The Guide To Practicing Piano:: Your Road To Success by Tim Wurm

The Guide to Practicing Piano:
Your Road to Success

By Tim Wurm
YouTube: www.youtube.com/lessonsontheweb
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lessonsontheweb
Website: www.pianolessonsontheweb.com
© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

Five Keys to Successful Piano Practice
Key 1: Prioritize Your Practice Time

The first thing you should do if you want to learn piano is set up a time each day to practice and
stick to it. It is more important to practice consistently everyday than practice many hours only
one day. You should practice as close to 7 days a week as possible. Set a timer or use an app
on your phone to make sure you are spending the entire practice session at the piano. Treat
your practice time like a class you are paying for or a job you are working at.
Tips on avoiding procrastination: Making your practice time a priority and treating your
practice time as an essential part of your day will help a lot avoiding procrastination. You also
want to make sure you are spending your practice time focusing on the items you need to be
practicing developing your skills instead of just aimlessly playing pieces you like. Make a
checklist of items you need to cover and only mess around after you have completed the
checklist.
Key 2: Eliminate Distractions

Don’t let yourself get distracted and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Some easy
ones are turning off the ringer on your phone and putting pets in a different room. Of course,
we don’t live in a perfect world so try to minimize distractions as much as possible. Set a timer
and stick to it until the end of your practice session.

Key 3: Don’t Skip Things You Don’t Like
A common mistake for new students is that they will skip practicing things they don’t like. This
could be reading music, studying music theory, or scales. If you skip certain topics, you will
have holes in your understanding of music. To get good at playing piano, you really need to put
in the work and not take shortcuts.
Key 4: SLOW DOWN!!!

The number one mistake students make that is hurting them is that they are trying to play too
fast! Slow down and even after you have a piece learned, practice a few times slower to catch
mistakes and polish the piece.
Key 5: Start with the Most Difficult

After the first few weeks of practicing, you should start with the more difficult items on your practice
list. Your attention will be at its highest when you first sit down to practice, so make sure you get to the
difficult stuff first.
Recommended Practice Regimens

Listed below is what you should be working on during your practice depending on what stage of
piano playing you are in. I broke this down into 5 categories; early beginner, beginner, early

intermediate, intermediate and advanced. I also included the recommended duration of how
long you should stick to this practice regimen.
Note: This is the practice regimen and doesn’t include time to learn new topics. I
recommend you spend an additional 15 minutes learning new topics.
Early Beginner’s Practice Regimen

Beginners: You should be practicing for a total of 30 minutes as close to 7 days a week as
possible. I recommend you spend anywhere between 1 to 6 weeks with this regimen. Here is
the breakdown and topics.
1. 5 Minutes Finding Notes on the Piano
2. 10 Minutes Practicing Reading Notes
3. 15 Minutes Playing through a piece
Beginner’s Practice Regimen

Beginners: You should be practicing for a total of 30 minutes as close to 7 days a week as
possible. I recommend you spend between 6 to 24 weeks on this regimen. At this point, you
probably don’t need to practice finding notes on the piano anymore. You should still be
practicing reading notes and expanding to practicing ledger lines. Start learning some basic
scales such as C , D and D Major.
1. 5 Minutes Practicing Reading Notes + Ledger Lines
2. 5 Minutes Sight Reading

3. 5 Minutes Scales
4. 15 Minutes Playing through a piece
Intermediate Practice Regimen

You should now be practicing for a total of 60 minutes or longer. You will be spending a great
deal of time on this regimen, anywhere between 4 and 24+ months. Here is the breakdown.
1. 10 Minutes Scales
2. 10 Minutes Sight Reading
3. 10 Minutes Exercises such as Hanon or Czerny
4. 30 Minutes Playing Pieces
Note: This is the practice regimen and doesn’t include time to learn new topics. I
recommend you spend an additional 15 minutes learning a new topic (see list below).
Advanced Practice Regimen

