The Secret to Effective Piano Practice (60min Guide) 

What an awesome teacher 😫 . He never disappoints. This channel alone is enough for me alongside my piano learning process. Always short, clean and at the point videos. Thank you as always

I am doing 90 to 120 minutes every day. I am in the beginner/ intermediate level, almost two years since I started learning. I am doing the first hour purely practicing pieces that I am learning, all six of them. then 30 or more minutes of technical and that interferes with the dynamics that I am seeing in my new pieces. Thank you Jazer for your help, it is much appreciated.

I’m self taught on and off for three years and don’t have any formal practice, but I try and practice at least 15 minutes a day. I usually start with a warm up, then go into some technique for 10 minutes. After that I do sight reading and end my session with some fun, maybe try and play something by ear. I usually find myself practicing longer than 15 minutes when I sit down just because the piano can so fun

My practice is usually in two sessions. The first session is focused on scales, chords, and technical exercises. I actually enjoy doing these "boring" technique things. My second session is focused on reading and working on my pieces. Reading music (at least, treble clef) is super easy for me since I've been playing clarinet and sax for decades. But feeling where the keys are on the piano is hard, so I really like to work on playing without looking. Fortunately, I have very good relative pitch.

Also, for me it is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey. A mindset that works great for me. I will never be finished with any piece of music, always something to improve or try. Therefore, as long as I have general progress and enjoy a piece of music, it can be part of my schedule for a long period. I think it is relaxing and giving with that mindset, as one always learn something, also from playing old stuff, as long as one just always is mindfull with a clear goal for the day.

Thank you Jazer for more great advice.

Thanks Jazer for all your advice. I will definitely be applying them

Thank you; I really needed to find more structure to my practicing routine.

Really enjoy your videos. Well thought out and concise. Thank you. After a year and half of playing I have only started to do daily Hanon exercises and I totally see how they do improve technique and performance. Should have started them sooner.

Thank you so much for this video! I just had two semesters of piano learning in my college and now I am on my own trying to push my learnings on my own. I was wondering how i structure my practice and this video exactly gave me what I needed.

Thank you, Jazer!!

Good video 👍. My practice often lacks focus so I'm going to use this.

I would love to see a 30 minutes guide, you are such a great teacher

Wow this is totally how I practice!! It's like your in my mind lol love your channel, keep up the amazing content ❤

Watching these videos always motivates me. Thank you

67 year old beginner guitarist (3 years now) and I'm binge watching your practice method videos. Great stuff that's applicable to any instrument. Thanks

good guide as always, thanks, I normally have a handfull of pieces I practise, selected to use different muscle groups, in order to exercise different muscle groups and avoid harming muscle groups. Also I try to pay attention to be as relaxed as possible, no shoulders up around the ears, and no muscle tension in the feets, legs, back, neck etc. Playing with a soft touch normally makes miracles ;-)

Thank you for this helpful video Jazer. Recently I find I get bogged down trying to improve the same piece, then run out of enthusiasm for anything else. I’m definitely going to try your method.

Agree with your point about not spending too long on one piece, I find half an hour is about my limit unless I'm really looking at different tasks (eg memorisation vs looking at detailed sections). One thing I used to do (and it's a habit I need to re-establish) is working backwards from the end of a piece. This works once you've played things through enough to roughly know where your fingers should go. With each hand: play the last two bars of the piece. Go back a bar and play those two (ie third and second last bars), and go backwards through the piece, a bar at a time, playing two bar chunks. Repeat with both hands together. This is also a really great way to help memorise the piece (once you've played each two bar chunk and it's solid, repeat without looking at the music). Then go back to "sensible chunks" (8 or 16 bars) making sure each section really works before putting everything. If I'm really disciplined (usually I'm slack) I have each hand memorised before I put them together. (Note: once memorised, I don't keep playing from memory, I put the music back, but it's nice to know it's there). This helps stop the problem where you learn a piece from the beginning and if anything slightly goes wrong you fall apart because you're relying on muscle memory. It's also very useful if you're taking lessons because it means your teacher can ask you to play from anywhere in the music. Note assumes usual mix of crotchets, quavers and semiquavers at ~100bpm.

Really good and helpful advice

I can’t agree you any more. You’ve almost concluded my practice process.👍

Absolutely perfect timing. I’ve been struggling with what to do for practice. I’ve been simply following the app I use, bouncing around within that to sections on sight reading etc..: then back to the courses within the app. I sprinkle in a little RU-vid as well. I tried a few of your others on warmup and arpeggios but they lacked the notes on screen I’ve gotten used to in the app, so pausing was useless and I was having problem seeing what keys you were actually hitting. I suspect as time goes on and I keep at it, those kind of videos will become elementary.

