Piano Video Lesson: 2 Methods of Piano Practice: Why One Is Better

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I'm Robert Estrin with two methods of piano practice and one is clearly better.

And I'm wondering which one you do. We're going to find out right now. What are these two macro methods of piano practice? One is a shotgun approach.

The other one, the band aid approach. I'm going to explain what each of these methods entails and why one is clearly better than the other.

Now a lot of you like to sit down at the piano and you start practicing your music and you go through the whole thing and then you start over and you go through it again and you try to work through the whole piece because you want to cover everything.

I would describe this more as a shotgun approach. You're kind of covering everything because you know everything is important.

Yes, everything is important but what about the band aid approach? Once again you start your piece but this time you zero in on where you know the weaknesses are and you focus on that laser focus on what needs work.

And you can go back then after you've gotten that section, nail down, try to connect it with the previous section, then go back further and as soon as you come to an error or something that doesn't feel secure or doesn't sound quite right, once again you focus your attention on that.

The band aid approach, strategic practicing, not shotgun, not practicing equally over everything, you will get so much more done. I know it's gratifying to play all the music and try to cover all your pieces because it makes you feel like you've really accomplished something going through so much music and covering everything you want to cover. But it's definitely not the most efficient way to get things done when your time is limited as most people's time is. I know when I sit down to practice I want to get as much done for every minute I'm practicing so I go right for what I know needs the work. And I spend the vast majority of my time that way. You know the 80 -20 rule, spend 80 % of your practice on 20 % of the material, perhaps it's more like 90 -10. Spend 90 % of your time on 10%. It'll make such a world of difference gaining the security where you really need it. So remember, avoid the shotgun approach. It really is not in your best interest most of the time. Occasionally go through all your music, sure, as a check to see where to focus your next practice session so you can use the band aid approach as I described.

And you can comment on what works for you here on LivingPianos.com. We have so many rich resources for you with a search box for hundreds, actually thousands of videos and articles about almost every subject you can imagine. And if we don't have it, consider joining our Patreon where we make videos just for you. Again, Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. See you next time.

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