The trick of a good piano teacher is not to sit with their students and ensure that they leave every lesson (or every few lessons, more realistically) with a plethora of good repertoire, but moreover it is to ensure that they have all the knowledge, instincts and techniques required to learn a piece of music for themselves.
However, the thought of this can be very daunting for pianists. The idea of picking up a brand new score and having nobody there to guide them through it and give them the reassurance that they are doing everything right (even if they are overall very confident in their own abilities) can be a terrifying notion.
But there is no need to panic!
Read on for some useful tips to help you get started with learning your own piece of piano music…
1 - How to Pick a Piece of Music
It can be very tempting for us beginner pianists to strive all too quickly to something that is iconic yet ahead of our skill - even if it sounds simple, and the scores will give you a multitude of information. Thanks to these modern times, we can easily get subscriptions to the like of Musescore or Sheet Music Direct and pay a monthly fee and have unlimited access, meaning that we don’t potentially waste money on a score that’s ahead of our standard. Yet the old fashioned approach is still as strong as ever: avoid buying books online unless you already know it is within your standard. Heading over to a music shop is your best bet, have a peruse through them and use the following to help you decide if the piece is yet appropriate for you:
What key is the piece in? - ‘Clair de Lune’ by Debussy is one of those hugely sought after pieces to play and, due to its very free tempo we can be lulled into a false sense of security into thinking it’s straightforward. However, if you look at the score, you will see at the beginning of the piece that it is a five flat key signature. Whilst it is possible to deduce the key signature here thanks to tools such as the Circle of Fifths (D♭ major), it is a key that even seasoned pianists can struggle to read. Not to mention that if you haven’t yet worked on the corresponding D♭ scale then it won’t yet feel natural to be playing there anyway. As an additional note, just because a piece of music is in a certain key signature, that doesn’t mean that it will honour the corresponding sharps or flats entirely. Scan through the piece and keep an eye out for sharp, flat and natural signs (♯ , ♭ , ♮ respectively). The odd one here and there is fine - these are accidentals. But if you feel the piece is littered with them, don’t try to be too clever too soon! Focus on enhancing your reading in the context of what you already know and what already comes naturally.
What time signature is the piece in? - ‘Clair de Lune’ by Debussy yet again rears its head here, for anybody who looks at the score is immediately presented with a 9/8 time signature. Whilst there are ways of considering this to make it more accessible (for example, you could consider it 3/4 with each crotchet beat being broken into quaver triplets), why would you straight away? We’re looking to expand your repertoire and whilst a challenge is fantastic, we also want to develop your confidence in what you know. Simple time signatures of 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 are failsafe, but some compounds can work too if you are looking to push yourself (6/8, 12/8). Have a skim through the piece and check it for time changes too. If it changes time signature regularly and randomly, try to avoid it unless you buy it as an exercise to really help challenge and perfect your sense of pulse etc. The odd time change - even if it’s just for one bar before reverting back - is fine, but make sure you understand how that time works and sounds. For example, can you clap a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/8 compared to a bar of 4/4 followed by 2/4?
Where are the clefs? - When we begin learning piano, treble is in the right hand and bass is in the left. Whilst this is quite standard, it isn’t uncommon for pieces of music to swap them around and have, say, both the right and left hand play in treble clef (no prizes for guessing which aforementioned piece starts like this!). This doesn’t necessarily make the piece harder to play, but be aware that it can make it harder to read. From the point of view of playing, however, have a general skim of where the notes are roughly in relation to each other. If you find that the left hand in treble clef has higher notes than the right hand in treble clef, the music may be demanding your left hand goes under / over the right hand, or possibly even encases it, depending on where the lower notes sit. Is this something you feel up to yet?
Where do the notes sit? - I would always encourage pushing yourself in as far as understanding where the notes are on the stave, however it’s important to ensure you have complete confidence in the basic notes in the first instance. Therefore, if you are still using mnemonics or counting up from certain notes like middle C to identify notes that fit snugly on existing lines or between spaces, perhaps a piece written with many ledger lines is not for you (a ledger line is a line that goes above or below the existing stave to denote extension to the existing five lines the stave keeps us within. For example, one ledger line above the treble clef stave would be the note A if a note head were drawn so the line goes through it. Above this ledger line would be the equivalent of a space, so that would be the note B, after which you would add a second ledger line to get C etc.). A little bit of above and below the stave is fine - especially when played at intervals or chords whereby one or two notes are solidly anchored to the existing lines / spaces, but as you get used to positioning your hands within a certain register as well as reading within a certain range, try to avoid excess. NB Keep in mind that if you are nervous about playing in extreme highs and lows of the keyboard, try to avoid excessive use of clef changes in either hand (see above point) or octave symbols (8va… / 8bv…).
