When you decide to learn new music, sometimes it feels a bit like exploring a cave with a tiny flashlight. You can’t see more than two steps in front of you… How can you be sure there isn’t some monster hiding around the corner? Will this foreign place ever feel familiar?
If you’re nodding your head thinking, “How does she know?!”… I know because I’ve been there. And even with decades of experience and a well-equipped toolkit, learning big pieces can still feel like a daunting task. But that’s ok – the adventure is half the fun.
Like any good adventure, it’s only going to be fun if you have the right equipment. That’s why we’re here. I want to make sure you have the tools you need to get started any time you want to learn new music. Now let’s get into the nitty gritty.
Phase One – Look Before You Leap
When you want to learn new music, the initial stages are easy to overlook.
“Those things sound too simple, I don’t need to worry about this part.”
Please don’t fall into that trap!
The first steps are indeed simple. But if you don’t note these things consciously, you’re going to need more time to really get your piece flowing like you want it to.
Go through the following initial checks:
-What is my TIME SIGNATURE? 3/4 time? 4/4 time? 3/8? 6/8?
Get clear on this, and make sure you understand how to process the information. Not sure what a time signature means? Ask your teacher or send me an email.
-What is my KEY SIGNATURE? 1 sharp – Is it G Major or E Minor? 3 flats – Is it E-Flat Major or C Minor?
If it is a key you have never played in before, practice the corresponding scale and primary chords every single day. If it is a key you are familiar with, you should still practice the scale and chords at least once a week. Bonus points for practicing the arpeggio, as well.
-What is my TEMPO marking? Allegro? Andante? Adagio?
You don’t need to be playing in the final tempo right away, but the tempo indication often gives us clues about how to understand the character of a piece. The sooner we think about that, the better.
-What do I SEE?
Are there patterns that repeat? Do any notes seem to show up a lot? Are there any intervals that are common in the piece? Which hand seems to be more active? Which hand seems to have the melody? Can I identify any sort of structure just by scanning through the music? Dynamics? Legato? Staccato? Are there symbols I don’t recognize? Are there accidentals (sharps/flats that aren’t in the key signature) or natural signs?
Some of these observations will help you on day one (such as accidentals and patterns), and some of them will become more important over time, but are good to keep in mind from the very beginning (such as dynamics). But if you know where you are headed, you can decide on a plan to help you get there as painlessly as possible.
Download this free checklist to keep all of this information handy any time you’re starting a new piece.
Phase Two – Bird’s Eye View (Play through once)
Based on the things you have identified in your music, what seems to be a good strategy for getting started? Does the piece seem relatively simple for your level, and you want to try reading through it hands together? Does it seem too complicated to try hands together right away, and an initial read-through would be more productive hands separately?
Once you decide, play through the piece one time. (Once hands together or one time each hand alone all the way through.)
As you do this, you should be thinking about how it will feel to actively learn the piece. Constantly be asking yourself questions. What feels tricky? What feels easy? Are there things you notice while playing that you didn’t notice in your initial scan? Do you hear any patterns? Are there phrases that start the same but develop differently? How does the coordination feel?
Your goal here is to think structurally and strategically. You don’t have to immediately catch every tiny detail, but you want to get a feel for the piece so that you are able to create your initial practice plan.
Phase Three – Create Your Plan of Attack
Now you need to make a few decisions based on what you’ve noticed in the first two phases.
First, how long do you think it will take you to learn the piece? It’s important to approach this systematically, rather than choosing a random amount of time.
(Would it be cool to learn all of Chopin’s Etudes in a week? Sure! Is that feasible?…)
For starters, how many measures are in your piece?
The piece I use as an example in this YouTube video is 24 measures – let’s use that example here, too. Once you have that number, you need to think about how many measures you can truly master in one practice session. Unless you’re under time pressure for some reason, I’m going to encourage you to take a conservative approach to this question. I would suggest setting a goal of 2 or 4 measures per day.
Hear me out – I see you rolling your eyes and about to close the tab because trying to learn new music 2 to 4 measures at a time is just way. too. slow. But try approaching this from a different perspective. How long would you think it will take you to learn the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata? If you learn 2 measures per day, you will master all of the notes in just over a month. If you learn 4 measures per day, it will take you just a little over two weeks to get the notes into your fingers – and that’s not even taking into account that some measures are repeated. Not bad, right?
And in case you’re still not quite on board, I have another question for you.
Have you ever been working on a piece and for days, weeks, or months felt like you just weren’t making any progress? You’ve done all of the things – you’re practicing in chunks, you’re showing up consistently, and it seems like you should be making progress, but every day when you wrap up, you find yourself wondering, “Did I actually accomplish anything?”
