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.