I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread for beginners, where people could share their experiences of what they have done right or wrong when they first began playing. This thread would mostly be for beginners with no teachers.

I for example wish I knew many of the thing I now know when I first started off some two years ago. Here are some examples:

Always try finding sheet music with finger suggestions. I learned quite a few pieces with no finger suggestions or I was just frankly too ignorant to follow them when I first started off. Now that I'm a bit more experienced I have come to regret some of the finger choices I've made.

If there is no finger suggestions available, write down what you use - especially for harder sections. This will facilitate the learning process and make relearning old pieces easier.

Sometimes it's faster to play octaves with 1(thumb) and 4(ring finger). When I started off I always just used fingers 1 and 5, which will often suffice but when pieces get harder and you stumble upon octave runs 1-4 and even 1-3 might come to play. Sheet music with good finger suggestions should negate this problem.

Don't speed up pieces/fast sections too fast.This is something I quite haven't learned myself yet. Consequently I make too many mistakes when playing an entire piece.

Don't practice sections of a piece you've already mastered, it will only slow down your progress.I still do this way too often. When I'm learning a piece I like to play it all the way through many times not really focusing on the parts that really need practice. It's okay to do it every once in a while but if you want to learn the piece faster, focus on parts that need attention.

I'm sure I'll think of other suggestions later. Feel free to share some of your advice/experiences or agree/disagree with mine.

edit, corrected the title

It would be better if the word experience in the topic title would have written right for better searching in the future. Though I think my english is not that well either.

I think my advice is to practise hands separate, when hands together doesn't succeed. It will speed up learning a piece.

Thanks for pointing that out. It should be spelled correctly now

Learn new pieces in short, easily-perfected chunks, as opposed to trying to play though the whole thing at once.

Track where you make "random" "accidental" mistakes, and don't gloss over them. Pause, and work out just what is going wrong in that place. Go very very slowly if necessary to figure out what caused the glitch. As a beginner I somehow felt that if I tried enough times, I'd magically cure these glitches. Instead I learned that:

If you repeat a "random" mistake enough times, you will effectively learn it, and it will come back to haunt you forevermone, particularly when you try to play under stress (i.e. for an audience, or with the red dot glowing...).

Read this:

http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book

It covers all of the above and much more.

Start working on the hardest sections of the piece first. Often the intro is the easiest part of a piece, and if you work on the from beginning to end, the music gets progressively harder as you work on it. By finding the hardest part of the piece and focusing on that in the early stages of practice, you also end up playing that section (or those sections) more than the rest of the music, which helps you take the hardest parts of the music and make them your strongest. Then as you move other sections and slowly progress towards playing the whole piece, practice gets easier and easier.

Sometimes this is harder said than done, and it's easiest to work on the beginning because of the melody development or because that's where we feel like we recognize the music etc. In this case, pick two sections to work on, the easiest or most recognizable, and the hardest.

Good thread!

I would also suggest "performing" even for small crowds or strangers as soon as possible so you don't build up a complex about it. It also helps you understand what you have to do and whether you've really finished a piece so it's performance ready.

Use a metronome when first learning a new piece, especially for hard sections.

Read lots of new music all the time (even just fragments) to build up your reading skills.

To get a couple of measures that are challenging to sink in- instead of hammering on it over and over for an hour, spread it out over a weekend to do about a dozen 5 minute sessions on it. Practice it briefly, go away for 20 minutes, come back for a few minutes, go away for another hour etc etc.

The three most important things I can suggest are these:

Challenge Yourself: i.e. don't spend years in adult method books. Go through the first one and then move on to better things. e.g. Anna Magdalena Bach's Notebook, Schumann's Album for the Young, or Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young all have excellent pieces that can be learned. Not to mention all the brilliant music compilations (such as this one here) that you can find at your local music store. The RCM Celebration Series Perspectives repertoire books can provide a great wealth of material too. I am sure there are excellent books for people who want to learn jazz as well if you ask around.

Learn Theory: the Mark Sarneki Complete Rudiments Book works great for this, and you can purchase the answer key as well.
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/The-Complete-Elementary-Music-Rudiments-2nd-Edition/4942962
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/The-...er-Book/4942847

Most important: Find yourself a competent instructor.

