A few little practice pointers from the "Old Pro"

-Becky Corley, guest blog with over 40 years of teaching experience. Becky is an amazing mentor who has taught me so much about teaching piano and running a music studio.

A few years ago, I did a day-long class with some students in Carrollton … similar to the performance classes we do before special events.  Toward the end of the day, I asked them to write down some things they had learned about practice that day.  Here are a few of their comments as well as some of my own.

Practice slow enough to be accurate.

Slow practice really pays off.

Be able to begin at any part of a piece, at any phrase.  If you can’t, you don’t really know the piece.

If you make a mistake in practicing, don’t go back to the beginning (unless that’s where you made the mistake).

When you are practicing, you are the audience.  Do you really like what you hear?

My weight should be divided, with more weight on my feet that on my seat.

Don’t settle way back on the bench; sit forward, ready to play.

Correct fingering is very important.  Wrong fingering gets you into all kinds of trouble.

If you can’t play a fast piece at a slow tempo, you can’t really control it at a fast tempo

Set the tempo before you begin the piece, not in the fourth or fifth measure.

Practice makes perfect only if the practice is perfect!