Pathway to Piano

Playing and practising the piano, one step at a time.

[Suzie Collier @suzie_collier]

I often hear stories of people from all parts of the music industry experiencing what they deem to be “failure”. Together with my dear Patrons, we explored this humdinger! If you’d like to be part of the next discussion, it would be lovely to see you! https://t.co/sB7rxBJCMX

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

Convincing improvisation is built from repetition and variation. Make this into a practice exercise by looping an idea whilst making pitch, rhythmic and dynamic variations.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

@Quijama Nice! Remember sometimes just a 1-7 or 1-3 shell sounds better than full 1-3-7 voicing, which can be a bit muddy if played too low

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

What are you practising this week?

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

When improvising they say "there are no wrong notes". Don't let yourself off the hook that easily. In fact there is only one right note, and that is the one you hear in your head.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

The biggest frustration pianists find is getting stuck in 'The OK Plateau'. You can play a piece to an "OK" standard, but it is on auto-pilot and hasn't improved for months or even years. The solution is deliberate practice.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

Like everything in life, if you can learn to love the process of practising, the outputs will take care of themselves.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

@wesleymgriffin So can't give you a "how long should it take", but gradually is definitely better than trying to find the limits of your control.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

If you can discover how good it feels to play through something very slowly, but in control, the speed will develop naturally. Never play faster than you are in control of.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

@wesleymgriffin The most successful students play things through slowly even after they are capable of playing at full speed - because you can really narrow your focus in with the extra time.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

In the order of priorities when playing the piano, good timing should always come first.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

Piano practice is usually viewed as going from imperfection to perfection.

Instead, it should be going from perfection at a very slow speed to perfection at a very slightly faster speed.

[Pathway to Piano @pathwaytopiano]

How to #practice any tune thoroughly using the sequencing technique:

1) Learn the bar by itself
2) Learn the bar in conjunction with previous bar
3) Learn the bar in the context of the entire progression up to this point.
4) Move to next bar and repeat