7 Elements of Effective Piano Practice

July 17, 2020 Jennifer Boster

When you are learning how to play the piano, consistent practice is super important. But what should that daily practice time consist of? Here are 7 Elements of Effective Piano Practice. These are things that should be a part of your daily practice routine to help you become a well-rounded pianist with a good understanding of music. (And stay tuned after the 7 things for a free download!)

#1: Warm-Up

Technical work is an important aspect of piano practice and is a great way to warm up. Here are some suggestions of things you can do to improve your technique and to warm-up each day: scales, arpeggios, chords, Muscle Builders, Hanon exercises, etudes and other technical studies. Your piano teacher can help teach you proper technique, including curved fingers, firm fingertips, flexible wrists and more. Always remember that all technical work should have a musical purpose!

#2: Sight Read

To sight read is the ability to sit down and play a piece of music that you have never seen or played before. This is something that many people would love to be able to do, and the end goal of many piano students! So how do you learn how to sight read? By sight reading….a lot! Sight reading something every single day is the best way to get good at sight reading. You should do a little sight reading during each practice session.

What should you sight read? Find piano books or other music that is a little bit below your current ability level. Your piano teacher can help you find good sight reading material to use. I also highly recommend Piano Safari Sight Reading Cards, as well as the Note Quest app which has an excellent sight reading section called NoteFit.

#3: At-Level Music

If you are taking piano lessons you probably have some sort of method book that you are working through. It is important to work on repertoire that is not too easy and not too hard. These are pieces that you can learn fairly quickly and that will help you progress and learn.

#4: Challenge Pieces

You should always be working on what I call a “challenge piece.” A challenge piece is a piece which is harder than your method book pieces – something that will stretch your abilities and help you to improve. Your teacher will be able to find some great challenge pieces for you. Challenge pieces can be really fun, exciting and motivating, and they can really pull you up to the next level. Sometimes your challenge piece may be a difficult recital piece you are working on. Or it may be something that you are working on memorizing.

#5: Creative Skills

As you learn to read music and play the piano well, you should be sure to not neglect this important area of music learning: the creative skills! When was the last time you sat down and tried to figure out a piece of music by ear? Or composed your own piece? Or just goofed around on the piano and improvised some music? Piano should be not just something where you only learn to replicate the works of others, but it should also be a creative outlet. Playing lead sheets or fakebooks is another great creative skill – learning all of the chords and creating your own accompaniment to a well-known tune just by following the chord names. Composing, transposing, transcribing, arranging…all of these things will put your piano knowledge to the test and will help you create something that is all yours. Try to work on your creative piano skills a little bit each day.

#6: Theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. Understanding keys, chords, scales and more is paramount to becoming a well-rounded musician. You should find ways to learn about music theory and to consistently work on it. Maybe your teacher will assign you a theory book or other theory worksheets to fill out. There are also a lot of music theory apps that you can get that will teach you music theory in a fun way. Understanding music theory will help you understand the pieces you are playing and will be really important when you try to memorize a piece.

#7: Listening

Something that you may not think of when you think of piano practice is LISTENING. As you work to learn piano and become a musician, listening to great music is more important than ever. You should make sure that you listen to great music at least each week. Learn about composers, learn about different instruments and musical styles. The more you listen the more you will learn, and the more you will grow to love and appreciate great music. As you listen you will learn which composers and which pieces are your favorites. You will find pieces that you just HAVE to learn. If you are serious about learning the piano you do not want to leave this element out of your piano study!

Here are some resources you can go to to find great music to listen to and to learn about composers: listen to your local classical music radio station. Find YouTube videos of pieces you are learning or would like to learn. Learn about great pianists and find their performances on YouTube. Listen to classical music podcasts and read books about composers. Open up your favorite music streaming service and start exploring famous composers, piano music, orchestral music and any other kind of music you would like to learn about. Try out my Shades of Sound listening and coloring books, which teach you about the great composers and then allow you to color while listening to their music. Always be listening to great music!

Download my free Piano Practice Routine Tracker to help you keep track of each of these important areas of piano learning. You can download and print it out and use it as a reference as you practice each day. Or, you may want your teacher to write your weekly assignments in the white spaces of each section. Or you can laminate the tracker and use a clothespin to keep track of which step you are on!

Happy practicing!

