Practice is a Ritual: How to Practice Piano

Learning how to practice piano with intention

Here’s how to get better at piano right now.

Any practice is a ritual. A practice of daily exercise, meditation, or journaling is a routine that we return to, day to day, with intention and dedication. Learning how to practice piano is a ritual, and one that will ebb and flow through life. As we learn how to practice piano, we also learn how to infuse joy into our routines, and how to be patient with ourselves.

Learning how to practice piano requires intentional and joyful practice to be self sustaining. Taking piano lessons with the guidance of a thoughtful piano teacher will help, but not all of us have access to the luxury of private piano lessons.

These piano practice tips will help jumpstart your journey on learning how to practice piano. How long does it take to learn piano? That depends on how frequently you practice. Your rituals and routines around practicing piano will determine how fast you can learn to play the piano. Like any ritual, it is helpful to build a process for returning to this craft each day, again and again.

How to Practice Piano

Set a Variety of Goals

If you want to stick with your new creative practice for the long run, set a few kinds of goals. I think an easy place to start goal setting is with big, juicy long term goals. 

You won't meet these goals right away, it may even take years to accomplish, but they will keep you dreaming and sustain your interest in your practice for a long time. These invigorating goals will inspire you to dedicate time to learn how to practice piano, so that you can see progress towards your big dreams.

At the same time, it's important to establish small, bite-sized piano practice goals that you can meet each day.

While you’re learning how to practice piano, this goal setting can look like having a big dreamy project, or something challenging that you work on little by little, while also having balancing that with easier pieces that you can move through in your day to day piano practice. 

Begin with something simple and structured

Easing yourself into the beginning of your piano practice will help you to build a regular routine while you are learning how to practice piano.

Start with something accessible and reliable, so you know where to start each time.

Some ideas for beginning your warm-ups at the beginning of your piano practice include stretches and breathing exercises, a gentle meditation, technical warm-ups and scales, finger exercises, and chord patterns. These might include piano warm-ups and a piano scales book, or sight-reading segments from songs you would like to work on in the future. These structured moments will help you navigate how to practice piano and actually see consistent growth.

Sometimes, this is even a review of a song that you are already familiar with, because it gives you an instant dose of joy and success at the beginning of your piano practice.

Divide it up and break it down

Divide your piano practice goal into clear, small pieces.

Building a routine of practicing piano and deepening a piano practice is a type of puzzle. You know how everyone has a different process for finishing a puzzle? I like to start with the corners and borders, but I know some people focus on color and textural sections. Figuring out the best way to know how to practice piano will be like finding your process for solving a puzzle.

Pick small sections of your musical pieces or piano skills to focus on, and work on them one by one before you try to put it all together! By dividing your piano practice up into detailed and focussed work, you'll find your piano practice is more efficient, detailed, and more gratifying.

By polishing one piece of piano music at a time, you will see noticeable growth, instead of feeling frustrated at how long the larger piano project takes to assemble.

Be sure to set aside time near the end of this process to start putting all of your pieces back together! This is an essential step of how to practice piano music.

Always have dessert

If playing through the tricky bits of the piece is the “vegetables” of this meal, then the fun piano music is the dessert. Do something fun before you walk away from practicing piano!

If something doesn’t go the way that you would have liked, clear the air with something rewarding. This is what moves us from trying to figure out how to practice piano into actually playing the piano.

Play through something that lights you up and inspires you to come back to your piano practice again tomorrow.

Take notes

Recording details as you learn how to practice piano can give you information about what you are accomplishing and show you where you can spend more time.

A simple notebook works for this, especially one lined with music staves, but there are apps for monitoring practice time, too. All of these are an easy way to track time spent working on how to practice piano, and to see how you are actually using your piano practice time.

How much time is spent on piano warm-ups, or working through your piano scales book? How much time are you spending on actually figuring out how to practice piano music?

