH E-F-E.

You get the idea. 

The great thing about this kind of practice is that it can be done in really short spurts. 

Correcting Individual Notes

This is a very common habit, and very difficult to break for many players. Correcting one note and then continuing on sets up a pattern of mistake and correct that becomes almost automatic. I have heard students play with mistakes and corrections that have become so habitual that they don't even realize that the errors are happening. It is not until I record them that they can hear the problems. 

How does this happen? It happens because the ability to quickly correct helps the player think that they really know the music - because they can correct it so quickly. The truth is that most often when you hit a wrong note it isn't that you can't play from it - it is that you can't get to it.

Solutions:

Go back to the beginning of the phrase where the error is and stop on the note that is the problem. Do this until you can consistently stop on the right note and then gradually move beyond it. Pay close attention prior to the autopilot miss hit and make sure you go to the correctly learned section and not to the old habit. I use a broken train track analogy - make sure you switch onto the new track.

Having Unrealistic Expectations of Effort and Results

This is an unfortunate by-product of our desire for instant gratification, and an ever growing lack of ability to accept being wrong. It can take several attempts to get the correct notes and rhythms slowly under our fingers and sometimes students just can't deal with that much "wrong." I have students who claim that a piece is "tricky" if they can't get the notes right on the first play, and if it is still not to their liking on the second and third play it becomes "hard" or "confusing."  This is before students have even looked at tempo or dynamics.

RH/LH marked at the beginning, finger numbers circled, intervallic information marked with colours - forethought.

Solutions:

Do as much mental work before playing as possible. This type of forethought is invaluable when learning music. Some examples for younger players would be have them figure out which fingers they will be using, have them circle LH notes in a different colour to RH notes, have them tap the rhythm, or play the proper fingers on the fallboard. Call the first play a "look-through" call the second play the first try. At all levels, encourage self-assessment - not just of the notes, but also character and sound quality. Make each play count for something and aim for different results. Consider starting on different notes, or in different registers - this makes the effort more of a game, and can really be "tricky."

Group Piano Ideas: It's in the Bag

This past group week I decided to throw in a new activity. I have many students who are not quick to learn from a score. They are often reluctant to work on new music since the reading is a chore and as a result the progress - except by rote/ear - is quite slow.

I encourage students to learn music in sections, look for patterns, play several times listening for notes and rhythm, consider tapping tricky rhythms etc - and don't go on to a new section until one is learned.  What usually happens however, is the opposite. I get a plough through from start to wherever the student can read to. The opening 2 bars - or whatever we covered in detail in the class - is quite secure, but the rest often falls apart.

The playing is either prefaced with or followed by: "it was really hard" or "it was so confusing." Then when I ask whether my instruction were followed the response is: "kind of", or "I tried", or occasionally "No."

So - back to the group!

I took some pieces of music and copied them.
 Here is a Gigue by Samuel Arnold. Grade 1 level

I then decided the size of each section and marked the fingering for each hand at the beginning of the sections.

And I then cut them up with scissors into these sections.

Then I put them into a brown paper bag.

n

During the class each student took out a piece of the music from the bag. They had to think about how they were going to play it; and when they felt they had it ready they came up to play it on the piano. There was no trying out first.

At first the activity was met with a lot of resistance since it involved really reading the music. During the course of the class though something really neat happened - they began to really read and learn much faster than usual. They were all very surprised.

At the beginner levels this worked even better when they did in in teams and one learned the RH and the other the LH and then they switched and then they played Hands Together. Next group week I am going to have the Intermediate players work in teams as well.