Most of the time when you play piano one part of a song will be melody. Usually the melody is the part we want to hear most. Emphasizing that part is an important skill you will need to learn.

When the melody is in the right or left hand and nothing else is present in that hand, like a counter melody, than all you need to do is make the melody hand louder. To do this simply put more weight on that hand.

If the melody is present with counter melody than you will have to put more weight in one part of your hand. This is tricky. You’ll need to balance the weight by feeling if the inside, thumb, is heavier than the outside, pinky, or vise versa depending on where the melody is.

One tip to practice both methods is to ghost the notes that are not melody. To do this, play the song but for no melody notes simply hoover your fingers but don’t play the note. Once you have ghosted for a couple of times you can try and put all of it back together.

Let me know how this works for you.

If I can give you one piece of advice for learning music that would be to learn to practice slowly.

Practicing music slowly allows your brain time to process everything you are throwing at it. Remember playing music is a right brain and left brain activity. There is a lot going on.

To practice slowly you’ll need to set your expectations aside for a minute. At the same time you’ll need a vision for what the final product is going to sound like. This is important because you still need to add in the appropriate music stylings.

Once you have mastered the piece at a slow tempo you’ll want to speed up the tempo ever so slowly. One notch at a time.

Try to enjoy every note because music is beautiful if you let it.

Many people think nerves of steel are the key to a rock solid music performance. Yeah, a little guts won’t hurt but it’s the action behind the scene that make the musician shine.

Preparing for a recital or music performance should be done in stages. Like any long term goal this stage approach will help you manage your progress.

The first step should be selecting music. This to me is one of the most exciting times as a musician. You get to explore the vast amounts of piano music or rock songs. Choosing music can be tough with so much available to you. You should first eliminate music that is either to tough or to easy for your skill level. Once you’ve done that I recommend looking for a collection of music like the RCM syllabus. Also, be sure to think about your audience before you commit to your music.

After selecting music for your recital you’ll want to plan out how you will learn the music. Steady a she goes is the key here. Plan to learn a little bit of the music every week. Map it out on a calendar and stick to it as best as you can.

Once you’ve gotten the music to a respectable level you will want to take a performance under a small audience. This might be some close friends or family. By doing this mini performance you’ll build up the nerves of steel that everyone talks about.

Well, that’s recital preparation 101. Let me know if you have any questions.

You’ve heard this before, “Practice make perfect” and even “Perfect practice makes perfect”. What does this mean?

Consistent practice is the goal. Make small steps everyday, however, these small steps should be meaningful. In your mind and on paper you should have a clear vision of what you want to achieve as a musician. Once you have that it is best to divide up your goal into the smallest possible task. This small task should be a daily goal or even a weekly goal. By having this you can make your practice meaningful.

Now back to the perfect part. Because music is art there isn’t a perfect performance – ever! That being said certain standards should be met, like playing the right notes at the right time. This is where the perfect comes in. Take your time and slow down…way down. At this slow speed be sure to play the notes like you would at full speed. You’ll need some imagination and a music teacher would greatly help in this task, they’ve done before.

Whatever you do have a goal in mind and work for it.

The conventional wisdom for anyone taking music lessons is that practice makes perfect. Of course this is true practicing does make perfect, however, what I see most disciples of this mantra do is make their students practice endlessly without a lot of purpose.

As a busy professional musician my practice time is limited and so should yours or your child’s practice time. What I’m getting at is that practicing and the methods we use to practice need to emphasize efficiency. Today let me show you a few ways to get the most out of that short practice session:

Set Goals

This seems obvious but many music students miss this one. Even the ones who do have a goal in mind many forget to set daily and weekly goals that will help achieve the long term goal. So, before you sit at the piano or open your violin case you need to have a goal in mind for what you want to accomplish in the practice session.

Key point: Setting a goal for each session will keep you focused, but also it will help you judge when you can finish practicing for the day.

Use Proper Methods

I once had a math teacher who would pick a pretend booger out of his nose go around his head with the booger and then put it in his mouth each time we answered a question that wasn’t using an efficient method to answer a question. As weird as this may seem he was right. There is no value in going around your head when your mouth is right there.

Key point: Make sure you are practicing in a way that will help you accomplish your goal. For example, if only one section of a song is causing trouble only work on that section. You can waste a lot of time working on the entire piece when you don’t need to.

Take a Brake

This is biggest mistake that most musicians make. I even see professionals do this. Not only is is slowing down your progress but it is also detrimental to your health. I recommend that you practice for no longer than one and a half hours at a time. Many studies have shown that this is the maximum amount to time the average adult is able to stay focused. Children should practice with shorter intervals.

Key point: Take a walk once in a while and be sure to keep a good rest schedule.

Alright, now pick one of these tasks and work them into your routine. It’ll be a waste of time to implement all of the tips all at once. You need to ingrain them into your habits one at a time for maximum effectiveness.