Getting good at playing piano is not easy – especially without the right guidance! Over the years, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t through trial and error. Every student must go through their own trials, but you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did! This article will cover the essentials you’ll need to work on to advance your skills on piano.
1. Set Your Practice Routine to Fit Your Needs
It’s very important that you incorporate your practice effectively into your life. Whether it’s your daily schedule, your attention span, work habits, or energy levels – these things need to be accounted for if you want to remain consistent. Getting good at piano takes years of practice, and it’s very hard to stick to a goal for that long if it’s detrimental to other aspects of your well-being.
First, this means taking an honest look at yourself and determining what you can handle. You may read or hear from teachers or friends that you have to practice an hour a day to get good. While they are not wrong, this may not be the approach that is best for you. Maybe you have high motivation a couple days a week, but don’t feel like playing on other days. Or maybe your attention span only lasts for 20 minutes. Hold yourself accountable to whatever you can handle, and no more.
Pushing yourself to be someone you’re not is a recipe for quitting. If you quit, you definitely will not get good, ever. It’s always good to practice more, practice every day, be super diligent, etc. However, what really causes someone to be good at piano is sticking with it for a long time.
As far as my practice routine goes, it has varied ever since I started playing 19 years ago. Sometimes I have shows or performances coming up, and I feel motivated to practice more. Sometimes, I have a lot going on at work or in my personal life, and I practice less. When I’m inspired by music I’ve recently discovered, I tend to practice more. When I’m bored of what I’m playing, I tend to practice less.
I always allow myself to fall into the practice routine that makes me feel the best about playing, and I recommend you do the same. The most important thing, above all, is the relationship we have between ourselves and the instrument. If you love playing, then you’ll regularly practice, and over long periods of time you’ll get very good. If you dread forcing yourself to focus for Wednesday’s mandatory hour-long practice session, or forcing yourself to learn that classical piece you don’t really like, you will eventually quit.
2. Define What ‘Getting Good’ Means to You
It’s very important that you have some sort of goal in mind for your playing. It doesn’t have to be concrete, and it can change. However, maintain an idea of what you want to sound like in the future so you can inspire yourself. Is there a certain genre of music you love? A certain style? Maybe you want to be really good at playing fast and technically challenging classical pieces? Or maybe you just want to be able to play sing-along songs when your friends are over? Whatever it is, always think about it before you practice to remind yourself why you’re sitting down at the piano.
Another thing to note is that it’s very hard to exactly define what ‘good’ is that everyone can agree upon. Is it describing technical ability? Ability to play a lot of different songs, or genres? Everyone you ask will have a different answer to this question, and many won’t even know how to define it.
I think about it like this – being ‘good’ at the piano means that you are mostly able to play exactly what you want to, how you want to. So if your goal is to play a fast, challenging classical piece with precision and without missing any notes, then you’d be able to pull it off. Or if you want to play a technically easy sing-along song, and convey a specific emotion to your audience, you’d know what to do.
Therefore, if your goal is to get ‘good’ at piano, you should focus on manifesting your vision of playing into reality. It does not matter what your vision is – what matters is how well you translate your thoughts to your fingers, and then to your audience’s ears. First, follow your heart towards the music you want to play. Then you can direct your practicing in the right direction.
I’ve had a few ‘visions’ over the years, and they constantly evolve. As a kid, I took classical lessons, and the really fast and technically challenging music was what resonated with me. Therefore, my goal for many years was to conquer these challenging pieces and I focused on just that. When high school rolled around, I took an interest in jazz. My goal then pivoted to be able to improvise like the great jazz pianists, which led me to transcribe jazz solos and learn jazz theory. One of my goals now is to reach wider audiences by playing more popular music, without compromising musical quality. Now I work on arranging pop songs in the jazz style and performing them with my band. The point is that having these goals and visions for my playing helps me determine what to work on.
3. Practice the Things You Enjoy, and Forget the Rest
This may run contrary to many things you’ve heard in the past – does this mean you’re allowed to skip practicing your scales? The answer I’m giving on this one is yes. Scales (and all other exercises) will absolutely develop your playing, but they aren’t absolutely necessary for everyone.
For any given material, technique, or practice strategy, there are going to be some piano players who love it, and some who hate it. If you fall into the ‘hate it’ category, my advice is to immediately move on. There’s so many things to learn in the world of music, and it’s well worth exploring alternate ways to improve if you’re not connecting with what you’re currently practicing.
The other reason why this is important is because it allows you to become the piano player you’re supposed to become, rather than being molded by teachers/parents/others. If you don’t waste time learning material that you’ll end up ignoring later anyways, you can focus on what really matters to you as a unique individual.
