The “Perfect” Practice Routine
In my opinion, there is no such thing as a “perfect” practice routine, as it will always look different for each student. Your practice routine will also change and develop as you develop and grow. But, designing a practice routine that feels good for you is an important step when taking piano lessons (or any musical instrument). I always tell my students that the key to growth is deliberate, focused practice that involves careful repetition. Muscle memory is a vital part of learning piano. Once your fingers can memorize the “mechanics” of playing piano, you can focus more on your artistry and musical expression, which is often the more fun part!
When sitting at the piano you should break up your practice routine into 4 areas:
Warm Up
Warming up should be the first thing you do when sitting down to practice. Just as a runner stretches before getting on the track, your fingers need the same! To start, stretch your fingers out a bit by gently tugging on each finger and bending it slightly forwards and backwards. You can also try finger isolations to help each finger get stronger when moving independently. I always like to stretch out my wrists before playing as well. Once you feel a bit more loose, you can start playing some basic scales or chords. Depending on the student you may be comfortable playing a 5 note or full octave scale. If you are playing the full octave scale, remember to use correct fingering for tucks and crosses. You should play these in both hands, and if you notice one hand is harder, spend more time working with that hand!
Technique Work
Bridging from your warm up should be focused technique work. This can include the scales or chords from the warm up, but it can also extend to arpeggios and more targeted drills. Some examples of this could be:
Finger jumps with specific interval goals (2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, and octaves)
Circle of 5ths triads and scale warm up
Specific chord cadences in different keys
Major and Minor Arpeggios (triads)
Major, Minor, Dominant Arpeggios (7th chords)
Major, minor, and chromatic scales up and down
** Most beginner students are assigned weekly technique work from a book with shorter exercises
Applied Work to Repertoire
This portion of your practice routine should be focused on the songs you are working on. This may be 3 or 4 shorter pieces from a book, or working on a section from a longer piece. Some things to remember while working on a piece:
Isolate mistakes before linking them to the rest of the song. If you are having trouble with a specific part of the song, isolate that section into 1-2 measures. Focused repetition here is the key! Once you feel more comfortable, try adding in the measure before and after to master transitions in and out of the tricky section! Do not start the song from the beginning, mistakes need to be isolated!
Take breaks! This part of your practice routine will use up the most mental energy as you are applying everything to a specific song. If you get frustrated, take a break and come back to it.
Do not rush! Work on getting the notes and finger movements mastered before you try speeding up.
Focus on musical expression, music is much more than just the notes on the page. What are you trying to convey, show, or communicate?
Fun Play
Do not skip this part of the practice routine! Fun play could mean different things for everyone, maybe you’re learning a song from YouTube, maybe its messing around with some improv, maybe its creating your own chord progression to sing to! Lots of people like to revisit old songs that they’ve mastered already to play for fun. This part of the routine should feel fun and relaxed. Sometimes we don’t have the best practice day, and that’s okay! You can still end on a good note!
Remember you are taking piano lessons to grow your musical skills, sharpen your technique, express your musicality, but most importantly, to have fun!
