Piano Techniques You Shouldn't Skip In Your First 3 Years 

🕘 Timestamps 0:00 Intro 0:43 First Year 1:15 Legato (Y1) 2:59 Scales (Y1) 5:03 Chords (Y1) 7:28 Second Year 7:43 Arpeggios (Y2) 8:24 Pedal (Y2) 9:36 Octaves (Y2) 10:38 Scales (Y2) 11:57 Finger Independence (Y2) 12:42 Third Year 12:48 Trills (Y3) 14:18 Arpeggios (7ths) (Y3) 15:18 Complex Rhythms (Y3) 16:04 Scales (Y3)

I’d love a video just about using a pedal. How it’s notes in the music, when to press and how long to hold. That would be amazing if you feel like covering that topic. The bank you for today’s video.

This is such valuable advice. Advice I ignored when I started playing piano as an adult, because all I wanted was to learn all the new challenging pieces of music that peaked my interest. Today, I have several huge holes and gaps in my technical repertoire, if that's a way to put it.. which is crazy hard to fix simply because I'm.. old :) So yeah, great video and to whoever is reading this: Do the "boring" foundational work as soon as possible. Your future self is going to thank you for it!!!

Excellent video! I am an adult student (currently 65). I have been playing for around 5 years, I never played as a child. I bought a good but cheap digital keyboard and started taking classes at a junior college. While in school, I progressed quickly but then I jumped ahead and attempted to play pieces that, in the end, were too difficult for me. I developed tendonitis in both pinkies due to poor technique and tension. When COVID hit, I tried to continue on my piano studies on my own. My tendonitis prevented me from playing as much as I would have liked. When I did play, my bad habits just got reinforced. This last January, my husband purchased a 40-yr old Kawai grand piano (it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen or heard) and I found a teacher. Her evaluation placed me at a Grade 3 (early intermediate), and we have been working at correcting bad habits, tension, and stage fright ever since. The pieces she assigns me are pushing my limits and I have yet to play any of them perfectly due to lack of finger independence, rhythm (I just began to work with the petal and the metronome), and an A-type personality (I was a computer engineer) that just refuses to play slowly! I lose concertation quickly, so I limit my work to no more than 10 minutes a piece. I practice about an hour a day at least 5 days a week with scales, chords, arpeggios, and etudes taking up the majority of my session. Since January, my husband and teacher say I have improved, but to me I seem to be slogging along due to my aging brain and arthritic fingers. I will never play Carnegie Hall, but as my teacher say "How many of us ever will? So don't let that stop you." Playing piano is the best thing I have ever done for myself, and I cannot see how this sort of discipline will ever hurt me -- thus, I will continue.

The biggest challenges for adult learners are the boredom of repetition and the perceived slowness of progress, and I have not even mentioned the frustration of wrong notes. It takes mountains of perseverance and determination and coping with the realisation that this ought to have been learned aged eight or nine when everything was about learning new stuff, same as all of your friends and contemporaries. However, if the motivation is strong enough, we do it. This is where the benefit of a good and sympathetic teacher is invaluable.

Very good guide…as always. The rule over all rules might be always to do everything as perfect as possible when practicing. Play slow enough for zero errors, perfect touch, rhythm, mindfull, have a clear goal and by playing soft, one play better as muscle tension block everything.

At this point I’m having problems grasping which inversion to use when playing cord rhythms with other musicians. My husband is a music major and plays guitar professionally for over 60 years but it’s quite a challenge for me to grasp some music theory. Thanks for making this easier.

I have been playing piano for 3.5 years, and I can play quite complex pieces, however, I still have a sense of lack of understanding when it comes to basic mechanics. Thanks for your tips 👍👍.

This is such a wonderfully done, important video (as many of your videos, if not all, are). I learned to play when I was 10 and the focus was not on music theory but performance and technique. I had always loved it but lost touch with it for decades. Now, I’ve been more regularly playing new pieces without any real guidance so your teaching is both correcting and filling in gaps in my learning AND also guiding and encouraging me forward. I don’t want to just play a new piece, each time; I want to be a better player, and this is absolutely helping me and inspiring me. There are not many things out there that reward diligence, discipline and patience like learning to play an instrument. Thank you!

I get a little lazy sometimes and don't practice the basics as much as I should so these are good reminders. My question is how long should you work on a piece before moving onto a new one? Should it be absolutely perfect before starting to learn a new piece of music?

Thanks for another great video Jazer! This is exactly what I was looking for. It's a must-see by anyone who starts learning the piano!