Thank you "maestro" i will try to follow your teaching❤👍

Thanks for this! My routine: I’m spending more time on technique/exercises because my hands are weak & clumsy after my long hiatus. Was doing sight reading at the end but I like your way better, so I’ll switch to that. Last night I found my mind turning off in the middle of some slow practice, and I just kept saying “pay attention!” out loud & starting over :) I think a mini-break would be better. Fun: hmm I enjoy it all; maybe I’ll sneak in a few bars at a faster tempo. Haven’t figured out how and when to re-learn more music theory. Apply what I can practicing scales/triads/cadences & identifying chords in pieces.

I write down the key I want to practice in my journal. I then play scales and modes of that key, starting with Lydian, Ionian, Mixolidian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian and then Locrian. That was I start with the one that is sharpened, then the major scale, flatten the 7, then 3, 6. 2 and 5. I also play flattening the 4th scale, which is some sort of dominant scale, and then flattening the 1st. I have a Bach Chorales sighreading book and find a song in the key of the day. I usually play a piece at the end, but I need to add more pieces to my repertoire. I love your warm-up routine that you've shown and use it almost every practice.

I start off doing scales and chord progressions and some finger exercises that you've shown before. Next I work on 2 to 3 new pieces. After that it's polishing a favorite that still needs a little bit of work. I finish with playing something I love to play.

★★★★★ Another 5-star presentation. Keep 'em coming,.

i really enjoy your teaching, i am having lessons with a teacher at the moment, but i do like to use your video's to learn songs i love to play.. and yes i am trying to read music as much as i can.. 👍 keep up the good work ..

Maestro Jazer: very, very useful advices for sub-beginner-hardheader like me. Thank you very much; un abrazo from La Palma.

This is great! I am also introducing my students to pieces you mentioned for beginners. I want to learn more pieces that beginners can play. I didn’t grow up learning the piano how I should. So, I was robbed that but I’m learning how to teach better by opening up more repertoire for myself and the students.

I do a warm up with scales and arpeggios, then 20 minutes with a method/how to book, twenty minutes on a song at my level "Beatles easy piano", then 20 minutes on something difficult" Handels saraband in d minor". I practice daily, consistency is key to improvement for me :)

You are absolutely insane! Are there honestly people better than you at playing the piano? I just cant see it..

GENIUS

Hi Jazer, thank you for all your videos, they're going to be really helpful. I am a complete beginner and learning so much thanks to you. i'll receive my piano soon, do you have a video on how to structure a hour/day pratice for complete beginner. If not do you think you could make one? I still haven't learn how to read piano sheets. ❤🙏🏽

I have been playing for over 20 years off and on, but I have learned some things either I had forgotten or never took to heart in all your videos. So thank you! Question: Could you do a book video? Like top ten piano books that can help or helped you in you piano playing? I also see some other books that are not music related in your bookcase, any top recommendations from that just in general? Thank you keep up the great work in helping us in our piano.

I practice 16-20 pieces a day, they're mixed into pieces that I can do, that I'll be able to do soon, and pieces that I've just started. All this is repeated every 3 days and then starts again from the beginning. So I have plenty of time to practice. Your tip about practicing extremely slowly and searching note by note, divided into small sections is super good! Intensively practicing a section from the middle or in between is worth its weight in gold and makes practicing less boring. Thank you. Also improvisation ect. is included. In fact, I almost always practice with both hands together, because for me it's one, one thing in terms of feeling. Thank you Jazer Lee, you and Lionel Yu, you are a great inspiration and help to me and it's fun to play the piano "with it". My problem is that I am repeating too many pieces at the same time and practicing some new ones at the same time. In other words, the progress with the new ones is certainly not quite as fast as if I "only" had 5 pieces to practice intensively. But it still works somehow :-) I want too much at once :-)

Great video. I currently do 30-40 minute sessions. Definitely made a lot of great strides since I started last March... Wondering if I should consider expanding my sessions to 60...

I do these things too but I practice about 2.5-3 hours a day. 45-60 minutes of technical exercises (Hanon, scales, chords, arpeggios) then take a break. After a few hours I will do some sightreading (this part I feel is the most difficult) and also practice/learn new repertoire. I’m usually working on 3 pieces in different stages. Then in the evening I will play songs that I’ve learned but trying to refine with dynamics etc. I don’t do much improvising though. It’s just not something that interests me at the moment.