What tempo is the piece to be played in? - Consider either what type of pianist you are or what type of pianist you are trying to become. Do you favour very quick pieces that demand more of your fingers or do you favour slower pieces that showcase more pedal work and allow for more interpretation between phrases? And are these favours actually achievable for you now? Going back to our friend ‘Clair de Lune’, yes it’s quite laid back in its overall tempo, however to get it to sound good requires a good dynamic control so as not to make it sound overly harsh as well as good pedal control to ensure the whole thing blends together beautifully and not (unwittingly) discordantly. Remember that slow isn’t necessarily always best. On the flip side, you may be able to play something much more upbeat such as Bach’s ‘Prelude in C Major’ - but at a steady tempo. Identify pieces that you feel are either within your current capability or ones that will encourage you to work on certain techniques more in order to achieve a good outcome.
Burgmüller’s ‘Twenty-Five Easy and Progressive Studies’ is a masterclass of music that is designed with the very purpose of helping you advance your skills in many different ways, and so to help demonstrate I am going to use one of these pieces. Arguably the most well known, the second piece: ’Arabesque’ (‘L’Arabesque’) ticks many boxes.
Have a look at the score below:
And now let’s identify the reasons why it is such as good choice in relation to the above points:
Key Signature: This piece has no sharps or flats written into the key signature, therefore it has to be in either C major or its relative minor - A minor. We can identify that it is the latter because of its first and last chord being an A minor. Our knowledge of harmonic minors being the ‘classical’ minor implies that there may well be one sharp - a G# (the raised seventh) - yet even this only appears twice in the left hand. There are, of course, another couple of accidentals but overall very few.
Time Signature: Not only is this in the simple time signature of 2/4, but it also stays in this time!
Clefs: Whilst the clef in the left hand does change from the bass to the treble about halfway through for three bars, we can clearly see that the note position is lower than that of the right hand - which is still in treble clef. Therefore, there is no awkward hand position here. In fact, if you consider where the equivalent notes would be on the bass clef, we would be using excessive ledger lines. We can already see in the bar before the change that there are ledger lines at play, so the clefs are actually being changed for ease of reading the notes on the stave rather than for any drastic change in register.
Ledger Lines: There are plenty of ledger lines in the right hand at the beginning and end, but if you note the pattern you will observe that they are all consecutive runs up to them from notes that don’t sit all that far above. Therefore, we’re not going to be intimidated by them.
Tempo: Allegro is, of course, fast, but the semiquavers that really do hold the bulk of that speed are performed in the same vain as pentascales - one finger per note. The quavers won’t be much of a challenge when divided into the bar and the majority of the left hand is vamping chords anyway, so quite easy.
How To Start Learning a Piece of Piano Music
1 - Identification
One great trick towards learning any piece of music is that of identifying things. Have your pencil (and rubber) at the ready as it is worth noting things on as you discover them, and the reinforcement of writing things rather than just thinking them all help go towards it being second nature.
Try to identify the following:
Structure and Rhythm
This is a really powerful one, and in particular with classical music it is a tremendous help! Classical music bases itself around themes, so even when you have sonatas and ballads etc. lasting 20 minutes, you will find the same theme recurring throughout. Granted, it won’t always be a note for note repeat, but have a look through because anything you can hold onto will help make your life easier for learning it.
In ‘Arabesque’, let’s consider bar 1 to be where the repeat mark is (the first two bars we’ll just consider introductory bars for the left hand). Are bars 1 - 8 ever repeated anywhere else?
Well, cast your eyes down to just over halfway down the page - where the text says ‘In Tempo’ (bar 18 according to our counting) we start to repeat. But beware, it is only the first four bars that is a direct repeat. Bars 5 - 8 and bars 22 - 25 are similar, but a variation of one another. The rhythm is almost identical - obviously bar 6 shows a quaver followed by quaver rest followed by crotchet, compared to bar 23’s two crotchets, but that’s more related to note length than rhythm.
Now that we’ve identified that it is effectively ternary form (Theme A, Theme B, Theme A) - although the repeat of theme A is variated slightly - we can shift our attention into the middle section.
The middle section - starting at bar 10 - is a different rhythm, although again we can identify similarities between the first six bars in that they all have the same rhythm of a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver in the right hand and a run of four semiquavers and a quaver (or two quavers for bar 15). Try to get a feel for how this rhythm differs from the rhythm before it - use just one note on the piano and take a hand at a time (or you could even just clap the rhythm to begin) and just get a feel for the difference.
One technique that is often powerful for creative learners (young learners especially like this!) is to think of lyrics or words that fit. They have to work with the rhythms and tempi. For example, the run of five notes in the A section (such as bar 1, bar 2 etc.) couldn’t easily fit the word ‘apocalyptic’ to them as it’s the wrong emphasis despite having five syllables. ‘Beneficially’ on the other hand, would work much more smoothly. Similarly, when putting words to phrases such as those in section B - a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver - a two syllable word such as ‘hello’ doesn’t gel due to the lack of need to extend the first syllable. ‘Childhood’, on the other hand, would fit much better.
