How to practise?

[lavender]

Hi everyone, I just had my first lesson for pop piano for beginners. I was given a piece to practise at home. I know what I have to do, play the chords with my left hand and the tune with my right hand..However, I seem to be having a lot of problems with the coordination. I have been practising the same bar for two days and it is still not good How should I practise more efficiently?

 

[pf]

Haha...I had the same problem when I first started.

The first 2 days of practicing is always crap. But then, don't give up. Just go about it 45mins a day. Adding a few bars each day. Then suddenly, on the 4th or 5th day, you'll realised that you play much smoother.

Your fingers just need time to memorise the coordination and movement.

Oh btw, don't stick on to the same bar for too long. The fingers will even memorise the stopping. If you perfect each bar as you go, you'll realise that your playing will sound disjointed. You have to practice not stopping even if you made a mistake. Believe me, that is more difficult to do than perfecting one bar at a time.

And practice slooooooooooooowwwwwlllllyyyy first. Its more important to get it right. You'll naturally play faster when the movements are memorised by your fingers.

 

[pianomankris]

All that in one lesson?!! Good God!!

Practise tapping the rhythm of what you are meant to play.

Tap the RH rhythm against your right leg, then tap the LH rhythm against your left leg. If you can manage this, try tapping both together. Try also counting the main beats out (1 2 3 4) whilst doing this.

It'll be almost impossible to play the piece if you can't tap the rhythm of what you're meant to be playing.

If it is a coordination problem early on, the usual issue is one of understanding the rhythm of what you're playing. Trying to 'guess' where the hands fit together is usually where the problems are, as this is what most people do early on. Usually because they are pushed too fast too soon. Which sounds like your situation.

PS make sure when you lift the LH chord off to play a new chord that your RH doesn't also come up (unless there is a rest, of course). This is also common with beginners. Once again, it's a basic coordination issue, and one your teacher should work through with you.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[lavender]

Thanks for the tips Kris and pf! Very useful tips.

Yes pf, I am playing it very, very, very slowly and I have a lot of problems counting the beats. It's all in a mess. It is vexing,somehow. Do you mean that I've to continue playing despite making mistakes? Usually when I make mistakes, I will stop and go back to the start again. Today I am practising two bars.. HAHA, a slight improvement from yesterday. I am not sure if I can finish this song before the next lesson!!!! *nervous*

I worked out a new method just now and realised that things are a little better; I coloured those notes that require my 'hands to fit together'...I 'read' the fakesheet better now (i.e: faster). Sometimes my fingers will go out of control and I'll press keys I am not supposed to. I don't know why that happens but my teacher kept asking why I pressed those keys during the lesson! Well..

Now I guess, I have to work on accuracy and after that the timing. Thanks Kris for the tip, I will tap it out before I play

 

[pf]

Good point, Kris.

I practice one hand each time. Then after that both hands, beat by beat. If the melody is more complicated, I will draw beat lines on the bars and indicate what to play on the LH and RH of each beat in the bar. Then practice slowly.

Initially, you can go back and re-try...to practice the coordination. But you have to move on to learn to play a whole phrase (a few bars), instead of always sticking to just 2 bars. If you go 2 bars by 2 bars and don't practice joining them together. Your hands will automatically want to stop after every 2 bars.

So, while you're learning to play a whole phrase (without stopping and smoothly), you have to play the whole phrase. You can't practice in bits and pieces. You will end up playing always in bits and pieces since your hands memorised the breaks.

Btw, it shouldn't matter if you can't finish playing the whole song before the next lesson. Its great if you can, but if you can't, the important thing is to learn the coordination. Coz once you've got familiar with the process of doing it, you can apply it to the next song. The song is just for you to practice the technique.

I'm glad that you're on SOFT lavender! It shows that you're very serious about this stuff. The people on SOFT has helped me a lot when I first got started.

I think the important thing as a beginner in pop piano is to learn how to learn pop piano. There are so many songs and so many techniques to learn. But once you start to observe yourself as you learn and improve on your learning, then you will be able to learn everything.

 

[kongwee]

If got auto accomp, on it. Find the style that suit the song are you are playing. Bring down tempo slowly slowly slowly..... Get your left hand follow the rhythm first.

 

[lavender]

If got auto accomp, on it. Find the style that suit the song are you are playing. Bring down tempo slowly slowly slowly..... Get your left hand follow the rhythm first.

I think there is. I am using YAMAHA PSR-340 SYNTHESIZER KEYBOARD.
Still figuring out how to use all the functions. Quite clueless now.

 

[kongwee]

Sure got. It is call style. I think you press style button and dial in the number. Press play button it will start the rhythm I think. Must be sure Accomp is off so that you play the key that you heard. In any style, you could train your scale for your both hand too( and a lot more fun!).

 

[pf]

I think its better for lavendar to focus on coordination first.

