I find myself doing this, I'm trying to teach myself to play piano and it's slow going, but I try to get each small section 100% accurate before moving on to the next part. Do you have any tips that could help me learn to read sheet music? I'm currently learning by sight and sound, but I want to do the whole pianist thing properly lol.
I've been using this guide to learn this song and I think its AAR. Do you think i'm on a good track with learning from this tutorial? ruclips.net/video/ZR8Zd3F4mC0/видео.html
Hi Jazer! I really like the piano track at the end of your video's! Is there any way you could direct me to what the name of the song is you're playing or sheet music? I'm guessing it's original and only if you care to share it, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks for all the great work and videos!!
I am a terrible piano player! Took years of lessons but was never very good at all. I’m now teaching my 9 year old granddaughter how to play. Scary, right? She is much better than I ever was and we watch your videos together. You have helped both of us. Thank you so much!
I use the AAR rule since I started learning and the results that I get are incredible! Yes, It takes more focus, yes, it takes more effort but the hard work and focus are the things that are going to take you to that next level of piano playing!
Excellent! I've used my own version of the "absolute accuracy" rule for years -- only I call it "sarcastically slow". My premise/mantra for "sarcastically slow" is: "I do not have to play a wrong note if I don't want to", with the corollary being, "I don't have to play a note until I'm ready to" . I decided on it when I realized that my brain was learning whatever I practiced, so if I practiced playing mistakes and corrections, it was learning mistakes and corrections. So then I decided to feed my brain absolutely nothing except the correct notes and fingers. It is much more efficient and accurate than a shotgun/gambling approach. :-)
I've been playing for 40 years and after graduating from music school in the 90s mostly on my own. I have gone through a crazy amount of phases where I've just discovered and tried out new ways of practicing to maximise my learning potential (learn quickly and accurately). What I've landed on in all this time is pretty much what you're describing here: Practice slowly and deliberately. What I would like to add, which may not be suitable for your beginner students yet, is to introduce the metronome as soon as possible. It helps you keep the tempo consistent, it helps you learn the relative tempo throughout the piece (how fast is this part compared to this other part if I keep perfect time), it helps with sight reading and figuring out the correct fingering and just The way I practice now is: 1. I start by playing through the whole thing to get an idea of what I'm up against 2. I slim it down to the first page or half page and start the metronome at 60 or 70 bpm, depending on the piece. Also, depending on the piece a metronome strike can be a fourth or an eighth. 3. I play the first half page slowly with perfect accuracy (so you need to set the metronome to a speed that allows for that perfect accuracy even when you're sight reading) and if I don't have perfect accuracy, I repeat at that painfully slow tempo over and over agin until I do. 4. When I've mastered the half page at 60 bpm (perfect accuracy, I know the fingering and I can keep up with the tempo), I raise the bpm of the metronome by 10 (from 60 to 70 for instance) and do it all over again. Most of the time I can do 70 if I can do 60. 5. Of course, there is a point between let's say 120 and 130 where I start struggling again, which is an indicator that whatever I did slowly in fact doesn't translate to fast playing. I then have to reinvent my strategy a bit to accommodate for the faster tempo. But this is usually easier if I have a good understanding of the underlying structure. I may have to revisit the fingering, pay special attention to relaxing my fingers, think about the phrases in a whole new way or something, but it's doable if I know the slow tempo perfectly. Just thought someone might appreciate how this same method is actually a universal tool for learning the piano regardless of how long you've been playing.
After several years of lessons, I am realizing the truth of what you are saying here. I am shifting to very slow, very deliberate practice, completely not worrying about the rhythm and timing in the early stage of learning a piece, and playing with absolute accuracy. I really do think this is the answer for me (your results may vary. (-; ). I do like using the metronome, but only after I've done much slow work before hand. My issue is I am a "slave to the beat," and in Jazer's words that makes me "guess the notes," and that is a bad habit I have formed that I need to break. Thanks for your comments above, and thanks @jazer as well.
When I took lessons in my 30’s I was never taught this method. I was handed new music every week and told to just learn it. Now in my 70’s I am playing again and use this method. It has made a huge huge difference in my progress. I am loving the piano again. I wish I hadn’t lost all those years
I have been learning piano for nearly 3 years now and hit a bit of a wall earlier in the year. Then I found your AAR rule and success - I find it has very much helps me progress. Before I was practicing by playing start to end. You explain everything so clearly and you are my "go to" learning aid. Thank you so much. I love my piano!
Thanks for the honest approach to piano. I am an older student who is now retired. I am really able to connect with your great advice. I am even more encouraged to forge ahead. Thank you for giving of yourself, your time, experience and your truly caring attitude.
So happy you're back, you're my go to for when I'm stuck between lessons or I need a good drill! This method is solid gold, but it really does require immense discipline (at least for me). I find it so difficult to slow down, or to not speed up too quickly. But truly the results speak for themselves. In the last week I really forced myself to take a piece I was struggling with to a much slower tempo, and spent a bit more time with the harder chunks. I saw my teacher yesterday and she was really happy with my progress. AAR really does work, but you have to be disciplined, honest, and very present in your practice to reap the benefits. Love your content 💜
I had an older cousin who taught me about practicing with absolute accuracy while teaching me guitar when I was younger. It definitely helped me progress much faster than I had been before that. Now here I am almost 20 years later trying to learn the piano with the same method. Great video and advice! subbed👍🏽
I learned fairly advanced pieces very quick with this method, Clair de Lune, Arabesque, Fur Elise. But i quickly found my sight reading was lacking, due to just reading so little. So i recommend a bit of sight reading and scales with it to really excel
I'm a newbe, Jazer. Your lessens are great.. There are so many things to learn and understand. You are magnificent to explain, yes, you are. I have been watching couple of your other clips. I would like to say, thank you very much for sharing your wisdom and practice.. Sincerely V. (Would love to be participate in your course at ones.)
Absolutely works. Used it to learn Minuet in D Minor -Bach. It’s an easy piece to learn which also helped boost my confidence trying to sight read both left and right hand parts at the same time. Slowed down completely worked like a charm.