Thanks! Great vid. But I typically would skip warmup and sight reading and do deep work for 45 - 1hr and just a few min of fun afterwards

Always happy to see more of these! Ive been playing for 2 years (selftaught) and Ive noticed that through obsessive repetition I can learn quite literally anything but despite the fact Ive learned dozens of pieces Ive only ever been able to play 3-4 songs at a time, since everything else just gets lost to me as I learn smtn new.

Can you explain more about the chord progression improv? I can improv, stay within the key, but chords are a very new concept. Love the practice ideas … I use them too.

3 years since I've started learning how to play. Have a practice every day around 90 min. Start with massaging my hands for a couple of minutes, go on with either scales, or some Hanon, or Сzerny to warm up, then may spend about 20 minutes on some etude, then the main piece (never learn more than one at a time) and finish with revising something that I've learnt before. Hardly ever have time for sight-reading, usually practise it with my teacher once a week. I'm aware that it's not enough, but don't have time. Piano is my hobby, not job

I spend 3 hours a day practicing. I warm up with some finger exercises; finger stretching; some scale and arpeggios I just rotate thru one scale a week and loop back. Then I work on 3-4 pieces starting with the newest piece first slow and methodical and intentional choreographing my hands and fingers and practice in slow motion. Then rotate to next newest piece which I know a bit more and keep rotating thru the pieces and the last piece or two I know well and work on improving tempo or articulations/dynamics.

I like to mix up the pieces I practice: some easy ones and some that are harder. This way I see some progress, at least in the easy ones 😃

Hi Jazer, thank you for all the great content! Question, I am struggling with a piece right now that has difficult rhythms for me. Should I spend the extra time and get these rhythms down? Or move on and not drive myself crazy? I'm in level 2 of Alfred's Adult All in One. Thank you for your wisdom here.

I am a self taught 60 year old and have been playing piano for 5 years an average of 3 hours a day. My daily routine is at least 1 hour of scales/chords/hand independent exercises (probably too much, but I can't seem to let it go for reasons I'm not sure of), 1 hour of playing/memorizing songs (alternating 6-7 different songs every other day), and 1 hour working on new songs (3 or so at a time) I have made a lot of progress, but considering the amount of time I put in, I don't think I'm making the most effective use of my practice time. My goal is to learn more Jazz and classic rock songs. Your advise?

❤

Thanks ! Could uou please elaborate on what you do furing the sight reading phase ? Do you just look at the sheet and "read" the notes and rythms in your head ?

I have periods of 2-4 weeks of just slow and deep practice only the hardest sections of the pieces I wanna learn. Work wonders but is really exhausting and I get frustrated in the end. JUst repeat hundreds of times these 24 bars until its done. No running away from the hard .Total gas out. Then maybe a week of just replaying old stuff and remastering things to chill out a bit. Then again on the grind. Its the fastest way to learn hard stuff and progress on every instrument I played (drums and piano mostly)

I've played piano for 9.5 years rn but I think I wasting my time because I practicing anything on piano randomly (thats really bad for y'all, I felt I'm not good at it yet :')) But I just found out one practice technique (idk is it efficient for practicing piano or not) 1. Warm Up I do scales, hanon, arpeggios, broken chords and so on 2. Idk what is it called (repertoire or smth, idk) but I play my course material (for example : a song from Beyer book). So I wont dissapoint my piano teacher 😂 3. I do project. So I wont lost interest on piano bcs of boredom. (ex : Moonlight Sonata or Turkish March) 4. Review Reviewing some pieces that I've already learn before so I wont forget gow to play it. Also just for fun (sometimes playin smth u already can do is fun).. Is it a good practice structure? Correct me please, so I can practicing piano better next time Edit : I also have a bit conflict with myself about what genre should I learn now. I need to learn Pop n some jazz for play gospel song better (i thought?). But I want to focusing myself on classical music. I dont have so much time to practice tbh (I dont even have 15 minutes for rest bcs I'm too busy with my school and courses...) In fact, i cant pay much attention to piano and I need a very very efficient piano practice structure to save my time 😢

I've been playing for a little over a year, but I had played violin for six years when I was a teen, and I've been a singer all my life. I start with scales and arpeggios, and I'm always looking for exercises that improve that playing, especially etudes that are musical. I try to limit myself to 3-4 "real" pieces, but at my level (grade 2 is easy, 3 takes a little work, and 4 has some challenges to it), most of the pieces are short, and I find myself getting bored going over such small sections repeatedly. Then I start making stupid mistakes. I usually then try sight reading, which I enjoy a lot--I tend to sight read above my level in terms of playing but not in terms of musical understanding. My problem is to know when to move on to different pieces. I think I need to do that sooner most of the time, and if it's a piece I really like but can't get fast enough or fluid enough now, to revisit it later after I have a lot more practicing on other pieces under my belt. I recently did that based on a request for a song by my husband, and I was surprised how much easier the piece was even though I hadn't played it for several months.

