How to Teach Piano Students to Practice Effectively

How often do you teach your piano students to practice effectively?

Is one of your top piano teaching complaints about your student’s practice (or lack of practice)?

Maybe you've lost count of how many times you've told a student to practice piano.

Maybe you've tried dozens of piano practice challenges and incentives.

I get it. I've been there too.

But maybe the secret isn't telling piano student to practice.

Maybe the secret is in teaching our piano students to practice.

Piano practice doesn’t come naturally to most students. 

When I was a kid, I only wanted to play my piano pieces straight through and call it done for the day... only to stumble through playing them the next day–usually making the same mistakes.

If you didn’t have to learn how to practice piano, you might be an anomaly (maybe we could all learn a lesson from you!).

Because knowing how to productively practice piano doesn’t come naturally, it falls on us piano teachers to include teaching how to efficiently practice piano to our piano students.

Just like we don’t expect our piano students to inherently know how to correctly play a scale or accurately keep rhythm, we shouldn’t expect our students to automatically know how to best practice piano.

There are many piano practice methods one can apply and teach their students. 

In this blog post, I will cover a few of my favorite piano practice methods and how you can teach piano students to practice.

Practice with your piano student during lesson time

The first step to teach piano students to practice is to practice with them. 

Piano students often learn best by doing instead of listening to a lecture.

Instead of drilling information into your piano student, help them practice through a new piece of music. 

Take it a step further and discuss the practice methods you’re experimenting with in a new piece.

For years, as I introduced new pieces to my students, I practiced with them to help them learn it (working on rhythm alone, practicing small segments, etc.).

One day, I realized that my students weren’t taking this practice home and applying it. To them, this type of practice was “lesson time” and at home, they played through the piece from measure 1 to double bar line.

So, I started openly communicating what I was doing and why I was doing it.

I also started regularly adding, “Practice it this way at home.”

Reminding the student that these practice methods aren’t for lesson-time only helps instill good practice tips in their minds. 

Initiate student-led piano practice

After a few piano lessons where I teach a piano student to practice via practicing together, I’ll step back and ask them to “assign themselves” practice steps with guided questions. 

Some questions I often ask include:

• What part did you struggle most with?
• Where can we segment this piece to practice in smaller sections?
• What is one way you can practice this section?
• Can you think of two more ways to try practicing this?
• What really worked with practicing your last piece?

As the student is learning how to practice, they might not always have the best answers.

If the student’s answer isn’t a good piano practice method, lead the discussion to help them brainstorm a better practice method. It’s all a part of the process to help them learn how to practice.

Experiment teaching best piano practice methods with the student

Not all students benefit from the same practice method.

I personally know the best ways for me to practice when I sit down at the piano.

I also know what practice methods frustrate me rather than help me (for instance, memorizing music as I learn it isn’t a good practice method for me). 

Every piano student needs to learn their best practice methods. Communicate with your students so together you can figure out the best methods.

If your student can’t get past “I just hate practicing,” shake things up. 

Remember when you teach piano students how to practice that it isn’t about boring drills but about experimenting with various styles and methods.

Piano practice methods you can assign students

In addition to teaching my students how to practice piano in lessons, I often write out detailed practice steps while they’re learning a new practice method.

As a student grasps a new practice method, I can write less-detailed practice instructions.

Here are some piano practice methods I write down for my students.

1)  Piano Practice Method for Learning a New Piece

For my youngest beginners, I often write specific assignments as they learn a new piece.

These assignments usually include 3-4 of the following ideas:

• Clap & count rhythm (can also include dancing)
• Tap correct fingers on the piano lid
• Name notes before you play
• Name notes while you play
• Count while you play
• Sing while you play
• Right hand alone - name notes and play
• Right hand alone - count and play
• Left hand alone - name notes and play
• Left hand alone - count and play
• Play with backing track

Breaking up an assignment into smaller pieces not only helps my students feel like practice is attainable, it also assists them in learning how to learn new music.

2) Teach Piano Students to Practice Segments

This practice method works best for the students who struggle to pull together the entire piece and pause drastically between measures. 

It’s also my go-to method for portions of music that just needs some good, old-fashioned grinding.