Revisiting my old RCM piano books I realize that there are parts of many pieces that I never learned with full accuracy. Watching your tips over the last few years has helped immensely. Accuracy is key for notes and for me, especially fingering. Glad to see you back.
Such great advice! I recently started playing again after a decade if inactivity. I kinda just assumed the AAR and it's definitely helped. I think I'll want to break the sing down as Jazer said into parts and practice that was as well. Thanks for the video!
Welcome back Jazer! 😄 I love how you took one of your ongoing topics of playing slowly and accurately, yet you were able to add new insightful elements to it. Thank you for always being so helpful!
You are absolutely correct about going even painfully slow learning anything on piano. Before I started to just use this method of learning I was making lots of mistakes but now I have realized that by going slow you actually gain more ground faster and with a lot less frustration. But I guess all beginners have to come to this realization on their own first. Everything that I practice on the piano I now work on by going painfully slow then slowly I find that I speed up completely without even thinking about it when my body and mind decides they are ready. Practice is now very enjoyable because it is a lot less frustrating.
You’ve alluded to this technique in other videos and this technique has had the biggest impact on my practicing of all your techniques. Slowing things down until I can find the exact moments where I slip up and then repeating those sections 7x has made it so much faster to learn pieces.
Good advice! I knew this, follow it for a bit, then get impatient. It's something that needs repeating often. And I think maybe trying to inculcate an almost Zen-like devotion to doing something perfectly, even if slowly...
I haven’t tried the absolute accuracy rule before, but it sounds like a good idea. For some difficult songs, I’ve tried slowing down to focus on just finding the correct notes. Then I waited until I was comfortable with the notes before practicing the song’s rhythm.
Jazer. There are many piano teachers on RUclips. Too many to count. I’ve watched multiple! But you have a unique sense of delivery. And I’ll always support or recommend your channel.
Great advice. I don't want to claim that I already knew all of this, but I have been finding myself slowing down and happily trying to nail a section before moving on to another one. I just try to properly learn a few bars at a time. It may be 2, 3 or 4 bars at a time, depending on the piece - even just a couple of notes when the piece is difficult. Something else that helped me was "reverse practice". You play the very last bar first, then start at the last bar but one and play to the end (ie two bars) , then start at the third from last and again play to the end (ie, three bars), and so on. The advantage of this method is that you reinforce the last bars and don't get to the point where you can only play the first part of a piece and then give up. Indeed you complete the piece with more confidence because you've probably repeated the end more times than the start. If you have the patience to combine the two techniques - AAR and playing backwards - you can make great progress. Another advantage in reverse practice is that you look forward to hearing what the piece will sound like from the beginning.
Thanks so much for the "7 times" rule, which you mentioned in an earlier video. It is genius, and I use it now in piano and guitar. After a few reps the segment almost plays itself!
I owe a hell lot to Jazer for just existing and putting the most complex of logic in the Piano in the simplest of words. I think its time that Jazer starts taking online lessons now because sooner or later the content will get repetitive. My channel is subsisting because of the continuous motivation that you pour. Thank You Once Again. Blessed to have you as a teacher.
Im a beginner piano and organ teacher. From my experience, this method is very effective for me when learning piano until now. But, some my student especially children, have problem with this method. Their temper is hard to control, sometimes i used this method and they playing as they will, they will say im bored with this part or this song. But as a teacher, i always learning the best method to teach every person character. Good videos man, my gratitudes from Indonesia
This is a very good tip. It took me far too long to start practising this way, and I still don't do it as much as I should. One comment:for longer passages (say, half a page), concentration becomes an issue, so 7 times without a mistake can become a real trial. In this case, if I make the odd error in a NEW place where I didn't make a mistake before I just add one to the number of repetitions; but if I make a mistake at the same place again I concentrate on that segment of the passage and repeat it until I feel I have established the correction, then go back to a longer passage. Oh, and if you keep getting the first section of the longer section correct, practise the other bit! Yes, you might have to work out a new place to start (particularly if you practise from memory), but that in itself is a useful exercise. I'd be interested in how other people cope with longer passages and the wider issue of concentration.
I've done AAR for years and I didn't even noticed until I saw this video haha! It's helped me a lot, its true what you say, it helps you stay focused and really learn a song thoroughly!!
I published this from Jazer several months ago. It thrills me through and through to see him in this video here. Thank you thank you to whomever is responsible for getting it before us!!!!
Oooh, I used to do this when I started to learn to play piano. I'm so happy I was actually doing something right since I'm self taught. Its really important to sit down, read your music and practice slowly to understand what you're practicing. Even if you know what you're playing it's definitely a good idea to get your hands used to practicing correctly. It's so cool there's a name I can attach to it.
Thank you so much for this, as a self taught player, I don't really get feedback on how to improve. It really helps having content like this to help me work on all the things I miss.
I am relearning how to play the piano after leaving it for very long time. Am now retired from work and I have been viewing your sessions to regain facility of playing and learning new techniques. I had been taught jn the traditional note reading in syllables. Thank you very much for the review and the new insights on effective piano playing.
Yes. You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, many beginners lack the sense of this kind of discipline. 90% per cent of them want quick results. And 99% of tutorials found on youtube lie to them: they promise „tips and tricks“ & „secrets and shortcuts“. The only tip I have as a late beginner (2 years on December 19th) is this: find a good teacher and follow his/her instructions + practice at least 2 hrs per day. Every single day. P.S. I like your tutorials. They have a tremendous quality: you don’t lie about how good one could play after 5-10 minutes of daily practice.
I took piano lessons from a private teacher for 10 years , 8-18. I completed the whole course and then some. I am not a natural at piano and had to practice practice practice, and through the years I have stopped playing and practicing but over the last 20 years, I am playing/practicing regularly. I sight read at a high level and play all the classics and enjoy playing Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and many others. I play the original pieces, not simplified or transposed to easier keys. I can play in any key and enjoy E flat, A minor, D flat A flat and of course E and G major and minor keys, all excellent classical keys. I find the best way to practice once you get past reading the music, fingering, timing, phrasing, tone and pedaling is to follow your ears and not to rely on looking at the notes or sheet. Understand the notes, chords, scales in the key signature and the accidentals. Do this over and over and listen to the concert pianist playing it and follow along with the sheet music. Also you must use Hanon drills as often as possible. Don't give up
I’m so glad I came across this tutorial. Whereas, previously, I was trying too hard to become faster in my playing, this has made me slow and achieve better accuracy and consequently more satisfaction. Starting to play aged 69.
