Piano Video Lesson: 4 Ways to Develop Speed in Your Piano Playing

So, what better place than there to demonstrate the myriad ways you can practice. Today I'm just going to cover four specific ways to not overwhelm you. And believe me, there's a lot to what I'm going to show you.

Hi, and welcome to LivingPianos.com. I'm Robert Estrin with 4 Ways to Develop Speed in Your Piano Playing.

You know, you hear people playing dazzlingly fast, and maybe you're just struggling to get a piece up to speed, and you wonder, what can you do about that? Is there anything that you can do to help develop more speed? And the answer is absolutely. There are a number of things you can do. Of course, working generally on different repertoire, scales, arpeggios, these are essential building blocks of technique on the piano.

What I'm going to show you today are specific things you can incorporate in your music to help develop speed. And I'm going to utilize Ballade of Burgmuller. And just so you know what piece this is, I'm going to go ahead and play this for you first.

[music]

Now one of the most fundamental ways of working with the metronome is to do progressively faster metronome speeds. You find a speed at which you can play that passage absolutely faithfully and then work up one notch at a time. Why one notch? Because you won't even notice the difference. You find a speed that you can play it perfectly and comfortably and securely, repeatedly. Then you put it up a notch, you do it again, and this passage isn't so long. Now I would never suggest trying to get a whole piece up to speed by going one notch at a time, playing through the whole piece and putting another notch. But when you have just a few measures like this, it's an ideal opportunity to do metronome speeds.

The key is make sure you don't raise that metronome at all until you have absolute security. That's the important thing. Now you may first think it's going to take you forever because it takes you so long to really get it solid, but spend the time at the front end to get it absolutely secure. You may have to go hand separately at first and take a much slower speed than you even think necessary. But don't even think about doing metronome speeds until you can play it ten times in a row, not only where it's perfect, but it feels comfortable, where you can play every note with absolute security and definition.

Once you've got that, then give it that notch. You won't feel it, but if you do, once again keep playing it until it not only sounds perfect, but it feels comfortable. And if you have the patience to work that out, you'll get to a point where maybe you're really struggling to get one notch out of it. And maybe that's the point to see if you can battle and just get a couple of extra notches and then leave it for the next day. Take note of where you ended up on the metronome and the next day you may have to start slightly slower than where you ended up, but then go further. As you get faster, remember, lighten up. Stay closer to the keys with round fingers. Remember, flat fingers, you don't get the benefit of all the joints like you do when you're playing with rounder fingers. So instead of playing out here like this, come out like this. It's not a matter of having any tension. Your fingers naturally go in this position if you just allow them to. And that position gives you much, much more ease because you've got the benefit of all the joints of the fingers, plus they're all lined up. The thumb is in alignment with all the fingers. You see that? Whereas when you're out here, the thumbs are out here instead of being over the keys, keep them round like this. So that's one key.

Metronome speeds, invaluable technique. Now I've talked about this next technique a great deal, which is note groups. And you can just work on a few notes at a time.

And the secret is going up the speed.

Or...

So you notice, if you take different groups of notes, find the one that you need to land on because ultimately it's training your fingers where the hands play together.

And by listening strategically to what needs to be together, what isn't together, you can get a lot done just by finding the right place to land with. Once again, when you land on the note, it's not a matter of landing on it with tension. It's landing on it with total relaxation. And you practice the relaxation in your playing, even if you have to play just two notes. Maybe you go... Or... Find the groups of notes that you need to land on so that you have the hands precisely together and you can accomplish a tremendous amount. That's kind of the in gang. One is just gradually going faster and faster with progressively faster metronome speeds. The other one is just groups of notes, even if you work one extra note at a time. Or this two note group and the next two note group and put those two note groups together. Maybe you have an overlapping note one time and no overlapping note the next time. Whatever it takes. So that's two things. What else do we have? Well, accented notes can be really valuable. So for example, on this you could accent in innumerable ways.

Or you can do the opposite.

Or you can do different numbers of notes.

Or...

Any type of accent that you can feel relaxed on that accent. It's not pushing with the arms. It's just fingers.

And by doing that, you train your fingers of, once again, where the fingers play together. Where the hands play together. And you'll discover tremendous things. You'll come up on a certain accented note that you... Oh my gosh! You realize that your hands... You don't even know where they play together. That's the place to focus on. Just like the note groups. Same thing.

So we've covered now three different methods, right? The metronome speeds. We also covered note groups. Now we're talking about accents. Finally, rhythms are another great tool. Depending on the passage, there's many different rhythms that can aid in developing speed. For example, you could do this.

Or the opposite.

Or... Or... Or... Or... Whatever rhythm seems to solve your issue, it's discovering where the hands need to be together. Because what happens in something like this, if you don't know where the hands play together, you might be able to play your right hand fast and your left hand fast, but you really don't know where they land together. And this is what trains your brain. And those are the four ways that you can help develop speed in your playing. Remember, working on scales and arpeggios is incredibly valuable because it gives you an opportunity, devoid of music, just to follow your fingers, work on your pure technique, devoid of music. Great thing to be able to have all your major and minor scales and arpeggios under your fingers. That will be incredibly valuable for you. Remember, the faster you play, the lighter and closer to the keys you must be in order to facilitate that speed because it takes a lot of work to raise fingers. When practicing slowly, raising the fingers can be valuable so you get to feel which fingers are down and which fingers are up initially. As you get faster, lighten up, stay closer to the keys with round fingers.

And remember these four methods of metronome speeds, note groups, accents, and rhythms. Let me know how this works for you. And for those of you who have other techniques, share them in the comments here at LivingPianos.com and YouTube. Again, I'm Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. Thank you all your subscribers and ringing the bell with a thumbs up. Really appreciate it. Until next time, keep practicing.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/4-ways-to-develop-speed-in-your-piano-playing/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---