In this video, I want to share with you five
things I wish I would have prioritized more in my piano learning. I think these are things
that would have helped me to learn piano more comprehensively and faster. And I actually have
evidence for some of the things I'm about to share, because some of my students that are with
me for two years can do things that I last time could only do in my fifth year of piano playing.
So I think it's important to get all these kind of stuff right from the start of your piano playing.
Number 1 - "Chords are Everything". Chords are everything, if I were a beginner piano student
again I would focus extra hard on learning and understanding chord structure. I've been trying to
think about an analogy to help people understand the function of chords in music and I think here's
a good one. So think about a whole bunch of Lego blocks. And chords are sort of like learning
how to build simple structures. For example: this apple tree, or this watermelon. So
learning chords is kind of like learning how to build these simple Lego structures which
you can then later use to build even more complex bigger Lego structures. And once you have this
skill of seeing music from the lens of chords, music doesn't become so scary anymore, because
all you see are these sort of simple structures that you already understand. I'm going to
play two very short chord progressions for you and I want you to listen to them and
tell me which one sounds more satisfying. Without going into too much detail, the second one
sounds more satisfying because it ended on a chord 1. So in this little short piece of music,
it's set in C major which means there's no sharps nor flats. It's all white notes. So in the
second example, I play the final chord was this so in this chord there are the notes C, E and
G which in the C major world. is Chord one now. When you give time to study triads and chords,
you start to see patterns such as this one that I just shared with you which is that music often
ends with chord 1. And when you realize patterns such as this, it's almost like you develop your
musical sixth sense where you can anticipate what the next chord coming in. And then this then helps
you to then sightread it with more ease and the whole musical creating experience becomes easier.
So I highly recommend everyone to start working on chords. Just start with majors. So in a major
scale, let's say in C major, you want to know this is chord 1, chord 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And then start
to play around with going from each chord to the next. For example, if I want to go from chord 1
to chord 4 to chord 5 to chord 1. This is called a 1-4-5-1 progression. So some chords go well to
some and some don't really go well to others. For example, if I do something like 1-4 instead of
going to 5, I go to 7 and then go to 3-4-5-7. You know it just sort of sounds a little bit
weird. Another better example could be something like going from 1, and I love going to 6 from 1.
And then let's say go into 2 to 5. And then our favorite 1 to end another one. If you're finding
this video helpful, make sure you SUBSCRIBE to this channel. We do loads of free piano tutorials
and content, here so make sure you stay in touch by subscribing. Second thing I wish my piano
teacher prioritized with me more is to "Do more of a practice method called the AAR method" I'm
going to talk about it slightly here, but if you want an in-depth video you can click over here.
AAR stands for Absolute Accuracy Rule. Now most piano beginners I see practice piano something
like this. This is a bad way to practice piano. This is something what I like to call "gambling", which means you are basically executing notes
without this kind of deep thought and complete awareness of what you're actually doing on
the piano. You're simply just kind of, uh, trying your luck and gambling with your notes
and hopefully trying to execute the correct note. And you sort of try 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
times without that sort of slow down small little sections and thinking very deeply. What I
teach my students to do and they get incredible results in just five minutes of practice is this
Absolute Accuracy Rule where they 100 prioritize the right notes. So you're allowed to throw a
rhythm and the sense of pulse out the window but you must play the right notes. For example,
you might start with a section like this... So you saw there that I took my time
with all the notes and in the time where the notes strike with both right
and left hand. I just paused a little bit and gave myself time to very
think very deeply and then execute it successfully. So once you master that
you might upgrade to something like this. So what you saw there was I took my time to
find the right positions get over there think about it and execute correctly. So a little
game I like to play with my students is they actually must play the sections that I set them
and they can be as small as this. They have to play it between 5 to 7 correct times before
they can move on to the next section. So we absolutely make sure that they understand that
position changes, they understand what notes need to be played before they can move on so.