This regimen is for those who are serious about getting good at piano. You should practice
between 2 and 4 hours a day. Here is the breakdown.
1. 10 - 20 Minutes Scales 4 Octaves in Parallel, Contrary and in 3rds with Metronome set to
120 bps.
2. 20 - 40 Minutes Sight Reading
3. 10 - 20 Minutes Exercises such as Hanon or Czerny

4. 20 – 40 Minutes Practicing Etudes
5. 60 – 120 Minutes Playing Pieces
Skills You Need to Develop

Skills You Need as an Early Beginner
1. Ability to find notes on the keyboard.
2. How to read music on treble and bass clef.
3. Basic concepts of rhythm such as time signatures and note durations.
4. Simple dynamics
Skills You Need as a Beginner

1. Sharps, flats, and naturals
2. Basic scales such as C Major, and G Major
3. Playing in the keys of C Major, G Major, D Major, and A Major
Skills You Need to as an Intermediate Student

1. Ability to play in all major keys.
2. Ability to play in simple minor keys such as a minor, e minor, b minor, d minor, and g
minor.
3. Ability to play all major, harmonic minor, and natural minor scales.

4. Proper sight-reading methodology.
5. Reading music using intervals instead of individual notes.
6. Ability to play simple pieces by Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart. (example: J.S Bach Prelude
in C Major).
7. Using the metronome to keep time while playing.
Skills You Need to as an Advanced Student

1. All skills listed in all other skill levels.
2. Ability to play 4 octave scales parallel, contrary, and in 3rds with metronome set to
120bps.
3. Ability to concentrate for long periods of time.
4. Ability to find and learn pieces / etudes of gradually increasing difficulty.
5. Ability to motivate yourself to practice 2 to 4 hours a day.
6. Ability to learn larger scale pieces such as Sonatas and Suites.
Get free lessons, articles and courses from me on social media.

YouTube: www.youtube.com/lessonsontheweb
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lessonsontheweb
Twitter: www.twitter.com/lessonsontheweb

You can learn a lot more about piano and music with my courses.
www.pianolessonsontheweb.com

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The Guide to Practicing Piano:

Your Road to Success

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

Key 1: Prioritize Your Practice Time

Key 2: Eliminate Distractions

and stick to it until the end of your practice session.

in the work and not take shortcuts.

Key 4: SLOW DOWN!!!

mistakes and polish the piece.

Key 5: Start with the Most Difficult

difficult stuff first.

Recommended Practice Regimens

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

long you should stick to this practice regimen.

recommend you spend an additional 15 minutes learning new topics.

Early Beginner’s Practice Regimen

the breakdown and topics.

1. 5 Minutes Finding Notes on the Piano

2. 10 Minutes Practicing Reading Notes

3. 15 Minutes Playing through a piece

Beginner’s Practice Regimen

scales such as C , D and D Major.

1. 5 Minutes Practicing Reading Notes + Ledger Lines

2. 5 Minutes Sight Reading

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

4. 15 Minutes Playing through a piece

Intermediate Practice Regimen

2. 10 Minutes Sight Reading

3. 10 Minutes Exercises such as Hanon or Czerny

4. 30 Minutes Playing Pieces

Advanced Practice Regimen

between 2 and 4 hours a day. Here is the breakdown.

2. 20 - 40 Minutes Sight Reading

3. 10 - 20 Minutes Exercises such as Hanon or Czerny

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

5. 60 – 120 Minutes Playing Pieces

Skills You Need to Develop

2. How to read music on treble and bass clef.

3. Basic concepts of rhythm such as time signatures and note durations.

Skills You Need as a Beginner

2. Basic scales such as C Major, and G Major

3. Playing in the keys of C Major, G Major, D Major, and A Major

Skills You Need to as an Intermediate Student

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

5. Reading music using intervals instead of individual notes.

7. Using the metronome to keep time while playing.

Skills You Need to as an Advanced Student

3. Ability to concentrate for long periods of time.

4. Ability to find and learn pieces / etudes of gradually increasing difficulty.

5. Ability to motivate yourself to practice 2 to 4 hours a day.

6. Ability to learn larger scale pieces such as Sonatas and Suites.

Get free lessons, articles and courses from me on social media.

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

© 2018 Piano Lessons On The Web

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