I am going through a strange period of my piano learning. I have a brain full of technique, riffs, movements, chords, rthymn and many other things that are piano orientated. However when I sit down to practice daily I seem to get lost for hours knocking out tunes. I feel I need to speak to my teacher this week about this but in the meantime, what is the best practice routine to follow. I'm open to suggestions.

Hi Gilbert,

I also have to fend off the temptation to spend my entire practice just playing tunes, which is fun but doesn't really help me to make progress. I don't have a teacher at the moment (though I hope I might have one soon), so I've made a rule for myself that I spend one third of my practice on scales and pieces I consider to be etudes, which might be from my method books or might be something I've picked out as a good piece to strengthen an area I know needs work. Then I spend the rest of it playing through my finished pieces and working on new things. I've made better progress since I started doing that.

Donna

I am just the opposite. I think I spend too much time on scales, tremelos, patterns, etc, and not enough on learning new pieces and playing old pieces.

I get lazy and fall into the trap of playing scales for an hour because I do not have to concentrate at all, and just daydream away.

I have to force myself to stop this fun stuff and go to work reading/playing/learning/improving...

I guess the grass is always greener, but I would just love to play tunes for hours on end. Someday maybe.....

I would rather have a root canal than play scales for an hour.

I need to come up with a more productive practice routine also.

I have problems staying focused.

I swear I must have Adult ADD.

Monica, you must have a really[/b] good dentist!!

You are not alone! hehe I'm also a daydreamer and while playing sclaes it is easy to leave conciousness
Yesterday I realised I spent two complete hours (but one in the morning the other in the evening) on Scales and Arpeggios :p :rolleyes:
And then I practised only one hour my 2 pieces and for another one hour I did improvisation =D I wish i could practice my piece longer too. I think it depends of my mood of the day. But also it depends of the motivation to play each of these pieces of course. Anyway, playing scales and arpeggios is always good! (when conciouss)

Good luck! I suggest writing down a specific plan for your practice session beforehand, early enough so you'll have time to decide what exactly you need to work on (for example I like to plan at least 2 days ahead because I'm a bit slow and hate routines haha). When you have a concrete plan to follow, you won't get lost unless you deliberately ditch the plan. For example someone can put in their practice plan: 20 min on new piece #1, hands separate.

As you plan your practices regularly, you'll eventually figure out the best routine for you. I'm sure your teacher will have good suggestions too. We all have different goals, weak spots, time available etc. so there's no one way that works best for everyone. Just plan according to your goals, like what pieces you want to learn, finished pieces you need to maintain, particular techniques you need to practice, if you need to do scales & technical exercises, etc. Once you know what areas you need to work on, you just have to break them down into steps and then plan when you will practice what.

I reward myself with a bite sized candy bar if I complete my scales, arpeggios and exercises

sometimes I go straight to my pieces but that bite sized mr goodbar hounds me so i do my exercises and get in my happy spot with that little piece of chocolate melting in my mouth.

I discussed a good practice regime with my teacher today and he gave me a list of activities to do each day that I practice. I'm glad I spoke to him about it. Now I have a structure to my lessons and my practice.

Gilbert, if you don't mind, could you please list the activities? I would be interested in hearing what your teacher had to say. I realize his advice is based on you and your skill level, but I would find it interesting to compare.

Thanks...

This is how it has been defined......

One quarter of my practice time should begin with Scales - Arpeggios - Broken Chords

I should practice loud - Soft - Legato - Stucatto (all combinations)

Scales - majors/harmonic minors - melodic minors - chromatic - ALL 12 (begin with 1 octave and work up tp 4 octaves)

Theory - Keys/Time signatures - Note values

Sight Reading - Ear Training

Finish with a piece you are working on and one you already can play well.

Thank you - that is very close to what I do every day. I find I do not have the time to do all scales every day, so I do one a day.

Other than that, we practice just about the same. I sometimes think I spend too much time on scales and not enough learning new pieces. It's nice to see at least your teacher would find my routine acceptable.

I hit upon a great practice routine for me. I started this a couple days ago and I like it.

I start out with my C scale, arpeggio for c, c octave exercise, c exercise, hannon 1 and 6 and strength finger exercise.

then I reward myself and play one of my pieces I'm learning. After I've played it to where I don't want to play it anymore, then I

do my dm scale and arpegio and hanon 1 in dm

then I go to my next piece and practice it till I'm done with it and move on to

my em scale arpeggio and hannon 1

followed by my next piece

then my f scale, arpeggio and hanon 1

wash rinse and repeat. I've found this way to be fun vice doing 20 minutes of exercises straight. with my method I get the warm up I need and a little variety througout my practice routine