7 Common Habits To Avoid When Learning To Play The Piano

All beginner piano players aim to make it big one day and become professional, successful, and bright pianists. When practicing by themselves, one might think they are doing the right things when in reality, they might be making minor mistakes, leading to certain habits to avoid.

With these piano-playing habits, more often than not, you do not realize that you are making them. Read on to find out if you happen to make these mistakes and start learning to play the piano correctly moving forward!

Sitting too near or far from the piano

Although not too common, it is still possible to sit incorrectly when playing the piano, especially for beginners. Lucky for aspiring musicians, this habit is relatively easy to rectify, although the answer to it is different for each individual. If you are sitting too close to the piano, you will find that your elbows tend to stick up to a slight extent, and if you are sitting too far, you will hunch over the keys. Thus, the ideal position would be to sit away from the keys, with enough distance to keep your arms parallel to the floor.

Then again, depending on the style you are playing, there is a different approach to it, and it all depends on your comfort level.

Playing the piano too quiet or loud

The primary reason for this habit could happen is usually because there is no one there to tell if you are playing too quietly or too loud. To mitigate this, you can record yourself practicing the piano and listen back to the recording to see where you can improve accordingly.

Playing the piano too fast

One of the most common mistakes a piano player can make, playing the piano too fast, which usually happens when beginners are first starting to learn a new piece of music. When a beginner is too eager to play a certain song, they tend to play too fast instead. A great way to learn any piece is to attempt it at a slow pace at first – once you are ready and confident, you can slowly increase the speed.

Similar to the former, another poor habit is playing the piece at the correct speed but slowing down on the difficult sections. This is not recommended because it could affect muscle memory and confuse the brain. Hence, it is essential for you to find an average, comfortable pace that you can confidently play for the whole piece.

Disregarding the expression

When reading from sheet music, one might easily miss the dynamic markings on how to perform the music. These markings tell a piano player how loudly or softly to perform the music, legato, slurs, and staccato, for example. Understanding them is a critical part of learning the piece; thus, it would significantly improve piano-playing when the player duly notes these markings.

Inaccurate hand positioning

Hand posture may seem like a minor issue, but it makes a massive difference to the quality of the song you are playing. Beginners tend to struggle with this – they either have the top of the hand leaning to one side or down. To ensure your hand posture is correct, you can try placing a coin on the back of your hand while playing a scale. It should not fall off if you have an excellent hand posture.

Practicing scales and other specific exercises are some of the ways to mitigate this. They are vital in moulding your hands around the keys as you play the following note.

Imprecise fingering

When playing the piano, there are many actions to concentrate on which often makes you miss some little things such as using the wrong fingers. Although you play a significant number of scales and try your best to follow the proper fingering given, there is still a possibility that you may easily get the wrong finger. Hence, it would be best to always try to make sure that your fingering is correct before moving on to more challenging songs.

Following the wrong practice routine

A practice routine is more than just a routine for an individual to strengthen their piano skills. It should preferably involve a mix of easy sections to maintain one’s motivation levels and a slightly harder section to push oneself. Most pianists sometimes miss the advice to take things slowly when they first start practicing, then steadily build up the pace after making no mistakes.

Therefore, it is important to remember that no matter what, you should always avoid rushing your progress. It is better to make your skills concrete before you attempt anything else; this way, you will find yourself playing the piano more effectively.

An effective way to play the piano correctly

To avoid bad habits when playing the piano, you should consider registering for classes. You are less likely to encounter these terrible habits with a piano teacher. However, it is still vital to keep track of your habits since your instructor is not going to be there to remind you all the time. Moreover, a considerable part of progress is usually done at home with minimal to no supervision.

If you are looking for classes for your child, The Music Works offers piano lessons for kids in Singapore of all ages and expertise. Additionally, we have lessons for adults if you are interested in honing your piano skills.