Tips to make the most of your piano practice time

No matter how much time you spend practicing, you want to make sure that every minute of it counts toward furthering your ability to play the songs you’re learning, and your overall skill on the piano.  It’s better to put in half an hour of very productive practice than an hour of unstructured meandering. Here are some tips to get as much out of your practice time as possible.

Don’t wade through the whole song
We all have the tendency to start at the beginning of a song we’re learning.  We start playing with both hands, haltingly and hesitantly, from beginning to end.  If you do this, you might have noticed that no matter how many times you play this song, it never seem to get any better. Here’s a better way to get it flowing:
Learn each hand separately
Take the time to go through each hand alone, slowly and carefully.  If you encounter a particularly tricky measure, repeat it three or four times so that it starts to flow effortlessly.  What you’re aiming for is the muscle memory in your fingers to learn the pattern of notes.  So even if you think you know it in your mind, keep repeating it until you can perform it without thinking too much.  Your fingers should eventually play the pattern effortlessly.  Sometimes it takes several practice sessions to get to this point, depending on the complexity of the music and your skill level.
Then play hands together - slowly
Practicing slowly is really beneficial when learning a new song, and particularly important when you start putting the hands together.  It’s a good idea to practice two to four measures at a time several times before moving on to the next few measures.  Once you’ve got two lots of four measures really well, put them all together and repeat the whole phrase several times until it flows.  As you get more confident, up the speed just a little bit and see how it goes.  If it goes well, up the speed a bit more.  Keep doing this until it starts to go a bit wrong, then you know you’ve reached your top speed for that practice session.  Practicing in this way will enable you to play a whole song really well much faster than if you just keep wading through from beginning to end.
Use a metronome
The metronome is a powerful tool when you’re learning the piano.  The “ticks” represent the beat and you play along in time with it.  Sometimes it takes several practices to get used to it because you have to listen attentively while you’re playing the piano and that can be tricky at first.  To get good at it, just play one hand at a time to begin with.  Only use it for a minute or two each time you practice.  By doing this regularly, you will begin to hear more continuity in your timing.  
Keep a diary
This is a really productive thing to do.  Each time you practice you write down, in great detail, what you have practiced and how.  (You can use measure numbers, or reference words if the song has lyrics). For instance, you might write: “Played measure 21 to 24 6 times, each hand separately”. At the end of each song you play, write some ideas about what you’ll do at the next practice session to advance the song.  For instance: “Tomorrow, do measures 25 to 28 in the same way”.  It saves a lot of time wading through a song to find the tricky bit you stumbled on the previous day.  If there’s a measure number in your diary, it takes you straight there.  Use this diary as your support guide and it’ll help you a great deal.This has the added benefit of keeping a record of every song you learn because, believe it or not, there can come a time when you have learned so many, you can’t remember them all!

If you feel you won’t be able to stay motivated and patient enough to follow the advice written above, there are lots of online piano courses, which will guide you through the learning process and play the role of your mentor. Just check some piano courses reviews on Pickmypiano and choose the one you like.
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Alex Lutikov Programmer, musician, piano fan and a loving father. His physics degree did not prevent him from continuing to study piano after graduation. Leader of his own rock ’n’ roll band.