How to Create a Piano Practice Habit + FREEBIE!

June 13, 2020 Jennifer Boster

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I am a firm believer in small daily habits. When we do something small each and every day, it will become something big. I have a favorite verse of scripture that reiterates this same concept. It says “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.” In his popular book Atomic Habits, James Clear says,

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision, but as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow… The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits

Piano is one of those things that needs to be worked on daily and consistently in order to see big progress. When I was a teenager, my piano teacher had a sign hanging on her door that said “You only have to practice on the days that you eat.” (Then in her handwriting underneath she added “or the days that end in “y.”)

She would always emphatically quote pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who talked about what happens when you miss a day of practice:

“If I miss one day….I know it. If I miss TWO days, the critics know it. If I miss THREE days, the WHOLE WORLD knows it!”
Arthur Rubinstein

(Anyone else who studied with Bonnie Winterton surely can hear her voice in their mind saying that quote with emphasis as they read it!)

I have seen this principle in my own piano practicing – practice time is scarce in this season of my life, with five young kids at home and much to do. But when I take a few minutes each day to practice I still see good results!

I have seen this principle work in my own children. We have put a greater emphasis on daily piano practice in our house lately and we are seeing such improvements in their playing!

I have seen this work in my piano students! We have been doing a Practice Streak Contest in my studio and as they have tried harder to not miss a day of practice I have seen great progress in their playing.

As piano teachers, we NEED to emphasize the importance of DAILY PRACTICE to our piano students and to their parents. Parents are so important in this equation – if they can help ensure that their child is practicing at home consistently – not just 2 or 3 times per week, but EVERY DAY, even if just for a little while, their child will make BIG progress.

In Atomic Habits, the author James Clear talks about Four Laws of Behavior Change. In order to create a habit (such as daily piano practice), you must make the behavior obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. As I read this book there were SO many applications for piano practice! I want to share what I learned from the book about these Four Laws of Behavior Change and how they can apply to piano practice.

Make it obvious: Habits are initiated by cues, especially cues of location and time. Is the piano in a room or an area of the house that is frequently seen and visible? Are the student’s books nearby and visible? Does the student have a set time to practice the piano each day? These are things that make practicing obvious and will help to create a daily practice habit.
Make it attractive: Behaviors that get us approval, respect and praise are “attractive” to us. It is easier to create a habit that is a normal behavior of the people around us, or if it is something that the people around you value. What is the musical culture of the student’s family? Do the parents value music? Parents and families can influence your student’s desire to become good at piano. Similarly, a positive studio culture and healthy studio camaraderie can help influence your students to practice more.
Make it easy: When you reduce the friction associated with a behavior, you are more likely to do it. As humans we follow the Law of Least Effort – whatever takes the least effort to do, we will do. It is important to create a piano practice environment that will make practice easy.
Make it satisfying: To get a habit to stick, you need to feel immediately successful after doing that behavior; one of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress. A great way to achieve this is a simple habit tracker. Marking an X or filling in a box helps to measure your progress and helps you to feel successful. Don’t break the chain….if you do miss a day, don’t miss twice, just start over and try and keep your habit streak alive.

This book was SO good! I would highly recommend it to any piano teacher (or anyone for that matter!). It will give you some great ideas on ways to improve the practicing in your piano studio.

Today I’d like to share a freebie with you that can help your students develop a daily practice habit. This Practice Streak Tracker gives your students a system for tracking their daily practice. It provides a visual record of their progress and will help them to get a great practice streak going! When used in conjunction with a studio-wide Practice Streak Challenge, it will work even better!

The Practice Streak Tracker is a great thing for students to keep in their piano binder, on the wall near their piano or somewhere where they will see it every single day. Each day that they practice they mark the square for that day on their chart. They can either mark it with an X, color in the square or they can even write numbers in the squares to keep track of how many days in a row they have practiced. This is a great visual reminder of their success, and motivation to keep going! Your whole studio could participate in a Practice Streak Challenge where you see who can practice the most days in a row without missing a day.

Get your FREE Practice Streak Tracker here!

Efficient Practicing for Busy Parents

August 11, 2014 Jennifer Boster

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I’m gonna be totally honest here. I am not very good at practicing. Hold on though, let me rephrase that. I am a great practicer, I know how to practice well, I love practicing, actually, and love to learn new pieces. The part I am not good at is finding the time in my busy mommy schedule to actually sit down and do it. So it doesn’t happen very often. Please tell me I am not alone??