Helpful video. I do the gambling thing, but in my analogy I’ve always thought of it as “running with a huge pile of plates” where pushing forward is the only thing that keeps me upright.
Thank you for really exposing the struggles and learning curve of piano and also showing us how to approach these moments and how to deal with them. I cant appreciate you enough for showing and teaching us like this on RUclips. I love how you teach us how to approach the piano and show us that it's not about always winning and the failures are the journey to getting better with the right mindset and determination. Thank you from 🇨🇦
I have learned the 7 times accurately from your videos and it’s great. My previous teacher always taught me to go really slow and break parts down into small section until I can play it accurately. Slow, small sections and accurately works great! Your videos are super helpful. You are a great teacher!❤
I totally agree! I talk about this same thing on my channel and with my students. 95% accuracy at least and 95% of of the time at least! The post it method helps with this also.
I just realize most of the times when i learn quite smoothly a fragtment of a piece I was using the AAR rule. But mostly i gamble a lot not making much progress, than slowing down and get through some bars in the AAR way learning them faster. Thanks for helping me realize that! Ur channel is a true gem for self learner like myself. Huge cheers!
I was playing the piano on and off for years. I was ok but did a lot of gambling. I had to take some time off from the piano (back injury) but I resolved to 'get good' when I could play again. My dad made a stand so my keyboard is above my bed and I now go by the AAR and I've improved so much. I slowed down all my party pieces and if my gambling caught me out I would deconstruct those parts and re learn them. Great advice as always.
My goodness you are so correct!! I will begin my practice by concentrating on just a few bars at a time and at a reduced speed. After I have mastered that section I will select the next few bars. On and on until I can do all the bars at a slower speed. Then I start all over at a faster speed.
When you are eager to improve, slow and perfect practice with a metronome is extremely taxing but it the ONLY way to make perfect playing. This is why the old axiom stands true: PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT PLAYING. If you can play something perfectly, ten times in a row, YOU KNOW IT! Thank you for making this video. It is so important. I subscribed even though I’m at the pro level. Oh and lastly, IF YOU CAN PLAY IT PERFECTLY SLOWLY, you can’t play it perfectly fast. You can bank on that!
ive been doing this since the beginning i think due to another one of your videos, and I think the reason I've progressed so far in the last year+change, is due to you helping me set up my foundations
Really appreciate these videos, Jazer! I took piano in high-school and then barely touched it for many years. Now I'm 41 and taking lessons again. It's really slow going when you're trying to relearn a skill in your 40's. I've wondered if my brain is just not elastic enough for this anymore. I'm fortunate to have a very good teacher who basically says the same things you did in this video. She's always reminding me to slow down and play accurately. I've enjoyed your videos so much. They reinforce what I'm already learning in lessons and inspire me to keep going. Thank you!
Boy, as a beginner - ‘playing’ for about 2 years - this is just super helpful advice. I find myself ‘gambling’ too often and your advice regarding AAR is spot-on. Thank you!
That’s a very helpful video, thank you. Sometimes we can’t see obvious things until someone points it out, so it was really nice to hear and I’ll now take it into account when practicing:)
100% agree. Love your terminology. I only have limited time to play my piano and this method of being highly focused on a few measures- your Absolute Accuracy Rule - has been the only way for me to make progress. Now I know what to call it.
I love the phrase you used: "deep practice," to go along with deep work as enunciated by Cal Newport. Brilliant way to put this timeless lesson we amateurs can't hear often enough.
I am 70 and started learning piano at age 62. Video tutorials lessons. I know I should slow it down and practice in small pieces. Thank you for the AAR - I shall continue my piano journey and put the absolute accuracy method in my practice.
I am learning piano for the first time in my life age 60. I do not read music and have never had the opportunity until now to have a go. I am using Skoove which I find teaches me the same principle as AAR and it is certainly a good rule to work by. I have subscribed to your YT channel as I love your energy.
TYSM man this vid has helped me so much! I was working on RCM level 6 and was barely making any progress in my pieces. After watching this I’m almost ready for my exam. Keep it up man
Jazer - You're Great! - Sometimes I don't have enough fingers, and then, sometimes I have too many! (I'm lost if the music doesn't have finger numbers) - Thank You for everything. I always learn when I listen to you. It's like you're there, pointing me in the right direction.
Jazer, this is crazy. I have my first piano recital, and my piano instructor is having me play Bach's Minuet in G at 52 BPM with absolute accuracy, then 72, 92, and finally 112 BPM. I am also playing Balta Ainava (White Scenery) by Peter Valasks. My issue right now is taking my time. Having to slow down and play the music consistently slow without rushing has been a difficult task. Question, how do you get used to playing on a metronome? It has honestly thrown me off. I have memorized the music, but now my mind sometimes gets focused on the metronome, and I lose focus on the music.
I play drums and this is the exact thing my drums teacher taught me years ago. Reduce the tempo and really hone in on one bit until you're constant enough to play at full tempo. Piano will be my 2nd instrument to learn and I'm starting tomorrow
Great to have you back. Following a previous post I have been working on not looking at my hands. Best advice ever! Combined with that I have been groping towards absolute accuracy, it certainly works. Thanks for the great videos, invaluable to a person too arrogant to submit myself to a teacher.
Great video Jazer! I think we all know this on some level but it’s easy to slip into old bad habits and skim over hard bits through impatience. Thanks for the reminder and keep the great videos coming!
I've been playing for many years (for about 15 years with lots of breaks in between) and I find it really valuable to go back to the basics like the absolute accuracy method shown in the video every once in a while. I took some lessons as a kid to build up my foundation, and developed the rest of skills through self-teaching. However, with self-teaching, it's often harder to stay strictly disciplined and practices can become a little rough and sloppy if you only play for yourself and no audience (lack of pressure to perfect a piece creates sloppiness and laziness). I've been struggling a little with Chopin's Ballade 3 lately, but this video motivated to take a step back and really engrave that note accuracy. Thanks as always!
