HOW TO PRACTICE HOW TO LEARN A PIECE: ‘The goal of practice is to make your playing both musical and accurate so that every detail of the music ts clear to your audience, 1. Read the music through as a whole, mentally first, and then on the piano, playing as musically and accurately as you can, notioning #11 of the mark- ings, moods, and the zeaning of the music. 2, Practice SLOWLY, SMOOTHLY, and STEADILY — the 3 S's, Use a metronome. 3. Practice the scale that is in the same key ae your piece, 4. Practice with your hands separate much of the time. 5. The fingering in the book should be followed. 6. Try to improve what you are learning, and practice the piece a mumber of times, Don't repeat it unthinkingly, howere: 7. Remember to: Isolate the difficult sections and practice them separately. be Inch along, adding one more measure to the section each time it is re- peated. ce take drille out of the difficult passages, changing the rhythms to per- haps long-short or short-long or triplet pattern: 4. Try to play a section three times in a rov perfectly. ‘Tap out the rhythn on the piano reck (right hand tapping the R.E. rhytha and L.H. tapping the L.H. rhythm), and count the beats our loud. 8. Sometimes play very loudly and clearly to strengthen your fingers, Other ‘times play very softly and clearly, listening for evenness, 9. Sing out loud vith your melodies 80 as to make them more songful. 10, Above all, LISTER TO WHA? YOU ARE PLAYING, deciding whether or not you are Playing it correctly and musically, Close your eyes as you play some 20 tions, and listen carefully, Ll. When the piece is fairly well leamed, play it through several tines with your attention focused on the misic itself - its melodies, soods, texpos, continuity, shading, harmonies, the inner parts, and bass lines, etc. — so that your audience will hear everything in the music and enjoy every part. ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS: 1, Am I playing the notes 2. Is my tempo steady? 3. Is the time correct? 4, Ie my wrist level and relexed, and are my nail joints curved? 5. Do my welodies flow songfully? 6, Are the melodies dromed aut by the accompaniment? ‘Ts Ave my tones clear and unblurred, with good shading? 8. Have I done ay best work in practicing this piece? fingering, and phrasing accurately? POSITION FOR PIANISTS: 1, Sit so that you are opposite middle E-flat of the key board, Do not move up and dovn the bench. 2, Do not steep, The upper part of your body should be erect. ‘The shoulders should not be rounded, 3. Play with relaxed arms and hands with level wrists. 4. Keep the nail joints curved for strength, and be sure rool ength, your fingernails 5. At the beginning of your practice session each day warm up with scales and exercises, remembering a good body position. E, Merrill