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Practicing Routine

Learning a musical instrument involves practicing, which takes effort of self-discipline, time management, and diligent repetition in every stage of the learner’s development. Daily practice is an essential part of mastering an instrument. To ensure a good experience in learning to play the piano, please be sure to spend the quantity and quality of time advised by the instructor.

General advice 

Generally speaking, beginning piano students (5-7 years old) will need 20-30 minutes daily, 5 days per week, to make optimal progress. Intermediate-level students (7-10 years old) need at least 45-60 minutes daily, 5 days per week, to continue to enjoy their learning. Advanced students usually are self-motivating, they tend to practice 7 days a week, for at least 2 hours each day. Here is a list which provides structure to a student’s daily practice, one can modify it accordingly.

Parental guidance in the early stage of learning an instrument is very important. When the students are 5 to 8 years old, they still need help learning how to take notes in class and reading/following them afterwards. Parents would need to be responsible for their practicing routine, to remind them following the instructions.  Parents of young children are highly recommended to attend the lesson with the children, so they know what the teacher has helped and taught them.

Start

  • Start with stretches and breathing exercises! Master Yoda Speaking         5 minutes                                                                                                                

    • Stretches help to get the blood circulation going and warm the whole body up.

    • Breathing with awareness (breath in for 4 seconds and out for 7 seconds) for 6 times helps to set the mind at ease, so one can be relaxed and have a clarity of thoughts.

Warm-up

  • Popeye taking spinach                                                                         5-10 minutes                                                                                                                   

    • Five-finger exercises (Hanon, pattern-based exercises learned during lessons)

    • Scales and Arpeggios

    • Chord progressions

Alice in wonderland

  •  Learning New Songs                                     15-30 minutes based on level

    • No matter what level, sight-reading is almost always the most crucial stage. Pay attention to accuracy of notes and rhythms.

    • Beginners are advised to keep eyes focused on the musical score while doing sight-reading. Avoid looking up and down between the music and the keys, as it is only going to slow down fluency and learning to read music.

Break

A break of 10-15 minutes should be scheduled after every 30 minutes of practicing, so the student will be able to stay focused during their practice.

Nutcrackers

  • Reviewing existing songs and problem-solving               20-30 minutes

    • Not all sections of the music are equally challenging, teacher will help students to identify challenges, usually among a group of notes or patterns, can be treated as nuts.

    • Teacher is going to provide ways to resolve those issues, with exercises that need to be repeated in the correct way, to crack these nuts.

    • Stop any meaningless repetitions immediately. Every repetition needs to have a goal in mind. Repetition is to build muscle memory, which needs to be done with care. Any wrong repetition will only make it harder for you to change.

Wrap-up

  • Enjoy by playing through the song/songs                                          5-10 minutes

  • Celebrate the hard work you have put in. Make sure to record your performance after each session, so you can listen back and learn.

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