There's no sense of gambling at all. We know it hundred percent what to play you must give
this one a try. I think this will do wonders for your improvement. Number 3, I wish in my
piano journey I worked more with a "Metronome". I work with adult learners all the
time and I feel that keeping a beat is something that some adults just do pretty
naturally. And some adults just need a bit of work on the students that can keep and
beat would play something like this... And some students who can't quite keep
and beat might play something like this... So for the students that can't keep and beat,
I always do this one thing that immediately helps them to keep them beat. And what
I do is I just very gently tap their shoulder like this so I'm standing around
here. And as they're playing the piano, I just tap the beat on the shoulder - okay 2
- 3 - 4 -1- 2 - 3 - 4. It's sort of funny and it's really great. I probably need to write a
blog article on it or something. But when the student feels the sense of beat and touch on
their shoulders suddenly they're just able to have this really stable and consistent sense
of pulse. I think two groups of people have a really good sense of pulse and rhythm. And
they are dancers and drummers. And that's because these two categories of people, they do
a lot with their bodies with the beat. Now for piano players because the action of us striking
keys isn't as dramatic as a dancer or a drummer. Sometimes it's a bit harder to just keep that very
consistent sense of pulse especially when there are a lot of notes that your brain just needs to
allocate space to process. So if you have time, maybe you can try some simple dance moves or maybe
you can try drumming if you ever see a drum kit. If you want a really simple way to feel the beat
in your body, such as dancers do or drummers do, or like I was saying how I tap the beat on
my students. You should try this Soundbrenner watch that I've been using myself and also with my
students too. Many of us subscribers have already had success with this so I want to do another plug
for them. CORRECT CODE JAZER25 The device works really simple. You tap a simple beat on it and
it sends a very strong vibration on your wrist. Super helpful for keeping and beat and building
your sense of pulse. Fourth thing I wish my teacher worked on more with me is to "Sightread
more." More specifically to do a little bit every day and to start sight reading very, very easy
pieces first. In my piano learning journey. In the first five years I was always more of a listener,
which meant I always try to play by ear and rely on my oral and hearing skills to play piano rather
than to read it. Now this was really good. It really helped me to develop a strong sense of
hearing and to be able to play by ear pretty quickly. But it was at a huge cost of my reading
skills. After about five years of playing piano, I realized I hit a pretty significant limiter. And
it was hard to really go up because what it meant was I had pretty decent technique but I couldn't
really sort of learn the harder pieces because I just took ages to read and learn pieces because
I was so not used to reading music. This fourth point actually relates also to point Number 1. If
you remember that chords are everything, when I wasn't sight reading much I wasn't exposing myself
to visually processing and playing these chords. What that meant was when I was learning these
pieces, I had to sort of one by one try to figure out what those notes are which took ages. Now my
reflection as a better sight reader is when these chords come into the picture I sort of am able to
just pull them out immediately because I've played them and visually process them a lot. I should
have done this way early in my piano journey so that the rest of it would have been easier. I
want to take this chance to also give a slight disclaimer and warn people against Synthesia. I
think Synthesia is a really great way way if you want to quickly learn some of the notes to the
songs you love. But because Synthesia is various individual notes falling I think it's really going
to limit your piano Improvement once you hit a certain stage. I think Synthesia is okay if you
want to use it occasionally but I recommend you to sight read simple pieces first. Build that chord
exposure and chord understanding. Understanding scales, understanding music theory, I think you'll
just become a more complete and comprehensive musician which will then allow you to have
longevity in your piano journey because you understand it and you have a more secure system
to process this complex world of music. Down to our final fifth thing that I wish my piano teacher
worked on with me and it is "To learn how to set high goals but also to learn how to have fun". As
you progress higher and higher in piano, you'll start to learn more and more complex pieces. And
sometimes when you learn really, really difficult pieces it's pretty easy to burn out. It's pretty
easy to then start to get a bit sick of the piano. So I wish in those times I would have learned
how to just simply have a bit of fun with the piano and not to take it so seriously. And I would
argue for also the opposite. You need to pull from the opposite end as well. If you're always sort
of having fun and not really giving your brain a challenge, eventually I think you're going to
give piano up because it just isn't much of a stimulating exercise for you. Every time you
come to the piano you need to also have some challenges that aren't unachievable now but you
want to achieve in the future. For example if you're a complete beginner, you should check out
this video where I share some of the pieces. I think you should eventually aim to play within
two or three years there are pieces such as... or... ...and eventually even to
something like River Flows in You. So, just to sum up this number five it is "To
have really high goals but also to learn how to have fun to pull from opposite ends." In summary
here are the five things I wish I prioritized more. I'm wishing you can prioritize them in your
journey. Number 1, chords are everything try and learn them and understand them. Number 2 practice
with the AAR method which is to prioritize correct notes in small sections but 100 correct notes
before you move on to the next section. Number 3, to prioritize a good sense of beat and pulse.
Number 4, to sight read a little bit every day and start with real really simple ones first. Built on
success every time you have success. You'll feel good about it and that will keep you motivated
to do it for longer so do really easy ones first. And Number 5 is to pull from opposite ends to have
really high goals for yourself but also learn how to have fun and relax on the piano. Because the
piano is a very, very fun and happy instrument. We have a bunch of videos here that teach people how
to play piano better. If you like this content, make sure you SUBSCRIBE. Make sure you like
it and I'll catch you in the next video.