Training for timing with the drum machine/auto accompaniment function comes after ability to play somewhat smoothly. Or else it will just be adding stress.

 

[Geist]

seen some scenery

 

[lavender]

Sure got. It is call style. I think you press style button and dial in the number. Press play button it will start the rhythm I think. Must be sure Accomp is off so that you play the key that you heard. In any style, you could train your scale for your both hand too( and a lot more fun!).

Thanks, I tried it out..It is interesting to listen to it, sounds very nice..I am amazed by it~:-D
Still not sure how to set it, will learn as I go along

 

[lavender]

I think its better for lavendar to focus on coordination first.

Training for timing with the drum machine/auto accompaniment function comes after ability to play somewhat smoothly. Or else it will just be adding stress.

Pf, thanks~ Harmless to try it out anyway. It's kind of interesting, too.

My focus now is to finish this song before the next lesson I am still playing very very very very very very very slowly...

Playing 4 bars now.

 

[kongwee]

Don't rush to complete a song. Do 4 bar at a time. If you could do 8 bar which normally mean a verse, it a great achievement.

 

[lavender]

Don't rush to complete a song. Do 4 bar at a time. If you could do 8 bar which normally mean a verse, it a great achievement.

The fakesheet given is not for the whole song anyway; it's just part of a song~!
I wonder when I can play a proper song with a proper accompaniment!

Anyway, is fingering very important or I can just use any fingering I am comfortable with? I am playing a 1-5-8 broken chord but I prefer to use my thumb to play 5 and move a finger to play 8.I'm finding it hard to find 5 if I use my index finger to play 5 ( Hope you get what I mean)..

 

[pf]

Can lah...slowly lor.

My view on fingering is anything goes, as long as it is natural and comfortable. (There is a thread on fingering I think)

1-5 with last and index finger is not too difficult. If you can't stretch, move your whole hand. Just don't strain until you get injured. If you can't manage that, later on you will have problem with doing stuff like 1-5-8-9-12-10-9-8...

Ask your teacher to check your finger/hand position to see if you're having the correct stance or whachavaucallit...

 

[lavender]

If you can't stretch, move your whole hand. Just don't strain until you get injured.

Wow, injured???

 

[pf]

Yes. On and off, ask your teacher to check if your hand/wrist position is ok.

Sometimes when we play, we don't notice. Musicians are like sportsmen. We use muscles for mechanical movements too. So, they can be strained as well.

 

[kongwee]

Your fingers have to develop necessary muscles too. Play more and relax!

 

[lavender]

Oh, I really didn't know about finger injury. Sounds like sports injury. Will my fingers slim down with more piano playing? Hahaha. :-D:-D

My practices are really fulfilling. I can play most of the notes (left and right) together slowly right now (for all 17 bars) but still having problems counting the beats. I have been practising with my focus on getting the notes right, now they sound right but I simply cannot count and play at the same time!!!! 1x2x3x4x..

 

[ianboy]

hi lavender,do you have any musical experience before this? played classical piano previously? or are you just starting from scratch, and headed straight for pop piano?

i was a classically-trained pianist..stopped after grade 8 for around 2-3 years coz i totally lost interest...then came some inspiring bands which propelled me to pick up the keyboard.

i was mostly self-taught (which isn't much to brag about coz i have grade 8 theory up my sleeves ), and to be honest,when i first started out pop piano,i had no clue where to begin.being a classical pianist,you were only taught to read,follow,and maybe express the music a little.

so i started off by collecting chord progressions online,or you could say 'fakesheets',for songs that i like.didn't work,coz my fingers wouldn't register the sudden quick chord changes.lol (my first song was 'let it be' by the beatles...easiest IMO,coz it was in the C key).

but i preservered,and i tried practicing with the song in the background.helped a bit,coz the song acted like a metronome,and it gets you listening to all the chord changes at the same time.

still,i was stuck for 1 month (no talent ).then when i finally got the chords right,i tried improvising the song (it comes naturally,coz you tend to get bored playing the same thing over and over again), and then i tried other songs,in the key of C.still playing with the song in the background.

then i tried other keys (after 3-4 months later haha), then i tried ALL the keys. then i realized my style play is very dull and repetitive, so i decided to practice my scales all over again.that includes broken chords,arpeggios,etc.just to familiarize my fingers to the keyboard,(in case my mind decides to be creative halfway through a song,then my fingers can execute it) especially for unusual chord progressions.

and now i'm currently practicing progressions for every key,so that i'm prepared for just about any song.no luck so far.

IMO,listening is just as important as practicing on the keyboard..eventually you'll wanna be able to listen to any song,and play it on the spot..that's why for every nice tune i hear anywhere,i try to play it out when i get to my keyboard..

just sharing my experience...already practicing for close to a year,still nothing to be proud of yet (no talent haha).but i believe you'll go further and faster with a teacher.all the best!