Great video! Showing us the levels clearly on playing piano journey. Thank you so much!

Excellent content Jazer , thank you 😊

Thank you very much for the wonderful totorials!

OMG! you give me a big picture of piano playing. thank you dear Jazer❤

I must tell you that your tips are not only helping me in Piano but even in vocals too❤️❤️❤️

Very very useful, Thank you!

Excellent advice as always 🙏

Beautiful explanation.. elaborately explained .. long live sir 🙏

Very helpful. Get a general idea what to focus step by step as a beginner. Love it❤❤❤

Thank you for your videos. They are very helpful.

Hey ! Thanks a lot for this incredible video once again.. I usually don't comment a lot but I'm learning piano since one year and a half and applied almost all your videos advices to my training sessions ! And this is magic, I loved it ! And i'm really liking these structured video where i can check my actual skills. Can you do the same type of video with reading music ? Like a checklist of how to start learning reading music sheets year by year (sorry for my english level 😅)

You best video yet!!! Thank you! I have neglected scales. The way you showed to play arpeggios opened my mind! Thanks is not a big enough word!!

Very good piano lesson.. Thank you.

SCALES 3:51 C major 3:56 G major 4:04 D major CHORDS (C major) 6:09 right hand 6:25 left hand 6:36 block exercise (2 hands - up & down) 6:53 broken exercise (2 hands - up & down) ARPEGGIOS (C major) 7:54 (R: 1 2 3)

Great vidoes‼️💯✊🏿 You gave me new ideas to try🤔

very helpful!

Great video! I’d love to see a video on trills, please. I love trills.

A lot to unpack. I've recently moved into Alfred's level 3 book for adults. There are areas I'm having difficulty with. You've given me some new approaches to tackle those difficulties in this video. Thanks.

Perfect timing for me (no pun intended) with this video. I started one year ago, and this gave me a greater sense of where I should be at this point. I’ve played guitar for 50 years and I found the mechanics of piano to be much more difficult, while seeing the theory is actually easier. In 2020 I set out to improve my guitar technique, with great results, so I decided to finally learn piano, making sure I paid attention to technique. I’m not where I thought I might be at this point wrt repertoire, but I’m slightly ahead of your year one benchmark so I feel great about that. Thanks for making these videos!

Dude, such quality content. I’m learning so much from watching your videos. Thanks a ton for the help!!

Very good! Thanks from Houston, TX.

Thanks for making this, I’ve been goofing with the piano for 20 years and have decided to get serious finally. I’m so far ahead in some areas, but woefully behind in some really elementary skills. This is a great guide to go back and really shore up my foundation. I’m gonna save this video and really take the time to go through it over the next few months. Appreciate it.

Hi Mr Jazer I admire sooo much and very interesting your channel 😊, it helps a lot to my piano learnings, pls continue cause i believed many wants to learn piano lessons but no time,due to workload, luck of finances , etc keep teaching thanks a lot😊

Really great video, I'm a few months into learning piano and (very important) enjoy the proces although the progress is slow and especially to get your left hand wired separated from your right hand, however I do see some slow progress. And these practice ideas are great, thank you.

Thank you

Pleeaase do a video on chords and scales for beginners. I basically know the major and minor chords through muscle memory but never quite understand the theory behind them! And also how to practise them/ exercises for the ears

Excellent video! Saved and will be coming back for repeat watches in the future. The legato reminder hits extra hard for me. I noticed after learning to use the pedal, I got lazy with my legato technique and started regressing in that area.

Thanks for the video. I’m a middle-aged “intermediate” piano player coming back to playing. The video basically confirmed the things I was already working on and added a few items to the list. I was too impatient when younger and neglected some of this foundational stuff in order to get to the “good stuff”. It made the “good stuff” that much harder, I think.

Such a useful video, Jazer! I invent a lot of variations on chord and scale practice and was encouraged when you mentioned getting creative with practice. It makes the effort so enjoyable and I find I am constantly challenging myself. Finger independence is my biggest struggle.

Thanks!

Maestro Jazer: this is a very, very useful video for beginners like me. Now I can realize how many faults I have thanks to you. The problem is how to solve them....well, I will try to follow your advices but as an adult (very) the difficulties are more accentuated. Un abrazo desde La Palma.

