The 10 year old sits down at the piano with a forlorn look that seems to cover his entire body. He's been in this seat every day (or at least every few days) for years now. He makes progress, but it feels like his teacher is pushing a wet noodle uphill.

How common is this? I don't know, but my quick answer might be "too". My wife took piano lessons for 12 years and doesn't play anymore (AT ALL). Something must have been amiss for her to stay in that seat for all those years and never "get music".

What if there were a few "key ideas" that could impart to a piano student some drive and sense of power? Something that would be wind in the sails so crucial connections are made. Would that not be an important set of tools? I think so. I recently read some things that caused my mind to run down this line of thinking.

Here are some ideas that could cause the piano learner to take the task to heart:

1. The Command Connection—to be exact, command of technique and its necessary connection to your ability to make music. Scales, triads, chords, and arpeggios are not just isolated exercises (things to do with your fingers everyday)—they are building blocks for creating real music, as any composer will tell you. The learner must be made to see that these musical building blocks are going somewhere wonderful! They are what allows us actually understand the music we encounter.

Of course, technique involves a piano player's physicality, such as finger strength, good fingering habits, finger crossing, arm weight, hand and arm stability, and the integration of these over time into an efficient playing setup. Practicing a scale ad infinitum in private makes more sense if you realize that it shows up in passage in a Beethoven Sonata. It becomes your power...your super-power to move hearts. All that "fingering exercise" makes more sense when you realize it has a beautiful musical context.

2. Get Drawn into the Detail—There is a rabbit-hole of precision that can bridge the gap between just "getting through it" and really "owning" a piece of music... but it is a rabbit hole that a student must allow himself to follow. Have you heard many perfectly executed 4-octave arpeggios lately? They are becoming rarer and rarer these days. Spending time on these technical exercises can teach you to listen to the details of playing and develop an acute sense of awareness. This awareness eventually teaches you how to be "in the moment" no matter what you're playing.

3. Create a Little Creativity—It is a very common assumption that piano technique is necessarily boring. But we must find a way to make the "daily dose" a little more fun (in other words, more musical). Why not mix basic technique exercises with some fun musical concepts? Experimentation in piano practice? Egads!

Here are just a few ideas:

    • Mess around with the dynamics, pp to ff, play with crescendo and diminuendo

    • Mess with articulations—try playing scales with different articulations. Vary or alternate between stacato and legato.

    • Change up the order within a practice session—Re-arrange the order of exercises by type (ie. octave scales, triads, etc.) or key. Play them all and note the problems. Try a practice working only on problem patterns. Try warming up with technique or cool down with it.

    • Metronome madness—switch the downbeat so it's opposite the metronome click. Try cutting the metronome speed in half and keep playing the piece at the same speed, using the click to designate only half the beats.

4. Build real confidence—On a performance night you'll find yourself waiting backstage. Have you done your work well enough to be confident? If you haven't, you'll face genuine performance anxiety and it can be paralyzing. There's only one way to deal with it...and that's long before the performance. Do your preparation, both with the specific music you're performing and the associated technique that undergirds it. That's the only way to feel the deep confidence of being able to play the music and your instrument with true freedom.

I believe these are important concepts that deserve your attention now, so you won't lose heart before you connect all that "piano technique" to real music. You know what I'm talking about... that stuff in your heart that longs to come out when you sit down at the piano. Good luck and good technique.

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