Started using this method yesterday and spent a half hour on 1 measure but by the end the measure was great!! Will be continuing this on! Thank you for the lesson 😊
Thank you!!! I was ready to sell my piano and give up , you made me think and figure it out that i was just rushing and keep disappointing myself because i was making mistakes i even doubting myself that i was not talented at all. Once again thank you!!😊🎉
I've used this and the no pedal approach since you previously TOLD us to practice that way. Such a noticab;e improvement. I flip flop this and thumping out funky fun scales and arpegios in the same piece breaks up the practice with lightness but still learning the scales. Also, the AAR is great when you're having a bad day playing pieces ... as you can never really have a bad day playing super slowly.
Hi Jazer! I was finally able to locate a piano teacher who was able to make my scheduling accommodations. It only took about 2 years, but hey, progress! This approach is exactly what my teacher does for me. We have been working through a method book. By my 4th weekly lesson she turned to a random page in the book (well, random within reason, it was still beginner stuff) and told me to try to play it. She told me "I don't care if you can't play it at the right tempo, just show me if you can read exactly what this is telling you to do." So I did. I was nervous because I had never practiced this particular music before, I had never seen it before, I had no time to learn anything with it. So I did what she told me to do, I just counted out loud and played what the sheet told me to do. It was slow, it was very slow. I did make one or two mistakes (I still commonly confuse A and B on bass clef for some reason), but I caught them instantly and corrected it. I counted all the note lengths correctly, I did all the rests correctly, I pedaled correctly, I followed dynamic markings correctly, etc. Then when I was done, she said "You know a lot more than you think you do". And since then that is the approach we have taken for learning anything. She told me to just work through it all very very slowly, ensuring I do not pick up the pace until I am *absolutely comfortable* with what the sheets tell me. Then she said I can pretty much do whatever I want after that. I can vouch with certainty that this approach is the absolute best. If you are still struggling to read sheets especially, this approach is incredibly useful. My teacher usually makes me sightread a piece by sounding out the letters of each note, but also counting. So for example, in 4/4, a whole A note I would play and say "A, A, A, A" and a dotted half D note, I would say "D, D, D", etc. Doing this has helped me develop my sightreading much faster than I could have ever imagined. I tried to learn sheets for close to two years on my own and could never get it figured out. Amazing.
Hi Jazer, thanks for this video. Funny you call it AAR as it also stands as an after action report from the military which coincidently could be used after a piano practice session! I’ve been learning piano for a year and a half now, and I’ve tapped and continue to tap on many resources like simply piano, HD piano and Pianote to name a few. Despite the massive resources that these platforms have, I continue to follow your channel from the very beginning, and I can tell you that your advice and examples are solid. The seven rule has helped me for over a year now. In my case you’re expected outcomes are overly optimistic LOL but that’s totally personal. What matters is the method. I think it is pretty solid and effective. so kudos to you for the help you’re giving to the learning community! 😊
Thanks Jazer biggest take away for me was starting again when you stumble (which is what I do) so what you are saying is play very slowly but keep going otherwise you end up knowing the first few notes well but not the rest!
When you gamble you often hit the same wrong keys over and over. So you are basically reinforcing and learning the song wrong. Then your brain has to break the habit of hitting the wrong keys while trying to practice and learn the right keys. Twice as hard and twice the work. Great video!
Such great insight into how bad practicing works. It is how I've always practiced and it's totally gambling, just hoping I get the notes right over and over. Great breakdown on how to practice and not to
My instructor taught me to practice like this and it works a lot. I also recommend practicing passages in different rythmic patterns, this helps understanding better the fingering and it helps increase speed a lot :)
As a drummer learning piano, I have used this AAR method in my drumming to learn new parts, licks, chops etc. Slowing it down to a crawl to allow my hands to learn the piece of music correctly the first time and then reinforcing that correct play rather than learning it half-baked and then reinforcing the wrong way, only to have to break the bad habit to learn the good one. I found this a most useful video and an encouragement to me as it is a process that I have already applied to learning drums, so it is totally doable to translate it to learning piano.
Thank you!. What an advice!This can even be applicable in most of life's various duties and works. AAR results to excellence. Great athletes surely do this too. God bless!
Jazer, this is GOLD - I say this to my students all the time, but you explain it so well. I will be sharing this with all my students, thank you so much😀
🕘 Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:30 The Method
1:30 The Basics
2:00 The Wrong Way
4:00 Don't Gamble
4:54 Benefits
U R simply a great teacher nd find ways to improve your students performance!
I find myself doing this, I'm trying to teach myself to play piano and it's slow going, but I try to get each small section 100% accurate before moving on to the next part.
Do you have any tips that could help me learn to read sheet music? I'm currently learning by sight and sound, but I want to do the whole pianist thing properly lol.
AWESOME!
I've been using this guide to learn this song and I think its AAR. Do you think i'm on a good track with learning from this tutorial?
ruclips.net/video/ZR8Zd3F4mC0/видео.html
Hi Jazer!
I really like the piano track at the end of your video's! Is there any way you could direct me to what the name of the song is you're playing or sheet music? I'm guessing it's original and only if you care to share it, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks for all the great work and videos!!
I am a terrible piano player! Took years of lessons but was never very good at all. I’m now teaching my 9 year old granddaughter how to play. Scary, right? She is much better than I ever was and we watch your videos together. You have helped both of us. Thank you so much!
You're a good person
I am too
I use the AAR rule since I started learning and the results that I get are incredible! Yes, It takes more focus, yes, it takes more effort but the hard work and focus are the things that are going to take you to that next level of piano playing!
Excellent! I've used my own version of the "absolute accuracy" rule for years -- only I call it "sarcastically slow". My premise/mantra for "sarcastically slow" is: "I do not have to play a wrong note if I don't want to", with the corollary being, "I don't have to play a note until I'm ready to" . I decided on it when I realized that my brain was learning whatever I practiced, so if I practiced playing mistakes and corrections, it was learning mistakes and corrections. So then I decided to feed my brain absolutely nothing except the correct notes and fingers. It is much more efficient and accurate than a shotgun/gambling approach. :-)
great way to approach all my mistakes. thankyou Jazer thankyou aBackwardsfellow.