Make Practicing a Habit:
Here are some practical tips:

-Eliminate the distractions (e.g. do not have a computer or television anywhere near your piano and turn off your cell). If possible, practice at a conservatory.
-Make practicing a habit (just like brushing your teeth). i.e. set aside a specific time each day to practice and stick to it. Remember, nobody has time to practice, you have to make time to practice.
-Make your practising contingent upon something you enjoy. For example, only allow yourself to watch television if you have practised at least an hour.
- Make certain that when you sit down to practice you know what you need to work on.
- Keep a journal that documents what and when you practised (this will help you literally see when you are procrastinating).
- Use a timer to budget your practice time (Richter famously used a timer for his practice sessions, btw)
- Focus on what you need to do reach your pianistic goals, and not the goal itself.
-Keep your practice space clean and tidy. A messy room can end up being a rather good distraction.
- Be realistic about what and how much you can practice.

I love the whole idea of this thread, as well as the way it's turning out. Not every piece of advice can be perfect for everybody, but there's a lot of really good stuff.

My contribution (I hope it's allowed even though I'm a teacher):
That section you desperately need to practice is WAY shorter than you think it is; in fact it's probably only two notes with a hiccup between them. Be extremely (almost painfully!) specific about what you're aiming to change. "I need to practice line 5" may be true, but it's also useless. "I'm going to practice moving from the B-flat to the F without missing" is more like it - it's less critical of yourself, AND you can track your own progress - "I got done this and this" is far more satisfying than "I practiced for a while".

One of my biggest AHA moments so far on my piano journey was something William Westney told me: When you play through the parts you have already mastered, they become worse, not better! Spend almost all your time on that which you don't know well yet (ie. mistakes will lead you to that which you need to practise). Maybe once a week you can play through the whole piece but not more often than that. As amateur though, we often want reassurance that we can actually do this, so we comfort our insecure ego by letting ourselves play things we know well. I still do it too often, but way less than I used to. I have a feeling that to reach a professional level this is one of the most important things to overcome.

Yes, this feels true at the moment of playing - but we all know that what's really being reassured is "This is the ONLY thing I know". Re-hashing the known parts is not such a feel-good experience after all.

Be patient! And let it rest. Elsewhere on this forum we had, a few weeks ago, a post from a fellow who said that he'd spent six hours practicing his C major scale--in one day!!

Now, I praise his desire and dedication, but condemn his method. That much time practicing one thing begins to deliver tremendously negative returns after the first 15 minutes. Basically, he wasted 5.75 hours that he could have been doing something more productive.

There is a certain point beyond which you're just not going to improve any more in a single session. It's different for everyone, but it's there. The only thing to do then is to either move on to something else or to give up the practice session for that day and come back refreshed the next.

While you're away from the piano and sleeping, your mind and body are continuing to process and cement the things you worked on. When you come back, you'll be surprised at how much better you are. But this cannot be rushed. As a barbeque fan, I know that a great cut of meat can be barbequed to perfection over a 200 degree fire for 8 hours. I cannot turn out the same result with 800 degrees for 2 hours.

See my signature - think about it - then take it seriously, very seriously.

No slurring allowed! Ever.

Trap

I'm trying to remember to record the pieces I'm practicing to discover spots I need to give more attention to.

That's a great way to look at it to become even less attracted to the idea of playing over stuff you know. Thanks, David - I'll have another weapon in my arsenal against the fragile ego!

Very interesting thread. I note a lot of helpful advices.

Thanks!

I have one more peice of advice:

Practice sight-reading everyday (15 min or more IMHO): There is not much to this, just get a hold of some music (that is at a realistic skill level) you have never played before and try to play it with the correct rhythm and dynamics.

-Don't stop to correct mistakes, just keep the rhythm going and avoid looking at your hands if possible.
-Don't worry if there is no fingering marked, just try and play it anyway.
-Don't be afraid to go really, really, really, slowly.
-And remember, there is no secret "method" for learning to sight read (believe me, I have searched far and wide), you just have to try and do it.
- And remember this as well: your ability to sight-read is massively dependent on your current technical ability; so in other words, your eyes might be doing all the right things, but if your hands aren't familiar with the types of patterns you are trying to execute, don't count on your sight-reading being all that phenomenal.

