So first things first... Welcome new students! Welcome long-time students! Without you, I'm talking to myself and can't pay my bills. I'm thankful for all of you, and wish you great musical progress in 2019.
Now, what is this blog? While I have passions for composition and music theory, this blog focuses on piano. When I mention something else like composition or theory, it's always in context of playing piano. This blog is for my piano students, and anyone else who stumbles across it who is just interested in my take on the instrument.
If you look at the past several articles I've posted here, you'll find a trend: I don't post much about technique. You'll need to take with me privately to get the hands-on advice. I post every now and then about something fun or trivial. But this blog has found a home for me to share what I think is one of my specialties as a teacher: the art of HOW to practice as well as setting and achieving goals.
From age 6 to 18, I had a teacher who was great for challenging me and pretty good for technique. However, her entire instruction for practice was..."you need to practice." This was echoed by my parents. I was encouraged to slow things down when I practiced. It wasn't until college that I had multiple teachers who discussed how to approach music strategically and how to conquer difficult sections that I was able to understand that practice wasn't simply "play, try again, try again, get angry, try again, take a break, try again, hope it gets a little faster, try again, and get a little lucky."
The fact is: If you just play a piece often enough carefully enough, you will get better. It may seem like it takes forever, because sometimes it does, but you WILL get better. Here's an honest confession: I'm a bit lazy. I'm also quite busy. I don't want to spend 2 hours practicing something if there's a way I can accomplish the same result in 30 minutes.
To practice well, you must first commit to the HABIT of practice. This is why I tell every student the 5-minute rule: "5 minutes are better than no minutes". Don't skip a day if you can help it. The habit of practice is the foundation of learning and improvement. After you've developed the habit, you need to work on your quality. In private lessons, we address practice for your specific pieces. This blog will hopefully give you general ideas and motivation in addition to your lessons.
There's 11 months left this year. Remember this rule. "
