Practice is essential to developing your ability to read and play piano music. As a beginner, plan to practice every day for at least 15–20 minutes. As you advance, play an hour or more per day. It’s best to practice at the same time every day—a time when you tend to feel most alert and productive. Practice sessions should include:
- Practicing scales: Every beginning piano student should buy a book of piano scales that includes fingerings and orders the scales based on difficulty. Learning and playing many different scales will improve your musical knowledge and your fingering technique. Playing scales will also improve your dexterity and coordination. Begin each practice session by playing a series of scales.
- Counting out loud: Count out the beats of a piece in the correct tempo to develop coordination, rhythm, and the ability to maintain a steady tempo while playing. Play each new piece at half tempo and count out the beats (“one, two, three, four” for common time). Increase the tempo to the proper speed and continue to count out the beats as you perfect the piece.
- Using a metronome: Once you’ve learned to count out loud, practice your counting skills with a metronome, an electronic device that indicates the beats according to a tempo (beats per minute) you can set. Metronomes count out beats with audible clicks or a flashing light. To practice with a metronome, set the metronome to count off beats at approximately half the tempo of the piece. Once you’ve mastered the piece at half tempo, try playing at the proper speed.
- Sight reading: Sight reading is reading and performing a piece of music off the cuff, without ever having seen it before. As with reading any language, sight reading is a skill that will become easier with practice. Practice sight reading a few lines of new music each day. Always be sure to review the most crucial facets of the piece, such as tempo and time signature, before playing.
Should You Hire a Piano Teacher?
Though it may be tempting to learn piano exclusively from books, CDs, or software, nothing can take the place of a great teacher correcting your mistakes as you learn. That said, starting out on your own can be a great way to assess how seriously you intend to pursue piano playing. Consider the following table of comparisons before deciding whether to hire a teacher from the start or to begin by learning on your own.
| Private Instruction | Self-Instruction | |
| Ongoing expense ($1,000 or more per year) | One-time expense ($25–200 or so for instructional books, software, or CDs) | |
| Teacher corrects errors as they happen | Student can develop irrevocably bad habits | |
| Teacher offers personalized instruction | Student must follow a preexisting course | |
| Teacher may require student to come to his or her home or studio | Student can learn and practice conveniently at home |
