I am devoting this chapter entirely to the subject of how to practise the piano, and shall try to point out here what I have
found from my experience to be the most efficacious way of setting about it. Broadly speaking, the cardinal rules to be observed in all practising should be, first, great attention to detail ; secondary,avoid any over-fatigue, both mental and physical. It is also most necessary for the attainment of the best results to set up from the outset some fixed schedule of practising. Systematically ordered work is such an inestimable help in all stages of piano playing, but more especially in the elementary one, as I myself well know, for I had the good fortune to start my pianoforte education with teachers who were steeped in the best traditions. My first one was my father, Prof. Michael Hambourg, who had been a pupil of Nicholas Rubinstein ; while my second, the famous Leschetitzky, had studied with Czerny.And Czerny especially represents the school of pianoforte playing which has produced many of the greatest pianists of modern times, his influence extending through Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Tausig, etc., down to many famous pianists of to-day.

Tips about how to practise the piano

Therefore I am a great believer in starting to study according to a good method, or school, as we call it. Such a method will train the mind and fingers in a definite and organized trend of technical development. Of course, it is a good thing as well to acquire a theoretical and general musical education, but I think, especially in the training of children who intend to become professionals later on, that it is imperative that their main energy and time should be directed first of all to learning how to master the technical difficulties of their instrument. I do not believe that musical children learn much away from the piano, at least they cannot acquire the actual – mechanical facility of playing except at the keyboard. I wish to lay stress on this fact, because there are in fashion just now so many clever ways of educating children musically. For instance, they are taught how to compose fugues in imitation of Bach after a few hours of tuition, etc. This kind of instruction is doubtless of advantage in stimulating general musical knowledge and, above all, for training unmusical little ones and developing the faculty which might otherwise be completely lost to them, but in the education of the young pianist such systems must never be allowed to obscure the main issue, which has always to be, first of all,
the acquirement of absolute proficiency at the keyboard.

How to practise the piano in early childhood

Practice in early childhood should never be for a period of
more than half an hour, and the whole amount to be done should not exceed one hour. Also care ought to be taken to procure music for children to study which will appeal to their imaginations, and even their exercises should be in pleasant forms of sound, which will help to keep them interested. And the best thing is to instil as soon as possible into the mind of the child the desire for beauty of touch and clearness of execution.

But allowing that he has the signs within him of all these needful qualities, or at least he thinks he has, and he decides to take up the study of the piano seriously, he has then to make up his mind about his first practical necessity, and this is undoubtedly to go and learn with the very best teacher he can procure. There is nothing that helps so much as to bereally well taught from the very beginning. So many artists have had to go through irksome and irritating labour in later life, and lost much valuable time in having to undo the effects of bad tuition in student days.

Who is the best piano teacher

It is therefore an enormous benefit to the beginner if whoever is responsible for his education insists on his being sent from the outset to a really good and experienced professor. At this early stage, also, I estimate it as most important that the student, though he should work regularly and conscientiously, should not study for too long at a time.Personally I have always found that two hours at a stretch of careful practice is quite enough at one sitting, and it is far better to do several periods of work in the day of shorter duration than to be at it for many hours together. The mind and ear only become confused after a protracted time of work by the constant blur of sound and then the practising degenerates into merely senseless repetitions without discrimination. Besides which the fatigue and strain put upon the nerves by such protracted study are very injurious to the young student’s health, and tend to impair his constitution before any of the wear and tear of his profession begin.

Let us consider a little what possibilities and difficulties await the youth who desires nowadays to take up the piano professionally,and carve out a career for himself with its aid. It is, first of all,necessary to bear in mind that the present-day public demands greater attainment than ever before from executant artists. At least the case is rather that the existing conditions under which we live tend to make all endeavour very strenuous, therefore it grows increasingly hard to arrive at distinction in any walk of life.