This is how practicing looks like at my house. Adorable – yes. Buuuut – not so conducive to learning new pieces. (Who can name that piece?)

I’ve covered this topic before, but just humor me, alright? Typing it out again helps to remind me that I can still make time for practice, and I can use the little time I do have more wisely to still be the pianist I want to be. Thanks! And hopefully some of you will find some kind of motivation in this post as well, and we can practice better together!

Gone are the days of quiet, uninterrupted hours of practicing. I think maybe I should have appreciated those more when I had them. Oh well, moving on. I absolutely adore being a mom. My three kids are wonderful and are so important to me. But I still want to play the piano. It’s important! It’s important to me that my kids hear me play, and hear me practice. My husband plays too, and we love to play together and hear each other play.

I also have the words of my former teacher, Bonnie Winterton, in my head a lot. She is a great example to me of lifelong learning and piano practice. She always told me that I should always be working on: 1) a Bach prelude and fugue, and 2) a Beethoven sonata. I would love to do this. I need to be more disciplined at getting this done. But see, here’s my problem:

Practicing these days consists of me sitting down at the piano to play, and after about 2 minutes somebody comes and climbs onto my lap to play with me. So I continue with one hand, perhaps up an octave since some of the keys I need are taken by little fingers. Then there is the inevitable screaming and sibling rivalry going on in the other room. Or somebody needs my attention. You get the picture.

I think there is a way, though! Obviously, when you are a busy parent or busy teaching a whole lot you are not going to have as much time to practice as you used to. But there are a few important principles and techniques that help me, and if used consistently (even in 20-minute or 10-minute sessions) I do think that improvement will be made.

1. Practice in small sections

Like, really small. I like to sit down and say to myself, “Self, just learn these 2 measures.” Progress is progress, even in small amounts. Take it hands alone in these small sections, then put them together. You can make amazing progress (on this small little section) even in just a few minutes. Rather than try and play through a huge chunk of the piece, then get interrupted and feel like you didn’t make any progress at all, you can use good practice techniques on this small section and have it all learned and even memorized.

2. Write down your fingerings

This is always the first thing I do as I learn my little section. I find the fingering I like the best and write it in. You are never going to remember your fingerings from one short practice session to another, with lots of parental duties and life in-between. Write it in! I also love to do certain things to help make it easier to learn, such as circling all of the notes played by my thumb. This helps amazingly on fast arpeggiated passages.

Circling the notes played by the thumb is a nice visual cue to prepare to cross under!

3. Apply memorization techniques as you go

Be really focused, analyze and memorize major chord progressions. Find small patterns to remember, such as the movement of the bass note, or the movement of your right hand thumb. Just find some pattern to memorize and use as a landmark. Memorize different “starting places” as you learn each little section, so you can start the piece anywhere.

Whatever chords will help you to learn a piece, write them in!

A sticky little section that somehow got easier when I memorized the movement of my right hand thumb. Write in or circle whatever will help you!

4. See the overall picture

It’s easy to stay focused on tiny little sections when that is all you have time to work on. So don’t forget to get the big picture: listen to recordings by different pianists. Hear the overall dynamic phrases and structure, find the climax and the overall direction of the piece. Get out some colored pencils and mark/analyze the overall structure and form of the piece. Find and mark all of the thematic sections and recaps. In a fugue mark each reiteration of the theme. Decide what story you are trying to tell, or what scene you want to picture as you play, or what mood you want to evoke through the piece. If the overall piece makes more sense to you, you will learn it better, and learn it right the first time.

5. Record yourself

Don’t forget to record yourself at the end of a quick session to see how that little section really is sounding! You are your toughest critic. Listen with an objective ear and decide what needs to be fixed next time.

You can do it. Even with a baby on your lap and a toddler sitting next to you, you can work on a little section with one hand. This is the ultimate test in piano practicing focus! If you can do this you can do anything! You are a super hero. Seriously though, throughout your day, during nap times or after the kids are in bed, or even with them sitting next to you, you can continue to develop your talents. And what a blessing that example will be to them when they start taking lessons and developing talents themselves.