• Day 1: Practice measures 1-2, 5x (times)
• Day 1: Practice measures 3-4, 5x
• Day 1: Practice measures 1-4, 5x
• Day 2: Review measures 1-4, 3x
• Day 2: Practice measures 5-6, 5x
• Day 2: Practice measures 7-8, 5x
• Day 2: Practice measures 5-8, 5x
• And so on…

This practice method can be adapted for more advanced students by giving them larger chunks at a time (e.g. “Practice measures 22-27”).

3) “Line Game” Piano Practice

This concept helps piano students with note accuracy.

The “rule” is simple: miss a note, start the line over again.

You can add a reward system to this as well and have a bowl of M&Ms or Hershey’s Kisses (with the parents’ consent, of course) or stickers. If a student passes a line (or stave) without having to restart, they earn one candy or sticker.

I use this method for my careless piano students who like to rely on their ear instead of on their reading.

It helps students slow down and think about the notes they are playing rather than making them up as they go.

I will often introduce this to the piano student by doing it together during lessons and then when I assign it, they know what I mean. 

Often, students are very proud to return to lessons and tell me how many times they mastered the “line game” during practice.

4) Slow-Medium-Fast-Medium-Slow Piano Practice

(also called "Rule of 5")

This is a method I didn’t learn until college, but it has helped both me and my students immensely. 

Choose a small section of music (usually 4-8 measures) then assign the following:

• Slow: Practice section 1x VERY slowly
  • I often tell my students to make it “unbearably slow” 
• Medium: Practice section 1x at a comfortable tempo
  • This can be the "normal" tempo at which they play it
• Fast: Practice section 1x at a crazy fast tempo
  • Even if they mess up, it’s okay; the goal is to just make it through
• Medium: Practice section 1x back down at a comfortable tempo
• Slow: Practice section 1x VERY slowly

To make this easier for younger students, I’ll sometimes assign a concept for each speed (e.g. “Go s-l-o-w like a snail…” or "You're in a race!"). Often, we work together for imagery the student will grasp.

You can also use this method with metronome practice and set specific tempos for slow, medium, and fast.

5) Practicing runs & arpeggios for advanced pianists

For my advanced piano students struggling with runs and arpeggios, there are three main practice methods I recommend.

a) “Whack the timing”

Removing straight rhythm and practicing with various rhythms helps our minds and fingers grasp the notes faster and more efficiently.

• Triplets 
  • 3 notes at a time, pause, 3 notes at a time, pause
• Long-short
  • Dotted rhythms (e.g. dotted quarter and eighth or dotted 16th and 32nd)
• Short-long
  • Opposite dotted rhythms (e.g. eighth and dotted quarter or 32nd and dotted 16th)

I often challenge my students to think of 5 different rhythm patterns they can practice on a run/arpeggio.

b) “Cluster” method

Another practice method is the “cluster” method, where the student plays all the notes in one position in a cluster then moves to the next cluster.

This helps the student learn the exact notes and finger numbers required to master the run.

For example, here is a run from Mozart's Fantasia I (D Minor).

Each section can be broken down and practiced in a cluster:

This practice method forces the student to slow down as they practice piano and more effectively learn the notes and finger numbers.

c) Vary the style

There are many other methods where the student can successfully practice by playing the music differently than written.

• Use both hands to play the arpeggio
• Practice the arpeggio with opposite hand
• Practice in staccato
• Practice with a legato-staccato mix
• Practice fortissimo
• Practice pianissimo
• Practice slow-medium-fast-medium-slow

The ultimate goal of all of these methods is that it requires the student to focus on individual notes, which expedites practice time.

Basic piano practice rules

While there are many ways to teach piano students to practice effectively, here are some general rules to help your piano student understand about practice:

• Mindlessly playing piano is not practice
• Playing through an entire piece isn’t practicing
• Practicing small sections of music is more productive than larger sections of music
• The same practice methods don’t work for all piano students
• Piano practice is all about fun experimentation

I hope these ideas help you and your students get out of a practicing rut and give you something to experiment with.

How do you teach piano students to practice?

I’d love to hear if you already use some of these ideas–or maybe you have your own practice tricks with which your students thrive!

Please comment and share so other piano teachers can benefit from your practice methods.