How to Practice for Beginners

As a beginning piano student you probably know already that practicing is an important part of learning the instrument and growing in your abilities.

For most of us, practicing means/meant sitting down at the piano and playing through the weekly assignment a few times and then repeat the next day. When we do this, we often end up repeating our mistakes as well as the things that we’re doing right and we don’t see the kind of growth we want to. It’s then that we start to ask questions like:

1. Do I have to do this every day for it to work?
2. How long do I need to practice every day?
3. What exactly do I need to be working on in each practice session to play better?

All of these questions are fabulous and mean that you are ready to dive in deeper into your practicing - even as a beginner - so you can see some great results from your hard work.

So…you just started playing the piano and you are wondering if you have to practice every day to play well. 

• In short, yes you do! The best way to accomplish this is to remember that this is your starting goal – daily practice. To help break that down into attainable steps, start with practicing 3 days a week to start, the move up to 4 days a week, then 5, and so on.

How long should you practice?

• Your first goal is 30 minutes and then as you progress in your practicing, move up to an hour each day.

What do you need to start working on first?

• Make sure your posture is good, that you are relaxed, and that you are sitting close enough to the keyboard to play comfortably.
• Start by reading some notes on the staff to review your note names. Then start with an easy scale. Work on a scale for about 5 – 10 minutes at the beginning of each practice session. This will really warm up your fingers as you learn the key signature of each scale and where the notes are on the keyboard.  
• Next play arpeggios which are the chords of the scale that you just learned, but they are broken down into single notes instead of playing all the notes at one time as you do in a chord.
• Next practice some sight reading. This is when you play a simple piece through for the first time with as few mistakes as possible. This is a fun and challenging way to test your knowledge, reinforce your current skill studies, and broaden your ability to read different notes and rhythms from what you have been playing each day. Spend about 5 minutes each day sight reading something new.
• Piano pieces are what you’ll spend the last 10 minutes of your 30-minute practice session on. Ideally you’ll have two different pieces that you’re working on; one that is challenging to your current skill level and one that is a little easier than you current skill level. Mixing up your repertoire like this really helps to keep you growing while giving you something to play that you can relax and enjoy a bit more. Remember that the more challenging piece will end up becoming more relaxed and enjoyable the more you practice on it…so don’t worry if you end up going over your allotted 30-minute practice session! If you’re “in the groove…keep grooving”!

Remember that the more often you sit down and practice for at least a good 30-40 minute session, the easier it will be to do and will become a habit before you know it. The reward is seeing how fast your piano playing is improving! I give several examples of each of these tips at the piano in the following video so join me while you sit at your keyboard and we'll go over them together. 

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.