We all love learning a new song, right? But how many times have you sat down in front of the piano and tried to learn a song you love? How many times have you given up after five minutes? Yes… We know… But hey, don’t worry, it happens to all of us ?
When you learn a new song, the first thing you need to know is that it won’t be either easy or neither a 15-minute job. Make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit in front of the piano and watch out, because we are now gonna tell you how to learn a new song without going crazy.
There we go, here are the instructions:
First of all, locate the melody and practice it until you internalize it. You can play it with different styles: jazz style, blues style, classical, etc. Everything until you can play it with your eyes closed.
Once you have made the melody yours, start adding the rest of the notes that accompany the melody. Step by step, don’t rush it. You have to feel like you are assembling some kind of miniature in which the pieces have to fit in perfectly.
Practice both hands separately, and as you did when you practiced the melody, try practicing both hands in different tempos and different styles. You know why? This will help you internalize the song and what you play will now be a part of yourself.
Once you’ve mastered what the two hands do, it is time to put it all together.
But we don’t want to go too fast, don’t we?
Because when we learn a new song, we want to do it right! Therefore, we are going to take as much time as we need.
We are going to slowly start playing both hands at the same time. But hey, veeeeery slowly at the beginning. Make sure all the notes are in the right place. Do it slowly, paying attention to EVERYTHING.
If everything is not in the right place since the first time you play it, then it will be very hard to change it back.
Okay, folks, now that the hard part of learning a new song is done, let’s keep practicing and eventually you will get it.
A few things to remember:
- Never be overconfident!
- Be very persistent. The piano is a very demanding instrument, you have to work hard every day in order to improve.
A little thing you might like to know…
Our fingers “have memory”! The more you play a song, the easier it will be for your fingers to remember the position of your hand and fingers and which keys they have to press on the piano.
You can find here some piano sheet music you may like to play if you are starting to play piano. Take a look!
Okay, then, all yours! Enjoy and never stop learning new songs!