New sub here. =) Thank you for this roadmap of how to properly learn the piano. I really wanted to learn but couldn't afford piano lessons or even a cheap digital piano. I borrowed keyboards from friends back in high school and learned chords from a book. Even picked up an old Casio keyboard at the curbside spring cleanup just so I can practice. I ended up playing at a church choir for many years with chords and accompaniments. I was able to learn some songs that I wanted like Canon in D, River Flows in You, Fuer Elise, Turkish March, etc through synthesia on YT but I realized that I don't really feel like a musician without music theory. Im an adult now (34) and just decided to finally give myself the proper classical music training that I really wanted now that I can atleast afford stuff. I just placed an Amazon order for a full-weighted 88 keys digital piano and will start over from scratch. Im so glad to have found your channel. I so excited for this new journey. It feels like I have a new purpose in life. I'll definitely watch all your videos to further educated myself.

On the five finger independence method I also move around the keyboard to do it. It definitely changes the game. Thank you for showing that in a short..

Thank you.

Thanks Jazer, you make learning piano a lot more exciting. Now I just need a piano, drumming on the table is just not the same. :-)

I actually wrote this down pointwise (I am not a natural note taker). I struggle with trills.

Brilliant

This is such great advice!! Hope we get chosen to be one of your student next time

That is a great video. Exactly what I was wondering. Thanks a lot. Trills are the hardest for me so far in my third year :D One video suggestion is, please also shoot a video about how long it should take a piece to learn depending on the piece level with daily 1,5-2 hours practice, let's say ABRSM. As an adult learner, I feel that if I spend long time on a piece, eventually I will make it work but I believe for each level there should be a limited time to learn otherwise this level should be above than my level. I do not want to spend 8-9 months to learn an 8 level piece when I am on level 4. But I am also not sure whether it is ok to spend 2 months to learn a level 4 piece as well. I believe that would really help every adult learners.

Some really good ideas that can make practice more fun. Loved the thirds scale. I am really struggling with my thumb under technique and not sure how to get it smoother and faster.

Thank you for the suggestions. I’m learning so much from your videos. What is the fingering for the left hand dominant arpeggios?

nice video. I have trouble playing thirds together. I know it's not at all a beginner technique but if you could do a video on this :)

Hi Jazer. Really love your videos. Would like to ‘note out’ some of the exercises that you have demonstrated so that I am working on sight reading while working on skill development. Do you have any music notation software (preferably iOS / Mac compatible) that you would recommend? Thanks much, and keep the videos coming. Your approach is so much more methodical and logical than what I encountered when I first took lessons 40+ years ago 😊

I love 7th Chords! 🎉🎉🎉😂

Great, Jazer! I would like to ask you what songs you use in your video as examples! I recognized Turkish March, River flows in you, but not the others! Thanks and keep it up! 👍🎹👍

I start to learn. , the piano has aged, I am so nervous, and in mind worry, do I can it. So that is a big challenge for me, so. I just bought the piano and am so grateful to find your video helpful. Thank you so much

Thank you🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Another superb video. These are videos that I have my son watch as he is going through his journey. Your idea of playing scales in parallel 6's is really interesting. Something that I never learned before.

Does anyone know the name of the first piece at 0:48? Jazer, it would be super helpful if you could also put name of the piece you're playing on the screen. Other than that, great video as usual!❤

Out of these things. Recent complex fast trills has been an issue which I’ve been practicing a lot lately. I seem to lack the highest precision of control. It’s challenging to find the right lift heigh repeat in a controlled manner. That’s what I’ve been trying to improve on myself. I don’t mean between 2-3 I mean doing a Bb to A landing on A with a 2-1-3-2 fingering or C to Bb landing in Bb with a 4-2-4-2 fingering.

I think sometimes , without having a teacher there banging your fingers with a ruler when you are practicing doing something wrong, it really does slow down your learning . You make excellent points here , I should remain conscious of.

Hi Jazer, Where do you sit when the music is not focused around middle C? Do you sit at middle C and lean to the left or right for the whole piece? Thanks for making the summary video. It is a good motivator to play piano every day.

Great video - really appreciate the content you put out @jazerleepiano. I'm returning to piano after a 25 year break and have found your videos a huge help

I struggle with 4 and 5 finger octave chords, especially if they located above the staff, as in EMBRACEBLE YOU, arranged by John Brimhall.

Enjoy your tutorials. When using the pedal which is the best time to depress the pedal? The upbeat or downbeat? Mike

I love and appreciate all your great technique exercises that I’ve learned from your videos. However, trying to get them all in before I work on pieces, my warm up time is getting longer and longer. What do you think is a good amount of time to warm up with these techniques and exercises, and should I rotate them throughout the week or do them all each day?

