The Plough Through Method

When you first try out a new piece of music for the piano, it’s fun to play through it, mistakes and all, just to get a sense of what the piece is about. Immediately you’ll know what you like and where the pitfalls are (where you will have to spend more time). It's what I call ploughing through. You move through the piece the way a farmer tills the ground with his tractor, overturning the dirt, preparing it for planting. The weeds are still there in the roughed up ground. Weeds are like the mistakes we want to get rid of in a piece of music. Ploughing through a piece of music doesn't remove all the mistakes (even though we hope it will).  If you keep doing only that and you don't see enough progress, you might become discouraged and even doubt your abilities.

Instead, I suggest you try the next two methods that produce results quickly. 

The Track Method

The Track Method is a name I came up with to describe learning the right hand part alone, the left hand part alone, then playing both hands at once.  Remember that when you play music from the Grand Staff, your brain is working with one set of alphabet names for lines and spaces for the right hand on the Treble Clef and a different set of alphabet names for the left hand on the Bass Clef.  When you are a beginner, it's quite complex to expect your brain to read two different systems of letter names and also get the counting right and also keep a steady beat. So break it down at first. Allow the brain to adjust to the right hand part alone, then the left alone. You'll want to train your brain to process the information correctly--and not be in a hurry or force your brain to be confused.  Remember the old saying: "Garbage in; garbage out."   By going slowing and reading correctly, your brain will pick up speed on it's own. And the results will be very satisfying.

The Track Method also offers you the opportunity to reward yourself with check marks showing where you have conquered all your mistakes. You can make a pencil mark at the end of the first line when that right hand or left hand track can be played correctly. When you have finished the page, you can make a check mark at the bottom of the page when all the lines have been learned. The reward comes not so much when you give yourself a check mark but happens the next day when you come to that page and see all the check marks that mean "These lines are finished. Practice something else."

In music lessons, when I help a student learn each track correctly,  I draw a circle at the top of the page next to the letter R (for right) and put a check mark (or sticker) in that circle when the whole track is correct. Then I draw another circle for the left track and also a circle labeled "Both" for both hands at once. This circle idea might also be helpful for home practice.

This method also focuses on excellence within small areas rather than plowing through an entire piece each time.  Basically, it's for learning both hands at once for one measure at a time. You begin by practicing the first measure with both hands at once. And you do not leave that measure until the notes seem easy to play and correct in every aspect. Then you move to the second measure.  You isolate the second measure. You work on only the second measure until you are satisfied that it sounds as correct as the first measure. Next, you go back and play the first measure again but this time you continue into the second measure.  You practice those two measures until there is a smooth transition from one measure into the next.

Then, you isolate the third measure and focus only on that measure until it sounds right.  Then, as before, you start with the measure before it (the second measure) and see if you can make a smooth transition from measure two to measure three. If so, you are ready to try playing measures one, two and three with no pauses and no mistakes.   It's called the Block Method because you are linking blocks of correctly learned measures together in a line or chain, similar to linking railroad cars. Pretty soon every measure will be linked and the piece will be very satisfying to play. 

 And one more tip about practice—if you will identify your worse measures—the notes that give you the most trouble—and add them to your daily warmup in the beginning of practice as a drill each day, the daily repetition will magically melt your troubles away.  

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    Happy practicing!