Avoid The 5 Most Common Mistakes Adult Piano Players Make

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---- ‼️ The secret sauce behind beautiful and accurate piano playing that no one’s talking about?

✅ Sight reading.

Want to learn how it helps and how to practice it correctly?

‌Especially if you don’t have a teacher…

Or if your teacher has never seen your at home practice setup…

‌These common mistakes will prevent you from making progress in a timely manner and they’ll also stunt your ability to play freely and with musicality.

‌I’d be willing to bet you that you’re making at least ONE of the mistakes on this list...

But you’ll have to watch this week’s tutorial to find out. 🙈

Once you’re finished, let me know which mistake resonated with you!

👀 Don’t forget to watch these videos I mentioned:
Piano posture
Rhythm livestream with metronome and counting exercises

Best Adult Piano Method Books:
Alfred piano
Faber piano

🎶 Sound Beautiful by using these practice tools:
-Digital Metronome Link:
-Penguin Metronome Link:
-Rhythm Flashcards Link:
-Rhythm Book:
-Yamaha P-45 Keyboard Bundle:
-Alfred Scale Book:
-Flashcards:
-Inner Game of Music
Post its:
Adjustable Piano Bench:
Adult Lesson Book:

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[KlaviersAnthology]

A common mistake that teachers do when teaching an adult is mentioning that position and posture have not to be strict rules. The ultimate goal with positioning and posture is relaxation and when you say to an adult "do exactly this, not this" they will mimic it, thus fixing their body and creating tension. You missed this part and trust me, as a violin beginner and piano intermediate at this point, i know how it feels to follow those rules and how much harm you do to your playing and body when you are not feeling free. Change the rule about the hand position and body posture to "see how you are feeling relaxed, your body speaks to you and places the fingers with no tension on a normal shape on the piano, just try to guide it to this shape and not fixate it, and about posture, yes this distance is what we teach, this angle is generally good, this elbow elevation often helps guide the hand, but try to feel relaxed at all times and don't pay too much attention on the posture. Sometimes the music itself guides you, your body almost dances with it, just try to remember what is generally recommended and stay relaxed".

[DSMS-nuvj]

Good Advice. You described my situation as an adult beginner. I started because I wanted to play Passacaglia, I like it so much. I got to page 30 of Alfred's Adult Piano book and stopped because of boredom, and started learning to play all the simple melodies of the music I love. I realize I cannot ignore foundational building blocks and will work on sight reading and getting back to the piano book. I will not give up on my progress on Passacaglia, but continue all the other disciplines as well. I have decided to spend the extra time to do all of it! I realize now that I cannot ignore my need to exercise discipline. Actually, this whole process is so good for the mind!

[KyleHohn]

1.) 0:29 Playing music that is too difficult. Remedy: work on those complicated pieces but also do Sightreading.

2.) 3:10 Ignoring posture and setup. Remedy: elbows at 90 degrees with bench. Elbows level with keys.

3.) 4:56 poor hand shape. Remedy: make sure fingers are rounded.

4.) 7:00 thinking technical exercises will fix the technique. Remedy: you must have good technique before doing exercises. A teacher is necessary for this step since beginners don’t know what is wrong with their technique.

5.) 8:44 ignoring rhythm or steady beat. Remedy: count out loud and use the metronome.

[nicjansen]

This describes every self taught pianist I know. All of them have a go with the flow mindset, but their posture is so bad it holds them back and I just know it's a matter of time before they drop it, which is such a shame as this could provide them with so much more freedom if they were to put their mind to mastering the basics first!

I've had classical piano lessons by a kind though strict teacher. I was encouraged to just do and leave the more advanced stuff for later. The first 6 months or so was just simple tunes, often tunes made for one hand only. Then we moved on to easy classical pieces. I could pick any song, but wasn't allowed to pick a new song till I mastered the last one

[bh]

Proper posture, etc. is important in golf, too.

[più_lento__]

excellent advices, Ashlee. Thank you ! I shall come back to this video every once in a while

[MattPapes]

I stumbled upon this great video today. For me, the number one tip was not to skip counting out loud and the explanation you gave about rhythm and how it is important for organization and that it is a framework for your brain to organize complex information. And if you aren't doing it you aren't giving clear signals to your hands and where they need to be and when they need to be there. I am very conscious of how my brain is working and your explanation of how without counting your brain is having trouble processing where it is right now and what is coming up next and telling your fingers where they need to be and when they need to be there was pure gold. Having listened to seemingly hundreds of piano tutorial videos, this is one of the best tips I have heard. Those pauses in playing are a common problem and I haven't heard many even discuss it. And your delivery is awesome. I hope you keep making lots of videos. Thank you!

[usrenaem]

Those advices are awesome! Your channel deserves much more views, likes, subs. Thank you a lot for helping us to become better!

[jadeitejade]

Another excellent piano tutorial beneficial to beginners. thank you thank you

[MotifMusicStudios]

Always so thought provoking and inspiring! Fabulous video!

[lawrencetaylor]

A worthwhile video to watch, even though you convinced me of all of these points before. But it's good to have a reminder. You are so right about sightreading, that has been the biggest help for my technnique. I've been sightreading Bach Chorales in 2 voices every day for 4 months. My teacher wants me to also play the 3 and 4 voice chorales just to help my sightreading.
I started with the Faber book, but also La Méthode Rose (bilingual French/English). But I found a John Thompson Method Book (in French) and that helped me the most. It's old fashioned, but I'm an old-fashioned guy.
Last month I learned the Rule of the Octave, and it's helped me to finally start singing. I sing badly, but now badly in tune. Derek Remes has a website with lots of free downloads, as well as a book that might interest you. The Art of Préluding. He has also translated Kellner, which is a book that JS Bach and CPE Bach both praised and had their students use. I started doing their exercises for cadences in 2 voices.