Pliz do more on scales

Hi Jazer, Do you think working with AMEB Grade books can give us a good guide to our progress, or lack of progress, over time? Or is there a major variable that gets left out along the way? Like most things, I suppose you can recognise advantages and disadvantages in taking this tack, while also working on pieces we just enjoy.

Best piano teacher on youtube 👍

Hello. What piano do you play on? Thanks for the videos!

Tel me what is that lovely music at the beginning of your video. By the way all your videos at great lessons, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your videos and tips!! 👍My daughter has been practicing scales with 2 hands and 2 octaves, however she is really struggling with the fingering and I don’t know how to help. 😩Do you have any tips or is it just going to be a muscle memory over time?

Jazer, How much time do you recommend for sight reading practice every day? That is something I try to work on consistently.

I always enjoy you tips and tricks - I've been playing for a number of years though mostly by ear. I currently play in an 80's cover band and it's with a mix of a weighted 88 key digital piano and keyboards more than an actual acoustic piano. I have been spending more time on theory and reading in order to continuously progress and evolve, learning different genres of music. How important is it to know if you are attempting to read music to far ahead of your reading abilities? How do you judge your reading capacity? I've heard many times that those that have many years of classical training can read sheet music just as easily as reading a book. I don't know if I will ever achieve that. I barely have time to practice reading on a weekly basis. Thus I know that's why my reading abilities are not improving as much as I would like. Music is still just a hobby for me. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers!

With starting to learn chords, a lot of what I have learned is really muscle memory or formulas and I feel like I am missing out on learning the chord notes. What is a good method for learning and practicing chords so I can learn the notes for each chord? This will probably come in handy for inversions.

Hi Jazer Lee, I have a question. If you had to teach a complete begginer how to play piano in half of year, how would the curriculum look like? I know that it sounds impossible. But the goal is get results quickly and then expand from there. Thanks.

Start to practice Hanon or Czerny also a good way to build up techniques I guess

Arpeggios HT up and back 3 octaves 9th small hands

About the difficulties: I believe I have a hard time with rithm! Great video!

As an adult beginner I’d love to see some tutorials talking about how to convert guitar tabs to piano (specially if there’s a capo for the guitar tab)

Could you please tell how to make chord progression for songwriting... And after making chord progression how to convert it to a melody

Thank you You can teach legato and no legato techniques❤

Thanks any chance of getting the names/ sheet music for everything you played ?

I love your videos jazzer i think my main problem is synchronizing with both of my hands

Brilliant video. So much information packed into 18 minutes. I had never thought I'd ever develop an interest in music, but 15 months ago I watched one of your videos on playing the piano and went out and bought one. Now I am trying to play two voice Bach Chorales and learn the music theory behind his music. And I just learned the Rule of the Octave. That would make a good video. Modern music uses melody and builds down. Italian and Baroque music was based on a Bass line, and built up. I'm trying to get comfortable with figured bass.

Hi Jazer, When I started to learn to play the piano I tried to start with right thumb on C or F, to help as a reference for other notes. A few weeks in, I am now finding myself using other fingers for various keys. Should I learn to keep to the C and F rule of thumb :) , or should I let it flow and just do what feels natural? Is there a better key position in general for the left and right hands which I should revert to? Thanks, Stefan

How to manage when staccato is in one hand and the other is legato. Can I use the pedal when some notes are staccato?

Hello Jazer, i just started playing the piano. I was wonder on how will the progression go. Like what should i do first? Then after mastering that first step i go to the other step and so on. Thank you

river flows in u from u sounds very good.. 🥰

Hi Jazer. I am a huge fan of your tutorials - thank you so much for beautiful music and excellent learning tips. Could you please let me know the name and the composer of the first piece you used to illustrate trills? Thank you!

Much of learning music involves its terminology, applying those terms to your instrument, finding how to play them, then practice... practice.

One of my exercises is much like the 6ths exercise but I play major and relative minor in different hands swapping half way, I really suck at it but it really makes you take note of what you are playing (pun intended)

Great advice. I always look at practicing technique as building a foundation, can’t build a house on weak foundation the same way you can’t learn a piece without technique. I run through all exercises before I touch a piece everyday, great way to warm up too. Another great exercise are broken chords going through all inversions 🎶

When playing arpeggios how to avoid grouping. I get it while ascending or descending when I try separate hands but it’s worse with both hands.

Is the syncopation you play at 16:00 also known as counter point?

What's the name of the first song you play?

What is the piece Jazer is playing at the 12:53 mark illustrating trills? Y3

What was the first song you played at 1:00?

What is the name of the Mozart piece you were playing in the first part of the video?