4 Facts about the Piano that are actually myths
Thanks to the internet, we can get access to so much information about learning the piano and other musical instruments, that anyone can get started. Unfortunately, this also means plenty of misinformation that could potentially put you off playing the piano, or remove some of the enjoyment in your learning journey. Let’s dismantle some of these piano myths:
You shouldn’t look at your hands when you play
Considering that playing the piano is all about using your hands, it’s no wonder why you’d be tempted to keep an eye on them! And yet, for whatever reason, this myth that you shouldn’t be looking at your hands while playing has spread far and wide. Here’s the good news: you can become a great pianist even if you look at your hands!
In fact, it makes a lot of sense for you to check where your hands are, and you know what? Some pianists manage to make their playing even more expressive by looking at their hands. Yup, even professionals do it! So never worry about this as it’s a total myth.
After playing for X months, I should be ready to take Grade X exam
While keeping a regular practice schedule over months is definitely going to help you progress in your piano playing, whether you’re ready to take a specific Grade exam will depend on many more factors. First of all, everyone is different and learns at a different pace - some might be ready to take an exam after playing for a few months but others might take longer. Don’t be discouraged, keeping at it is more important than achieving things quickly!
Secondly, every Grade exam will require you to look at different aspects of playing, from scales to sight-reading and more. As such, if your goal is to progress from grade to grade, let your piano teacher know so that you can focus on strengthening any relevant area of your piano skills.
Piano playing is all about learning pieces
While learning how to play a series of piano pieces makes up a significant part of piano playing (and a fun one too), it’s not the only thing that matters to your progress as a pianist. In fact, becoming a good musician requires much more than that - from learning how to sight-read notes, training your ear to spot mistakes, to even teaching your hands to work together… you can’t expect to progress as a pianist if you limit yourself to only learning pieces.
And you know what’s the best part? Working on these other aspects of piano playing will also improve how quickly and well you learn new piano pieces!
Longer practice sessions are better
In our ideal world, we’d all be able to dedicate as much attention as needed, for as long as we wish, to whatever we are doing at a specific moment. In reality, our minds will easily start to wander off and focus on something else if we’ve been spending a long time doing the same thing.
This happens to everyone, after all, we’re not robots! Whether you can no longer bear to sit at the piano or you just can’t stop making mistakes while playing, your body and mind are clearly telling you that it’s time to take a break. Forcing yourself to practice for a long time is only going to eventually lead to burnout and to you potentially disliking playing! It’s always better to take shorter but regular practice over longer and infrequent practice.
We hope that now that you know these piano facts are actually myths, you’ll be able to get back to practice with fewer worries and enjoy it more than before!
