In this free training, I answer the most common questions that I get asked all the time from beginner, intermediate & advanced pianists.

Read below or watch the video (10 minutes) to gain purpose, direction & confidence in where you are headed!

WHERE DO I START AS A BEGINNER?

My course 'Super Basics will give you a solid foundation of what keys are where and how to play them with basic finger techniques - these are the fundamentals.

Being a beginner is about getting a good grounding of basic musical knowledge, the geography of the piano and how to move your fingers in this brand new way with the best technique.

Don’t expect to improve if you don’t put aside some time and spend some money - the brain knows if you are really invested or not! So ditch the free stuff and pay for a curriculum that takes you where you need to go.

Remember: if it’s free, ask yourself ‘why?’ – usually it’s because the information is intentionally incomplete so that you need to purchase further resources in order to get to that particular goal.

Free is still good if you want to find out what someone’s vibe and teaching style is, but to learn piano you need to choose something and commit.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT COURSE IS BEST FOR ME?

Complete the Personalised Piano Plan quiz to find out a good place to start within Piano Picnic based on your current experience and knowledge. Start here.

Once you have the basics in place, I recommend our course ’Songs by Ear’ as it takes you perfectly from Super Basics onwards.

Songs by Ear will give you a means to figuring out and playing your favourite songs, without having to read sheet music.

From then on, it’s about being led by your curiosity!

WHAT’S THE IDEAL PRACTISE ROUTINE?

As an "almost advanced" beginner, I often wonder what would be the ideal balance between practising scales, practising known songs, discovering new songs from leadsheets and trying to improvise.
–Joseph.

The ideal practise routine is the one that you can consistently do. Not too long, not too short. Though there are always exceptions–days that we just can’t fit in a practice session–but as long as these are exceptions to your usual disciplined daily practising you’ll be fine.

The ideal practice routine should include a mix of:

Technical practise - like scales or repertoire (if you are learning songs) and working on your technique, and
Creative practise - improv, playing by ear, comping from a lead sheet, songwriting or creative scales!

One of each activity type will give you a good practising session - decide how long you spend on each activity type based on what you are feeling led to achieve that day.

Be aware that we tend to repeat the things we know in order to stay comfortable, so try to push yourself to be uncomfortable at least once in each practise so that you can improve.

One way to stay in one place and never progress is to just keep playing the same thing over and over!

HOW DO I STAY MOTIVATED?

Staying motivated is one of the biggest struggles for musicians. While only you can be truly responsible for your own inspiration - by joining a community of people who are in the same situation as you–and a coach who is determined to motivate you–you can make things easier on yourself and not have to take the full responsibility of being motivated.

However, being truly inspired is up to you. Though I can show you things that I think might inspire you, only you know what your specific tastes are and what’s really going to light that fire for you!

Find an artist or genre of music that you like and obsess over it - that’s my biggest tip. Read their biography, get into all their albums and liner notes, listen to whoever inspired them, and once you’re fully done with that rabbit hole, find another one to disappear down.

Once you learn more about the musicians you admire, you’ll find that they probably struggled with motivation & inspiration at some point too!

HOW DO I FIND TIME TO PRACTICE?

First of all, you do not find time - no one has time just lying around waiting to be found!

The only way to practise regularly is to make time.

Think of something else that you do regularly that perhaps you could cut back on, or give up all together in order to practise piano.

Netflix is a good one: a lot of us disappear into the television most nights, what if you cut that back by just 30 minutes, then you have practise time in spades!

WHAT SHOULD I FOCUS ON AS A BEGINNER / INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED PLAYER?

No matter what your level as a pianist, you need to be covering three elements to your learning in order to progress, these are: musical knowledge (theory), technique and creativity.

You do not need to be advanced before you can be creative - whatever you DO know, be creative with that!

Applying the things you learn in a creative context is what will further solidify them in your brain and body.

Clarity comes from engagement - so if you are a beginner - you should focus on that initial technique of playing the keys with proper posture and alignment; and starting with a C major scale.

So take that to a creative level - let’s play that C scale over the full length of the keyboard and see how your posture/alignment changes as you reach for the furthest ends of the keyboard - think, “Am I using my whole body to make this movement or am I straining in one particular area?”

How would you make up a song in C major that could extend to these ends?

At any level, get curious - ask yourself questions - what if I did this? And do it: think about the results and add it to your knowledge!

As an intermediate player, you might be delving into more keys - playing in keys with more sharps and flats: so play a scale in B♭ major and then halfway turn it into an E♭ major scale; add some bass note rhythms; how would you add a melody to that so that it fits the change in key signature?

As an Advanced player, you might be looking into harmony in depth using complex chords: perhaps you might use some of the new chords you’ve learned to re-harmonise an old lead sheet you have.

As long as you are extending your knowledge of how music works (learning new things about theory), focussing on HOW you are playing those keys (listen to your body) and using curiosity to be creative, then you will constantly be improving!

HOW DO I GET DIRECT FEEDBACK?

If you are at a point that you don’t know what to do next you need to join the Creative Pianist membership! I give individual guidance to all my Creative Pianist students by email whenever they request it.

Curious about the membership? Check it out here.