At some point in your musical development, you may have the opportunity to practice four or more hours a day. If you do, please don’t spend the four hours doing scales and other repetitive tasks. You will injure yourself.
Here is a list of activities you can pursue when you are not playing with recordings on YouTube or transcribing recordings on YouTube or creating roadmaps of tunes you are listening to on YouTube.

Repertoire

• Learn new tunes.
• Polish current tunes.
• Review old tunes.

Musical maxim #1. Those that know the most tunes, wins.

Listening and analysis aka road mapping.

• Form analysis: what is the structure of this piece?
• Instrumentation: Who, what, when questions
• “What’s going on here?” See my lesson on road mapping.
• Watch YouTube videos of Jazz Transcriptions and try playing along with them.
• Read a book on how to listen to music like, How to Listen to Jazz by Ted Gioia

Musical maxim #2. Folk music is played by ear.

Ear training

• Transcribing licks. A lick a day transposed into different keys is a good place to begin.
• Transposing tunes into different keys like C jam blues or Autumn leaves.

History

• Reading about the history of jazz, blues, pop, folk musics and checking out the recordings on YouTube. Each month study a different decade of your preferred style. Research a musical history outline online and then listen to the historical recordings.
• Watch YouTube videos of Jazz Transcriptions from a historical perspective.

How to practice?

• Read a book on it. Better yet read all my blogs on the subject. My two favourite books are Benny Greb’s book and The Musicians Way. The point is to become a student of practice techniques.

Formal and Informal learning.

• Pop, Jazz, Blues, and Folk music cannot be learned in a classroom. The classroom simply augments the informal learning that takes place when you jam with other musicians. Nobody, but nobody learns to play these styles by playing from scores or reading books and ignoring the recordings or passing up opportunities to play with others.

General and Jazz Specific Theory

• Key signatures, intervals, transposition, scale/chord construction.
• Suggested materials: Music Theory Pro for drills, Alfred’s essential music theory is good as are the RCM theory books. But it all depends on where you are starting. You can ask me for a recommendation based on my assessment.

Jazz Sight reading

• General piano music: play simple stuff using a slow metronome or play along app.
• Lead sheets.
• Chords
• Suggested materials: Open your fake book and play. Or use RCM sight reading books. Again, it all depends on where you are starting. You can ask me for a recommendation based on my assessment.

 Piano Technique

• Memorize your jazz chord voicings.
• Major scales
• Bebop scales and other jazz scales.
• Broken 7th chords: Major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7b5, diminished 7th in 12 keys. Play a maximum of 2 keys a day. SLOW IS FINE.
• I play classical piano music to keep my hands in some kind of shape. Occasionally I will play written jazz arrangements. Written music keeps the hands alive, as jazz piano study is brutal on piano techniques because we spend so much time play single note lines and left-hand chords. 

If you would like help, call me. 

​David
revised 2024
 

Being able to recognize the forms within a Baroque Dance suite, by ear, will be helpful. 

This will get you started on your listening journey. Enjoy. 

Working through the Four Star Books is recommended. An effective book, but, hardly that exciting. 

So...

Sometimes we work out by ear famous Rock era "licks" or motifs from well know melodies. 

The famous opening melody uses B, C#, and D. Have a listen and give it a go. 

Classical motives are fun too. Opening motif is in C minor, starting on G. Da da da DAAA, da da da DAA

Have fun. 

​David

Some ideas. 

1. Knowing what beautiful sounds like is an important step to being able to beautifully play oneself. 
2. Associating with people who can guide on this journey of discovery is important.

One of my students is working at the early advanced stage of Classical piano. This week Chopin Waltz in b minor and Gnossienne #6 by Satie. Sophisticated music. 

She is a retired executive whose career spanned the globe. She is an avid concert goer. As in, more than a concert a week. 

At the end of class I complemented her on her playing and knowledge of the music, it's context, and style. She was slightly taken back. She quickly explained that she has friends who are so much more sophisticated and nuanced in their appreciation of classical music. (One wrote liner notes for a major classical music label, one was a critic if I recall correctly as well.) 

I pointed out to her that she has learned more than she knew through those friendships. She recalled the after concert socializing where great debates on the merits of the performance. 

Furthermore, decades of concert going at the great halls of the world leaves a mark. A significant mark. 

Cheers, 

​David

Sometime the stress from the pandemic is a bit too much. It can lower our enthusiasm for practice. So, what to do? Assuming you are not suffering from clinical depression, in which case please seek professional help. This is not the place. 

But for the rest of us. Try some or all the following.

1. Find a quiet moment and just listen to beautiful music played by professionals. 
2. Remember the difference between practice and play. Practice involves judgement, play is non-judgmental fooling around, playing whatever strikes us.
3. Revisit your go to pieces and quietly play them.
4. Go for a long safe walk. Fresh air is good for us.
5. Daydream musical ideas, thoughts, dreams, and plans. For me that would include adult music camps in New Orleans and Europe. Starting up a band for my young students to play in after the pandemic. 

