Carl Higgs Piano Tuition

Thinking about practice and how, or indeed whether, my students practise the way they need to in order to improve.

Willingness to practise and knowing how to practise are paramount! It doesn't matter whether you read notes or learn by other means (though obviously reading notation is a skill which enables better understanding of the music and can actually speed up the process of learning a piece) but without regular practice and desire to improve, you will be unlikely to succeed, either way.

Practice means working on something with the aim of improving it, not just repeating the same way over and over. Practise the more difficult sections of a piece more, not less! Also avoid setting a time limit to practice sessions for young learners - too often they just become clock watching sessions.

Variety in practice is important - include scales and other finger exercises, sight reading/ear training as well as pieces. Equally, allow yourself to make mistakes in playing, learning not to let them distract you from continuing to play, so as not to draw attention to them. But then afterwards, go over the passage in question again, aiming to iron out any wrong notes or awkward fingers, so as to reduce the risk of it happening again.

Try to practise at a time when you're feeling least tired. To be truly effective and have lasting benefit, practice needs awareness and focus, leaving us with a sense of having achieved something positive in our playing.

If you reach a point where you feel you cannot improve something beyond the level you've currently arrived at, then allow yourself to move on to something else - you can always come back to the first piece or passage you were working on another time. Do allow yourself to take breaks when needed, too... if the music has also been internalised in the mind and memory, then the effects of good practice will still be apparent and continue long after the fingers have ceased to play!