Introduction to Piano Technique

In my previous post, I examine the starting point of a beginner on the piano keyboard. Now I'm going to talk about how to actually practice.

What this means is that you could practice for 1 hour every day adopting a wrong technique, while someone else could practice for 20 minutes a day with the right techniques. At the long run someone who uses the right techniques, improved faster even though he practices for a shorter time.

So we are going to consider the following:

• What is Piano Technique Anyway
• Your Piano Practice Routine
• Learn Some of the Basics of Music Theory
• Good Finger Positioning
• Sitting Positioning and Keyboard Stand
• Left and Right Hands
• Listening to a Piece of Music and Playing by Ear

1. What is Piano Technique Anyway

Simply put, Piano Technique is the method you adopt in playing the piano.  This encompasses a number of things including all the other six points listed above. Piano technique is what helps you improve to the point that you can play like any of the popular pianist you know. This is because you skills develop from the techniques you adopt. The professionals are not born professional, they simply apply the right techniques over time and after a while they are what they are. You can be the same like them with the right techniques

2. Your Piano Practice Routine

You must adopt a regular practice routine. Examples are:

20 minutes every day

30 minutes every two days

15 minutes each morning and evening

1 hour every two days 

Every Saturday and Sunday evening(2hour each day)

Any of the routine you adopt is up to you depending on your particular circumstance. But the important point is, have a regular routine. Don't just wake up after 3 weeks and jump on the keyboard and play for the whole day! and then the next day you forget you have a keyboard. The effect of this is that your progress would be retarded.

3. Learn Some Basics of Music Theory

If you adopt an excellence technique in you leaning the keyboard, what would be the difference between you and a graduate of music? The simple answer is "Theory". 

Now you want to be the best you can be, so it would be necessary to learn the basic theory of music. So just buy a good music textbook from a bookshop and read for a few minutes from time to time. You need to learn concepts including the following:

• Musical Clef
• Musical Stave
• Musical Notes
• Key Signatures
• Time Signature
• Octave
• Chords
• Finger Positioning
• Middle C

Note that the focus in in your practice, so don't spend all the time reading. Say 10% of you practice time could be devoted to getting a few tidbits, then the 90% would be practice.

4. Good Finger Positioning

Playing the keyboard is like typing on the typewriter. What this means, is that you need to learn the various finger positioning and apply them. Just like in typewriters, some typist might type fast without having learnt about the finger positioning. Here they improved over time but in such case, their improvement is limited. For  a typist that applies good finger positioning, there is not limits to his improvement, his typing speed keeps increasing indefinitely with time!

For the keyboard the basic and simplest position is the C position: here your thumb should be on the C key and other fingers is place on other keys progressively. We also have the G position F position.

5. Sitting Position and Keyboard Stand

The height of the sit as well as the height of the keyboard stand matters too although this may also depend on your personal preference.

A good positioning though would be when you elbows are at your side and your hand at the keyboard level.

Sit close to the front of the bench and make sure your body is in a vertical position with your arms forming 90 degrees from your body.

6. Left and Right Hand

All professional musicians playing with two hands on the keyboard started with one hand. What this means is that it is ok to start learning with one hand first, and that should be your right hand. A piece of music normally contains the treble cref and the base clef. You play the treble with your right hand and the base with your left. When practicing, practice sepearalty first with your right hand alone, and then with your left hand alone. When you feel a little comfortable playing each, you can then practice with both hands.

7. Listening to a Piece of Music and Playing by Ear

Long time piano players could actually listen to a piece of music playing and then play along even for the first time! This takes time even years to do, but you can start. So you can attempt to play a piece of music you are listening to. The first thing you do is to listen to the music an number of time an become used to it. Then try to play from the beginning, you may not get it at first, but the more you try the likely you will achieve proficiency in time.

I would like to stop here to allow you to digest the little I've wrote so far. You may have to read this article a number of times and feel free to leave a comment below to let me know what you would like me to clarify on. Let me know your challenges and I would give you the needed assistance.