How to Practice for a Piano Recital
Memorize using all your senses: Sight: Practice both with and without your sheet music., Establish landmarks and footholds: Analyze and memorize the keys, scales, chords, and progressions that make up your piece, identifying them as you practice...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Memorize using all your senses: Sight: Practice both with and without your sheet music.
When playing without, visualize the line and page you’re on to stay on track.
Touch:
Muscle memory is an astonishing thing; sometimes your fingers remember your music better than you do.
Practice until you can play your piece without having to think about it, but make sure not to rely entirely on this.
Hearing:
Do you know how the melody goes from start to finish? Go back and pick out the melody lines from your piece and play these alone.
Try humming the melody the ENTIRE way through.
Taste and smell:
Practice breathing with musical phrases while you play.
Just as singers time their breaths during a song, musicians should practice breathing as they play their instrument.
When your adrenaline is rushing, it’s important to get a healthy flow of oxygen to your brain so you can perform at your peak. -
Step 2: Establish landmarks and footholds: Analyze and memorize the keys
Practicing the harmony parts (i.e. left hand) separately will strengthen your knowledge and memory of the piece.
Increase your sight-reading skills by playing random notes on flashcard or using a sight-reading workbook like NOTEBUSTERS that also builds muscle memory retention. , Do your best to practice your performance in as similar conditions to the “real deal” as possible. , Know what you sound like, and make sure you like what you hear.
More often than not, the first time people pay attention to what they actually sound like is during their performance! ,:
Adrenaline always makes you play faster.
Practice slower than you would ever actually perform, but with all the dynamics and emotion that you use when you're playing at full speed. , Don't try to cram in practice the day of your performance
- it won't do you any good. , Calm your stomach with potassium; bananas are known to have beta-blocking effects that will calm your nerves and reduce the shakes. ,:
When the day arrives and you've done everything possible to prepare, just relax.
As my father always used to ask me, "What's the worst that can happen?" -
Step 3: scales
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Step 4: chords
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Step 5: and progressions that make up your piece
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Step 6: identifying them as you practice.
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Step 7: Outside factors and nerves can have surprising effects: Take into consideration the time of performance
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Step 8: weather and lighting conditions
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Step 9: clothing (does your outfit inhibit your range of motion)
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Step 10: audience proximity and size
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Step 11: Get used to listening to yourself perform: Record yourself playing
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Step 12: but don't forget to rewind and listen!
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Step 13: Slow down!
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Step 14: No last minute procrastinating: Practice consistently for weeks or even months before the performance.
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Step 15: Eat a banana!
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Step 16: What's the worst that can happen?
Detailed Guide
When playing without, visualize the line and page you’re on to stay on track.
Touch:
Muscle memory is an astonishing thing; sometimes your fingers remember your music better than you do.
Practice until you can play your piece without having to think about it, but make sure not to rely entirely on this.
Hearing:
Do you know how the melody goes from start to finish? Go back and pick out the melody lines from your piece and play these alone.
Try humming the melody the ENTIRE way through.
Taste and smell:
Practice breathing with musical phrases while you play.
Just as singers time their breaths during a song, musicians should practice breathing as they play their instrument.
When your adrenaline is rushing, it’s important to get a healthy flow of oxygen to your brain so you can perform at your peak.
Practicing the harmony parts (i.e. left hand) separately will strengthen your knowledge and memory of the piece.
Increase your sight-reading skills by playing random notes on flashcard or using a sight-reading workbook like NOTEBUSTERS that also builds muscle memory retention. , Do your best to practice your performance in as similar conditions to the “real deal” as possible. , Know what you sound like, and make sure you like what you hear.
More often than not, the first time people pay attention to what they actually sound like is during their performance! ,:
Adrenaline always makes you play faster.
Practice slower than you would ever actually perform, but with all the dynamics and emotion that you use when you're playing at full speed. , Don't try to cram in practice the day of your performance
- it won't do you any good. , Calm your stomach with potassium; bananas are known to have beta-blocking effects that will calm your nerves and reduce the shakes. ,:
When the day arrives and you've done everything possible to prepare, just relax.
As my father always used to ask me, "What's the worst that can happen?"
About the Author
David Ward
Creates helpful guides on organization to inspire and educate readers.
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