I'm 66 years old and just started and I like your approach and I will follow that techniques of yours, thanks
I've been playing for 40 years and after graduating from music school in the 90s mostly on my own. I have gone through a crazy amount of phases where I've just discovered and tried out new ways of practicing to maximise my learning potential (learn quickly and accurately). What I've landed on in all this time is pretty much what you're describing here: Practice slowly and deliberately. What I would like to add, which may not be suitable for your beginner students yet, is to introduce the metronome as soon as possible. It helps you keep the tempo consistent, it helps you learn the relative tempo throughout the piece (how fast is this part compared to this other part if I keep perfect time), it helps with sight reading and figuring out the correct fingering and just
The way I practice now is:
1. I start by playing through the whole thing to get an idea of what I'm up against
2. I slim it down to the first page or half page and start the metronome at 60 or 70 bpm, depending on the piece. Also, depending on the piece a metronome strike can be a fourth or an eighth.
3. I play the first half page slowly with perfect accuracy (so you need to set the metronome to a speed that allows for that perfect accuracy even when you're sight reading) and if I don't have perfect accuracy, I repeat at that painfully slow tempo over and over agin until I do.
4. When I've mastered the half page at 60 bpm (perfect accuracy, I know the fingering and I can keep up with the tempo), I raise the bpm of the metronome by 10 (from 60 to 70 for instance) and do it all over again. Most of the time I can do 70 if I can do 60.
5. Of course, there is a point between let's say 120 and 130 where I start struggling again, which is an indicator that whatever I did slowly in fact doesn't translate to fast playing. I then have to reinvent my strategy a bit to accommodate for the faster tempo. But this is usually easier if I have a good understanding of the underlying structure. I may have to revisit the fingering, pay special attention to relaxing my fingers, think about the phrases in a whole new way or something, but it's doable if I know the slow tempo perfectly.
Just thought someone might appreciate how this same method is actually a universal tool for learning the piano regardless of how long you've been playing.
Thank you so much for sharing ❤
After several years of lessons, I am realizing the truth of what you are saying here. I am shifting to very slow, very deliberate practice, completely not worrying about the rhythm and timing in the early stage of learning a piece, and playing with absolute accuracy. I really do think this is the answer for me (your results may vary. (-; ). I do like using the metronome, but only after I've done much slow work before hand. My issue is I am a "slave to the beat," and in Jazer's words that makes me "guess the notes," and that is a bad habit I have formed that I need to break. Thanks for your comments above, and thanks @jazer as well.
Thanks for your comment 👍 I find it very useful
Thank you for sharing your tips!! As a beginner, I really appreciate your advice ❤❤❤❤❤❤
When I took lessons in my 30’s I was never taught this method. I was handed new music every week and told to just learn it. Now in my 70’s I am playing again and use this method. It has made a huge huge difference in my progress. I am loving the piano again. I wish I hadn’t lost all those years
I have been learning piano for nearly 3 years now and hit a bit of a wall earlier in the year. Then I found your AAR rule and success - I find it has very much helps me progress. Before I was practicing by playing start to end. You explain everything so clearly and you are my "go to" learning aid. Thank you so much. I love my piano!
Where have you been so long? We missed you.
He's been practicing piano
😊😊😊@@arucane
Fixing his fingers after practicing ballade no.1 off camera 😂😂😂
Thanks for the honest approach to piano. I am an older student who is now retired. I am really able to connect with your great advice. I am even more encouraged to forge ahead. Thank you for giving of yourself, your time, experience and your truly caring attitude.
Happy to see you again!
Your lessons are very helpful!
So happy you're back, you're my go to for when I'm stuck between lessons or I need a good drill!
This method is solid gold, but it really does require immense discipline (at least for me). I find it so difficult to slow down, or to not speed up too quickly. But truly the results speak for themselves. In the last week I really forced myself to take a piece I was struggling with to a much slower tempo, and spent a bit more time with the harder chunks. I saw my teacher yesterday and she was really happy with my progress. AAR really does work, but you have to be disciplined, honest, and very present in your practice to reap the benefits. Love your content 💜
Yeah, discipline is important :-) I have problems slowing down too, but it is really important, especially when trying to learn some difficult parts.
I had an older cousin who taught me about practicing with absolute accuracy while teaching me guitar when I was younger. It definitely helped me progress much faster than I had been before that. Now here I am almost 20 years later trying to learn the piano with the same method. Great video and advice! subbed👍🏽
I learned fairly advanced pieces very quick with this method, Clair de Lune, Arabesque, Fur Elise. But i quickly found my sight reading was lacking, due to just reading so little. So i recommend a bit of sight reading and scales with it to really excel
I'm a newbe, Jazer. Your lessens are great.. There are so many things to learn and understand. You are magnificent to explain, yes, you are. I have been watching couple of your other clips.
I would like to say, thank you very much for sharing your wisdom and practice..
Sincerely V.
(Would love to be participate in your course at ones.)
Absolutely works. Used it to learn Minuet in D Minor -Bach. It’s an easy piece to learn which also helped boost my confidence trying to sight read both left and right hand parts at the same time. Slowed down completely worked like a charm.
Learning Back in 1 minute is absolutely impressive
This method compliments the philosophy that practice makes permanent. I love it.
Revisiting my old RCM piano books I realize that there are parts of many pieces that I never learned with full accuracy. Watching your tips over the last few years has helped immensely. Accuracy is key for notes and for me, especially fingering. Glad to see you back.
Such great advice! I recently started playing again after a decade if inactivity. I kinda just assumed the AAR and it's definitely helped. I think I'll want to break the sing down as Jazer said into parts and practice that was as well. Thanks for the video!
long time no see. but am happy to see u back with something helpful
Welcome back Jazer! 😄
I love how you took one of your ongoing topics of playing slowly and accurately, yet you were able to add new insightful elements to it. Thank you for always being so helpful!
