Best Pieces for Solo Piano: Part 1

Piano Lesson: Do You Really Want To Learn These Things?

Practice is essential to become a good piano player. As you play the piano and try to progress towards becoming a piano giant it is important to be aware of some traps that will prevent you from reaching your goal.

It is a joyful experience to grow as a pianist and musician if you practice in a sensible way using the experience from a teacher or other sources like books and piano instructional DVD’s and more.

The feeling that you are approaching your goals gives satisfaction and a belief in yourself.

What traps am I talking about then?

Learning processes can take you towards your goals but as you practice you might unconciously learn things that are limiting your progress.

I don’t think that you want to learn things that will limit your progress and if you will be aware of these thing I know that you will avoid them. Here are some traps:

1. Uncomfortable feelings. There can be reasons for you not being at ease as you practice on your piano like stress or negative feelings regarding your ability to progress.

Maybe you are preparing for a performance, a piano lesson or something else and you feel less prepared than you want or other negative thoughts are disturbing you.

Having these feelings as you play on your piano is not so very good. Why?

These negative feelings tend to be evoked as you play the same piece of music at other occasions. I guess this is not what you want.

It can lead to an aversion towards a certain piece of music for the rest of your life or that you quit playing altogether because of uncomfortable feelings as you play.

2. Muscle tensions. Well, you might play in a very relaxed way but many pianists tend to tense too much as a result of maybe playing faster and on a level above their technical skills.

This is very common among young kids trying to play like their musical heroes while actually being on another level of proficiency.

The important aspect of this is that the actual tension level in your hands and in your body when you practice a specific piano piece tends to be at the same level when you play the same piece of music at a performance.

If you have practiced a piano piece with a high tension level you will most probably find it hard to perform the same composition in a relaxed manner.

3. Making mistakes. Can your practicing lead you away from learning a piece of music? You probably want to become a better piano player by practicing but if you play too fast when learning new passages it is likely that you will make a lot of mistakes.

When learning a passage of music these mistakes will be part of the learning process. The more mistakes you make the harder it will be to play the passage right.

To put it another way, all mistakes accumulate and becomes a disturbance when you try to play the passage right. Instead it will become easier and easier to play the music wrong.

But, don’t let this information depress you. This information can be good news if you use it to your advantage!

Here are some tips:

1. Comfortable feelings. Try to practice in an atmosphere of peace and joy. How? By not procrastinating working on you piano lesson homework and by having a positive attitude.

2. Relax. A piano session with practicing and memorizing piano pieces can also be an occasion when you practice relaxation. As you play, try to pay attention to your hands, fingers and the rest of your body using as little force in your playing as possible. This will benefit both your mental and physical health!

3. Make no mistake. At least, not too many. If you practice new piano pieces slowly, with concentration and with correct posture you will be rewarded with learning your homework faster and also feel much better.

About the Author

Peter Edvinsson invites you to download your free piano sheet music, guitar tabs, ebooks, music lessons and read his music blog at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Can anyone suggest a good book with lots of Grade 8 piano pieces?

I am look for a good piano book that contains a lot of grade 8 piano pieces. I am fed up of always playing the same old pieces over and over again, but would like a book where I can find a lot of pieces so I don’t need to go hunting through loads of different books! Can anyone help?

The AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) has graded books from Preliminary Grade right up to Grade Eight, which each have a variety of styles according to the grade you choose.
They cost about AU$20-30 depending on which Series and Grade.
I’m sure other organisations that hold exams around the world do books too,
good luck!