For me, I’ve basically left my classical training and classical repertoire behind to pursue things that are more meaningful to me. I’m grateful for the lessons I had and the things I learned, but after discovering other genres of music I enjoy more, I’ve never looked back. This has helped me develop into the musician I’m supposed to be, because I practice and play the music that resonates with me most.
4. Become Good at Listening to Music
The best way to learn music is by listening to music. You may say ‘duh’, but I’ve actually seen many players prioritize reading about and studying music in their lessons and classes. Most of the best lessons I’ve learned have come directly from listening to the source material. However, listening to music is a skill you must develop.
In order to learn directly from music, you must engage in what’s called ‘active listening’. This means that you are focusing on exactly what you are hearing, and thinking about the musical elements in the song. This is unlike what you usually do when listening to your favorite songs, which is sit back and enjoy. Active listening involves challenging your ears to pick up on everything you’re hearing, and trying to figure out what you heard and why you think the musician played it that way.
As you start to do this more, you can ‘get in the head’ of the piano player on the recording. This is important because it allows you to have your own musical ideas on how you want to approach your playing. You may already have ideas, but when you internalize how competent musicians play, your opinions become more well-informed.
There are so many genres of music and diverse ways to play the piano that you can expose yourself to. Listen carefully to any and all styles that you can get your hands on, and identify what you like and don’t like. Techniques from one style of music may influence the way you play another.
I listen to music every time I drive, and I always try to listen carefully to what I’m hearing. I listen for the instruments in the song, the beat, what kinds of chords and textures are present, the song structure, lyrics, and more. Even when I’m listening to songs that I’m not planning to play on piano, it helps to understand how artists put together their songs.
5. Develop Your Ear and Emulate What You Hear
This is related to the section above – once you’ve carefully listened to music and decided what you like, it’s time to translate that into reality. Figure out what notes and chords you’re hearing, and try to play them on piano. This process is called transcription, and is very common among jazz musicians. However, the exercise will transform pianists in any genre into skilled players.
This allows you to uncover what skilled musicians are really doing, in real life. Piano teachers, workbooks, and lessons will only get you so far because they are watered down to your current skill level. When you listen to the greats, and mimic what they are doing, you get closer to sounding great.
In addition, this develops your listening skills and ability to ‘hear’ notes and chords. When you’re in a performance situation, you’ll then be able to apply this skill in real time to decide what notes and chords you should be playing. You may think a certain sound, note, or chord belongs at a certain point in the song – if your ear training skills are advanced, you’ll already know exactly what those notes are. Then it’s just a matter of playing them, and manifesting your musical thought into reality.
This especially applies to jazz musicians. When I’m playing jazz piano, I get to fill up the space however I want. There’s certain chords to the song, and it’s up to me to play the appropriate notes based on those chords to make the song sound good. How do I know what to play? I’ve transcribed so many jazz players’ improvisations, and I know what kinds of licks, lines, and combinations of notes they use. I never directly copy them, but everything I play is heavily inspired by them. In jazz, this is the widely accepted way of learning improvisation and is not considered copying at all.
6. Build Your Repertoire: Learn a Lot of Material
Learning a wide variety of material is critical to your advancement. The principle here is ‘learn by doing’. There’s no substitute to building your repertoire and the experience you get from knowing songs.
You’ll find that even in diverse music, there’s a lot of commonalities. For example, most songs you’ll hear have four beats per measure, have the melody comprised of the higher pitched notes on the piano, and use the same major and minor chords. When you’ve learned a lot of material, these basics become second nature and you won’t have to focus on them anymore. Then you can turn your attention to the difficult and/or unique parts of the song.
Learning a ton of music helps me every time I play. Since I know so many songs, I can almost predict the notes that are coming next in a lot of popular songs. This is a massive advantage when I play live – I can follow along with the other musicians without even learning the setlist before the show. There’s only so many combinations of chord progressions, verses and choruses, and melodies that sound good. The more songs you learn, the easier it gets to build your setlists even further.
7. Practice Your Technique and Avoid Bad Habits
There’s a big difference between playing and practicing. When you play, you’re just going plowing through the material and focusing on the big picture. It’s very hard to identify things that you’re missing or areas for improvement when you’re playing, because multi-tasking is difficult. That’s why practice is important – it allows you to slow down and focus in on the details.
You may not even notice that there notes that you’re missing, not playing clearly, or are incorrect. It could be a fingering problem, or you don’t have the finger dexterity to hit the notes. Another common error is that certain notes are played much to loud or quietly, because you’re not pressing the note in a controlled manner.
