General/non-technical

Get a flipping piano teacher!
— JChan

  1. Practise with your hands separate at first!

  2. Practise with a metronome – play it well at a slow bpm before increasing it to get closer to performance-tempo!

  3. Don't fall into the trap of practising things you already know rather than things you don’t know

    • Don't go back to the start of the piece if you're having trouble. Instead, keep practising that bar and section.
    • Cleaning up a passage is “new”, playing parts because they’re easy isn’t.

  4. Warm up your hands before getting into harder pieces! The last thing you want to happen is to injure your hands. Warming up can be anything from simply playing scales to playing an ‘easier’ piece.

Your Lie in April

Motivation/Personal

“No, seriously, I was the worst in my class”
— Animenz

  1. Compare yourself to your past self and not to the prodigies in the community. After all, if you beat your past self and made improvements, what more can you ask for?
  2. Try and remember things in groups, like chords or a theme or a picture in your head, rather than individual notes
  3. Have fun whilst doing it! but also keep in mind practice can be a bit mundane so push through!
  4. Take inspiration from great records/performances
  5. Set small attainable goals for each practice session!

Example

“I’ll learn bars X - Y for this session.”

  1. Don’t set out to learn a piece way beyond your reach, be realistic with your current ability!

    • Pieces that are slightly above your skill level will help you improve, but anything more than that might actually hinder improvement and waste valuable time.
    • You can use pianosyllabus.com to find the grade level for different classical pieces across numerous examination boards

  2. Ask for help from people who are better or have played the piece before!

  3. There is no need to only practice! Make sure to take breaks during long practice sections!

    • You don’t want to cause an injury by practising too much >_<

  4. If possible, learn the piece with a friend! This means that both of you can motivate each other to achieve your personal best!

“There is always an Asian better than you”