Canadian Musician - January/February 2019 | Page 26

KEYBOARDS
Allysia Van Betuw has been teaching piano for over 10 years in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and online. She always has
a variety of musical projects on the go, like adjudicating and performing in a rock band. Allysia is passionate about
demystifying piano practice and making classical music more accessible for kids and adults alike. www.pianotv.net.
By Allysia Van Betuw
Learning a Piano Piece
for the First Time
Part 1
I
’ve touched on the process of learning a piano piece for the first time
in the various tutorial videos on my website, www.pianotv.net. In a
typical tutorial, I’ll walk you through my process of approaching a
piano piece for the first time, usually complete with a bit of history,
listening, and analysis.
But it was brought to my attention a while back that I’d never done a
lesson simply on the process of approaching a new piece, so let’s do it!
First, I’ll share an overview of how I break it down, and then we’ll go
over the individual points in more depth.
Phase 1 represents everything I generally do before even attempting
to play the piece, whereas Phase 2 is active and involves playing.
Phase 1
1. Listen through the piece multiple times (Bonus points if you
follow with the sheet music)
2. Brush up on any historical details (like the song form, com-
poser, era, etc.)
3. Physically break up the piece into workable sections. (The size
of the section depends on the length of the piece.)
Phase 2
1. Start with one small section (usually a four-bar fragment) and
slowly work through a part hands separately (HS), or one voice
at a time
2. Once I can play a section slowly but somewhat comfortably
hands together (HT), I stop working on it so my brain can
marinate overnight.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all of the other sections. Be sure to
go over previously-learned sections daily – they’ll start to get
more comfortable with daily repetition.
Phase 1
1. Listen Through the Piece
When I’m learning a new piano piece, the first thing I do is listen to it.
Sometimes it’s a piece I’ve heard before, so I’ll just listen once as a refresher.
If it’s completely new, I’ll listen through several times, usually with sheet
music in front of me.
Pay attention to your various senses as you progress. I like to start with
the ear, while coupling that with reading (following along with the sheet
music). I then move to the analytical part of my brain, and then move
along to actual reading and playing (tactile).
2. Brush Up on Any Historical Details
Say I’m learning a waltz. If I feel I need to, I read up on what a waltz is. Or
perhaps I’m learning an impromptu. Or a fantasy. Whatever it is, I like to
familiarize myself with the genre before attempting it. What era was this
genre popular? What are the tendencies of this genre? Any particular
tempos or rhythms?
In addition to getting an inside scoop on the genre, I like to have
a working understanding of the composer as well. Learning music is a
much richer experience when you can connect to a composer across
space and time, and get to know him or her.
What’s their nationality? When were they active? Even more impor-
tantly, what was their playing style? Some composers, like Chopin, tended
to be very delicate and quiet, whereas composers like Liszt played with
vigorous energy.
3. Break Up the Piece into Workable Sections
Once you’ve listened through the piece and understand the genre/form,
I think it’s a good idea to go in and break it up into smaller components.
When you look at several pages of unbroken sheet music, your brain can
be overwhelmed, but if you section everything off, it suddenly becomes
much more manageable.
How you do this is entirely a personal choice, though I like to stick with
the song form if possible, so if I’m learning a movement in sonata form,
I’ll break it down into the exposition, development, and recapitulation.
If it’s a long sonata, I’ll break up those sections into even smaller parts.
Generally, if something starts repeating, or if there’s an obvious change
of pace, that’s a good spot to mark off. Double bar lines and repeats are
also very good guides for when sections are changing.
That covers Phase 1 – everything I like to do before I even touch the piano.
Next issue, we’ll take a look at how I approach a piece once it’s time to
start pressing those keys.
Check out Allysia’s website, PianoTV.net, which has over 350 video lessons – including this one!
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