Fang-Fang's Piano Studio

1.  Practice away from the piano

You can pick up a lot of things when you look at the music away from the piano.  When you do that, pay attention to the phrasing, the dynamic markings, the things your teacher marked for you in your lessons, and also sing the melody to understand the music.  Also, practice away from the piano can help your memorization.  Close your eyes and test yourself.  Can you see your fingers playing the keys as you are performing with your eyes closed? 

2.  Before you play a piece, think about what are you trying to say musically. 

What is the piece about?  What is the composer trying to say through this piece and as a performer, what are you trying to say through this piece?  How do you feel about this piece?  Do you ever think about that?   

3. Practice in short segments. 

Don’t run through your piece a hundred times and without a goal.  Instead, practice 8 or 12 measure at a time, and exam carefully with phrasing, dynamic control, evenness, fingering, pedal usage, touch and the sound quality of each note. 

4.  Repetition

Repeat and exam carefully in short distance and go through the piece slowly.  The important thing is to repeat CORRECTLY with concentration.  Don’t repeat with perfunctory.  Try to remember the corrections in your lessons and practice them correctly.  It is very important to practice immediately after your lesson so you still remember your corrections.  Never practice your mistakes.

5.  Break the piece into sections and focus on each section individually. 

Each time you make a mistake, stop and examine your mistake.  Figure out the reason of your mistake before you start correcting it, especially the technical problems. 

6.  Focus on the problems.

If you encounter a very difficult section in your piece, practice that section by itself.  Don’t continue before you fix the problems. 

7.  You should not practice more then two hours at a time. 

Take a short break after two hours or if you feel tired.  You won’t be able to concentrate if you continue to practice for a long time.  Take a short break is good for you. 

8.  Don’t practice mechanically.

I often ask my students to do slow practice, which doesn’t mean play mechanically.  Always keep the music and emotion in mind. 

9.  Work hard.

Piano playing requires so many qualities, such as spirit, wisdom, emotion, imagination, and physique.  To acquire these entire elements to work for you, you need to work very, very hard. 

10.  Manage your time.

Everybody is busy.  But everyone has 24 hours a day.  Manage your time well, you will have enough time for all the things you want to do.  You need to make time for daily practice if you want to play well.