5 Most Common Piano Practice

Mistakes
Even the most experienced pianists often ask themselves the same question: is
my practice really efficient? Here is a list of the 5 most common mistakes
pianists usually make when practicing their repertoire.

Oct 28, 2019 • 10 min read

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Every accomplished pianist will agree that good practicing habits are the key to
success. The amount of time we practice is not what matters the most, but rather
how productive and effective we are with that time. It is easy to focus too much
on the end result and give little importance to the road that will take us there.
That is especially important in music because not every path leads to the same
destination. Some might create bad habits that are difficult to break, others may
give a false sense of accomplishment and a few might even lead to injuries.

Let's take a quick look at 5 of the most common mistakes pianists usually make
in their practice and how to avoid them!
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5. Always start at the beginning
This is probably the most common one here. We've all been there: while
practicing a piece, we make a mistake in the middle and go back all the way to
the beginning to "try again". And that may happen over, and over... There are
multiple reasons why this is a bad idea.

The amount of time you spend playing all those sections that don't need much
work adds up and leads to a much longer practice session than you need.

In order to fix or improve a challenging spot, we need lots of focus and effort to
make it happen. Every time you return all the way back to the beginning, by the
time you get to the passage that needs work, your focus is inevitably lower and
soon you will get tired and move on.

Sometimes you might find that it just feels easier to go back from the beginning.
No matter how difficult that may seem, going back to the beginning is never
better. The effort to pick up from where you stopped is well worth it and, over
time, that skill will improve and you won't find it challenging anymore.

4. Bad fingering
Have you ever caught yourself saying something like: "Why do I have to use the
finger 4 here, if the finger 3 feels more comfortable to me?" or "I just don't like
crossing the thumb here, let me change that". Our hands and fingers adapt to
how we use them. Any position that feels a little uncomfortable or awkward at
first, will soon feel normal as long as we repeat that movement every day!

In short, we choose our fingering with two basic goals in mind:

a) to keep our hands steady and moving as little as possible;

b) to distribute the notes among our fingers as evenly as possible and avoid
using some fingers much more than others.

The more you move your hand around (even tiny movements count), the less
controlled your sound will be and the harder it will be to play exactly how you
want to. Also, it is easy to avoid some fingers because they don't feel as easy to
control as others (such is often the case with the finger 4). Watch out for that
and make sure you are not making other fingers work harder or stretch more
than they should.
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Another downside to bad fingering is the rise of injuries caused by repetitive

stress over one single muscle or tendon. Remember how we mentioned that our
hands and fingers adapt easily? Yep, that is also true to movements that are
actually bad and cause muscle strain. In such cases, we only notice later when
the pain arrives...

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3. Fast practice
Another very common mistake is to practice fast regularly. Even after learning a
piece, we should not play it at top speed all the time. This might be the biggest
factor that will slow down your progress. Sounds unintuitive, right? Sometimes
we even feel that it is easier to play faster than slower. That is never the case and
only means one thing: you have not mastered that passage yet. The basic rule
here is if you can't play well slowly, you won't play well faster.

And what about pieces that we know very well? Over time, we gradually lose
control of (or just forget) small details and playing fast only speeds up that
process. Practicing slowly, even after mastering a piece, keeps your mind
engaged and focused on all the details we need to control. You should definitely
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play at top speed as well, but not all the time. Not even most of the time. 5
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times slowly for every 1 fast is usually a good balance!

2. Repeat only until you get it right
This is probably the hardest one to catch. When practicing a challenging spot,
we tend to repeat that spot over and over until we can play it well. At that point
we say "finally!" and then move on. That is exactly what you should not do!

Looking back, you can see that you probably played that passage 10 times
wrong and just once right. Which version will you be most used to at the end of
that day? The wrong one for sure.

When fixing any mistake, your goal should not be to get it right but to get it
right multiple times in a row. If you can repeat the good version many times
over, then you can move on and be confident that that passage has improved.

1. Lots of playing, not much listening

The number one mistake in this list, ironically, doesn't actually involve playing:
we practice, practice and practice, but how often do we go out and listen to
music? Or just put on a great recording at home? It is very easy to forget
that music is a language, not a sport. Even though there is a great deal of
repetition, muscle memory and craft involved, making music is a much more
intellectual activity than a physical one. No matter how difficult a passage in a
piece may be, the challenge is never just physical but it is also (and mostly)
musical.

Sometimes a simple musical gesture does wonders to a passage that, before,

seemed impossible to play with ease. And that is part of the language, which
cannot be learned just by repeating the same movement over and over again. In
short, we need to search for "what" we want to say before we figure out
"how" to say it.

The question then becomes, how can we know what we want to say? The answer
is simple: listen (regularly) to good quality music.
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We learn how to communicate our most subtle thoughts and emotions not only
by listening to others speaking our language but also by watching how peo ple
interact. That process takes years to perfect, and in music, it is no different.

Going to one concert, or listening to one piece will not make much difference.
But by making that a habit, over the years this new language will become
intuitive and you will discover many things that can only be understood and
expressed through this language we call music.

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