What Is The Key To Being a Great Piano Player?

There are so many things that go into being a great piano player. Patience. Discipline. Time. Energy. We could probably make a long list of things. But I think there is one quality that above all others is crucial if you want to be great.

Obsession is the key.

We often talk about obsession like it is a bad thing and for sure it can be. Obsession has been ample fodder for many Hollywood tales of love gone wrong. Or how about that detective who forgets to eat because they are so wrapped up in catching the bad guy. You’ve seen the movies. You know what I am talking about.

But there is also a positive side to obsession and it is this positive side that creates exceptional individuals, whether it is in art, politics, fitness, or any other field. Obsession creates winners.

Have you ever hung out with an exceptional musician? You may notice they can be pretty obsessive about certain things. They only like certain kinds of music. They are very specific about the gear they use. They have to sit a certain way at their instrument. If you pay close attention, you will start to see obsession at it’s best.

Why the best are the best.

There is a reason great piano players are so good at their instrument. It’s because they became obsessed with it. Ask any professional pianist and they will tell you the exact same story. It goes something like this.

When they were little, they heard someone play the piano. It may have been a parent, someone at church, or maybe they heard it on TV or the radio. Wherever their first encounter occurred, the results were always the same. They knew they loved what they heard and they knew that they had to figure out how to play like that.

They probably began tinkering at the piano before they ever took any lessons. They would sit there for hours trying to figure out songs note by note. Once they started taking lessons, they could fill in the gaps quicker which made it even more exciting.

Soon all they wanted to do was play the piano. They wanted to be the best. They wanted to play like their heroes. And as they began to learn more about music, they began to understand just how good they could be at it. It all made sense. And what didn’t make sense they were determined to figure out immediately.

Obsession or love?

This is what obsession looks like. But I think another way to put it is this is what love looks like. When you love someone, you want to spend all of your time with them. You want to get to understand them better. You want to be the best partner you can be. And you want all your friends and family to meet them so they can see how awesome they are too.

Music is the exact same way. When you know you love it, you want to spend all your time with it. You want to understand it better. You want to be the best at it. And you want to be able to share it with others so that it can bring the same joy into their life that it has brought into yours.

Embrace the obsession.

Whether you want to call it obsession or love, I am here say it is a beautiful thing. It has brought a lof of joy into my life over the years. It has also brought a lot of pain, but that’s how it goes with obsession just like love. Sometimes you get hurt, but it’s worth it in order to find the one who is going to bring so much joy into your life.

If you have the obsession don’t be afraid of it. Embrace it. Let it drive you to learn more. Let it take you to new places. It may not always be an easy road, but it will be one well worth traveling. And the world will be a better place because you did.

Why You Should Practice Piano While Watching TV

A few weeks back, we talked about why you should practice piano with your eyes closed. If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to give it a read HERE. Now let’s talk about another technique I’m a big fan of.

Practicing the piano while watching TV.

I don’t know how many piano teachers will tell you to practice in front of the TV, but I’m going to go out on a limb and tell you to do it. Maybe not every time, but there are some times it is appropriate. Let me explain.

Repetition is your friend.

A big part of learning any new skill is repetition. With piano, we need to do some things over and over and over again. The reason for this is that we are training our muscle memory to kick in. If we do something enough, it becomes automatic. When it becomes automatic, we don’t have to think as much about what we are doing. Once we are free to think of other things, we can focus more on the other parts we are playing.

Does your family hate you yet?

We see this show up a lot with left-hand techniques. There is a chord progression I teach my students called The Dance Progression. The biggest hurdle to overcome when playing this progression is the syncopation between the left hand and the right hand.

The left hand is just playing a repetitive bass line of constant eighth notes. The key to getting this whole progression down is to practice the left-hand part a lot. I mean a lot a lot. Like obsessively. If your family or your roommate doesn’t hate you yet for playing it so much, you aren’t practicing it enough.

Once you get the left hand down and muscle memory kicks in, then you are free to focus more on the right-hand part and start getting the syncopation down. But that won’t happen until the left hand is on auto-pilot.

TV to the rescue…

A great way to get this left-hand part down is to practice it while watching TV. This does two things.

1. It is a monotonous thing to practice, so the TV distracts you and keeps you entertained as you play this left-hand part over and over again

2. Playing this left-hand part while watching TV trains you to play it consistently while focusing on other things. It helps kickstart your muscle memory. When it’s time to add in the right hand, you will be much more prepared because your mind is already used to keeping the left hand going while you do other things.

I highly recommend this TV technique for super monotonous passages that you are having a hard time getting down. Don’t get me wrong, at first, you need to focus on the part to make sure you are playing it right. But once you have the idea down, turn on the TV and take the repetition train to obsession town!

Repetition is the answer to 90% of the questions I get from my students. If you can’t play something it’s only because you are trying to play it too fast or you haven’t practiced it enough. That’s pretty much it.

I get it, though. Sometimes it’s hard to sit down and practice something over and over and over again. It gets boring and frustrating. It’s definitely not easy and that is why everyone is not a great piano player. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from A League Of Their Own:

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

But there is good news. There are a couple of things we can do to make it a little more manageable. One is to practice in small chunks of time. And the other is to turn on the TV while you practice the most repetitive stuff.

This week in your practice time, try it and see if it helps. And at the very least, you will be able to get caught up on all your favorite shows. If you can get better at the piano at the same time, then it’s a win-win!