You are absolutely correct about going even painfully slow learning anything on piano. Before I started to just use this method of learning I was making lots of mistakes but now I have realized that by going slow you actually gain more ground faster and with a lot less frustration. But I guess all beginners have to come to this realization on their own first. Everything that I practice on the piano I now work on by going painfully slow then slowly I find that I speed up completely without even thinking about it when my body and mind decides they are ready. Practice is now very enjoyable because it is a lot less frustrating.
Dear Learn Piano with Jazer Lee, I am so glad becouse you are back!
You’ve alluded to this technique in other videos and this technique has had the biggest impact on my practicing of all your techniques. Slowing things down until I can find the exact moments where I slip up and then repeating those sections 7x has made it so much faster to learn pieces.
The 7 times practising the same part over certainly does work. It's so satisfying. Thanks fir the tip.
Yo Jazer! I hope you've been well. Looking forward to seeing you on this lesson. Cheers!
Good advice! I knew this, follow it for a bit, then get impatient.
It's something that needs repeating often.
And I think maybe trying to inculcate an almost Zen-like devotion to doing something perfectly, even if slowly...
I haven’t tried the absolute accuracy rule before, but it sounds like a good idea. For some difficult songs, I’ve tried slowing down to focus on just finding the correct notes. Then I waited until I was comfortable with the notes before practicing the song’s rhythm.
Jazer.
There are many piano teachers on RUclips. Too many to count. I’ve watched multiple!
But you have a unique sense of delivery.
And I’ll always support or recommend your channel.
Glad you’re back
Yay! Welcome back!
This approach works well not only with learning instruments but with any kind of learning like touch typing, languages etc
Great advice. I don't want to claim that I already knew all of this, but I have been finding myself slowing down and happily trying to nail a section before moving on to another one. I just try to properly learn a few bars at a time. It may be 2, 3 or 4 bars at a time, depending on the piece - even just a couple of notes when the piece is difficult.
Something else that helped me was "reverse practice". You play the very last bar first, then start at the last bar but one and play to the end (ie two bars) , then start at the third from last and again play to the end (ie, three bars), and so on. The advantage of this method is that you reinforce the last bars and don't get to the point where you can only play the first part of a piece and then give up. Indeed you complete the piece with more confidence because you've probably repeated the end more times than the start. If you have the patience to combine the two techniques - AAR and playing backwards - you can make great progress.
Another advantage in reverse practice is that you look forward to hearing what the piece will sound like from the beginning.
Thanks so much for the "7 times" rule, which you mentioned in an earlier video. It is genius, and I use it now in piano and guitar. After a few reps the segment almost plays itself!
It has certainly helped me approach my pieces in a more constructive way and am learning to really enjoy the piano
I owe a hell lot to Jazer for just existing and putting the most complex of logic in the Piano in the simplest of words. I think its time that Jazer starts taking online lessons now because sooner or later the content will get repetitive. My channel is subsisting because of the continuous motivation that you pour. Thank You Once Again. Blessed to have you as a teacher.
Im a beginner piano and organ teacher. From my experience, this method is very effective for me when learning piano until now. But, some my student especially children, have problem with this method. Their temper is hard to control, sometimes i used this method and they playing as they will, they will say im bored with this part or this song. But as a teacher, i always learning the best method to teach every person character. Good videos man, my gratitudes from Indonesia
This is a very good tip. It took me far too long to start practising this way, and I still don't do it as much as I should.
One comment:for longer passages (say, half a page), concentration becomes an issue, so 7 times without a mistake can become a real trial. In this case, if I make the odd error in a NEW place where I didn't make a mistake before I just add one to the number of repetitions; but if I make a mistake at the same place again I concentrate on that segment of the passage and repeat it until I feel I have established the correction, then go back to a longer passage.
Oh, and if you keep getting the first section of the longer section correct, practise the other bit! Yes, you might have to work out a new place to start (particularly if you practise from memory), but that in itself is a useful exercise.
I'd be interested in how other people cope with longer passages and the wider issue of concentration.
I've done AAR for years and I didn't even noticed until I saw this video haha! It's helped me a lot, its true what you say, it helps you stay focused and really learn a song thoroughly!!
I published this from Jazer several months ago. It thrills me through and through to see him in this video here. Thank you thank you to whomever is responsible for getting it before us!!!!
Oooh, I used to do this when I started to learn to play piano. I'm so happy I was actually doing something right since I'm self taught. Its really important to sit down, read your music and practice slowly to understand what you're practicing. Even if you know what you're playing it's definitely a good idea to get your hands used to practicing correctly. It's so cool there's a name I can attach to it.
Thank you so much for this, as a self taught player, I don't really get feedback on how to improve. It really helps having content like this to help me work on all the things I miss.
Great video. As a 65 year old beginner, I am blessed to have a teacher who is using a very similar method.
I am relearning how to play the piano after leaving it for very long time. Am now retired from work and I have been viewing your sessions to regain facility of playing and learning new techniques. I had been taught jn the traditional note reading in syllables. Thank you very much for the review and the new insights on effective piano playing.
The AAR approach to piano practice is helping me to play more effectively and to learn selections easilier Thank you Jazer for teaching us the AAR.
Yes. You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, many beginners lack the sense of this kind of discipline. 90% per cent of them want quick results. And 99% of tutorials found on youtube lie to them: they promise „tips and tricks“ & „secrets and shortcuts“. The only tip I have as a late beginner (2 years on December 19th) is this: find a good teacher and follow his/her instructions + practice at least 2 hrs per day. Every single day.
P.S. I like your tutorials. They have a tremendous quality: you don’t lie about how good one could play after 5-10 minutes of daily practice.
Good to see you again Jazer. Looking forward to the lesson😊
You put your finger on the wound. Thank you for it, you motivate me with your very clearly explanations.Always.
Thanks!
