I'm in my fifties and I just discovered I've been doing things wrong all of my life (and why, and how to make things right)! Thanks so, so much! I cannot express how valuable are your videos to me!
This is brilliant! Every piano student should see this. Instead of jotting down my repetitions, I have coins from different parts of the world that I've visited, and I slide them from one end of the music rack to the other.
Thanks, Jeff! I love your idea - and what a cool way to remember the places you've visited (and put some otherwise potentially useless coinage to good use)!
Thank you. Great advice, especially about chunking. In fact, I wrote a 172 line poem as a project for an online Coursera learning program called :Learning how to learn in 2014. My poem was well appreciated especially by Barbara Oakley, the originator of the course. It can be found in the Hall of Fame. Indira Jayaraman : Tips for learning. We were taught about chunking early on in the course. I will follow this bit by bit mastery you mention. It is one thing to write about chucking but another thing to folllow through! Thank you for reminding ne. I am an 8th Grade Trinity pianist and did the practicals at the age of 60. Now I am 67 and continue to play classical. Learning jazz too.
This is wonderful- thank you for sharing! I'm glad you've experienced the value of this type of learning, and it sounds like you've helped many people learn this way as well! 👏🏻
I want apply your principles to pieces that I’ve played but never mastered some of the difficult parts. So I think it will work can’t wait to get back to my piano.
Thank you thank you for your tips on learning a new piano piece. I’m learning chopin Nocturne in E flat Major op. 9 No. 2 . Although I’ve been working on this song for about four weeks now and I started from the last measure, but when I got two pages in I jumped to the beginning because I got to impatient with it. Although I could play the notes it still was difficult to keep it flowing. My teacher said to start at like measure 30 and play each hands separately and hands together five times and take a seven minute break in between. It’s great to hear someone else telling me the same thing, so thank you. I’ve had to reteach myself piano after having a stroke and three heart attacks. I have been in lessons for a year now. I’m very determined to continue learning and advance my ability in music because I once had it. I practice from two to six and sometimes eight hours a day. If my back didn’t hurt I’d probably practice longer. I love it❤
Thank you Prof. Your videos help me alot. Im not a piano player, guitar is my instrument. But, all the knowledge,tips,concepts, or ideas that i learned in your videos, i applied it in my guitar playing...i notice a good progress in my playing, in memorizing a new piece, and as a musician as a whole. Now i felt like learning a new piece becomes easier and more fun. Again, thank you very much, i really appreciate all of what i learned from you. I always watch your videos when i found your channel many months ago. Your teaching and methods really works , i just give it a try before and trust the process...best wishes you prof.
I usually set my iPhone stop watch to 5 minutes per chunk or snippet. In that 5 minutes I do hands together separate staccato legato and different rhythms then move on to the second snippet and repeat. Once these bits start coming together I reduce the time to 2 mins then 1 minute and save the 5 minute segments for more new material. This way has served me the best for practice efficiency
Prof, thanks for all the info! I’ve been binging on all your videos, they are great! I have one question regarding the chunking method you talk about in this video. You mention to always start the practice with the material you have already learned the previous day and keep adding to that (with all the repetitions you think are necessary). My question is that every time you add to it, you make the “known” part of the drill larger and the time available to learn new material shrinks every day. It makes a lot of sense that doing it that way you keep everything fresh; but you also have less time to learn new things. It is the same problem, by extension, that I have on maintaining repertoire. If I choose to maintain repertoire, it takes time away from learning new stuff. I’m sorry for the long question (that in the end became two). 😄 the question is about the length of the training session regarding the total time of the piece (or repertoire) you are chunking (or maintaining).
Good question! And that's a really good point. You don't want to spend all of your practice time just reviewing. The idea is, that as you come back to material every day, you will be able to accomplish the same amount in a shorter amount of time (e.g., it takes less time to repeat something 5x if you are more familiar with the notes than you were the day before), and that frees up time to learn a new section. As more time passes and you get more familiar with pieces, you don't need to spend a lot of time looking at the "old" stuff as you learn new stuff. That said, students are often surprised at how much time it takes to learn new material well - how many times you need to repeat something to retain it, so at first, it might seem like you're covering less "new" material every day than you'd ideally like to. When you are maintaining old repertoire, if it is really solidly learned, you don't need to spend a lot of time practicing it - you could drop down to every few days, depending on the type of repertoire it is. One colleague I have reviews old rep on Fridays in order to keep it in his fingers. Does this help?
