Get Better Results on Piano With "The Problem List"

Today we’re going to look at a specific tool that is very positive and has great benefits to help you get over some stuck places or areas in your playing that you are perhaps not correcting in your practicing and playing.

Most times when we’re working through a decision we come up with a pros and cons list. This time though, we’re going to make a list of the areas that cause issues in our playing and keep us from growing. So, while it may sound like we’re focusing on the problems only, we’re doing so because we’re going to be turning them into positives and more, how pulling out the problem areas, can turn them into successful ones.

To start…have some way to start making a list. It can be really helpful to have some paper and a pencil at your keyboard so you can keep track of it when you practice. Digital notes in your phone or tablet work great too…just have them accessible when you practice so you can keep track of your list.

Things that you want to look for in your playing and include on your list are:

• What problems are you having with your practice?
• What areas of your pieces are giving you trouble?
• What scales are you having trouble with?

When we start to learn a new piece, we often have patterns of mistakes…such as we miss the same note each time we play a passage, or we hold a note duration too long or short and can’t seem to remember to play it how it is written.

• When this happens, you want to first mark the place in your music that is giving you trouble, and then write it down on your list. Include the page number of the music and the measure number (s) if you have them.

In your scale work, if you are having trouble with a particular scale then write that scale down on your list and what the problem is as much as you understand it to be.

• You can include any exercises that you might be working through or even arpeggios and chords that are giving you trouble

Look for patterns, and any scale, or passage in your piece that you consistently mess up on should be considered a problem area and is perfect for your “problem list”.

Once you have a good problem list written or typed up with at least 3-4 specific items on it, you’re ready to start knocking those problems off that list.  Being so focused on these problem areas now will make you play the entire piece much easier in the long run.

Let’s look at four main ways that you can get the most out of your practice list.

1. The list helps you to know exactly what to start working on in your practicing. If you like to start warming up by playing a scale, take the scale that is on your practice list for this week and start with that one.
2. Focus first on the problem itself and break down what you’re practicing to the smallest portion of notes in the music to get down the problem area.
3. Next, practice that same problem area with the measure before and after so you can play it within the context of the piece. Then you try going back to the beginning and see if you can get through the problem spot easier. You may need to do this several times before you see results…so you must next…
4. Make sure that you stick with your list and be patient enough in your focused hard work to allow yourself time to work through the problems. So, problems can be corrected quite easily yet others take several days or even weeks to finally overcome. That is totally normal.

​In the following video I show you exactly how to focus in on a problem area in real music like one that you might include in your list so you can see how I tackle it using this approach.  

If you like my tips and lessons, you will love the courses over on my website. Whether you are a beginner looking to get a solid foundation to build on or you are looking to take your existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.