Do NOT Read this book:
-http://www.pianofundamentals.com/book

Read all or any of these:
- Playing the Piano for Pleasure
-Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered (By Josef Hofmann)
-Making Music for the Joy of It
-The Art of Piano Playing

I learned a lot from pianofundamentals. Apparently so did J.A.S. To each his own, I guess

Cathy

Well, I get a lot of enjoyment out of playing what little I know over and over again... the more I play it the better I get at it.

Of course, I'm always looking to learn something new.

I agree with Cathy, to each his/her own...

Take care, and happy playing!

Rick

Im still a noob with the piano but one thing that has really helped me is recording what im working on and actively listening to it afterwards.
Even though you were listening when you were playing, you very well my find that what you thought you played wasn't what you actually did play. You can also use a pencil to write small notes on the score to remind yourself about changes you want to make.

Dave T.

+1 recording and making notes

Rick, if you are still getting better then you have not mastered those parts so it makes sense to continue to go at it. I do get a lot of enjoyment out of playing the parts I have mastered. It is more pleasant to the ears than the parts I am having trouble with. But I notice my growth slows down at an alarming rate when I do it. I find the trick to switching my energies to the trouble parts is to leave the ego at the door and be gentle with myself when practising trouble parts. Becoming a "dispassionate detective" (as William Westney calls it) instead of hammering oneself for sounding "bad" and making mistakes in this process.

Okay, I know this is going to sound crazy, but when I listen to one of my older YouTube recordings from a year ago, or two years ago, I think to myself (not to sound conseated) wow, that sounded good! Can I repeat that again now? I’d have to practice it again to be able to repeat it as well.

Another thing I have to recognize, is that my playing is almost all “by-ear” and I have my own particular, and unorthodox, style for better or worse.

You are right about the level of our accomplishment deminishing as we continue to paly a certain piece or song or tune, or whatever you want to call it, over and over again… law of deminishing returns?

Take care,

Rick

LISTEN when you play.

If you are going to practice a particular phrase or chunk of a phrase, back up and begin a few notes before that part and continue on a few notes after that part. This will prevent your practicing in pauses at bar lines, difficult spots, slurred phrases, etc.

Also, practice starting at many different points, even in odd places like the middle of the phrase. This helps me to be sure that I really have absorbed the notes and I am not just relying on muscle memory.

Listen closely to every single note and actually think about how it sounds/how it might sound different. In a series of chords I like to play each voice of the series to see if there is anything going on in terms of additional melodic lines. But do this with the fingers that you will be using when playing the notes as chords.

+1000

Also, when listening understand what is happening, what is the progression, what is the correct dynamic, fall in love with the melody, play with it a little, make it sound huge, small, etc...

Make every phrase yours, enjoy it and you will play it better !

Thanks all, some good tips here!

This one might be obvious to most but it was something I was doing wrong for too long.

When practicing a section hands separate count using the lowest note value in the section, NOT just the lowest note value for the hand you are practicing.

For example in a piece in 4/4 time if the left hand contains half and quarter notes and the right hand contains eighth notes, count the left hand as if it had eighth notes (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and).

This will make putting the two hands together much easier.

Some excellent advice guys, keep them coming.

Michael Steen, what you said rings very true with my experience. I've noticed that with very little practice each day, you can actually make great progress over time.

For example, I was working on a hard piece (half jokingly... not expecting to make any progress) just a few minutes a day hands seperatly. After about 1-2 weeks, all of a sudden I could play hands together and at fairly fast tempo.

Play the music you like. I can't tell you how many ex-piano players I have met over the years who simply stopped because they were made to play the "classics". If you like gospel, play gospel, if you like show tunes, play show tunes. If your teacher won't let you, get another teacher. I took lessons for 15 years before I learned this rule.

This is what I've always done, and there lies the reason I love playing the piano so much

Same here. I would hate the piano if I had to play music that I didn't like it.

I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that one of the books that was suggested(Piano playing, with Piano questions answered) is available free online here