To all,

When i do my 2 and a 1/2 hours practice each night straight after school, i don't know what to do, to spend time on my pieces. What i mean is, im finding that im just playing through my pieces, but i don't how to really "practice" them. I don't know what to do, to be pleased with myself in the fact that, i've spent at least 45 minutes to 1 hour on each piece????

can anybody make any helpful suggestions?
P.S who else has this "sort" of problem??
...probably no-one!!!

Hmmm. I have the impression that you're really just "playing" and not truly practicing per se. To be sure, practice ought to be fun (at least for the most part), but it also needs to be organized, directed towards specific goals, and somewhat planned. Do leave time to play, but budget time for structured work. Maybe keep a "Piano Journal" where you record what you worked on, what progress you made, time spent working on it, and your ideas/goals for the next practice session.

You might find this link helpful, especially as it may give you ideas on specific practice techniques:
http://griffon.mwsc.edu/~bhugh/piano-practice.html

Jemima,

Do you have a teacher? If so, isn't she teaching you how to practice? If not, it may be time to think about getting a new teacher. If you don't have a teacher ... get one.

In the meantime, if you are playing through your pieces, have a different objective each time, some suggestions: *) note perfection (memory), *) dynamic contrast, *) overall structure, *) harmonic changes, *) touch (legato/staccato), etc. Just be sure to have an objective each time you play it through.

Don't perform for youself too often--the pieces could get stale. Instead, try to isolate difficult passages and work on them. And, if you are not playing from memory--well then, there's something that will consume a bit time.

If you have worked out all the difficulties and have the piece in memory and can play it through to your liking, it's time to learn a new piece!