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 2
L
ast time, we went over what I call “phase one” of learning a new
piano piece – everything I like to do before I even touch the piano.
Now, for phase two, we’ll take a look at how I approach a piece
once it’s time to start pressing those keys.
1. Start with One Small Section
Start with one small section and slowly work through a part hands sepa-
rately (HS), or one voice at a time.
Often, I see people attempt to sightread a whole page or two of music
when they’re just starting a piece, but that tends to be a way to burn out
your brain really quickly. Your brain has to process so much new input that
by the time you get to the end of the page, you forget what you played
at the beginning.
This is why I always start with very small fragments – usually four-bar
fragments, since music is often divided that way, but not always. You could
start by learning a phrase, as phrases are good guides for when it sounds
natural to start and stop.
I tend to go really slowly, maybe running through it HS once or twice.
If it’s a piece with multiple voices, like a fugue, I like to go through the
individual voices (always using the correct fingering).
I might even spend 10 or 15 minutes here, depending on how well
I’m digesting it. The goal is to start building the part into your memory.
When you go and play it again, you want your brain to go, “Aha, I remember
this.” After those 10 or 15 minutes, it’s still going to feel a little clumsy, but
I should be able to play it accurately at a slow tempo.
2. Put the Part Away
Once I can play a section slowly (but somewhat comfortably) hands to-
gether (HT), I stop working on it so my brain can marinate overnight.
Generally, I find when I re-approach the same part the next day, the first
try or two will feel clumsy, but then I’ll get quite a bit better at it – much
better than if I were to hammer at the same part for an hour straight.
3. Rinse & Repeat
Repeat the previous two steps for all of the other sections. Be sure to go
over previously-learned sections daily; they’ll start to get more comfort-
able with daily repetition.
Say I spend 30 minutes working on a brand-new piece, I might get
through three different micro-sections. The next day, I might spend 10
minutes reviewing those sections, and then spend 20 minutes learning
a couple of new sections. I rinse and repeat this process until I’ve made
it through the whole piece.
You might think time compounds, and once you’ve learned so much,
you’d have to practice for an hour in order to get to any of the new parts,
but the review process tends to be pretty constant. As you start getting
better and faster at certain sections, you’ll need to spend less time on
them, and thus, the review will be shorter.
Quick Tips
1. Force yourself to be rhythmically accurate immediately. Just
like it’s a bad idea to practice hitting the wrong notes, it’s a
bad idea to practice playing the wrong rhythm. Really, my
number one tip is to strive for accuracy in everything right
from the beginning, especially notes and rhythm. Any time
you’re inaccurate, you’re essentially practicing playing wrong;
you want to practice playing right.
2. If you find yourself consistently hesitating, pausing, or mak-
ing mistakes in any section, isolate that section, however
small. Quarantine it and fix the problem. You might find
certain sticky areas need this attention daily, but it’ll pay off.
3. If there’s pedal in the piece, incorporate it immediately.
You want pedaling to be a natural part of the piece, not an
awkward afterthought.
4. It might seem like a lot of coordination to pedal when you’re
learning the notes, but the payoff is more than worth it, and
this process will get simpler for future songs as you get used
to the process.
5. Try to work details into your practice sessions (staccatos,
dynamics, etc.) right from the beginning. This will help your
ear get used to what it’s supposed to sound like, so later, you
won’t have to put much conscious thought into the dynam-
ics, etc. They’ll already be a part of the way you play. This ties
into my first and most important tip: be accurate.
6. I can’t say it enough: accuracy is the most important thing.
Mistakes aren’t the end of the world, but don’t be sloppy. If
you’re playing sloppily and making lots of mistakes, you need
to change something – slow down, work on smaller sections,
practice hands separately, or learn an easier piece.
Check out Allysia’s website, PianoTV.net, which has over 350 video lessons – including this one!
26 CANADIAN MUSICIAN