Piano Teachers Giving Piano Lessons in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales

Enfield, Barnet and North London piano teachers' 7 tips to help your playing ATCL, DipABRSM, DipLCM



1. Decide what you want and commit to it with the right attitude.

You need find out what exactly you really want to achieve. Is it to play songs or pop tunes? Perform with others? Take exams and gain certificates? The commitment to this will come once you know what you want and it is a MUST for you.
Getting your mindset right is probably the single most important thing you will ever do as a beginner. Practicing because you have to (not want to) and just going through the motions will not get you anywhere. This approach nearly always leads to boredom, frustration and eventually giving up. What a shame that would be.

2. Be realistic about what you want

As much as you might have a goal/dream to play a concerto at Carnegie/Royal Albert Hall, you also need to honestly ask if you have what it takes to achieve your goal. Often many people will say something along the lines of: I want to play Madonna's/The Beatles/Britney Spear's greatest hits in my first year! thinking it's easy to replicate what the professionals do on TV. A more realistic aim might be to complete a series exercise books up to a certain level, e.g. 'to get to book 4 in 10 months'. Family members and friends will be able to honestly tell you if you have any musicality, but it also helps to speak to musicians, whoever they may be and find out from them, what it takes to succeed, based on your own strengths and weaknesses.

3. Set a date for when you want to achieve your goal

Once you've settled on a realistic goal, you need to think how long it will take for you to achieve and what exactly it will take. Write the deadline down, have it in front of you when you practice and remind yourself what you must do to achieve your goal. Also, having someone you are accountable to, who can monitor your progress to keep you from losing focus, is vital.

4. Commit to a practice schedule

It's important that you find a time that works for you and stick to it. The point of a schedule is to build a routine and momentum. Constantly changing your practice time means you're at the mercy of other things that might distract you.

5. Focus on a few Things at a Time.

Don't try to learn everything all at once it just won't work. Break your practice down into easy to do-steps. It is better to focus on one or two areas, working on it repeatedly and becoming a master than to try and learn 10 different new things and only develop sketchy knowledge at best.

6. Work on improving your memory

That's right. Your brain is the other important tool other than your hands. You can make great progress by simply practicing memorisation exercises that will help you remember.

7. Don't get put off by mistakes

Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process so use them as opportunities to improve as you learn as much from what's wrong as you do from what's done right.

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