Six key steps when we are learning a new piece

Practice makes permanent and habits are formed alarmingly quickly. Let’s make sure they are good habits rather than bad ones. :D

Six key steps when we are learning a new piece:

1. Work out a fingering that makes sense for your hand. Make the commitment to stick with it.

2. Make a conscious decision to practise slowly for a fixed period of time, conscientiously resisting the urge to breeze through at speed.

3. Take each hand alone until you can play it fluently.

4. Make sure that you never learn any wrong notes or wrong rhythms. If you never practise any, why should you play any?

5. Consider each and every note and sound before going for the big gestures.

6. Practise loud passages softly, to retain quality of sound and physical ease.

Excerpt From: Part 1 - Practice Strategies and Approaches by Graham Fitch