{"id":1234,"date":"2020-05-26T06:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2023-01-16T14:57:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T22:57:07","slug":"play-piano-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/play-piano-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Piano Faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody wants to play piano faster. It\u2019s one of the most commonly requested topics I get for lessons and tips.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s easy to understand why\u2026<\/p>\n

Playing fast is super FUN!<\/p>\n

But getting faster ends up tripping many piano players up because they try to get faster the wrong way.<\/p>\n

So in this lesson, I\u2019m going to show you how to practice to get faster. We\u2019ll be running through ONE exercise at 3 different tempos to demonstrate how to increase your speed.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t play this exercise at all 3 tempos right away that\u2019s ok. It will give you something to aim for, and when you do reach it, it will feel amazing.<\/p>\n

But first, the most important rule…<\/p>\n

Start Slow!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I know, this seems wrong.<\/p>\n

It makes logical sense that to play fast you have to practice fast, but that\u2019s not how you should start.<\/p>\n

The best (and quickest) way to increase your speed is to start SLOW. At a tempo you can play comfortably, and then build your speed gradually.<\/p>\n

The reason why it\u2019s so important is that it helps you build a better foundation of finger strength, control, and dexterity so that when you do increase the speed, you\u2019ll be able to handle it.<\/p>\n

Because if you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll be inconsistent, sloppy, and you just won\u2019t sound good.<\/p>\n

The Exercise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We’ll be using Hanon No. 1 as our exercise today. It’s an old favorite of mine and it’s a killer way to boost your speed and dexterity.<\/p>\n

It’s also a great warmup.<\/p>\n

The biggest thing to focus on with this exercise is the pattern. It’s mostly simple, but there is a skip at the start of each bar. Take a look at the first line:<\/p>\n

\"Play<\/p>\n

Download your FREE sheet music here<\/a><\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

The first 2 notes of each measure are a skip. That’s how we’re able to walk up the keyboard using this pattern.<\/p>\n

How To Build Speed<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I’ve already told you my #1 Rule to play piano faster: Start Slow.<\/p>\n

But there are other practical things you can do to ensure you’ll see results and build your speed.<\/p>\n

When you’re starting at a slow tempo, make sure you can play the music comfortably and confidently. That means no mistakes and no stress about the difficulty of the piece. It should be easy.<\/p>\n

Once you can do that, increase your tempo slightly<\/i> (about 3 – 5 bpm) and practice until that becomes your new comfortable tempo. This is the process you’ll repeat over and over again as you build your speed.<\/p>\n

It might sound like that will take a long time but it really won’t. Small increases in speed allow you to master the new tempo quickly.<\/p>\n

And speaking of time, you don’t have to spend hours practicing these speed exercises. Only 5 – 10 minutes a day should be plenty. Any more than that and you risk overdoing it. That leads to frustration and possible injury.<\/p>\n

And finally, as you do get faster, the notes your playing should be more familiar. So shift your focus from playing the correct<\/i> notes onto how<\/i> you play them. That means keeping even pressure between your hands and fingers. Many players find their ring finger and pinky finger want to stick together. For a great way to books your finger independence, try our Finger Independence Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Learning to play piano faster takes time and practice. But remember, Mt Everest is climbed by taking one step after another. Playing faster might feel like summiting a mountain right now, but if you focus on the single steps you’ll be standing on the peak in no time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody wants to play piano faster. But how do you do it? Here’s a guided practice with tips and play-alongs to boost your speed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[520,509],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-play-faster","category-technique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5250,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/5250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}