Learning a new piano piece from start to end can feel overwhelming if you’re not sure where to begin. There are a few factors to consider when it comes to learning a piano piece, which will vary from pianist to pianist. Your experience on the piano will affect how quickly you’ll pick up this new piece, and for some it just naturally comes easier than others. Let’s take a look at how you can approach learning a new piano piece.
Know how to practice
The experience you have on the piano will affect how long you can have quality practice on it. A beginner pianist will find it harder to focus on their practice for one hour every day, and is more likely to benefit from shorter yet frequent daily practice.
In the same way, an advanced pianist will need a longer practice to get the same benefits out of it. But most of all, the quality of your practice matters more than the quantity. So, regardless of your experience, spending even just 10 to 20 minutes a day focusing on learning one section of your piano piece will be more beneficial than spending hours trying to rush through the whole piece.
Strengthen the piano basics
How quickly you can learn your piano piece will be influenced by your knowledge of piano basics. The better you can spot patterns in your piano music, execute piano techniques, and train your ears, the quicker you can become competent at playing your piece. So the more time you dedicate to strengthening your basics, the faster you’ll be able to learn new pieces.
Similarly, if the piece you’re learning is in the same genre and style as others you’ve learned before, it won’t feel as much of a challenge as trying to switch from playing solely classical pieces to learning a jazzy contemporary piece.
Correct your mistakes
You know you’ll have learned a piece when the mistakes you make when playing it are at a minimum. No piano teacher will expect you to flawlessly perform a piece every time, especially if you’re a beginner, but you know you’ll have achieved your goal of ‘knowing a piece’ when you can feel confident playing it through with just a few, if any, errors.
The only way to make that happen is to spot those mistakes during your practice and learning how to fix them. Really pay attention to the sound you emit when playing, and keep track of any sections of the piece that challenge you the most. Don’t just repeat the same mistakes over and over, but make time to find a solution so that you can play the piece out as intended.
Get out of your comfort zone
While learning new pieces quickly can seem like an achievement, ultimately, the repertoire you’re working on should reflect your level of experience on the piano. If you feel like you can so easily and quickly learn every piece you set your mind to, consider whether it might be time to learn some more challenging pieces.
You don’t have to go way beyond your grade, but it would be normal for an advanced player to take a few months learning a new piano piece. So don’t just focus on speed, make sure you’re still challenging yourself and consequently improving as a pianist.
Just keep learning
Ultimately, there will always be some pieces that will come more naturally to us and others that will feel more challenging. Other things going on in your life will affect your learning journey, which will not always be so linear. The important thing is to keep showing up and keep on playing. It doesn’t matter how many pieces you’ve learned in how much time, but the fact that you keep working on learning the piano.
We hope that this blog has encouraged you to challenge yourself and learn a new piece, and that you won’t let any struggles hold you back from progressing on the piano. There’s no better feeling than realising all the hurdles you’ve overcome in your learning journey, and being able to finally perform that piece you’ve been working on for the past weeks, if not months. Progress will come, even if gradually, and you’ll be able to see how much you’ve improved thanks to the time you dedicated to practicing.
