Practice Piano

Ever found yourself practicing keyboard and the next thing you know you wonder off and start to play something you already know or am familiar with? You end up wasting an entire 15 minutes just playing around and not learning something new.

Well we all have been there, and sometimes I still do it. So how do you practice effectively? I have a few steps...

#1. Set a goal for the year

Set yourself a realistic goal for the year whether it be to learn new songs to play in church or in a band. You might even listen to songs and try to copy what the piano or keyboard player does. Or you want to know all major, minor and other scales by the end of the year in all 12 keys. Maybe you want to know certain progressions in all 12 keys.
The idea is to set some goal, so you have something to work towards and keep you motivated.

#2 Set time aside daily or every other day and try to stick to it.

We all have busy schedules between studying for exams, work and extra curricular activities. Keeping a schedule is helpful when one wants to progress with playing keyboard. It keeps you focused and more determined, because you have a goal. I would recommend practicing for at least an hour daily instead of practicing for 8 hrs straight once a week. It helps you to remember what you did the previous session much easier.

#3. Break up your sessions into parts

• Always start of with fingering exercises for about 15 minutes (Hanon Exercises are very good). 
• Practice new chords and try them in all 12 keys
• Practice chord progressions and try them in all 12 keys
• Try to practice a song

#4. Keep a diary

Just so you don't repeat the same things over and over again, keep a diary or journal of your practice sessions. Sometimes  you find yourself struggling with a certain progression or when you play a melody line. If you didn't manage to get it right, write it down. You can skip pass it and try it again the next time you practice. I would recommend you deal with those challenges in the same time slot or part within your session that you would have normally practiced it. Do not start with it when your sessions starts, otherwise you will not get to finger exercises or the rest.

Your first lesson

Learning how to play the keyboard is not that difficult. When I started, my very first lesson looked like this:

The first important concept is getting to know the notes on the keyboard. As can be seen above, there are only 12 unique keys on any keyboard or piano. In the picture, considering only the white keys, it starts with C at the far left and if you ascend upwards towards the right, it ends on B and repeats itself at C and so on...Please note that you get different size keyboards, hence your keys may start at different notes.

The second thing to notice is the black keys. There are two black keys between C-D and D-E. There are three black keys between F-G, G-A and A-B. These normally are referred to as either a sharp or a flat. When you ascend it will become the sharp of the previous key, and when it descends, it will become the flat of that key, e.g. C# if you go a semi-tone upwards from C and Db if you go a semi-tone downwards from D.

A semi-tone is when you were to change a key pitch with half a note, e.g. from C to C# or E to F. A whole tone is when you were to change a key pitch with a whole note, e.g. From C to D or F to G.

The third concept is to understand scales? Scales are a series of notes that differs in pitch as you ascend or descend on the keyboard or piano. It normally continues for a whole octave, meaning 8 notes. It starts at the first note and moves through seven notes and usually ends up at the first note, an octave higher. The first scale to learn is always the major scale in a particular key. Please note that all 12 keys has its own major scale. We will focus on the key of C for illustration purposes:  

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

This only consists of the white keys. Note that there is a pattern: W-W-H-W-W-H, where W is a whole tone and H is a half tone shift.

You can apply the pattern to all other keys and end up with a major scale in that particular key. This is how easily you could start practicing all 12 keys!

Now that you know the scales, what about the fingering? What fingers would you use in order to play these notes.

Well, number your fingers through the following illustration:

Here is the C scale again with the particular finger number as a subtext:

RH: C(1)-D(2)-E(3)-F(1)-G(2)-A(3)-B(4)-C(5)

LH: C(5)-D(4)-E(3)-F(2)-G(1)-A(3)-B(2)-C(1)

Hope you enjoyed this lesson. Feel free to comment or subscribe to my mail list to your top right hand side.