The Unexpected Mistakes that Slow Your Piano Progress

Learning piano is not easy. There are great methods to learn it. There are also terrible methods to learn it. In this video, I share some of my biggest mistakes from over 18 years of learning and playing the piano. After watching the full video, you'll gain insight into how you can avoid these costly mistakes so you can progress faster to play the songs and pieces you love.

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🕘 Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:25 Mistake 1
2:45 Mistake 2
5:15 Mistake 3
7:36 Mistake 4

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[jazerleepiano]

Which of these mistakes could you relate to the most?

0:00 Intro
0:25 Mistake 1
2:45 Mistake 2
5:15 Mistake 3
7:36 Mistake 4

[BewmieBawks]

Man, I needed to hear that it took 3 months to learn an easy piece when you first started. It always feels like I'm not getting it fast enough.

[jewellevy]

Jazer, I've been teaching piano for 30 years. I often send your lessons to my students. Your suggestions are spot on for any level student. Respect and kudos.

[arthurw]

For me, it's both poor practice habits and poor practice methods. Not only am I not consistent, but when I do practice it's too easy to fall into the trap of playing what I'm already comfortable with. I need to develop more discipline and patience to step outside of my narrow little comfort zones. This is an exceptionally helpful and useful channel, thank you.

[enginerdy]

#3 is called “chunking” and works for all skills and memory tasks. You learn bigger and bigger building blocks, then you can build something bigger and more complex very easily.

[paulmeisel]

Everything you mentioned here is of course totally right. I might add, that the learning of "theory" should be done in a very practical way. Basically I show my pupils chords and what you can do with them, for instance as an accompaniment. Inversions of chords should be played by the teacher, until the student can do it fluently. He has to understand the relationship between chords and scales, then must transpose them to other keys.

There's at least one very important additional point ( Number 5 ) : Students should record their repertoire several times to become aware of what they are doing.
If you're really accustomed to always exactly listening to your practicing, then so - called practicing becomes like always PLAYING ( as for an audience ).
In other words: the pupils have to learn to listen very carefully to their own playing and have to get into a certain mood therefore ( it's best at the beginning of any piece).

[ghosts]

Thank you for this, as a 53 year old who has done exactly as you described, schlepped along with 5-ish pieces I love my entire life, I plan to take your advice of scheduling in new pieces. What has trapped me with these songs personally is that I’ve never truly mastered them. I’ve made mistakes that keep me stuck, feeling I should not move on if I haven’t really “got” them. I hope this may make you laugh, but some mistakes I make are literally from the muscle memory of having begun to learn them in childhood, and not compensating for my hands growing!! Again, I’m 53.
Anyway, thanks very much for your fresh thoughts on how to invigorate my practice.

[hadyanfakhri]

0:25 Mistake number 1 : Lack of piece practice
2:48 Mistake number 2 : Lack of technique practice
5:16 Mistake number 3 : Lack of theory practice
7:36 Mistake number 4 : Lack of listening practice

The point is, GO PRACTICE!
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

[rebanelson]

For three months I've been struggling with the beautiful hymn "What Wondrous Love Is This" in A minor. It is not particularly difficult but for some reason I could not get through it without making a plethora of mistakes. I didn't think about going online and listening to a piano version. Thanks for the suggestion. I am self taught and your videos are like a tonic to me! Many thanks!

[Robertbrucelockhart]

The speed at which one can learn a piece depends somewhat on what “learning” means. I hesitate to add to my repertoire because I continue to make little mistakes on previously learned pieces. I have this idea (inculcated in me by my first music teacher) that I should not move on to another piece until I have played the current one PERFECTLY. BUT since nothing is ever really “perfect, ” that rather subjective standard makes it difficult to move on to another piece. I’m a self-teaching adult beginner on the piano, and there are still troublesome passages in all 8 pieces that I have “learned” in my first year of playing. My fear is always that I’m moving too fast.

[terryrowe]

Guilty as charged. Especially prone to playing the pieces I have learned at the expense of learning new ones because it is difficult.
But I have forced myself into the remedies you have stated: understanding the composition and how music theory applies or conforms. And trying to understand why I am repeatedly making the same mistake at the same place. Where are my fingers in relation to the next note or notes and how best to get them to the right place. And slowly repeating that pattern and shape of my hands for numerous times.
Your training and tip videos are accurate in their diagnosis.

[jdeeann]

I just found your channel and subscribed today. I am in my 50's so I don't know if it's possible to ever be good at it, but I still enjoy listening to piano music.

[chuckyuk]

Jazer …I have been tinkering with the piano for a number of years but..never see myself anything other that a beginner.
In this time I have just about subscribed to every piano teaching/theory channel there is. I have bought about a dozen online progs to help me learn. Although it’s not been money wasted…with your channel, I think I have found my favourite.
Love your playing, your ability to describe the pitfalls and peaks of learning the piano.
Keep up the good work.
👌🏼🎹

[Voooo____oo]

Great advice, thank you. I’ve found that I am able to stay motivated and excited most when I don’t box myself into corner - forcing myself, for example, to finish learning a piece before trying anything else. Instead, I just do whatever sounds like the most fun in the moment - sometimes I work on chipping away at a harder piece from the sheet music, sometimes I follow a tutorial on YouTube, sometimes I practice very simple pieces from beginner books (I’ve only been playing a year), sometimes I watch videos on music theory or like this video! But no matter what it is, I try to always pick something that will push my boundaries a little more and a little more. If it becomes a chore, or you don’t give yourself the option of practicing something that is not incredibly difficult for you, you will not want to continue. I think it’s so important to find the way for you to stay joyful - when learning is fun you want to learn!

[perry]

Jazer, so pleased you said how long it took you to originally learn those songs. It's such a relief. Great advice too. Thanks!

[crystalmontalbano]

I have promised my FB friends that I will learn a new piece each month and post a video of it, this keeps me accountable. I enjoy planning what I am going to post.

[lindaportney]

After several times of hitting the wrong note, I write the letter name below the note. And if I still hit the same wrong note, I highlight the letter name that I just wrote.

[henrykuppens]

Pianote has a tutorial on Melanie that you played at 4:30.
It's the very first I just started studying.

I'm learning piano and music theory for a few months now, and yes you are 100% right.

Although it's really tough to get through the initially parts of everything about the theory.
The difficulty is that one has to know and understand everything at once in a matter of speaking.😵‍💫

We all listen to music all our lives, but when starting studying music we discover a strange enigmatic world.😂
However I'm retired and can take all the time I need to discover this enigmatic world.
You can learn by ear, but you will never know what you are doing, I think.

Great video, these kind of videos do firmly remind me not to cut corners.

[reemachawla]

I started playing piano an year ago after learning a few songs on Casio in childhood.
Self Learning Music Theory required real determination to not to quit but I am following Benedict Westenra on You tube as well as have purchased his Udemy courses and they have really helped me progress on my goal.
Your today’s video is so amazing as I can truly relate to every thing but moving forward, I believe I have understood my errors. Thanks 😊

[michaelstanton]

Learning new pieces... I don't like moving on to a new piece until I've mastered the one I'm working on. This usually means practising a piece over and over until I can play it mistake free. This is probably the thing that slows me down the most. However, sometimes impatience takes over and I will start learning a new piece before completing the old one, so this has the added effect of slowing me down even further. There are a few pieces I've taught myself that are incomplete because of this. But I've started to see that the practising is having the positive effect of making reading the music easier, and I' not having to stop and think "what is that note again...?"