You can take this journaling of your piano practice one step further by keeping a video log. This will show you the efforts from what you are putting into learning how to practice piano. If you record a piano song or piano skill you are learning early on in the process, and then record it again after you have practiced it on the piano, you will be able to see your growth in a way that you may not be able to see yourself, otherwise.

Do it again...and again!

This is probably your least favorite tip: do it again... and again... aaaaand again!

Repetition is magic! The more you do it, the deeper your understanding and the easier the skill.

You will start to absorb more understanding and things will start to feel easier each time.

Now when I say repetition, I don't mean play the song from the beginning to the end over and over again.

I mean finding the parts of your piano project that need strategy or attention, and to focus on them.

Being mindful with your repetition is key here. This isn't about zoning out while we rinse & repeat, it's about focussing deeper with each pass at our piano practice. 

Don’t forget to take breaks, too

Learning how to practice piano can be so fun!

If you are excited about what you are working on and want to see fast and dedicated growth, then the best approach for you will be to sneak in multiple piano practice sessions a week, or even better, multiple piano practice sessions a day.

How long does it take to learn piano? Playing piano for 20-40 minute intervals will let you stay more focussed than if you sit at the piano for two hours straight, and this will expedite the process of figuring out how to practice piano to begin with.

Take a snack break, or go for a walk, and then use your piano warm-ups and piano scales book to bring yourself back to your piano practice after a break. Maybe add piano practice in on your work from home lunch break and as an unwinding activity at the end of the day.

Plan your next day

When you are in the middle of something new or challenging while you are learning how to practice piano, take note of what you need more work on.

Use this to structure tomorrow’s practice!

If I’m struggling on a passage in a song, I can learn how to practice piano skills by choosing piano warm-ups that the scale that goes with that song.

I can also focus in on that section of the song and set intentional goals today to help structure my piano practice in a clear way tomorrow.

Be Kind to yourself

Let's be real: you're not going to come back to practice piano if you are always feeling guilty about not doing enough.

One of the most important keys to learning how to practice piano regularly and to stick with it is to choose joy and to be kind with yourself.

You won't stick with it if you are punishing yourself every time you return to practice piano.

Find new ways to connect with joy in your piano practice, and be sure to forgive yourself when things don't quite go to plan. It's okay if your initial planning was overambitious, and you need to re-evaluate.

You want to know a secret? No one thinks they are practicing enough. Every single person learning how to play piano wants to open the lesson with an apology- “sorry I didn't do more.” Stop being sorry! Just showing up for yourself is enough, whatever that looks like right now. 

Leave space for joy and creative play

We learn most intuitively through play. If you are trying to figure out how to practice piano consistently, explore what brings you the most joy.

Try to create new music, or learn how to improvise on the piano. Play songs on the piano that are fun and rewarding for you, whether you have a professional goal or if you are just playing piano as a hobby.

These joyful practices are the things that will bring you back to practicing piano over and over again, and allow you to have enough fun to fuel a lifelong piano practice.

Make a Commitment to Yourself

Keep your promises to yourself, because you deserve it! 

Making a commitment to yourself is making a commitment to your dreams.

Create systems of accountability, and celebrate all of your steps along the way.

When you're learning how to play piano, making a commitment might look like upgrading your keyboard, or buying a pack of online beginner piano lessons for adults. It might also look like making a video the song you learned and sharing it with someone you trust. 

Working with a private piano teacher can be a great way to find accountability and strive to meet your goals. One of the great things about having regular, recurring online piano lessons is that even if you weren’t able to practice piano during the week, you will have your private piano lesson as a check-in, to help reset your progress and get you back on track with your goal.

Honestly, when we’re learning how to practice piano, things will disrupt that journey all the time. That’s one of the reasons finding accountability in private piano lessons and group piano classes is so helpful.

If you’re ready to deepen your personal piano practice today, learn more about private piano lessons or sign-up for your first free lesson now.

Watch this video to learn more about how to practice piano, or contact Kelsey to learn more about online private piano lessons for adults and online group piano classes.