Everything Piano

Problem Areas In Piano Practice

I’m no longer in cottage country, so now I can get back to posting on a daily basis. First of all, I realized after a couple days that I got some great compliments from some people on some of my posts. I couldn’t believe it, and I was instantly enlightened. I hope you keep reading along as I go, and maybe even pass on my blog to other piano players who may be interested.

Anyways, right now I am trying to maximize my practice time for one particular piece that I have written about already, that is, Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy. I can pretty much play then entire piece, but I have a long way to go for perfecting it. I thought I’d share the list of various musical aspects I need to improve on with this piece.

Timing, Rhythm, Smoothness. I’m pretty sure I’m either stopping short on some notes or even taking too long on some others. I will need to use my metronome to really find out where this is happening. It’s going to be long and tedious, but it needs to be done.
Holding Notes. My piano teacher used to make me practice until my fingers fell off because I wasn’t holding my notes long enough. I probably won’t be as nit-picky about it, but I definitely need to check this out a bit more.
Rests. This kind of goes hand in hand with holding notes. I better be sure I’m not holding notes where the rests fall. Again, my teacher used to make me practice over and over and over until I got this. This was an extremely important area for conservatory exams. Those adjudicators just KNOW if you are holding too long or too short.
Wrists and Fingering. The piece is all about the flowing of the fingers and wrist action, and some of the notes jump pretty far between piano keys, so I need to slow it down a bit and practice not only getting the right notes, but getting the right flowing motion as well.
Arpeggiated Chords. These chords on the second page in the fourth line are slightly difficult to execute with perfection. Either I play them too slow, too fast, or too much at the same time. This is another area where I need to work slower.
Thumbs. I think I am banging on some of the keys with my thumbs too hard. I can hear the louder notes coming through the piano when I do this. I need to work on softening up my thumb movements.
Key Signature Change. On the third page, the key signature changes from D flat major to E major. All of a sudden I go from working with five flats to four sharps. This part is tricky and I also have some weird fingering that I may need to look at.
Diminuendo. This means kind of a gradual slowing in pace as you progress through the bar. There is one on the fourth page at the end of the key signature change. I usually practice this part too fast.
Damper Pedal. Oh, the stupid damper pedal. Yes, I have the bad habit of using the pedal to take care of a lot of things, such as holding my notes. When I’m practicing this piece, I usually completely forget about how long I’m holding down the pedal and all the notes get mushed together. I need to work on lifting the pedal in the right places.
Dynamics, Crescendos, Decrescendos. Finally, the last thing I always work on is the dynamics. This piece is mostly played in pianissimo (meaning very soft) but there are a few crescendos and decrescendos I need to work on. For those of you unaware of the meanings, a crescendo means “gradually getting louder,” and decrescendo means “gradually getting softer.”

So, there are a lot of areas of this piece that I still need to work on. Like I said, perfection can be a killer, but without it, it probably won’t sound exactly the way it should sound.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Even though I picked out all these areas that I need to work on for this specific piece, virtually all piano pieces cannot go without these musical attributes. If you are practicing a piece, you can probably pinpoint a lot of these similar problem areas. Maybe yours doesn’t have any arpeggiated chords, but maybe it has some trills. Or maybe you find that your thumbs work fine, but your pinky fingers are weak. Whatever they are, it sometimes help to make a list just like I did, so that you are fully aware of what problem areas you need to work on. Don’t be afraid to recognize that you have problems to work on, as every pianist always will have problems. When learning piano, there is always, always, always room for improvement.

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Tags: Arpeggiated Chords, Chords, Clair De Lune, Claude Debussy, Crescendo, Damper Pedal, Decrescendo, Diminuendo, Dynamics, Fingering, Holding Notes, Key Signature, Key Signature Change, Notes, Rests, Rhythm, Smoothness, Thumbs, Timing, Wrists