Thanks for the love and support! 🤓
I took piano lessons from a private teacher for 10 years , 8-18. I completed the whole course and then some. I am not a natural at piano and had to practice practice practice, and through the years I have stopped playing and practicing but over the last 20 years, I am playing/practicing regularly. I sight read at a high level and play all the classics and enjoy playing Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn and many others. I play the original pieces, not simplified or transposed to easier keys. I can play in any key and enjoy E flat, A minor, D flat A flat and of course E and G major and minor keys, all excellent classical keys. I find the best way to practice once you get past reading the music, fingering, timing, phrasing, tone and pedaling is to follow your ears and not to rely on looking at the notes or sheet. Understand the notes, chords, scales in the key signature and the accidentals. Do this over and over and listen to the concert pianist playing it and follow along with the sheet music. Also you must use Hanon drills as often as possible. Don't give up
I’m so glad I came across this tutorial. Whereas, previously, I was trying too hard to become faster in my playing, this has made me slow and achieve better accuracy and consequently more satisfaction. Starting to play aged 69.
Helpful video. I do the gambling thing, but in my analogy I’ve always thought of it as “running with a huge pile of plates” where pushing forward is the only thing that keeps me upright.
Thank you for really exposing the struggles and learning curve of piano and also showing us how to approach these moments and how to deal with them. I cant appreciate you enough for showing and teaching us like this on RUclips.
I love how you teach us how to approach the piano and show us that it's not about always winning and the failures are the journey to getting better with the right mindset and determination. Thank you from 🇨🇦
I have learned the 7 times accurately from your videos and it’s great. My previous teacher always taught me to go really slow and break parts down into small section until I can play it accurately. Slow, small sections and accurately works great! Your videos are super helpful. You are a great teacher!❤
I totally agree! I talk about this same thing on my channel and with my students. 95% accuracy at least and 95% of of the time at least! The post it method helps with this also.
I just realize most of the times when i learn quite smoothly a fragtment of a piece I was using the AAR rule. But mostly i gamble a lot not making much progress, than slowing down and get through some bars in the AAR way learning them faster. Thanks for helping me realize that! Ur channel is a true gem for self learner like myself. Huge cheers!
I find this really helpful! Thank you for sharing! Only discovered your channel to improve my piano playing skills. 😀
I was playing the piano on and off for years. I was ok but did a lot of gambling. I had to take some time off from the piano (back injury) but I resolved to 'get good' when I could play again.
My dad made a stand so my keyboard is above my bed and I now go by the AAR and I've improved so much.
I slowed down all my party pieces and if my gambling caught me out I would deconstruct those parts and re learn them.
Great advice as always.
My goodness you are so correct!! I will begin my practice by concentrating on just a few bars at a time and at a reduced speed. After I have mastered that section I will select the next few bars. On and on until I can do all the bars at a slower speed. Then I start all over at a faster speed.
When you are eager to improve, slow and perfect practice with a metronome is extremely taxing but it the ONLY way to make perfect playing. This is why the old axiom stands true: PRACTICE DOESN’T MAKE PERFECT. PERFECT PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT PLAYING. If you can play something perfectly, ten times in a row, YOU KNOW IT! Thank you for making this video. It is so important. I subscribed even though I’m at the pro level. Oh and lastly, IF YOU CAN PLAY IT PERFECTLY SLOWLY, you can’t play it perfectly fast. You can bank on that!
ive been doing this since the beginning i think due to another one of your videos, and I think the reason I've progressed so far in the last year+change, is due to you helping me set up my foundations
Really appreciate these videos, Jazer! I took piano in high-school and then barely touched it for many years. Now I'm 41 and taking lessons again. It's really slow going when you're trying to relearn a skill in your 40's. I've wondered if my brain is just not elastic enough for this anymore.
I'm fortunate to have a very good teacher who basically says the same things you did in this video. She's always reminding me to slow down and play accurately.
I've enjoyed your videos so much. They reinforce what I'm already learning in lessons and inspire me to keep going. Thank you!
Boy, as a beginner - ‘playing’ for about 2 years - this is just super helpful advice. I find myself ‘gambling’ too often and your advice regarding AAR is spot-on. Thank you!
This is so so so helpful. I am using the AAR and leaving behind old ineffective bad habits.
That’s a very helpful video, thank you. Sometimes we can’t see obvious things until someone points it out, so it was really nice to hear and I’ll now take it into account when practicing:)
Honestly making such a big difference. Probably the best piano advice I've received
100% agree. Love your terminology.
I only have limited time to play my piano and this method of being highly focused on a few measures- your Absolute Accuracy Rule - has been the only way for me to make progress. Now I know what to call it.
I love the phrase you used: "deep practice," to go along with deep work as enunciated by Cal Newport. Brilliant way to put this timeless lesson we amateurs can't hear often enough.
I am 70 and started learning piano at age 62. Video tutorials lessons. I know I should slow it down and practice in small pieces. Thank you for the AAR - I shall continue my piano journey and put the absolute accuracy method in my practice.
Hi Jazer, very happy to see you back!! Thank you very much! 😊
Excellent, as ever. Thank you Jazer - mucho appreciated.
I am learning piano for the first time in my life age 60. I do not read music and have never had the opportunity until now to have a go. I am using Skoove which I find teaches me the same principle as AAR and it is certainly a good rule to work by. I have subscribed to your YT channel as I love your energy.
TYSM man this vid has helped me so much! I was working on RCM level 6 and was barely making any progress in my pieces. After watching this I’m almost ready for my exam. Keep it up man
Jazer - You're Great! - Sometimes I don't have enough fingers, and then, sometimes I have too many! (I'm lost if the music doesn't have finger numbers) - Thank You for everything. I always learn when I listen to you. It's like you're there, pointing me in the right direction.
Jazer, this is crazy. I have my first piano recital, and my piano instructor is having me play Bach's Minuet in G at 52 BPM with absolute accuracy, then 72, 92, and finally 112 BPM.
I am also playing Balta Ainava (White Scenery) by Peter Valasks.
My issue right now is taking my time. Having to slow down and play the music consistently slow without rushing has been a difficult task.
Question, how do you get used to playing on a metronome? It has honestly thrown me off. I have memorized the music, but now my mind sometimes gets focused on the metronome, and I lose focus on the music.
I play drums and this is the exact thing my drums teacher taught me years ago. Reduce the tempo and really hone in on one bit until you're constant enough to play at full tempo. Piano will be my 2nd instrument to learn and I'm starting tomorrow
Thank you very much Jazer! It’s really helpful!
