Five Of The Most Common Piano Mistakes Beginners Make

Have you just started with your piano lessons? Continue reading this blog to find out what are the common piano mistakes that you can avoid as a beginner. While diligent rehearsal is the key to become a pianist, even experienced musicians often doubt their practice. The best pianists are the ones who practiced for efficiency, who did not count the number of hours they put in, but who counted the number of techniques they mastered in.

So let’s read what you can avoid during your piano lessons to speed up your practice.

Mistake 1: Ignoring How the Fingers Work

A good pianist knows the importance of each finger in playing the instrument. Just because you are comfortable using the ring finger instead of the 4th finger, it doesn’t mean you are doing it right. While it may feel uncomfortable in the beginning, your hands will get accustomed to the positions soon after. Fingering or finger position in piano lessons is crucial because it:

1) Keeps our hands, fingers, and wrists steady
2) Keeps our fingers moving as little as possible while creating the perfect music
3) Helps us use all our fingers equally and prevents using one more than the other
4) Helps us distribute the music notes across all fingers uniformly

Mistake 2: Not Practicing the Basics Enough

Practicing the basics until you can even play in your sleep is a must to form the ground of your music. Learners often skip the difficult steps and jump to the next one only to return to it and try. Clear one step at a time and focus on practicing the difficult passages again and again. Moreover, just because you got stuck at a point, do not go back and restart from the beginning. Focus on it and once you pull it off, then you can revise for one last time before moving on to the next lesson.

Mistake 3: Practicing Only at a Fast Pace

Practice and more practice. You should practice enough to not forget your learnings. However, you should also remember that slow practice is more effective than fast practice. Confusing? Okay, here’s something simple. When you learn a piece, do not play it at the top speed. Playing at a fast note may seem easy but it won’t help you master the passage accurately. Playing slow will give you control over your music and the small details. Practicing the basics, every day, slowly will not only keep your mind engaged but also help you stay focused on the notes, sounds, and fingering.

Mistake 4: Playing More, Listening Less, and Looking at the keyboard More

Your focus should not be on the keyboard but the notations and the music created. It’s like riding a car, but instead of concentrating on the road, you focus on the steering wheel. It is not about how often you practice, but it is about how often you listen to music and recognize the notes and sounds. You have to make a habit of listening to not just what you learn but also what others create.

Also, you have to slowly cultivate the habit of reading music and relying less on keyboard image or numbers. This will help you practice pattern reading that allows musicians to recognize notations moving up and down.

Mistake 5: Not Getting a Passage Right Multiple Times

Most often when practicing a difficult passage, we tend to repeat a spot only until we get it right. And then we move on to the next note. But, what would you remember at the end of a week – playing wrong 20 times or played right one time? The wrong one, right? It is because we practiced it more. Therefore, your goal should not be getting it right once, but getting it right multiple times, in different surroundings and scenarios. Only then you should move on to the next section.

Article by Aarif Habeeb