How to Maximize Your Piano Practice Results

How often do you find yourself needing more practice time but just can’t find a way to get it in?

We are literally so busy that it can seem impossible to make changes to your practicing to really get the results you are after in your piano playing.

Today we’re going to learn how to get more practicing done but in the same amount of time that we’re already practicing in…so you won’t have to add in any extra time if you can’t right now.

Each of the tips that we’re going to list here will be discussed in the video at the end so you can see at the piano how to do each of them yourself.


The first thing that you want to do is make and objective practice list of what you want and need to accomplish in your practice session.

• Be simple and specific in your goals so they will be easy to follow and accomplish.
• Try to come up with a few specific goals for each scale, exercise or piece that you are working on.

​Second, spend time on what you aren’t good at…not  what you are good at!

• It’s always uncomfortable practicing what is most difficult but we have to remember that the more we make ourselves practice it, the easier it will become. It’s the only way!
• Don’t always start at the beginning of a piece or exercise because we are usually stronger on the beginning part than we are on the middle part or the ending. If you’re working on playing what isn’t comfortable before playing what is, then start practicing wherever you are struggling and not the beginning each time.

Third and maybe most importantly is to make yourself sight read and try to do it every day.

• Sight reading is simply playing through a piece for the very first time at your keyboard with as few mistakes as possible.
• The benefit of reading through new pieces each day is that your sight reading skills will greatly improve and it will help you read and play faster in your other repertoire that you practice on each day instead of sight reading.
• I’ll show you a link in the video that’s a great online resource for sight reading.

Next, we’re going to talk about intervals and how learning to read the intervals in your piano music makes everything go faster.

• An interval is the distance between 2 or more notes.  Intervals range in distance from 2nds up to 8ths.
• Reading intervals allows us to read groups of notes or several notes all at the same time instead of just reading one note at a time, which takes longer.

Work on harder sections by themselves instead of trying to work on them within the context of the whole piece.

• Always slow the section down that you are working on while you are practicing it.
• Don’t just do it once or twice at a slower tempo. Work on it several times and even over a period of several days to really get it learned and into your fingers.

Establish a set time for your practicing by setting a timer and do nothing but practice during that time that the timer is on.

• Turn your phone volume off so you aren’t interrupted by calls or texts.
• Try to communicate to anyone that you’re living with (unless it’s young children) that you need some dedicated quiet time to get your piano practicing done.

Include scales in your practicing as much as you can.

• Scales teach us the layout on the piano of each different key signature that we’ll learn in piano.
• They also help to coordinate our fingers and hands to play together and at faster tempos.
• Don’t forget to include the arpeggios for each scale to help you learn the chords for each key.

Learn your key signatures, time signatures and other music theory items.

• Once you know your key signatures, you won’t have to slow down while playing or practicing to figure out whether that F is a sharp or a natural.
• Knowing your time signatures and how to count note values will do the same and will really help you with all types of playing, including your sight reading work.
• Music Theory teaches us how the notes connect to each other in a way that makes sense.

Try incorporating a few of these tips each week into your practice routine. Don’t practice any longer unless you really have the time to. Start with establishing a few good and easy goals for the first week and then just keep going!

Enjoy going over these tips with me at your own piano and learn how much they can help you maximize your piano practice results!

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 you existing skills to that next level, the online music courses on my website https://www.pianolessonsontheweb.com will help you do just that.