How to play piano beautifully: 10 Tips to get started

Tips for playing piano beautifully.
 
Concert artists have dedicated years learning to play the piano beautifully. They have studied and mastered all the elements of their craft: repertoire, technique, aural skills, sightreading, performance practice, historical awareness, idiomatic knowledge, and more. However, they all had to start somewhere. So here is a starting point for beginners and intermediate pianists looking to elevate their interpretive skills.

1. Playing the score accurately is the obvious first step.
2. Observe the dynamic markings from your first reading of the work.
3. Where the melody rises in pitch, play a gentle crescendo.
4. Where the melody falls play in pitch, a gentle diminuendo.
5. Locate any tempo changes.
6. Take a breath at a repeat sign.
7. Generally, the last note under a slur is played softer, unless the score indicates otherwise.
8. Practice with a metronome with pieces that are based on dances like minuets, gigue etc. Many contemporary pieces written in the last few decades work as well with metronome practice. However, most Romantic era music does not. Therefore, this excludes most of Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy.
9. Translate directly into the score any text you find in languages you don’t understand. These terms will always tell you how to play the piece.
10. Most of these points can be overridden by markings in the score. 

 
This is a starting point for expressive playing. To develop a more sophisticated understanding one must transcribe the performance practice of professionals from different eras performing your pieces and compare the results. For example, when comparing performances of the first 8 measures of Scarlatti’s Sonata in E K380 over decades of recordings you will discover the diverse ways the musicians interpret the trills.  Most start above the principle note, but not everyone. The intensity, tempi, and dynamics vary as well.
If I can help you further, call me.
 
David