And while I am mostly talking to myself, YOU can do it too! My goal is to get at least some quality practice time in each day, even if it is short. What’s your practicing goal?

Recommended: Play It Again, Sam!

August 20, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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I just read a really fabulous book that I think any piano teacher will enjoy and be able to utilize in their studio and in their own learning and performing. It is by Marienne Uszler and is called Play It Again, Sam… What, Why, and When to Repeat.

I absolutely loved this book that delves into questions about repetition in piano-playing and teaching. It encourages teachers and students to stay actively engaged in the learning process and to develop an awareness and an inner feedback that will ensure thoughtful and helpful repetitions.

It differentiates between kinesthetic and conceptual learning and gives many helpful, practical tips to help your students learn better and develop better technique. It’s all about differentiating between what type of skill is needed for different musical tasks – is it physical, visual, mental, auditory, or a synthesis of multiple skills? – and then knowing which skills require what type of repetition.

The author discusses how to teach your students to practice thoughtfully. I also loved the discussion on facts vs. “big ideas” and concept “chunking” – or the idea that small facts and basic concepts apply in larger examples and concepts and so on and so on until a student has a really sound understanding of advanced musical concepts and forms.

I was pleasantly surprised at the depth at which this topic was discussed, and kind of blown away by it! I had so many “a-hah” moments in reading this short book. I think it is an amazing resource for any teacher looking to improve their effectiveness.

I actually couldn’t put this book down. I can’t wait to apply these awesome concepts in my teaching and performing!

Find this book and more under my I Recommend page!

Practice Abacus

September 19, 2011 Jennifer Boster

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Principles of Efficient Practicing

May 2, 2011 Jennifer Boster

2 Comments

Teaching Teenagers

September 9, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Teaching teenagers – is it a joy or is it a frustration?

Joy

In my experience, it is either one or the other 🙂 Some of my absolute favorite students I have taught have been teenagers. I just love getting into the really “fun” repertoire, seeing my students really progress musically and really grow to love the piano (independently of their parents wanting them to take lessons), and I love the challenge of teaching more difficult (and more rewarding) repertoire. When teenagers are motivated, hard-working and make piano a priority, they can be a definite joy to teach! (I loved Mariel’s comment on my last post where she shared some ideas to help our students realize the importance of music and to help make piano a priority in their lives!)

Frustration

On the other hand, some of my very most challenging and frustrating students have also been teenagers. It can be so challenging when they are so busy with school and other extracurricular activities that they don’t make piano practice a priority. Picking repertoire is a definite challenge – for if the student hates their pieces, they will hate practicing and hate coming to lessons (and by extension you sometimes feel like they hate you!! not good!).

So what can we do as teachers to motivate our teenage students?

I decided that to really get into this topic, it would be helpful to actually talk to someone who has much more recently been a teenage piano student and get their perspective. So, I interviewed my little brother, Josh.

Josh Gibbons is an awesome guy, an amazing pianist and is a piano teacher, as well! Josh is 18 and just began college; he took piano lessons for many years. He recently performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with his high school orchestra for Concerto Night. He absolutely loves to play the piano and it is a big part of his life.

Is it true you almost quit piano lessons at one point during high school?
Yes, it was more in early junior high though. There was a point where I just totally stopped practicing and didn’t care for it too much.

What was it about piano lessons that made you want to quit?
I was never really good at practicing, and I would easily get frustrated while learning a song. I felt overwhelmed sometimes with all of the songs I had and that it was taking a long time to learn them. I guess I just wasn’t patient enough.

Why did you continue your piano study?
First of all, I realized that my friends and everyone else liked it when I played the piano. But also, around that time, I changed how I played the songs. I realized how much you can change each song to how you want it, through the dynamics. I loved having the freedom to change the tempo how I wanted, making the song my own.I then started loving the songs I was playing and enjoyed piano a lot more.

Are you glad you kept taking piano lessons?
I’m very glad that I kept taking lessons. I definitely would regret it now if I had quit. I love having the opportunity to serve in my church through music and I’m sure it’ll be wonderful to have this skill when I serve my mission for my church. Also, the better I got, the more I enjoyed playing. If I had quit, I would be missing out on something that is a huge part of my life now. Looking back now, I have a great feeling of accomplishment that I kept taking lessons all these years.

