How to Know What to Learn and When to Learn It on the Piano

24 Jun

1. Getting Started 🏁

At the beginning of learning an instrument, contrary to popular belief, there is actually no single obvious path that you can take. There are many ways to approach learning and many routes that you might want to take to best achieve your goals. In the past, most teachers and method books would go through the process of learning the piano in much the same way. First you learn to read notes, some basic scales and theory along the way and then you slowly integrate pieces that are progressively more challenging…until you are a piano genius! This is still a great way of learning, however, I would argue that today many piano learners have different goals and no longer wish to learn in this way and it’s not always necessary or the best method either.

For this reason, instead of thinking of learning an instrument as a step-by-step series of stepping stones that need to be learned in a linear path. It’s much better to think of learning an instrument as being in a room with many interconnected doors that you can choose from, and as you progress through one door and complete the tasks within the room then you can choose to continue onto the next level in that skill or you can go back and start building another skill. The doors that you choose and the tasks and skills that you choose to pursue and acquire can be lead by your curiosity, rather than being forced to learn in a way that you don’t want to.

However, that doesn’t really help you know what to do now does it!? So I’m going to give you some examples of paths and doors that you might want to traverse, depending on your goals and interests.

2. Skills and Challenges 📚

When deciding where to start with learning, there are two things that you are going to need to consider; what you WANT to learn and improve and what you NEED to be able to do to improve in your chosen path.

Each skill in music is directly linked to other skills, so by learning one skill you may improve at another or at least find another skill much easier to learn. You can also pursue multiple paths at the same time, but everyone will be at varying points in each path.

Here are the the set of doors you could choose to open:

1. Sight Reading
2. Theory
3. Improvisation
4. Playing By Ear
5. Technique
6. Mastering Pieces

For each of these paths you are going to approach your practice differently. You may want to spend equal amounts of time pursuing each path or you may want to spend 100% of your time pursing just one of the paths. This entirely depends on what you WANT to learn and/or what skills you NEED to improve in order to get you to where you want to be.

From this list if you decide; “my goal is to become the greatest sight reader that’s ever lived, I want to be able to instantly read any piece of music”. Then this would mean your practice would consist solely of reading new notes and music you have never seen before in order to only focus on improving your sight reading. Obviously by doing this you will naturally begin to understand some theory and technique as well, however your practice would look very different to someone with different goals.

Similarly, if your goal was; “to be able to work out any piece of music by ear”. Then your practice might consist of 80% attempting to work songs out by ear and 20% music theory.

For most players that wish to become a more well-rounded, holistic player. Your best option is to spend the majority of your pursuing the “Mastering Pieces” path (this can be genre specific if you have a particular genre of music you want to learn), this is because this skill has the biggest crossover with all of the other skills and is therefore the most efficient use of time. As you learn pieces of music you will likely come across techniques, theory and idioms of music that will inform any improvisation and pieces/songs you work out by ear. You will also improve your sight reading (albeit at a much slower rate than by using dedicated sight reading practice).

For this reason, for the holistic player I would recommend spending 50% of your time “mastering pieces” and then 25% of your time pursuing 2 other skills. So a weeks practice, might look like this:

3. You and I Are Different 🧍🏻🧍🏻‍♀️

So what pieces, techniques, theory, sight reading materials…should you learn? What tasks do you need to complete when you walk into the room?

Well, unfortunately there is no easy answer to that (apart from if you are a beginner looking to improve your sight reading - then you should use my sight reading exercises book - obviously). This is in fact the exact role that a piano teacher plays. They can give you specific materials to cater to your goals and your specific strengths and weaknesses. In essence, when you walk through one of the doors, a teacher will tell you what your tasks are to get to the next level.

However, I can provide you with some ideas for each path so you can decide for yourself what path you wish to take and what might be good for you to learn next!

SIGHT READING

BEGINNER: My Sight Reading Exercises Book - obviously 🙄
INTERMEDIATE: ABRSM Graded Sight Reading Exercises - Grade 2 onwards (I am currently writing a second sight reading book for this level)
ADVANCED: Any short piece of music, only read it through once.

THEORY

BEGINNER: Notes on a stave, time signatures, key signatures, note rhythms, making chords (triads), dynamics, tempo markings…
INTERMEDIATE: Chord functions (dominant 7ths), chord relationships (tonic, dominant etc.), related scales (relative minor etc.), circle of fifths…
ADVANCED: Cadences, Modulations, Unusual time signatures, pivot chords…

IMPROVISATION

BEGINNER: Basic triads in the left hand and a basic melody in the right hand using a simple scale (such as C major), listen for chord relationships that you like. Then try and play the same chord progression using another scale (G major, D major, F major).
INTERMEDIATE: Play around with chord patterns (here is my video on chord patterns which might help: The 8 Levels Of Playing Chords On The Piano!), start using harder scales.
ADVANCED: Sit down and just improvise, with improvisation once you have enough tools to be able to play, there is no substitute for doing it and finding sounds that you like (try to use theory to understand why you like it so you can repeat it in future).

PLAYING BY EAR

BEGINNER: (I have a course in the making for this), play notes on the piano without looking, move your hand away and then try and find the note again…this tests your ability to hear notes. Then listen to songs and try and reproduce just the bass notes form a section of the song (e.g. the verse). Work out the melody as well and put them together.
INTERMEDIATE: Work out the scale of the song from the bass notes and what chords the song will be using from the scale and use these alongside the right hand.
ADVANCED: Use chord patterns and the melody to make your own version of the song.

TECHNIQUE

BEGINNER: Scales! C major, G major, D major, F major!
INTERMEDIATE: Scales! + Find techniques that are challenging within pieces and search for technical exercises that practice those techniques. Good books are the “A Dozen a Day” series and Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist Exercises.
ADVANCED: Create your own exercises to solve technical weaknesses as they arise.

MASTERING PIECES

BEGINNER: Here is a video I created that gives you your first 15 pieces (15 Pieces For Self Taught Piano Beginners To Learn!)
INTERMEDIATE: You may want to look at the ABRSM graded syllabuses (grades 1-8) to find pieces that feel suitable for your level and play those pieces.
ADVANCED: Find pieces that are contrasting and require a variety of techniques to challenge your ability (avoid pieces that are too challenging until they feel like they are within reach).

For those that are teaching themselves to become a holistic pianist, remember that each path is a long adventure and there is no rush to the finish line (in fact - there is no finish line 🤫). Work out what you are hoping to achieve from playing the piano, structure your practice accordingly and then find materials (or a teacher) that will help you get there.

Matthew Cawood

(This is from my “Monday Music Tips“ weekly email newsletter. Join my mailing list to be emailed with future posts.)

Matthew Cawood

How to Know What to Learn and When to Learn It on the Piano

1. Getting Started 🏁

2. Skills and Challenges 📚

3. You and I Are Different 🧍🏻🧍🏻‍♀️

When Have You Practiced Enough?

How to Break Through the Intermediate Pianist Plateau

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