@@ThePianoProfKateBoydyes, thank you very much! This is really good advice. I have started using your method (however not brave enough to start from the end yet, but will eventually get there 😅, I know it makes sense but it just doesn’t feel right yet). I have tried to put all your advice in my drills and the quality of my practice seems much higher now. The breaking off into sections that make musical sense, then the phrases (I have yet to apply the gesture part for I just watched that video), but it’s just such a lot of good advice that really feels like I now am playing much better because it just makes sense in a context now, not just notes on a void. I’m currently going through grade 3 repertoire and it feels like I have matured musically years in just a few weeks after starting to follow your advice. Thank you a lot for this gift!
🇲🇽 Thanks fot the tips teacher. I have a little question, is necessary to study in the order of this method, or we could vary the steps? , for example when i see the score for the fist time and learned notes I'm analizing at the same time. is correct for the begginers like me this kind of study? Or is better study in order? Thank you, Happy 2024 !!!
Happy 2024 to you as well! I outlined the steps as I teach them and as they make sense to me. However, you can adapt this to whatever suits you best. You're in charge so you get to make the rules, along with your teacher, if you have one! 😊 Regardless, I would argue that it's important to have put some thought into a system or approach that you'll use, so you can approach a piece with a plan. Hope this helps!
Prof, thanks for all the info! I’ve been binging on all your videos, they are great! I have one question regarding the chunking method you talk about in this video. You mention to always start the practice with the material you have already learned the previous day and keep adding to that (with all the repetitions you think are necessary). My question is that every time you add to it, you make the “known” part of the drill larger and the time available to learn new material shrinks every day. It makes a lot of sense that doing it that way you keep everything fresh; but you also have less time to learn new things. It is the same problem, by extension, that I have on maintaining repertoire. If I choose to maintain repertoire, it takes time away from learning new stuff. I’m sorry for the long question (that in the end became two). 😄 the question is about the length of the training session regarding the total time of the piece (or repertoire) you are chunking (or maintaining).
This is a really big question - and you just gave me a new idea for a video topic! 😊 I can only tell you for now that there is no simple answer to this - there are a few principles you can learn, but honestly it's just experience/trial and error/ learning from someone else that will get you to a point where you feel confident putting in fingerings. Because fingering is so individual and yet there are universal principles that tend to work for most people, I am an advocate for using editions of music that have fingering printed in them (usually written by an editor). If you have music with printed fingerings, I recommend following those fingerings and then supplementing it by writing in fingerings on the notes that don't have them. You can use patterns like scale fingering and arpeggio fingering to help you with the fingerings, too! Hope this helps!
Hi Kate. It's past midnight and i'm "stuck" watching your vlog. I wanted to ask you, do you write your notations and fingerings directly on the book, i mean the original score or do you use an ipad or a printed copy of the score?
Hi there! I just responded to your other comment 😊 I do a combination, but usually write on the original score or my iPad if I am using that for my score. Really just personal preference! Hope that helps!
![How to Learn a Piano Piece FROM SCRATCH [My 6-Point System!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VGkJoB_V1bE/mqdefault.jpg)
![How to Learn a Piano Piece FROM SCRATCH [My 6-Point System!]](/img/tr.png)
![Slow Practice at the Piano [with 5 tips!] | The Piano Prof with Kate Boyd](/img/n.gif)
I'm in my fifties and I just discovered I've been doing things wrong all of my life (and why, and how to make things right)! Thanks so, so much! I cannot express how valuable are your videos to me!
Wow, thanks so much! I'm so glad you're finding these videos helpful! Keep up your hard work - it will pay off soon enough! 🎹🥰💜
This is brilliant! Every piano student should see this. Instead of jotting down my repetitions, I have coins from different parts of the world that I've visited, and I slide them from one end of the music rack to the other.
