The Most Important Exercises For Piano Players 🎹🚨 (Beginner Lesson)

Hello, and welcome! So, in this video I've got three exercises for you that are gonna help you   take your piano playing to the next level! Now, we're targeting three very specific aspects of   your piano playing abilities in this video. So, first things first we're targeting probably the   most requested exercise ever and that is it's a speed exercise. Everybody wants to play fast,  so we're going to dive into that. The next thing that we're going to be looking at is   hand independence, and this is probably the most  challenging skill to develop as a piano player.   It's something that you never actually really  fully master it's always a work in progress so   I've got some great hand independence challenges  for you here and then finally we're going to   be looking at what's probably the most important  skill to focus on everything's important but this   one's really important because this is control and  if you can be in control of your hands and those   little tiny nuances that's going to be what  takes your playing from good to great and   gives you what you need to be a very impactful  player so without further ado let's dive in   all right one of my most favorite ways to target  speed when it comes to playing the piano is using   hanon exercises these have been around forever  i'm fairly convinced since the dawn of time really   and they're a fantastic way to not only develop  speed but also to make sure that you're also   developing the control the fine movements in your  fingers so if you ever feel like you're kind of   sluggish between your four and your five finger  this exercise is not only going to help you be a   faster player it's going to help you to really  develop skill and control between the fingers   so let's dive in hannons are awesome because you  don't have to read notes you just have to learn   a pattern so for this particular hannan i've  selected hand in number 10 you're going to play   c with your thumb we'll just look at the uh this  is my right hand i had to think about that we'll   just look at the right hand for now so you're  gonna play c and then you're going to move your   five finger up one from the position so if each  finger kind of gets a note you're gonna go c and   then this guy's gonna go all the way up to a and  then you're gonna let go here and just move down and play that pattern so it would be one  reach up five four three two three two three   one five so you notice when you do this  movement it kind of lets you bring your   thumb up to where it's going to be next which  is a really really important point for speed   you always need to be setting yourself up  for success so while i'm playing this slow   that's okay because to get fast you have to start  slow i'm going to start to speed up here a little   bit and we can land back on the c now i'm going  to provide a download for you so that you can   see this pattern ascending and descending on  notation with your right hand and your left hand   but i just wanted to show you the pattern  and then teach you how to actually develop   that into something quick so number one make sure  you start slowly and you nail this down at a slow   tempo first number two when developing speed you  must practice with a metronome because it doesn't   count as speed development if you're all over the  place if you're inconsistent with your tempo like   that's not that's not well developed speed  that's just that's just having fun and you   can have fun if you want but to develop speed  you need to be consistent that is really   really important so set your metronome find a  temple that you can play this out comfortably   and once you're there you're going  to increase your tempo by 3 to 5 bpm   so you're going to be able to play it quite  fast as long as you can stay in control i'm   staying relaxed through my wrist there's  a little rotation there and that's helpful   the other thing that's helpful is to kind of  accent this that that one beat in each section   so if i'm targeting with my thumb to land on the  one beat for each measure that really really helps   me to kind of stay on track and stay on tempo  so you can do that with your right hand your   left hand is especially excellent because in this  pattern you're working that four and the three and   you will find that you have to play the left hand  a fair bit slower in this case so just be prepared   for that they don't have to be the same speed  usually our left hand needs a little bit more   love and attention to get up to speed and  especially because we're rocking back and   forth on that four and three the five fingers  gonna want to pop up just try to stay relaxed and you're going to get faster all right  moving on to hand independence now this is   the one that gets me every time you  have to have a sense of humor when   you're developing hand independence because the  whole point of having independence work is that   you have to get your hands to cooperate on  something that they don't want to cooperate on   so there's immediately that frustration factor  so just accept that it's going to be difficult   allow yourself to laugh and smile about it and  just trust the process that you will get there   it just might take a little time so don't  feel pressured to get this one right away   so what i'm going to have you do is we're  going to actually be working with some fun   rhythms between the hands we're going to start as  simple as we can and then i'll give you some tips   for increasing this in complexity so with our left  hand we'll start here we're going to be playing   you can just play a fifth on c so you're gonna  play it on the one and two and three and four and   so we're playing on the one the end of the two  and the four so one and two and three and four it's not so bad right but we're going to  do something different with our left hand   our other left hand see it's tricky this is my  right hand we're gonna do something different with   our right hand to begin i just want you to play c  on all the down beats so that means you're gonna   be playing it on the one the two the three and the  four which by itself seems very simple but when   you try to play these alternating rhythms between  the hands it can derail very quickly so we've got   visuals for you on screen to help you track  what's happening but i'm gonna go very slowly   and here's how it's going to sound one and two and  three and four and one and two and three and four   and one and two and three and four and one and  two and three and four and so if you can do that   by yourself on the back if it's still a struggle  don't worry it'll take a little time to get it   you can tap it on your legs if that's helpful too  so it would be one and two and three and four and   one and two and three and four and it's a great  way to get used to the back and forth movement   once that becomes easy you gotta up the challenge  and so i find even if you don't change the rhythm   between the hands but you just change  what you're doing with your right hand   it gets difficult all over again so i'm going  to be playing the notes of my five tone scale   on my right hand while i maintain that same rhythm  here and this will still be on the one two three   and four beats so go like this one and