This concept was inspired by a fitness video I saw. The guy had a workout called 5 by 5. He took 5 challenging bodyweight exercises and recommended doing 5 sets of 5 reps.
One thing that always stuck from my own piano education is the rule that if you can do something 5 times correctly, you have learned it.
I would further add that if you can do something 5 times correctly, and continue to do that every day until you've done it for 5 consecutive days, then you REALLY should have it down.
The Five Rules
The rules are really simple.
1. Whatever you practice, do it 5 times in a row correctly.
2. Correctly means 100% accuracy. If you missed one note or one finger, it was not correct.
3. If you mess up, the count starts over. Go through what you're practicing 4 times without a mistake and miss a fingering on the 5th attempt? Sorry, but you have to start all over.
4. This means that accuracy and precision are by far the most important things. Speed does not matter at all. Go absolutely as slow as you need!
5. Repeat 5 days in a row, and marvel at how much easier it gets each time. Speed will come without effort.
Ways to incorporate 5 X 5 practice
- Take any challenging technique (a new scale, chord progression) and practice it as slowly as needed. Just ensure that every note you play is correct...no matter how slow. Do it 5 times in a row. Don't allow it to speed up for the first 2 days. On days 3 and 4, allow it to gradually speed up each repetition. Day 5, it should be feeling easy. Get your 5 times in carefully, then test yourself for speed.
- Take any particularly difficult part of a piece you're working on, practice the very end of the section 5 times, work back a measure to get into it and do that 5 times. Keep doing that until you're starting from the beginning of the section. Again, it must always be correct, and you need to do this 5 days in a row. It should get easier each day.
- If you're working on something like reading notes on a staff, you could go to MusicTheory.com's note exercise, change the settings so that you're working on only the notes you're trying to learn, and see how many notes you can correctly identify in a 5 minute session. Write down your score (number correct). Do another 5 minute session the next 4 days, and see if the number you can correctly identify goes up.
Use your imagination when applying this. It works because it demands perfection first, and repetition second. Be patient early on. You will undoubtedly mess up and have to start over your count, and it will feel like it's taking forever. However, you will eventually get good at this type of practice and see it as nothing more than a tool that will reliably make you a better pianist.