Thanks, Jeff! I love your idea - and what a cool way to remember the places you've visited (and put some otherwise potentially useless coinage to good use)!
I am learning so much from your teaching videos.
Awesome, thank you!
Quite helpful tips. This will help me greatly. I'm 77yrs and would like to enjoy my piano playing.
Thank you. Great advice, especially about chunking.
In fact, I wrote a 172 line poem as a project for an online Coursera learning program called :Learning how to learn in 2014.
My poem was well appreciated especially by Barbara Oakley, the originator of the course.
It can be found in the Hall of Fame.
Indira Jayaraman : Tips for learning.
We were taught about chunking early on in the course.
I will follow this bit by bit mastery you mention. It is one thing to write about chucking but another thing to folllow through!
Thank you for reminding ne.
I am an 8th Grade Trinity pianist and did the practicals at the age of 60. Now I am 67 and continue to play classical. Learning jazz too.
This is wonderful- thank you for sharing! I'm glad you've experienced the value of this type of learning, and it sounds like you've helped many people learn this way as well! 👏🏻
Thank you.
I want apply your principles to pieces that I’ve played but never mastered some of the difficult parts. So I think it will work can’t wait to get back to my piano.
Watch Next: How to Learn a New Piano Piece: 5 Preliminary Steps th-cam.com/video/wMJ8BVGXCOc/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and great tips 🙏❤️
You are so welcome! Glad you find it helpful!
Thank you thank you for your tips on learning a new piano piece. I’m learning chopin Nocturne in E flat Major op. 9 No. 2 . Although I’ve been working on this song for about four weeks now and I started from the last measure, but when I got two pages in I jumped to the beginning because I got to impatient with it. Although I could play the notes it still was difficult to keep it flowing. My teacher said to start at like measure 30 and play each hands separately and hands together five times and take a seven minute break in between. It’s great to hear someone else telling me the same thing, so thank you. I’ve had to reteach myself piano after having a stroke and three heart attacks. I have been in lessons for a year now. I’m very determined to continue learning and advance my ability in music because I once had it.
I practice from two to six and sometimes eight hours a day. If my back didn’t hurt I’d probably practice longer. I love it❤
Thanks for sharing! Glad to hear music has been so healing for you and that you love practicing so much! Good luck!
Thank you Prof. Your videos help me alot. Im not a piano player, guitar is my instrument. But, all the knowledge,tips,concepts, or ideas that i learned in your videos, i applied it in my guitar playing...i notice a good progress in my playing, in memorizing a new piece, and as a musician as a whole. Now i felt like learning a new piece becomes easier and more fun. Again, thank you very much, i really appreciate all of what i learned from you. I always watch your videos when i found your channel many months ago. Your teaching and methods really works , i just give it a try before and trust the process...best wishes you prof.
Wonderful - thanks so much for your comment. I'm happy to hear it's helping you as a guitar player, too! Happy practicing! 👋
Wonderful video. Thank you so much!
You are so welcome! Glad you liked it!
I usually set my iPhone stop watch to 5 minutes per chunk or snippet. In that 5 minutes I do hands together separate staccato legato and different rhythms then move on to the second snippet and repeat. Once these bits start coming together I reduce the time to 2 mins then 1 minute and save the 5 minute segments for more new material. This way has served me the best for practice efficiency
Great strategy! Thanks for sharing!
Prof, thanks for all the info! I’ve been binging on all your videos, they are great! I have one question regarding the chunking method you talk about in this video. You mention to always start the practice with the material you have already learned the previous day and keep adding to that (with all the repetitions you think are necessary). My question is that every time you add to it, you make the “known” part of the drill larger and the time available to learn new material shrinks every day. It makes a lot of sense that doing it that way you keep everything fresh; but you also have less time to learn new things. It is the same problem, by extension, that I have on maintaining repertoire. If I choose to maintain repertoire, it takes time away from learning new stuff. I’m sorry for the long question (that in the end became two). 😄 the question is about the length of the training session regarding the total time of the piece (or repertoire) you are chunking (or maintaining).