two and  three and four and one and two and three and four   and one and two and three and four and one and two  and three and four and one so if you can do that   then it's time to switch it up between the hands  and this is where i really fell apart because   now we're gonna put the the downbeats in the  left and we're gonna put the fun rhythm in the   right and so your brain is gonna be like ah  what are we doing but this is all part of it   it only counts as hand independence work if  it's making your brain hurt a little bit so   now we get the rhythm in our right one and two  and three and four and one and two and three and if you want to play the scale in the left  hand um just like we did the other way feel   free to so this is a great starting point for  you to begin developing that hand independence   have fun with this one and good luck all  right my third and final exercise for you   has to do with control and dynamics so we've  got something notated for you it's so pretty   it's very short it's very simple and if you don't  know how to read notes don't worry you can watch   my hands play through it and learn what to do in  the downloads for the sheet music we're going to   have this presented for you three different ways  with three different sets of articulations and   dynamics that are going to challenge your control  and this is what's going to give you the skills   to really communicate through the things that  you play often people will say to me well when   i played it sounds like this but when so-and-so  plays it sounds like this and the difference   isn't always that their their skill levels are  different that their notes are different that   they're playing wrong notes and this person isn't  that's not it it's the control that the person has   the ability to create emotion through you know  staccato legato loud soft and all of those things   so let's see what we can do with this beautiful  short and sweet melody so your right hand's gonna   start with its third finger on a you're gonna  jump up to c and then you're gonna go to low c   and then hold d for three counts and then you're  gonna go e tuck underneath f g a two three repeat one two three one and then you're going to  tuck like that now the left hand even if you   don't read notes is pretty simple to read because  you've got those chord names above the measures   so you can just follow those because that's what  the left hand is doing so all together one-two so once you can do that this is where we get  into the fun and if you need to do this hand   separately at first absolutely go for that,  uh the main thing here is that you're able to   really control the pressure in the  volume that you're playing within   your right hand to follow what's on the  page so first things first we're starting   piano that means quietly so you're going  to see if you can get through this line   quietly and then you're going to crescendo you're  going to become gradually louder but only to about   mezzo-forte so that's medium loud and then you're  going to get slightly quieter at mezzo piano and then you're going to crescendo again and land softly which is challenging to do  when you're playing with your thumb because   the thumb is quite crashy and strong so  make sure when you're coming off of that   you practice that reduction in weight in this in  this hand the final thing that i have shown in   this version is we've got a staccato on just that  one note there so see if you can be smooth here   and then the rest of it will be quite smooth  the main focus being of course those dynamics   so that'll take the playing from what it  sounded like the first time i played it   i'm going to add in the paddle as well and  it's going to make it a little bit more   i don't know dramatic and  maybe pretty here it goes okay so that's the first version now once your  hands get comfortable with that you're going to   want to change it up so you can continuously  be developing that control so in the next   version of this exact same piece we've got  phrases marked so this is going to tell you   where to play smoothly and where to kind of  take a breath with your hand so I'd love for   you to still consider adding dynamics but let  the main focus be on those beautiful smooth   phrases so what you'll get is something like this  there's no staccato it's going to be really smooth and then you do a little lift and then a little lift and here's the staccato  in a new place and then it's smooth there   now i've got one more version of this and this is  where things get a little bit crazy because we've   got dynamics and we're changing the left hand a  bit so instead of playing um dotted half notes   that hold for three beats you're playing quarter  notes that are staccato let me tell you playing   something staccato in one hand while you're  playing legato or smoothly in the other hand   is really challenging so that's going to be a big  skill here you want to play legato which means   smoothly connected so think back to the previous  version where we had those beautiful phrases   but this left hand is not going to be holding  the notes usually I like to play with my pedal   because it makes everything sound more smooth and  connected and pretty but in this example I'm not   going to use my pedal so you can really hear  that staccato in the left hand so here we go and it's challenging to play staccato quietly so  you'll notice the dynamics are a bit different   here we start loud and we decrescendo and then  we are quiet we crescendo a bit and then we   end quietly and all while playing smoothly and  all while remembering to lift in the left hand   and not crash into the notes and maintain the  right appropriate volumes in our left as we go   through the piece so it's something really pretty  that allows you to kind of practice dynamics and   articulations in different places and when you are  in charge of the volume of your hands like what   the volume is in size but the volume is how heavy  you're playing on the note so that you can control   the volume of sound you are really in control of  the experience of your listener you can create   something incredible so i would encourage you as  a final challenge make your own version of this   with your own articulations and dynamics and find  something that sounds beautiful to you and see how   it sounds so there you go that's three exercises  that you can integrate into your daily routine   that are gonna help you improve some of the  most important aspects of playing the piano   speed and independence and control with those  dynamics so comment below let me know what your   favorite exercises and which one you found the  most challenging and have a great time practicing!

Channel: Pianote

Views: 309,884

Keywords: lisa witt, how to play piano, beginner piano lesson, easy piano, piano tutorial, learn piano, piano exercises, piano lessons, beginner piano exercises, the most important exercise, exercise for piano players, piano speed, piano dexterity, piano hand independence exercises, piano hand independence exercises for beginners, practice this on piano, the most important exercsies for piano players, the most important aspects of your piano playing, piano player, how to practice

Id: PjAiJPxcyV8

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri May 07 2021