It’s not uncommon for even seasoned pianists to feel a bit overwhelmed with a new piece of music. So, if you’re intimidated by a new score, you’re not alone. Seasoned musicians have learned to trust the process of learning. And you can too!
The following formula is tried and true. And it’s not just for beginners! (Steps 2 and 3 may be the most important, or the most beneficial).
- Separate Hands
- Slow it Down
- Say it Out Loud
- Small Sections
Separate hands
This is an instinctive step for many. Even the pros learn a new piece one hand at a time!
Start with the melody in your right hand. Once you can play your right hand fluently—both correct notes and count—then practice the accompaniment in the bass clef until you’re fluent with your left hand.
Remember there is no rush to this process. You must give yourself whatever time it takes you. If you can pull it off in a couple hours, great. If it takes you two weeks, so be it. The goal is fluency in separate hands.
Slow it down
This step is crucial! This is where practice starts to fail for many adult learners. Typically, students practice at a fast tempo in order to match the soundtrack, or, because of impatience and frustration, they just want to be done with it.
At this early stage, resist the temptation to compare what or how you’re playing with the soundtrack. Doing so too often creates discouragement and false expectations. Speed and style will come naturally at the end of the process. Too many adult learners want speed and style first and when they don’t “measure up” to the soundtrack, they walk away discouraged, or worse, with the false idea that they can’t play the piece.
Trust me, practice s – l – o – w – l – y and repetitiously. Rather than practicing error at a fast pace, you practice accuracy at a slow pace. Slow and accurate is the secret recipe for fast and accurate. Speed will organically follow. Trust the process. There is no rush. Pay the price for good technique.
Say it out loud
In other words, count the beats out loud. Audibly counting the beats is the glue that ultimately brings your hands together in sync with the beat. This is probably the most disliked step, but it’s such an important part of your practice.
Eventually, you may develop your own system of grunts, breaths, head bobs, and foot taps to keep yourself in time. But in the beginning, please count out loud—first along with right hand, then along with left, and finally with both hands together. Count, count, count.
Note: Using a metronome can help establish the beat tempo, but you must know how to count divisions or multiples of the beat. So, in 4/4 time, if the most common division of the beat is an eighth note, you would count, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, with strongest stress on beats 1 and 3.
Focus on small sections
This is the step where you learn how to deflate the daunting task of learning a whole song (and all the psychological pressures of sounding good) by breaking the song into tiny little morsels. Don’t do too much at once. Remember, this isn’t a race. It’s about accuracy until it becomes natural.
Two old proverbs come to mind:
- How do you swallow an elephant? One bite at a time.
- The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
I like to focus on one measure at a time. It gives me a clear beginning and an end goal. If the measure is part of a three measure phrase, I might focus on those three measures.
Once you have the measure you want to tackle in focus, start practicing that small passage in a loop. Remember to keep counting out loud. When you get to the end of the passage start back at the beginning, staying in time with your count. Loop over and over at a very slow tempo. Repeat at least 7 times, but 3 times is not unusual. Most students stop way to early.
Ironically, practicing at a slow tempo, focusing on small sections repetitiously, while counting out loud will actually help you learn faster and, perhaps just as importantly, help you retain more of what you’re learning.
Make a game out of it
When you’ve conquered one measure, add a second measure. When you get the second measure down, go back and loop through the 1st and 2nd measure together. Then focus on and loop over just the 3rd measure. When you’ve got it down. Play measures 1-3.
Now, set a goal to get through a number of measures without a mistake (maybe the first line). If you make a mistake, you have to start over (the game). Keep counting. Play at a slow enough tempo to avoid mistakes. As you succeed at one tempo, incrementally increase your tempo and play the game again, until you can play the passage (or whole song) fluently at the normal speed.
Good luck, happy practicing, enjoy your journey!