Make sure to always slow the material down, and assess whether you need to work on your mechanics. The longer you ignore these errors, the harder it will be to correct them. Playing without practicing causes the accumulation of bad habits, and can cause grief down the road.
This is probably my own biggest weakness- too often I sit down to play, but don’t practice. Usually what happens is I end up building muscle memory on a certain passage that forces me to play it unevenly, without smooth transitions between notes. Further down the road, I have to go back and unlearn this, which takes a lot of time. I encourage all of you to not repeat my mistakes, and I can promise that re-learning material is annoying and frustrating.
8. Learn What Phrasing Means to You – The ‘How’
There’s a big different between what you play and how you play it. Imagine if motivational speakers spoke with monotone voices. We can all agree you wouldn’t be very motivated by their words. This is because communication requires enunciation and phrasing. The way you emphasize the words, and the pauses you take between words, communicate to the audience as well. Music is the exact same – just playing notes on a piano is not sufficient to be a good player.
You learn how to phrase on piano the same way you learn to phrase your words. It involves listening to others deeply, copying elements that you like, and practicing over time! These things come naturally to children, who often end up sounding exactly like their peers.
This could mean playing certain parts of the song louder or softer. Other times, you may want some notes shorter than others. One really common phrasing strategy I use is to make the melody of the song louder than the accompanying chords and bass line to grab the listeners’ attention.
9. Master Music Theory Basics – The ‘Why’
Knowing why certain notes work and certain notes don’t is critical for good players, especially if you want to play improvisational music, play with other musicians, or write original content. How else would you know what notes to choose?
There’s certain conventions that are very common in music. For example, most songs you hear will have an intro, a couple verses, a chorus, a bridge, and an outro. They will also have a couple major and minor chords that complement each other, and melody notes that complement the chords.
When you have a deep understanding for song structure, you’ll be able to play almost any basic song with ease. When the song goes to an F major chord, you’ll know that you can safely play an A because it has a beautiful sound as the major third in that chord.
10. Test Yourself by Performing for Others
A good piano player knows how to perform for others, and it’s not the same as playing at home. Anyone who has gotten nervous public speaking knows that once an audience is present, it can be difficult to speak at all. This applies to everyone, and we all can speak English just fine in a non-pressure situation. This applies to playing piano as well. Playing a piece in the comfort of your home is very different than performing it for an audience.
When people are watching, nerves and anxiety can make you fall back on your worst habits and weaknesses. You’ll basically be ‘exposed’ – any material you didn’t know really well will likely be screwed up. It’s never fun messing up in front of other people, but it’s by far the best way to identify what you need to work on more.
In addition, you can identify what resonated with the audience and what didn’t. This is completely separate from messing up or not. Did the audience seem to enjoy certain songs more than others? Or maybe they enjoyed the energy you brought one minute, but seemed bored later? This is important feedback and can help you guide your practice and focus on music that others enjoy.
When I play live, I’m constantly evaluating the audience’s reaction to my playing. For example, I find that audiences restaurants and bars love music they recognize, and don’t pay much attention to jazz standards. I love jazz standards, but also want to engage the audience, so now I play popular music in the jazz style. This is a great way to challenge myself to combine skillsets, and make music for everyone. In addition, after every gig I usually learn that I didn’t quite know a song as well as I thought I did, which helps inform my next practice session.
11. Record Yourself and Self-Critique
It’s very hard to critically assess your own playing, while you’re playing. This is because you’ve already got so many things to focus on, and your mind is constantly thinking about future notes to play, rather than notes you’ve already played.
When you record yourself play and listen back, you’ll hear things that you didn’t notice before. Often times, you might realize that you sound better or worse than you perceived originally. You can place yourself in the audience’s shoes, and identify what you need to work on more.
I regularly record myself using voice memos, and re-watch old videos of my performances and gigs. Sometimes I’ll realize that the way the songs sounded in real life was different than I intended them to. After doing this exercise, I can adjust accordingly.
12. Become a Life-Long Learner
There’s not a particular moment in time where you’ll know that you’ve become ‘good’ at piano. It’s a process and it never ends. Instead of trying to get good at piano, it will help you to become a good pianist.
Think about the way a good pianist behaves. They are always looking to improve, learn new skills, perform for others, and stay inspired. They’re never completely satisfied with their work, and they never get complacent. They stick to their goals, and they practice whenever they can.
Follow these guidelines, and over a long period of time you can become an amazing piano player. Remember that although it’s not an easy goal, it’s a worthwhile one. Happy practicing!