Good question! And that's a really good point. You don't want to spend all of your practice time just reviewing.
The idea is, that as you come back to material every day, you will be able to accomplish the same amount in a shorter amount of time (e.g., it takes less time to repeat something 5x if you are more familiar with the notes than you were the day before), and that frees up time to learn a new section.
As more time passes and you get more familiar with pieces, you don't need to spend a lot of time looking at the "old" stuff as you learn new stuff.
That said, students are often surprised at how much time it takes to learn new material well - how many times you need to repeat something to retain it, so at first, it might seem like you're covering less "new" material every day than you'd ideally like to.
When you are maintaining old repertoire, if it is really solidly learned, you don't need to spend a lot of time practicing it - you could drop down to every few days, depending on the type of repertoire it is. One colleague I have reviews old rep on Fridays in order to keep it in his fingers.
Does this help?
@@ThePianoProfKateBoydyes, thank you very much! This is really good advice. I have started using your method (however not brave enough to start from the end yet, but will eventually get there 😅, I know it makes sense but it just doesn’t feel right yet). I have tried to put all your advice in my drills and the quality of my practice seems much higher now. The breaking off into sections that make musical sense, then the phrases (I have yet to apply the gesture part for I just watched that video), but it’s just such a lot of good advice that really feels like I now am playing much better because it just makes sense in a context now, not just notes on a void. I’m currently going through grade 3 repertoire and it feels like I have matured musically years in just a few weeks after starting to follow your advice. Thank you a lot for this gift!
@@neander75 You're so welcome - I'm very glad to hear about your progress! Keep up the great work!!
🇲🇽
Thanks fot the tips teacher.
I have a little question, is necessary to study in the order of this method, or we could vary the steps? , for example when i see the score for the fist time and learned notes I'm analizing at the same time.
is correct for the begginers like me this kind of study? Or is better study in order?
Thank you, Happy 2024 !!!
Happy 2024 to you as well! I outlined the steps as I teach them and as they make sense to me. However, you can adapt this to whatever suits you best. You're in charge so you get to make the rules, along with your teacher, if you have one! 😊 Regardless, I would argue that it's important to have put some thought into a system or approach that you'll use, so you can approach a piece with a plan. Hope this helps!
Great tips!
Thank you! Glad it was helpful!
Prof, thanks for all the info! I’ve been binging on all your videos, they are great! I have one question regarding the chunking method you talk about in this video. You mention to always start the practice with the material you have already learned the previous day and keep adding to that (with all the repetitions you think are necessary). My question is that every time you add to it, you make the “known” part of the drill larger and the time available to learn new material shrinks every day. It makes a lot of sense that doing it that way you keep everything fresh; but you also have less time to learn new things. It is the same problem, by extension, that I have on maintaining repertoire. If I choose to maintain repertoire, it takes time away from learning new stuff. I’m sorry for the long question (that in the end became two). 😄 the question is about the length of the training session regarding the total time of the piece (or repertoire) you are chunking (or maintaining).
Dear Prof, how do I best learn how to put in fingerings? I do it but not based on any particular method. Thanks!
This is a really big question - and you just gave me a new idea for a video topic! 😊
I can only tell you for now that there is no simple answer to this - there are a few principles you can learn, but honestly it's just experience/trial and error/ learning from someone else that will get you to a point where you feel confident putting in fingerings.
Because fingering is so individual and yet there are universal principles that tend to work for most people, I am an advocate for using editions of music that have fingering printed in them (usually written by an editor). If you have music with printed fingerings, I recommend following those fingerings and then supplementing it by writing in fingerings on the notes that don't have them. You can use patterns like scale fingering and arpeggio fingering to help you with the fingerings, too!
Hope this helps!
Hi Kate. It's past midnight and i'm "stuck" watching your vlog. I wanted to ask you, do you write your notations and fingerings directly on the book, i mean the original score or do you use an ipad or a printed copy of the score?
Hi there! I just responded to your other comment 😊 I do a combination, but usually write on the original score or my iPad if I am using that for my score. Really just personal preference! Hope that helps!