Good practising methods?

[xire]

Since I don't take piano lessons yet, it's hard for me to practise and improve my technic. I mostly learn by playing songs, but I think that's not the right way to improve my technic.

I'd like to know how you guys practise your technic. Are you using some kinda practising schedule?... If so: could you please post your schedule and practise methods.

I read something about Liszt practising methods, I think it's some kinda book. I heard a lot of good things about it and if someone can tell me where I can buy or download it, I'd love to know it.

Also, I'd like to know your opinions about good practising and how to improve your technical skills. I don't wanna waste my time by practising in a "bad" way, if you know what I mean. 


Thanks in advance.

[cfortunato]

Practice every day.  An hour is good; more if you can, less if you must.  But every day.

Pick two pieces, preferably of two different styles that you find somewhat difficult, but not extremely, and learn those two pieces.  Start the practice session by working on scales or exercises for ten or 15 minutes.  Then start on the pieces.  If you can do a half and hour on each one, that's great. 

When learning a new piece, go through it one hand at a time and work out the correct fingering before anything else.  It doesn't have to be the fingering in the book - it just has to be correct.  And do the piece right, right from the beginning.  Even if you have to play it at one tenth its correct speed to be be accurate, but play it accurately.  With the right fingering and ALL of the dynamics, right from the very start.

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

Studying with a teacher is of course the best way to ensure correct practice. Without a teacher one might make a lot of incorrect such as evenness of sound, touch, non collapsing fingers, wrist movement, posture, etc. Getting a teacher is always the best choice in my opinion. However if that's not possible then there are plenty of books that might adress some form of technique. (There are posts somewhere in here recent that adress the technique book question). Getting the correct way to practice isn't enough however. We all sometimes forget at least one aspect of correct practicing. A teacher keeps on always reminding us and help remember. The written material however may not always secure in memory or be unclear, making practice harder. Do not lose hope. Ask for proper technique books adress a well known process. However you will need a teacher eventually and a teacher is always good. If you can't get a teacher than technique books will do and asking a particular question regarding material will clarify matters. I hope I gave you some help.


Best Wishes to all.

[xire]

Thanks for your replies and your information!


I know taking painolessons would be the best for me, but I live in a very small village and as far as I know there is no piano teacher here. The city would be the solution, but it takes me about 2 hours to get there and that's too much time for me to spend on traveling.

For now it's the best for me to get a book about piano practising I guess. If someone knows a good book, please inform me about it. 


Still I'm looking for some kinda practising schedule. I play the guitar too and I practised about a year with a practise schedule wich is used by a very good guitarplayer (Steve Vai). It takes about 1 hour to comeplete the whole schedule and I did that 5 times a week, for one year. It improved my playing a lot and I'm happy that I spend so much time in it. That's what I wanna do with the piano too. I wanna practise things like arpeggios, improve speed, scales etc, but I don't know where to start on the piano. So that's kinda what I'm looking for at the moment. It doesn't has to be a song or something, just little, maybe difficult things, wich can improve my playing.

I wanna spend about 45 minutes up to an hour to only practising. After practising it's time to have some fun and play and learn pieces.