Good luck, stay safe, behave, and we all be playing together again in person soon. 

In the meantime, call me if you would like to meet online. I've dozens of students happily progressing on zoom. 

​David.

This late elementary piece has been a hit since the day it was written. Lively and energetic, it is a thrilling piece for students to master. But there are those annoying last four measures which have devilled generations of aspirants. 


Consider the following eight points.

1. Do you have a clear idea of how this passage sounds, what Anders Ericsson calls "a clear mental representation"?
2. Has your teacher clearly marked the suitable fingering?
3. Do you understand that you will need to memorize these four measures to confidently play the jumps? 
4. Do you understand that you will need to repeat the passage hands separately dozens of times before you put the hands together?
5. Are you practicing slowly?
6. Are you following the agreed to or assigned fingering? Fingering is not negotiable.  
7. Do you understand how the passage will be articulated? (The photo above is not marked up yet.) 
8. Professional tip: Record each pass you make and listen back before repeating, an activity that I find immensely helpful. I listen carefully to my rhythm, dynamics, articulations, steadiness, and flow before my next pass. I understand want I'm trying to fix or master before repeating a passage. 

David
Revised October 2022

When I take on a new piece of music of any complexity I will go through some or all the following steps. My goal is to have a clear artistic impression of the piece before I begin. 

1. Compare the different scores available to me.
2. Seek out professional recordings.
3. Print the music as I will be marking it up. 
4. Study the form and phrasing of the work. Sometimes, as in the Telemann I will mark in the phrasing. 
5. I will consider the era in which it was written for clues on possible interpretations.
6. I translate any unfamiliar terms I find in the score.
7. I might consult other sources to explore the style and era of its creation. For the Sonata in C, I enjoyed re-reading the section on Haydn ornaments in the book below.
8. I will listen to multiple professional performances and mark on the score ideas of interest. I often will slow down a recording to hear how the artist plays their ornaments. 
9. I might consult with a colleague or my piano coach as well. 

In short, I will have a clear set of ideas, those I discovered and my own, to explore as I now start to "learn" the piece. I will share these with my students.

If I can help you discover intriguing world of classical music, please call me. 

David

Will I ever get there?

Maybe.

An adult student is working on the scherzo of Haydn’s piano sonata in F major Hob.XVI:9 A fun work from RCM level 4. It goes fast, it’s light, it’s fun under the fingers. It reminds me of joyful summer memories as a kid riding our bikes as fast as we can go, just celebrating the joy of movement and being alive.

How does one play like that?
Can I ever go as fast?

Another story. I’ve a young teenage student preparing to sit for her level 8 exam later this month. One of her pieces is Solfeggio in C minor by CPE Bach an extremely fast and demanding piece of music. She runs like the wind through it. The power of youth. Can my 61-year fingers play that fast? Nope. Period. It’s as absurd as looking on while high schoolers compete in the 100-yard dash. Yeah, I can still run fast, but not like that.

Moral of the story. Be at peace with it.

​Now can we learn to play faster. Of course. Can we ever go as fast? Maybe, maybe not.

​
Now back to Haydn. Pianists who play well, including fast, have worked patiently in the following areas.

1. Repertoire is developed in a thoughtful and methodical manner over many years.
2. They learn theory to understand the music they are playing: patterns and relationships. 
3. They have developed their aural skills to fine degree. Ultimately all playing is playing by ear.
4. They learn something about the history of the music they play Classical, Jazz, Blues, Folk, or Americana. Whatever it is, it has a tradition, a history, a story to tell. They are wanting a piece this story in their lives. They enthusiastically seek out experiences to get it.
5. They carefully learn to sight read well.
6. They cheerfully deal with their etudes and exercises.
7. They take their growing knowledge, experiences, and skills to understand the nuances of great performances.
8. They can answer the question, “who are your favourite pianists?” And tell you why? The sophistication of their answers will evolve as they develop as musicians. 
9. They are emotionally committed to the project of learning the piano. And have the maturity to understand it is a journey of learning.
10. They love the music.
11. They have studied how to practice the piano through different sources of reliable information. They avoid the pitfalls of seeking a work around, a hack, or quick fix. And the huskers selling shortcuts to expertise. 
12. They make the time to practice.

If I can help you on your journey, please give me a call.
​
David

Practice tip #1

How many times do I need to repeat a passage?

“Until it’s comfortable” Benny Greb, expert practicer

Most students practice until they get it. Professionals practice until it’s comfortable. I buy that.

Practice tip #2

Why is proper fingering so important?

“Under pressure, a performance, one does not want to train the brain with ineffective or multiple choices of fingering in difficult passages. Under stress the brain will have to decide. It might pick the poor fingering pattern and BOOM! a mistake happens.”

So, when learning, take extra care to follow the fingering in the early stages of learning. Don’t give yourself an unnecessary handicap of poor fingering options.

​David