Learning a piano is an art and the only way to master this skill is by practicing hard with the correct techniques. Beginners undergo a very tricky socialization period. Piano teachers, although they teach everything necessary for the student to know while learning to play piano for the first time, often miss out on some very fundamental concepts, which every pianist should be familiar with.
Missing out on these very basic concepts can cause problems for you in the long run. If you want to be successful as a pianist, there are certain things that you must abstain from doing. A pianist must learn to beat these bad piano habits.
Habit #1 – Wrong Body Posture While Sitting and Playing
Sitting with an incorrect pose gives rise to tension in your body, which then gets reflected in your playing. This is quite a common mistake made not only by the many beginners but also professional pianists.
How to Beat It – Press the button for a comfortable stool or a chair, which will support your back and give you the correct body angle. Ensure that your arms are relaxed and that the seat is elevated to the correct level and the distance between you and your piano is perfect.
Habit #2 – Depending on the Wrong Memory
Yes, there is a wrong memory when it comes to piano playing. You may not realize this but if you find it difficult to remember pieces, it may be because you are using your muscle memory i.e. learning the finger movements during the piece, instead of actually memorizing the rhythm and notes.
How to Beat It– Focus more on the listening and the analyzing part. When you know the melody and the music score, you find it simpler to play without making errors.
Habit #3 – Playing the Keys with the Wrong Fingers
While playing a piano, every finger plays a significant role, since each key is required to be played with the chosen finger. For example, the first key ‘do’ is played with the index finger and the last key ‘do’ is played with the middle finger. Changing the finger positions later becomes difficult and confusing.
How to Beat It – The most effective way of avoiding this is to practice playing each key individually with the concerned finger.
Habit #4 – Playing Either Too Fast or Too Slow
This problem is way too common among the beginners. If you are not using a metronome, you will find it difficult to play in a specific tempo. Some people experience this if they lack rhythm understanding.
How to Beat It – Before starting to play, establish a tempo. To do this, you can hum the melody and clap or tap along. Once you have a desired tempo, play it in your head while playing the piano.
Habit #5 – Banging the Fingers Against the Piano Keys
This is a problem that reflects your utter disregard towards music and art. A piano is a delicate instrument that produces gentle melodies. Banging your fingers hard against the keys generates loud and unpleasant sounds, negating the whole concept of gentle and elegant piano. This not only causes distress to the ears, but also to the fingers as they can get hurt.
How to Beat It – It is critical to relax your arms properly as this happens to those who do not rest their arms correctly and overuse their fingers instead of playing with their arm muscle with the help of their arm support.
Habit #6 –Skipping Daily Practices
One of the most overlooked and underrated problems, which your piano teacher may bring to your notice, but would not motivate you enough to act upon is not practicing daily. You may skip practices because you are not familiar with the consequences. The more you miss out on practicing, the longer it will take for you to adapt to a piano and to learn. You will only be wasting time, if you keep avoiding practicing every day.
How to Beat It – Make your practice sessions fun, instead of making them like typical ones. Listen to new songs and try them out on your piano, on your own. Learn playing birthday songs and carols by yourself. Explore more and discover what more you can do with this lovely instrument.
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5 Bad Habits Holding You Back as You Learn Piano
When you’re learning piano, you’re busy mastering a variety of skill sets — note reading, rhythmic competency, independence of the hands, musicality, and so much more. It’s easy to focus so much on these things that you might be developing bad habits… without noticing. Read on to learn more about the five worst habits for piano players, so that you can make sure you avoid them!
1. Practicing scales mindlessly or with bad technique
You should definitely pat yourself on the back for practicing your scales, one of the most important components of learning piano. But once you see the value of practicing scales, it’s important to make sure that your scale practice is helping you improve and not reinforcing bad habits. Via TakeLessons
Bad Habits: A Pianist’s Worst Enemy
Bad habits are the worst time-wasters in piano practice. Most bad habits are caused by stress from practicing pieces HT, that are too difficult. Many of the bad habits from HT practice are difficult to diagnose, which makes them that much more dangerous. Clearly, the best defense against bad habits is HS practice. Non-musical play is one type of bad habit; therefore, don’t forget that musical play starts with HS practice.
Another bad habit is the over-use of the damper or soft pedal as discussed below. This is the surest sign of an amateur student taking lessons with an unqualified teacher. Overuse of these pedals can only “help” a severely technically deficient student. Via Fundamentals of Piano Practice
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Yundi writes:
‘I apologize for our mistakes in the Seoul concert and would like to issue a sincere apology to our fans and friends and thank the conductor and the orchestra for their support and forgiveness.
‘As a pianist, I know that, no matter what, my performance on stage must be perfect. Any kind of explanation is insufficient…’ Via Slippedisc