What opportunities would you have missed out on if you had quit?
If I had quit, I wouldn’t have been able to learn the great pieces I’ve learned in the past couple of years, and I wouldn’t have played in Concerto Night. Playing in Concerto Night was definitely one of the biggest highlights from my high school experience. Also, I wouldn’t have been able to play with my church choir as the accompanist, which has made me even better. I probably wouldn’t have any friends either because who doesn’t like it when someone can play the piano?

What things about piano lessons made you want to keep playing?
My teacher definitely made a difference for me. I can’t recall one piano lesson that I went into, that I didn’t leave with a smile on my face. Even after a week of little practicing, my teacher was very encouraging. She taught me great lessons on how to be a better pianist but also lessons on how to be a better person. The piano lesson was a great way to start off the week.

What are some things you would suggest to teachers of teenagers to help keep other teenagers interested in lessons?
I would suggest to teachers to make a great connection between themselves and the student. I was a piano teacher myself, and I think I could have done a much better job of really connecting with the student so they could trust me and they would trust my advice. Also, don’t just teach straight piano. Let them know that you care about their life and what they are doing, and give them advice to help them in their life. Once the student knows that you really care about them becoming a better pianist, and just a better person in general, they will want to practice more for you. Also, make sure the student knows HOW to practice. Even today, I still feel like I’m not the best at practicing. It’s different for every student, however. For me, it was hard to practice straight for a long period of time. Try to help them find the best way for them to practice.

Josh and his teacher

Thank you Josh, for some wonderful insights! I think there are some great ideas he gave us that we can all work on to improve our teenage students’ experience with piano lessons. He said some interesting things – which lead to some great questions we can all ask ourselves about our teenage students:

Do your teenage students know how to practice?
Are they frustrated or overwhelmed with their pieces?
Do they know how to make a song musical and put their own expression into a piece through dynamics, articulations, etc.?
Do they have opportunities to perform for their friends and other peers who think it’s “cool” to play the piano?
Do they have opportunities to use their piano skills for accompanying or other things where they will feel like their skills are needed and appreciated?
Do we help our students feel encouraged and motivated?
Do we care about our students and what they are going through in their lives (which is a lot during the teenage years)? Do they look up to us and trust us?

What insights and ideas do you have to share? I’d love your comments!

think about it.

July 28, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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One of the big problems that piano students face in memorization is that they only memorize by muscle memory. They play a piece over and over and over, hoping that their fingers will catch on and do the memorizing for them. Often this gets alright results, that is until the student is in a stressful situation (such as a recital!) and their nerves get the better of them. Their fingers get a little mixed up, and suddenly they are completely lost! Muscle memory is definitely useful in memorizing a piece, but we should not rely solely on it. As was written in my college pedagogy notes, “Don’t take chances!! Don’t just say, ‘good luck, fingers!! I hope you make it.‘” As teachers, we need to teach our students to actively learn and memorize pieces with their mind, not just their fingers….we need to teach them to

THINK.

In the book How to Teach Piano Successfully, Bastien says, “The student should think while practicing, not just play by rote.” (Bastien, p. 246)

Now that is some great (albeit somewhat obvious) advice – think while you practice! If your students learn their pieces thoughtfully and thoroughly, they should have no problem when it gets to the memorizing stage. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking…hehe…

Ways you can encourage thinking while practicing:

Saying letter names out loud

Counting rhythms out loud

Forcing your brain to learn the notes, not just your fingers

Not letting your mind wander while practicing…

Writing out the chords

Looking for patterns in the chords or in the melody

Knowing the form of the piece

What do you have to add to the list?

a foundation of good practicing

July 26, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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A student can be bright and talented, have a true love and appreciation of music, can catch on to concepts very quickly and sight read well, BUT will they really be good musicians and have a good musical foundation if they do not practice consistently? If they don’t make an effort to apply themselves, or if they are not taught good practicing techniques/habits by their piano teacher, are they really becoming good pianists?

