Whether you already play piano or are about to learn, you want to play well. Maybe you want to impress your family. Or perhaps you want to be able to impress your friends. Maybe you simply want to play well for your own enjoyment. There are many things you can do to ensure that you don't fall into any bad habits while perfecting your playing. This article will offer some piano playing tips that will help you develop your skills.



Tip #1: One Hand At A Time

When learning to play a new piece, begin by playing with only one hand. Learn the hand movements and play the piece with each hand separately. If you are right-handed, this exercise will strengthen your left hand. Once you know how to play the piece with each hand separately, you may be surprised how easy it is to play it with both hands.

2. Learn to play the piece before using the foot pedals. Just like you learn piano pieces one hand at a time, you will want to learn to use your hands and feet separately. Once you've mastered using both hands on the piece, you can practice just using your feet while counting beats. Once you've memorized the foot portion of the musical piece, you can put the hands and feet together. Many people struggle with using the foot pedals for piano because they're not used to activities that coordinate their feet with their hands. If you plan on playing the organ some day it is vital that you learn to practice the feet and hands separately while you learn piano pieces.

3. Visualize yourself pressing the piano keys as you listen to music or as you recall playing the music in the past. Visualization has been shown to improve concentration and to work as a form of practice. Visualization is also a very important part of memorizing musical scores. You can't completely learn piano pieces by visualization, but you can definitely improve on the effectiveness of your practice sessions.

4. Have a balanced practice plan. You do not want to spend all of your time practicing warm ups and chord combination exercises. Likewise, you do not want to spend all of your time to learn piano by playing a single piece of music. You need to be disciplined enough to dedicate time to your warm ups and time to your pieces during each practice session. While repetition is important, rest and variety are also important to keep your mind fresh. Keeping a balanced routine now will increase your rate of learning new pieces after you've been playing for about two years.

5. Change your practice routine every three to six weeks. While it is important to have a consistently balanced practice routine, that doesn't mean you have to practice the same stuff in the same way forever. Change to a different warm up plan once in a while and you'll learn piano in a more holistic way mentally. Throw in different chord scales into your warm ups as you learn piano. Learn a different style or piece now and then. You may think if you like one style of piano piece better than others the best way to learn piano is to concentrate on that style. It is true that you should spend the most time on the style you like the best, but learning as many styles as possible will actually increase your versatility within the style you like best. You may even find yourself mixing in some things to create a whole new style of music that is your own as you learn piano.