(How do I know this? Certainly not from first hand experience…)
It’s common to run into this feeling, because it’s common to practice in an open ended way. When you’re trying to learn new music, if you don’t have specific daily benchmarks that you’re aiming for, you’re going to feel like you haven’t really accomplished much until the piece is fluent, memorized, and polished. Because there is nothing in your practice routine that signals to your brain that you have actually accomplished something!
Imagine someone going on a diet and only feeling like they’ve accomplished something once they’ve lost their goal of 24 pounds. It would be silly to say, “Well, I’ve only lost 12 pounds, and today I didn’t lose ANY pounds, so I must not be making any progress.”
This is why you need specific, manageable goals that you can accomplish in every practice session. Just because your goal for a single practice session is to master two measures doesn’t mean that you will only practice those two measures per session! But managing to put those two measures hands together with a steady beat is what signals to your brain that you have accomplished what you set out to achieve.
Second, how are you going to approach learning the piece?
There is no right or wrong answer here, but it is important to be systematic. I suggest choosing one of the following methods – which one feels right for you may vary from piece to piece, but feel free to experiment with different options over time.
The most obvious (and common) way to approach learning a piece is chronologically.
You start with the first few measures, and then the next day you tackle the next few, and then the next few, and so on until you’ve learned the entire piece.
Another option is to learn the piece backwards.
You start with the last two measures, and then you take the two measures before that, and the two measures before that until you’ve made it all the way to the beginning. This option works well for a few reasons. On the one hand, learning the end of a piece feels like you’ve already made it to the finish line. That can be very motivating. On the other hand, it helps you really master the ending and counteracts the common experience of knowing the beginning really well and struggling at the end of the piece, where you’re already tired and have less concentration.
If you want the best of both worlds, you could take the sandwich approach:
Start with the first two measures, learn the next two measures (so that you’ve learned an entire phrase), and then go to the end and learn the last two measures, and then the two measures before that. After that, you’ll learn measures 5 and 6, then 7 and 8, and then go to the end of the piece and work chunk by chunk back towards the beginning. (Measures 19 and 20, and then 17 and 18, if we’re sticking with our piece of 24 measures.)
Or maybe you want to try the targeted approach.
If you’re learning a piece and want to master the most difficult passages from the beginning, you can find those parts and target them first. This way, you keep improving the challenging sections the entire time you’re learning the piece, and can build in the simpler passages gradually.
For example, if you know that measures 11-12 and 17-18 are particularly difficult, you could learn those two chunks first, and then approach the rest of the piece with the chronological, backwards, or sandwich approach.
Finally, an inverted approach can be a way to learn new music that pushes you outside your comfort zone.
If a piece is a bit beyond your current abilities, you could choose to start with the simplest passages first in order to get some quick wins in the beginning. You would then build in the more difficult sections over time.
Once you have made those two decisions, you can chart out your individual practice sessions. If you would like examples of how to structure these, be sure to download this free workbook for a sample plan.
Phase Four – Reevaluate
In order to get the most out of the planning phases, it is essential that you continually evaluate how this process is going. There are a lot of tips, tricks, and hacks that can help you improve your practice skills, but if you dig a little deeper, constantly asking questions and problem solving are at the core of all of these.
Being a good practicer really boils down to being a good detective.
You should be asking questions after every repetition and after every practice session. If you really want to become an effective practicer, you should also set aside a short amount of time to reevaluate your practice strategy at the end of each week and any time you reach a key milestone in learning a piece (such as mastering all of the notes, memorizing the entire piece, or any time you feel like you’ve really gotten a piece polished).
On a regular basis, ask yourself questions like:
-What went well?
-What was difficult? Why was it difficult?
-Which practice strategies helped?
-What didn’t help?
-Which strategies can I try next time? Or tomorrow?
And over longer periods of time, be sure to follow up with:
-What have I learned from this piece?
-How did it challenge me?
-What have I enjoyed about this piece?
Last but not least – does following this system ensure that you will never get frustrated in a practice session again? Does it mean that you will never have an off day, and it will feel amazingly simple to learn a new piece?
Of course not! Learning any new piece is a lot of work. It requires time and dedication. And there will always be off days, no matter how carefully you plan and no matter how many follow-up questions you ask. But I am confident that if you approach learning new music with this system, that you’re going to know how to deal with those off days, and you’re going to know how to get back on track.
You’ve got this! I believe in you.
(And I’m always just an email away if you get stuck on anything!)
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