Mine is very similar to yours but I suppose I don't slot in as much fun stuff as I should. 🎹🎤

Hi Jazer. Thanks for all your valuable lessons. Is it a overkill to spend one hour a day practicing scales?

30min a day. I start by playing a piece that I already learned to see if my sight reading and muscle memory is good (2min). I go the hymn that I currently working on 10min. Than try other hymns by sight reading (5min). I work my pop or modern 5-7mim. I go through all of it and work on a specific passage. After the song that I'm working in the RCM book (5min). And conclude with scales or arpeggios 2-3min.

Good evening Mr Jazz Lee I have spent five years playing piano but I started in solfa notation and then I realized that playing staff notation is better than solfas but I take long to practice it and then I feel some pain in my hands and even I take like a month to practice one key but what can I do please thank

Im pretty much at the beginning of my journey and 60 mins per day with structure seems perfect. Question for the wider community who know way more than me: I'm currently learning 4 pieces for a grading and 1 additional piece for me thats hard but something i have in the background. Would people recomment a different piece per day, or say piece 1&2 for 20 mins each day 1, then 3&4 day 2, piece 5 and scales day 3 and then repeat?

Hi.. thanks for your videos.. im trying to find a classical progressive sheet book but i can't find any.. can anyone help me ?

Yeah, I usually jump back and forth between working on two or three different pieces because I get burned out if I'm working on just the same piece all the time. I really need to practice sight reading more, but it's hard and a pain... Maybe if I just do it very minimally to start off it won't make me hate myself too much lol.

Also forgot another tip, which might be obvious for many. Anyway, for me at least it works great, as I am able to make a day longer than 24 hours just by simple planning. By planning brain demanding activities like learning piano and follow the great guides of Jazer Lee at the hours of the day (first thing in the morning with my coffee), where I am able to have a better focus and be mindfull. In that way 1h morning practise probably count more than 2 hours spend in the afternoon where I am not as fresh, and thereby not as focused. Afternoon hours can be used better at routine jobs. We are all different, and everybody might not be able to plan like that, but at least this type of planning to do certain activities at certain times of the day, works great for me.

Jazer, my pianist friend and I frequently talk about our piano experiences. We both drift off into other thoughts when we are playing in public. It is just so unbelievable that we might drift off into thinking about paying a cable bill while our brain is somehow on automatic. Now when we get back on track, there is usually a glitch that we try to cover up. How/ Why does the brain do this?!

Thank you so much! Just wanted to mention:The link doesn't work

i agree one piece at the time is getting borred quickly, playing too slow also lol ...but patience is key i quess

If I'm working on one or more pieces in slow deep practice when is a good time to kind of move on from it. Like what level of mastery would you recommend before moving on to something new?

At what point do you include studying things like music theory or piece analysis?

Hanon everyday ahah

I do approximately what you say this video, but I experienced regression when I play my piece. I practice Minuet in G a lot, and I was able to play it 98% correct most of the time. But then I introduced other songs, and I seam to forget how to play Minuet. I am worried that I would not be able to play multiple songs (almost) perfectly…Anyway, my question is : what do you do when you experienced regression in your songs practice?

My issue is that my left arm starts to hurt after a few minutes. I think I keep my left arm tense for too long 😞

About being mindful while playing, that sounds a bit abstract to understand, is it possible to illustrate more in the future video? 😊 I’m more of a memorizing type of student then being comprehensive, throughout the days that I went to piano class to learn and practice, all teachers do was to see how I practiced at home, tell me when to get louder softer and quieter, and repeat this with all the pieces I’m practicing. I don’t really get a lot of fun stuff or stories or theories.😮 So I suppose I don’t really get the chore of it :/

Hey Jazer, would like to understand for the final part “fun”, I unfortunately am weak with piano theory after not playing for long and I do not have perfect pitch. How do I go about doing some improvisation? I’ve gotten back and have been learning classical pieces a little more. But I find that I would like to have some fun too instead of constantly focusing on the classical piece and finger works only. I lack repertoires to play for fun too due to the long hiatus.

My current teacher suggests that I practice 20min 3x per day. Do you have any thoughts on if this is an effective way to practice?

