Thursday, November 15, 2007

My Practice Routine


I normally don't practice. At least not lately. In fact, the last time I really practiced was when I had a concert coming up.

And even then, the best form of practice for me was to just play the pieces I was going to play. But sometimes you don't feel like playing your "pieces." So what to do for a warmup?

I do 2 Hanon exercises to get my hands limbered up. I play open position chords in all 12 keys using the circle of fifths. I also play them chromatically up the keyboard.

You see, my problem (and some of you may have this as well) is that I get bored fast. For someone with my limited attention span, playing scales is like torture. And since I don't play scales, it's not really a problem.

What about you? What do you do to "warm up?"

2 comments:

  1. Could you please provide a little more detail on your practice "non-routine" for us beginners who'd like to do something similar? For instance, although I understand open chords, I'm only vaguely familiar with the circle of fifths, and don't know how you "play open position chords in all 12 keys using the circle of fifths". And what do you mean by "play them chromatically up the keyboard"? Lastly, I've heard about the benefits of playing Hanon exercises regularly and wonder where is the best source of basic ones. Thanks! Diana

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  2. I'm actually thinking about doing a video to show my students what I do to "warm up" at the piano.

    Now that I think about it, I WILL do it! Look for it soon.

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