Notes and Harmony
Are you happy with the structure and rhythm?
Marvellous - remember that rhythm is 50% of the battle with music, and if we don’t get some idea of that to begin with then it can come crashing down on us once we start to play the notes.
However, let’s not just try to sight read it. We’re still in identification mode, remember.
Take a look at the opening chords in the left hand.
What notes are they?
By rights, you should know that the top line of a bass clef is A, yet you may have had to do a little working out and counting up to find the next two line - C and E. This creates an A minor triad.
Try to find the other chords using the principal of not counting up from the A (or whichever note you feel comfortable starting with) but instead working from the start through the passage and identifying the movement of the notes. We have this same A minor triad for the opening 2 bars and then bars 1 - 2, but then in bar 3 we have a slight change. Identify that the note on the bottom stays the same, whereas the top two notes have just moved up one into where the spaces would be. Anybody with a knowledge of the alphabet could identify these three notes as A - D - F, but don’t just think of it as three individual notes. Ask yourself what that creates. Yes, it’s a chord, but what chord?
Answer: D minor second inversion.
Remember that we are in the key of A minor and look at the following four bars.
Bar 5 changes the A minor triad that we have reverted to in bar 4 by one note - the bottom note of A drops down to the space below, creating G - C - E. This creates a C major second inversion.
What’s interesting about this is it suggests a modulation to the relative major - because the halfway point of the whole 8 bar phrase begins with the relative major chord and then the dominant seventh of this chord - G7 - fall typically within a C major key and not an A minor key.
Granted, this is all academic and may not assist your playing of it right now, but it’s worth taking everything into account that you can and try and study the music as you learn it as it does help it to stick.
In the right hand, as already identified, we have very rapid semiquaver passages. But - as already identified - they are consecutive note (stepwise). If you can identify the first note of each group and which finger to play them with, you should easily be able to follow up and down using just white keys (remember there are no sharps or flats in the key signature).
The exact same principle applies for the middle section, but you’ll just need to tweak it according to what needs to be done.
Dynamics, Repeats, Tempo and Articulation
This is more your opportunity to research before you start playing. Do you know what ‘allegro scherzando’ means? How about ‘poco rall’? Are they easy to spot as you play?
If you don’t know what they mean, find out and - if it helps - write on. If you know what they mean but feel you may miss them, highlight them or circle them to make more of a point of them.
This exact same principle needs to be applied to dynamic markings too.
Do you recognise all the symbols throughout the piece? For example, the little upside down triangle over the opening chords (staccatissimo)? Or the semicircle with a dot above the final chord in both hands (fermata)? Have a read up on what they are and - if you are unsure - have a listen to interpretations of the piece you are playing, or look up on YouTube etc. to see if there are any tutorials designed to help you perfect the technique. Don’t assume that just knowing what they are will result in flawless execution of them within the piece - don’t be afraid or put off at the idea of having to do some external exercises to help assist with them.
Always check for repeat marks before you start playing, and be aware of 1st time / 2nd time markings in advance so they don’t sneak up on you. This is especially important if you have music that crosses a page / pages, as there’s nothing worse than scrabbling about trying to find where you are going back to or jumping ahead to!
2 - Put Fingers to Keys
The first trick to playing your piece of music is to play it slowly. Whilst this is often a challenge in its own right, it still gives you time to think about what you are doing and how you are doing / going to do it.
Don’t be tempted to tense up just because you’re going slower, mind. Keep a fluid performance.
Listen carefully to what you are doing and try to identify problem areas - or areas that you believe will be problematic when you attempt to play at tempo.
Isolate problem areas and turn them into exercises. For example, if you haven’t much fluidity or evenness in your right hand semiquaver runs, take out the left hand and just repeat - for example - bars 1 and 2 over and over again to help loosen up the fingers. This can be a strong warm up.
Make sure that dynamics are brought in sooner rather than later. It is harder to unlearn dynamics from a piece you have established quite well and try and put the correct ones in than it is to try and put the correct ones into a piece that you don’t know properly yet. This way, it all progresses together. This is, to some extent, true of tempo as well.
However, with tempo be aware that practising different parts at different speeds can lead to disjointedness. No matter how fast you can take, say, the middle section compared to the opening section - don’t. Not unless you’re playing the whole piece at that same speed to try and build up the overall performance. For the sake of practice however, keeping each section moving at the same tempo and into each other will allow you to get a consistent pulse and - eventually - a much smoother and cleaner transition between them.
Try to memorise as much as you can as you learn. This doesn’t mean learn to play it by heart necessarily, but in the same way that we have established some tricks to help you secure the rhythm and the notes / chords, try to remember which ones come where, which notes move where - rather than relying on reading each note individually as it comes. This is yet another powerful tool towards fluidity.
Most of all, however, enjoy!
Psst...if you'd like a video recap, here it is:
In fact, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep up to date with that too!
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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