Musicianship & technical exercises

Structure your lesson to

Support Students

The structure of a lesson – the order you perform various tasks and the length of time you dedicate to each, as well as how you interact with students – can make a huge difference to progress. 

Try breaking up longer pieces with short sight reading, aural and improvisation tasks. Depending on the student, you might want to begin the lesson with technical exercises, when you know their concentration is at its best. Laura Bryan follows a set structure to help with exam preparation:

I spend 5 minutes at the beginning of each lesson doing scales and 5 minutes at the end of each lesson covering sight reading or aural so there are no surprises when they come to an exam.

Laura Bryan
Private teacher

Remind students to take their time when approaching sight reading so they can look at the music and mentally prepare ahead of playing – much as they would in an exam.

The tone you end the lesson with is important: this will be the student’s lasting memory of the session. Try ending with improvisation – once a learner is warmed up and confident, they’re likely to be more open to being experimental. Piano teacher, Rachael Gill, recommends:

Have a fun five minutes at the end of a session. Maybe take a few notes from something they know well or are about to learn, and turn it into an improvised tune.

Rachael Gill
Private teacher

Some teachers even recommended bringing multiple students together to practise as a group, hear one another play and give constructive feedback. Loyola Browne explains how this benefits her students:

I find it useful to take a group lesson for students doing the same grade a few times before the exam. They enjoy the social aspect to it and hearing each other play helps.

Loyola Browne
Private teacher

Encouraging

Improvisation

One of the most universal challenges for the teachers we surveyed was teaching improvisation effectively. The tips offered by piano teachers to introduce improvisation range from simple call and answer tasks to learning simple tunes by ear. Lucinda Adams describes her approach to improvisation:

In the early stages, I do call and response. As students become more proficient, I encourage adding in harmonic stimulus.

Lucinda Adams
Private teacher

John Ennis also uses this method, adding a challenge to stretch his students:

I have used question and answer response playing. Limit the amount of notes they can play to begin with, then give them a target note and ask them to reach that target by different routes.

John Ennis
Private teacher

We found the advice from Adrian Rea, a piano teacher from Cleveland, UK, really useful when he suggested:

Try and think of it as if you're telling a story: it needs a beginning, middle and an end. Use your strengths, such as repetition, harmonic intervals, and use related scales to give structure or building blocks.

Adrian Rea
Private teacher

Much of the advice we received was to keep pieces short; this is where the magic happens as it’s only when tunes meander that students tend to lose their way. Christopher Chamberlain applies this rule with his students:

Brian Larter, a piano teacher in South Africa, bases improvisation around familiar chords:

I first ensure that students understand the chordal structures and progressions, then look at the melodic and rhythmic possibilities within each chord. Simple three and five note patterns first, and then extending it.

Brian Larter
Private teacher

Be impromptu with improvisation to remove pressure; suggest it at random through a lesson, or month of lessons so there’s no dread or build-up for the student. Sim Pei Ling has found success with this approach:

Be impromptu. Encourage students to be creative and remember melodies, tunes or songs.

Sim Pei Ling
Private teacher

By using notes from familiar scales, students will get an idea of key, putting notes together that naturally sound melodious. Irita Kutchmy uses this method with her students:

I give them two or three notes to experiment with first and then gradually introduce scales one at a time to improvise around.

Irita Kutchmy
Private teacher

Start by playing easy, well-known tunes by ear. This is an excellent way to develop confidence in moving around the keyboard, as well as aural skills. Both of these are fundamental in the development of improvisation skills.

Improvisation doesn’t have to be performed by the learner at the piano though; we received some innovative ways teachers practise improvisation interactively. Marlene Watkins starts with clapping:

Clap a rhythm and make up music to that rhythm. Also give them a few notes to continue [the] pattern on. Be sure they know which key to return to or centre on.

Marlene Watkins
Private teacher

Give both hands

Focus

Our teachers advise the importance of focusing on improvisation in the left hand as well as the right – though doing this steadily. Janice Gow recommends breaking it down for learners using chords in different ways for each hand:

Give the student chord sequences for one hand, and improvise with chord notes and passing notes in the other.

Janice Gow
Private teacher

By first allowing time for single-hand exercises, learners can strengthen their improvisational skill before introducing them to both hands together. This is a practice Binoy Venkatachellum uses with his students:

Read the notes, count, check articulation, check dynamics and play separate hands before combining them. Begin in a slow tempo, then take it up gradually to the required tempo.

Binoy Venkatachellum
Private teacher

By encouraging pupils to start with slow tempos, building up the speed as they grow more skilful, you’re showing them the importance of not running before they can walk. 

It’s worth remembering that the physicality of hand positioning is still important; students may be so focused on the improvisational skills they’re practising that they’re distracted from other technical aspects. Encourage them to maintain their good habit, as Ivan John, a teacher in Mumbai, India, recommends:

Understand the focus areas, good posture, balance, then independence and interdependence of hands and fingers. Students need to practise control and easing off; hands separately then finally integrating both.

Ivan John
Private teacher

Participate with

Students

One of the best ways for students to learn is to hear and see live piano; not only from a technique perspective, but as an aspirational tool. This is where participating with students can really help them grow as musicians. Lu Pei Fang likes to get students’ imaginations working before they get near the keys themselves:

I introduce the exercises by getting students to share their ideas of the song from the title and their first impressions. Then I will play the music quite a few times before they start to try.

Lu Pei Fang
Private teacher

You might choose to do this by recording a video or audio sample for students to use at home. Some teachers we surveyed choose to play technical exercises for students so they can hear how it should sound. Plenty of teachers recommended this strategy, such as Katrina Gordon:

Sometimes I make them a short audio or video if there’s something they’re otherwise just not getting.

Katrina Gordon
Private teacher

By participating with students, you can use scaffolding or a framework to break tasks down, showing them how to section off key parts into manageable chunks. Brian Larter adopts this method with his pupils to help them get a deeper understanding:

I play through the exercises, pointing out what the technical challenge is. We then analyze the music from every angle, and then once the student knows the notes, they work on achieving the technical requirement.

Brian Larter
Private teacher

Our teachers often find that good communication around the relevance and purpose of technical exercises is essential. If students understand why they must be learnt – and how they progress their skills long-term as a pianist – they are far more likely to give them the care and attention they require. Alina Abraham who teaches in New Zealand, practises this approach:

Firstly, I explain how we will obtain the skills, and what skills we will acquire by doing the preparatory exercises.

Alina Abraham
Private teacher

Rosemary Reid likes to get down to the details of what skills a technical exercise is requesting a learner to perform:

I identify what is required by the exercise, practise the exercise and devise accompanying exercises to help if necessary.

Rosemary Reid
Private teacher

Angie Tse believes there’s no harm in practising some rote learning together, instead of solely focusing on note reading:

I tend to develop my pupils through short rote exercises that are musical and attractive. The way I teach is through modelling. They are focused on beautiful sound creation and how to use their whole body to do this - without worry[ing] about reading notes.

Angie Tse
Private teacher