Practice Tips

  1. Practice at the same time every day
  2. Sit with good posture and play with curved fingers on fingertips
  3. Open assignmnet book and place on music stand - make a check by each item practiced
  4. Practice EVERYTHING three times
  5. Use a metronome
  6. Lift after slurs and exaggerate dynamics
  7. Goal each week is to get everything mistake free -- in other words correct mistakes, then go back and see if the mistake is gone
  8. Record time practiced


Top Ten Reasons My Performance is Polished

  1. I played all the correct notes
  2. I counted the rhthm, keeping a steady beat, and played at the suggested tempo(not too fast or too slow)
  3. I listened as I played so I could hear the melody singing out above the accompaniment
  4. I exaggerated all of the dynamics like forte, piano, crescendo and diminuendo
  5. I kept my heel on the floor when pedaling, and remembered to pedal just after pressing the key
  6. I not only remembered to make all the slurs smooth and connected with lifts at the ends, but also played the staccato notes crisp and short
  7. I played with a confident beginning and ending, and did not remove my hands from the keys or my foot from the pedal until I completely counted the last note
  8. I achieved solid memory
  9. I controlled evenness, tone and speed of my fingers in 8th note and/or 16th note passages
  10. and the top reason my performance is polished is because I have worked hard and practiced my piece many, many times, reviewing and going back if I made a mistake


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