So nice to see you back again, hope you're well! I look forward to more of your lessons.
Great to have you back. Following a previous post I have been working on not looking at my hands. Best advice ever! Combined with that I have been groping towards absolute accuracy, it certainly works. Thanks for the great videos, invaluable to a person too arrogant to submit myself to a teacher.
Great video Jazer! I think we all know this on some level but it’s easy to slip into old bad habits and skim over hard bits through impatience. Thanks for the reminder and keep the great videos coming!
I've been playing for many years (for about 15 years with lots of breaks in between) and I find it really valuable to go back to the basics like the absolute accuracy method shown in the video every once in a while. I took some lessons as a kid to build up my foundation, and developed the rest of skills through self-teaching. However, with self-teaching, it's often harder to stay strictly disciplined and practices can become a little rough and sloppy if you only play for yourself and no audience (lack of pressure to perfect a piece creates sloppiness and laziness). I've been struggling a little with Chopin's Ballade 3 lately, but this video motivated to take a step back and really engrave that note accuracy. Thanks as always!
I’m really glad you’re back! You’re videos have been incredibly helpful for my progress.
Great reminders as always J! Thanks I'll take this with me today.
Started using this method yesterday and spent a half hour on 1 measure but by the end the measure was great!! Will be continuing this on! Thank you for the lesson 😊
Thank you!!! I was ready to sell my piano and give up , you made me think and figure it out that i was just rushing and keep disappointing myself because i was making mistakes i even doubting myself that i was not talented at all. Once again thank you!!😊🎉
I've used this and the no pedal approach since you previously TOLD us to practice that way. Such a noticab;e improvement. I flip flop this and thumping out funky fun scales and arpegios in the same piece breaks up the practice with lightness but still learning the scales. Also, the AAR is great when you're having a bad day playing pieces ... as you can never really have a bad day playing super slowly.
Hi Jazer! I was finally able to locate a piano teacher who was able to make my scheduling accommodations. It only took about 2 years, but hey, progress!
This approach is exactly what my teacher does for me. We have been working through a method book. By my 4th weekly lesson she turned to a random page in the book (well, random within reason, it was still beginner stuff) and told me to try to play it. She told me "I don't care if you can't play it at the right tempo, just show me if you can read exactly what this is telling you to do."
So I did. I was nervous because I had never practiced this particular music before, I had never seen it before, I had no time to learn anything with it. So I did what she told me to do, I just counted out loud and played what the sheet told me to do. It was slow, it was very slow. I did make one or two mistakes (I still commonly confuse A and B on bass clef for some reason), but I caught them instantly and corrected it. I counted all the note lengths correctly, I did all the rests correctly, I pedaled correctly, I followed dynamic markings correctly, etc.
Then when I was done, she said "You know a lot more than you think you do". And since then that is the approach we have taken for learning anything. She told me to just work through it all very very slowly, ensuring I do not pick up the pace until I am *absolutely comfortable* with what the sheets tell me. Then she said I can pretty much do whatever I want after that.
I can vouch with certainty that this approach is the absolute best. If you are still struggling to read sheets especially, this approach is incredibly useful. My teacher usually makes me sightread a piece by sounding out the letters of each note, but also counting. So for example, in 4/4, a whole A note I would play and say "A, A, A, A" and a dotted half D note, I would say "D, D, D", etc. Doing this has helped me develop my sightreading much faster than I could have ever imagined. I tried to learn sheets for close to two years on my own and could never get it figured out. Amazing.
I missed your teachings man. If nothing then it is definitely a boost and an added motivation to watch jazers content
Hi Jazer, thanks for this video.
Funny you call it AAR as it also stands as an after action report from the military which coincidently could be used after a piano practice session!
I’ve been learning piano for a year and a half now, and I’ve tapped and continue to tap on many resources like simply piano, HD piano and Pianote to name a few.
Despite the massive resources that these platforms have, I continue to follow your channel from the very beginning, and I can tell you that your advice and examples are solid.
The seven rule has helped me for over a year now.
In my case you’re expected outcomes are overly optimistic LOL but that’s totally personal. What matters is the method. I think it is pretty solid and effective. so kudos to you for the help you’re giving to the learning community! 😊
Thanks Jazer biggest take away for me was starting again when you stumble (which is what I do) so what you are saying is play very slowly but keep going otherwise you end up knowing the first few notes well but not the rest!
When you gamble you often hit the same wrong keys over and over. So you are basically reinforcing and learning the song wrong. Then your brain has to break the habit of hitting the wrong keys while trying to practice and learn the right keys. Twice as hard and twice the work. Great video!
You’re a good teacher. Voice is good to listen to. Your body language compliments the video. Subbed
Great to see you back Jazer, I have missed your excellent tutorials
Yes! Amen to this! Thank you! This is the message I needed to hear today.
Thanks for the solid advice! Slow is steady and steady is fast. It works with piano too… I’ll work at it and let you know.
Thanks a lot for the video. I will definitely try this 😁
Such great insight into how bad practicing works. It is how I've always practiced and it's totally gambling, just hoping I get the notes right over and over. Great breakdown on how to practice and not to
I apply this rule unconsciously but not all the time. Thank you for making me aware how important it is.
My instructor taught me to practice like this and it works a lot. I also recommend practicing passages in different rythmic patterns, this helps understanding better the fingering and it helps increase speed a lot :)
As a drummer learning piano, I have used this AAR method in my drumming to learn new parts, licks, chops etc. Slowing it down to a crawl to allow my hands to learn the piece of music correctly the first time and then reinforcing that correct play rather than learning it half-baked and then reinforcing the wrong way, only to have to break the bad habit to learn the good one.
I found this a most useful video and an encouragement to me as it is a process that I have already applied to learning drums, so it is totally doable to translate it to learning piano.
Thank you!. What an advice!This can even be applicable in most of life's various duties and works. AAR results to excellence. Great athletes surely do this too. God bless!
Jazer, this is GOLD - I say this to my students all the time, but you explain it so well. I will be sharing this with all my students, thank you so much😀