Efficient piano learning tips
A few great advices from a brilliant book about piano learning
I would like to recommend you a brilliant book. It’s not just about piano technique, but also about organizing a learning process, efficient memorizing etc.
Also, check out the latest video with tips how to practice efficiently, learn more about my teaching method and contact me for an online lesson.
The book is called Fundamentals of Piano Practice, by Chuan C. Chang, 2004
This book is a true gem, and I highly recommend it. It’s also available on Scribd.
Here are a few selected advices from this book that are incredibly useful, so that you have an idea about the approach of the author:
The best way to become familiar with a new piece is to listen to a performance (recording). The criticism that listening first is some sort of “cheating” has no defensible basis. The purported disadvantage is that students might end up imitating instead of using their creativity. It is impossible to imitate someone else’s playing because playing styles are so individualistic. A mathematical “proof” of this impossibility is presented in section
The next step is to analyze the structure of the composition. This structure will be used to determine the practice program. Let’s use Beethoven’s Für Elise as an example. The first 4 bars are repeated 15 times, so by just learning 4 bars you can play 50% of the piece (it has 125 bars). Another 6 bars are repeated 4 times, so learning only 10 bars enables you to play 70% of it. Using the methods of this book, therefore, 70% of this piece can be memorized in less than 30 minutes, because these bars are quite easy.
The Continuity Rule. Suppose that you want to play the (LH) “do-so-mi-so” quadruplet (“Alberti accompaniment”) many times in succession, very fast (as in the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata). The sequence you practice is CGEGC. The inclusion of the last C is an application of the continuity rule: while practicing one segment, always include the beginning of the following segment. This ensures that when you have learned two adjacent segments, you can also play them together. The continuity rule applies to any segment you isolate for practice, such as a bar, an entire movement, or even to segments smaller than a bar. A generalization of the continuity rule is that any passage may be broken up into short segments for practice, but these segments must overlap. The overlapping note or group of notes is called the conjunction.
Relax. The most important thing to do as you get up to speed is to relax. Relaxing means that you use only those muscles that are needed to play. Thus you can be working as hard as you want, and be relaxed. High speed is nearly impossible to attain without complete relaxation and de-coupling of all the muscles (especially the large muscles) so that the fingers can gain their independence. Although starting with zero stress might appear to hold you back in the beginning, you tend to acquire technique faster starting with zero stress than rushing into a stressed state and then trying to eliminate the stress. So, then, how do you relax? You need to practice relaxation just as much as moving the fingers to depress the keys. Relaxing does not mean to “let go of all muscles”; it means that the unnecessary ones are relaxed even when the necessary ones are working full tilt, which is coordination a skill that requires a lot of practice to achieve. Relaxing is finding the proper energy and momentum balance as well as arm/hand/finger positions and motions that allow you to execute with the appropriate expenditure of energy.
The correct (and faster) way to learn is to actively search for the right motions and to build up an arsenal of them. The most important element in relaxation, obviously, is energy conservation. There are at least 2 ways to conserve: (1) don’t use unnecessary muscles and (2) turn off the necessary muscles as soon as their jobs are done. Relaxation, arm weight (gravity drop), involving the whole body, and avoidance of mindless repetitive exercises were key elements in Chopin’s teachings, but Liszt advocated exercises “to exhaustion”. We now know that without relaxation, neither music nor technique is possible. Technique originates in the brain. Non-musical playing apparently violates so many tenets of nature that it actually interferes with the brain’s natural processes for controlling the playing mechanisms.
Copyright 1994–2004; No part of this document shall be downloaded or copied without including the name of the author: Chuan C. Chang, and this copyright statement.