This is my fav video. This hole daily practice routine is my biggest worry, since Im a beginner self taught. Im constantly thinking about how to structure my practice. My current daily piano practice routine: -15mins of The Russian Piano School Book. -15mins of sight reading -15 mins EAR Training -technique : major&minor scapes currently. Only Right Hand at the moment. -15mins of Improv: got no clue what Im doing.... -a Song / Piace for 15mins. Nokia Tune by Francisco Tarrega. From now on I practice the way you currently practice Jazer. Ill give your way a shot. Prolly for at least a week.,💯🤯🥰🎹🎹🎹😇👌💪👍👏👏👏

Be careful to be mindful. I deliberately was not mindful of what I was doing because I thought I was learning faster. Now I don't actually consciously know how to play (beginner), I just have a function in my brain that knows how to play and if I need to know any theory I need to query the function. A bit like you're turning a corner in your car, you can exactly turn the wheel without any correction mid-corner, but if someone asked you how much they should turn the wheel you couldn't answer without imagining the whole scenario and analysing what you would do (querying the function). I will play a scale on command, but if you ask me what notes are in the scale, I will have to work it out because I distilled them in my brain down to "Der" (One step) and "Dar" (half step); like I actually say that in my head instead of the name of the next note. It was going well, then came the key changes and I constantly forget where I am (just for a moment, but it only takes a moment) because I'm not paying any attention at all, and when I try to pay attention I mess up even more because I don't *know* how to play.

Finding things interesting people need to be finding music in a store or download them. Many students only stick to the teacher's assigned pieces before they lack the confidence to learn something on their own. You do get some assigned pieces that are interesting but not always. Some people after a year or 2 would quit.

Is it bad to practice a whole lot like 3 hours or smth

Love your vids and watch all of them Jazer, but when you show your Hanon warm-up, you do the opposite of what you recommend we do: You blitz through it at blazing speed initially instead of taking it slowly. Later you show a slower speed, but not at the speed someone learning would. What is shown is what is remembered and solidified in people, not what you say.

What you call very slow practice is waaay too fast for me :))

How to understand with finger to use for one note or another?

I "stole" the keyboard from my daughter because it was in the basement with a small layer of dust. And since 1 year i play now and then. Most of the time during weekends @ age 52.🎉

If you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly.

Great video as usual... One thing for people to keep in mind... These numbers are all dependent on your brain. Also, broken practice is better. Look up the pomodoro technique, after like 25 min straight, most people's brains are cooked and need a 5 min break or so, continuing beyond it means you're slowing down or even making it worse If you have ADHD (you might, and you might not know it either) or anything like this that affects focus and drive and motivation... Your answers will be different. Some days you might spend a whole hour or two in it, others you can only focus for 10 minutes. Do what you can, and realize that your brain is naturally always going to be doing better at quick short sessions broken apart by something that moves your body and gives your brain downtime (meditation has been shown to improve focus rates as well as retention after a learning session). Those are very huge techniques to apply to everyone's piano playing, i think Other hard thing with ADHD and neurodivergency is how it can be fickle on the fun side. I will have it where I can completely engross myself in learning arpeggios or some scale for a really long time. But just getting myself to play a piece that I already played. Or to practice it and refine it in a different way, can be so boring that I would literally rather do everything else. And that's a part of just how ADHD is, it's about what you find as fun, as he mentioned About the small practice, there are many virtuoso players who insist on them never doing more than 10 or 15 minutes per practice session. And that basically aligns with the pomodoro research for neuroscience. Small chunks +breaks > big chunks

Now I understand why people recommend doing long short, long short

I’ve heard that Hanon is super controversial. What are your thoughts?

As an adult learner, I get despondent at my seemingly slow progress. I currently do not have a teacher. Previous teachers have instructed me to practice this or that, but no one has ever told me what exactly constitutes practice. I am sure I have taught myself bad habits through endless, mindless repetition. My day job was as a flight instructor and flight examiner. I was always sorry to hand a fail notice to a flight student for errors due to inadequate training. Knowing full well, they would probably get more of the same shaky instruction. Flight training worked best when broken into small chunks, which build on each other and should be done on the ground, demonstrated and practised in the air. My principal headache with the piano is the eleven keys, major and minor. Music is a vast ocean of countless distinct components. If I were writing the piano lessons, the first year would never move from 'C'. My flight lessons start with the primary effects of the flight controls and no further until proficiency is demonstrated. Next comes the secondary effects of flight controls and the use of power. And so on and so on. In my music books, the student would become proficient in recognising the principal chords and their inversions in C. A degree of proficiency would need to be demonstrated before moving on to the same or similar exercise and performance pieces in G.

Jazer - I’m confused. In one of your lessons that I just watched, you outright dismissed the need for a warm-up, pointing people to get right to the meat of their practice. What gives? Should pianists warm up or not?

How do I become like @kylelandry?