Teaching our students how to practice and helping them establish good practicing habits is key in laying a solid musical foundation for their continued music study. In the past few days I have read a few things that have really made me think about practicing – how I can better teach my students to practice, how I can help them enjoy practicing more, and how I can help them practice more effectively:

With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music

I have just barely started reading the book With Your Own Two Hands: Self-Discovery Through Music by Seymour Bernstein. And I mean just barely – like I’ve read the introduction and a couple of pages. But so far I love it! It talks about how skills gained in practicing can influence your life. And something that really got me thinking was that it mentioned something about practicing and discovery. And it made me think – when my students practice, is their practice session full of discovery and excitement or drudgery and monotony? Is it a real joy for them to be learning new pieces and new concepts (and do they speed through their method books as a result) – or do they just do the bare minimum practice requirements and call it good? Something to think about!

I read a great article on The Musicians Way Blog about mindsets and how they influence practicing. The author talked about two different types of mindsets – the “growth mindset” and the “fixed mindset.” Those with a growth mindset might hear a great performance and “inquire about the ways in which the artist acquired fluency and then apply their discoveries in the practice room.” Those with a fixed mindset would hear the same performance and think, “They’re more talented than me. I could never do that.” Go check out the article!

Mariel Mohns wrote a post on her blog (fenwickpianostudio.blogspot.com) about helping her students become perfect practicers. She includes a great chart to help students apply good practicing techniques at home. I think this is a fabulous way to ensure our students are becoming good practicers at home!

Thoughts? Comments? 🙂

Piano Teaching Q&A: Teaching New Pieces

July 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Occasionally we will be featuring questions from readers, and will do our best to answer them and to give some ideas 🙂 We’d love lots of comments to see what you think as well!

I am very interested in this topic. Can we discuss a “syllabus” lesson, maybe where we set everything up for the semester for goals? What about metronome markings for goals?

I have thought a lot lately about practicing and how I can make goals each week with my students on what to hear the following week. When I have a student learn a piece with FERN, do they do it just 5 times hands alone per day for a week? When do they start putting hands together? I have run into problems with how much each student can handle and sometimes when I write the metronome marking I would like to hear a section at the following week, they can’t get it. Do I just rely on them to make their own tempo marking?

Many of these questions depend greatly not only on the level of the student, but the particular piece being learned and the student learning it. I would like to share some thoughts on some of these questions, though!

Goals for metronome markings:

I think that the key is to start your student out on a slow enough tempo. If you give them a tempo that is too fast, they will just get frustrated! It’s better to start out too slow and to have your student perfect the piece or the section very slowly than to start out too fast and result in a discouraged student. Once the student can play it perfectly at that slow tempo, you can increase the tempo a little at a time. I also think it’s helpful to have them practice hands alone with the metronome.

Weekly goals for students:

I usually break any piece into smaller sections, and challenge the student to learn a certain section (either hands alone or hands together – depending on the difficulty of the piece) by the next lesson.

Practicing: a certain number of repetitions per day?

I think this depends on the personality of the student. Some students do well with this type of practicing, while others do better simply with the assignment to learn a certain section by a certain day. Some students practice better when recording all of their practice hours, and others not so much. I think it is best to get to know the strengths and personality traits of each individual student, and then decide which way would work best.

When to put hands together?

I usually have a student learn a short section of a piece hands alone, and then put it hands together before moving onto a new section. Although it really depends on the piece! In general though, I think that a lot of students don’t do enough hands alone practice! Even after it is learned hands together, it is still very beneficial to continue to practice hands alone.

I found this great quote from Gina Bachauer about the benefits of practicing hands alone –

“To me, the essence of study is to acquire at a young age the habit of slow practice. Not nearly enough emphasis is placed on this important point. Practicing slowly enables one to control everything one does on the keyboard. The simplest scale, practiced slowly and with concentration, puts one in the position of having to control each finger, and of testing if the resulting sound is right, if one is articulating enough, if the two hands are exactly together. I also advocate practicing with the metronome; this, too, helps toward perfecting that high degree of control which is the goal of all practice…”

“From the very beginning the aspiring student should learn to play each hand separately. In my view, one does not really know a composition, long or short, until one can play it through without the score, taking each hand separately from start to finish. Among the students to whose playing I have listened, all too few can do this and almost none make a special point of it…The two hands cannot gain complete independence until they grow accustomed to working separately, the right hand bringing out the melody, without the support of the harmony, and the left hand asserting its values without the help of the melody. Working through the day’s tasks in this way brings great gains in balance.”

-Gina Bachauer, from “The Education of a Pianist”

If you have a question you’d like to ask, leave it in a comment or submit it here!