You have just had a good time enjoying your vacation, it's back to school and more than ever, you want to continue playing the piano. You can now decipher a score and your fingers become more relaxed on the keyboard of your piano every day. It's time to challenge yourself and progress in your piano learning.
Back to school: new challenges
It's back to school but you are no longer a beginner at the piano. This therefore allows you to begin to concentrate with more pleasure on the deep meaning of a work, its artistic and musical quality, and the meaning given to it. Your progress on the piano allows you to enjoy it more. They motivate you to fully participate in the creation of a musical work. Your interpretation will be able to offer those who listen to it a musicality completely different from another.
Musicality and technique are inseparable
You can easily work on this musicality by going to a concert. By observing the pianist, see what he pulls out of his nets, how he feels in the work he then performs. Just as a child learns to speak by watching his parents form words with their mouths, you will learn by watching the pianist vibrate his keyboard.
This will also allow you to add more musicality to your learning, including your most simple and boring technical exercises. You will then also progress technically. It's a fun approach and if you can do it, you're a winner. You will be able to perform any work on the piano with your own musicality.
By developing your own musicality at the same time as learning the piano, you will develop a certain musical sensitivity while gaining flexibility in your touch and technique. Thus, by combining technique and musicality, you will be able to enter into the soul of all the works.
Attempt more difficult pieces
The difference between playing and working
Of course, it is easier and more comfortable to systematically play the pieces that we know perfectly. It doesn't require effort and it's a pleasure to hear yourself on the piano. However, play should not be confused with work. You can always continue to play but above all you have to continue to work. Playing the piano means being able to interpret a score from start to finish.
Working on the piano means tirelessly repeating passages with the specific aim of improvement. Learning to play more difficult pieces means progressing again and again. You have to be patient. Start as you did before for the simpler pieces that you now play effortlessly. And start from scratch each time with humility.
Training: the key to success
Read the score aloud to decipher the notes. Work on your right hand, measure by measure, repeating the score multiple times so that you can play it on your keyboard without even thinking about it. Then work the left hand by repeating the same exercise as for the right hand. Finally, put the two hands together. Do not systematically start your piece from the beginning at each difficulty.
Know how to identify the difficult passages, the ones that scare you, and go straight to them to repeat them again and again. Record yourself to listen to yourself between each repetition. This will help you better identify your difficulties and progress more quickly.
No song is impossible to play! It's always the same notes. You have now mastered the basics of music theory sufficiently to get started easily. You have to take your time. And eventually, like any other piece you already know, you'll end up playing a more difficult score.
The more you progress in learning the piano, the more you realize that there is always a more difficult piece to play, but none is insurmountable. It's just a matter of time!
Back-to-School Exercise: Starting to Play in Public
Obviously, it's not easy and you get nervous. However, it is essential in order to feel more and more comfortable in front of your keyboard and forget everything around you. Focus on your interpretation alone. Whether your hands are trembling, there is noise in the room, all you hear is your fingers on the piano.
To begin with, it will be easier for you to play in front of a small audience: your family or a few friends. Choose pieces that you master perfectly and get used to the presence of a dedicated listener for your work. You can also plan a small, simple meditation session to control your breathing. This will help ease your apprehension before going on stage.
The solution lies in mastering your playing and your score. You realize that your stress is also your driving force!
