What can I add to my daily practice?

[kinya]

Hi all fellow pianist/piano learners here!

I would like to seek out advices on how to make my daily practice better.
So here is a little background of myself

I have a private piano teacher and I started learning piano around 2 years ago and my current highest gradings are ABRSM Grade 2 Practical and Grade 3 theory. Being 25 this year, I can be considered an adult learner lol.

Recently, I have realized that my practice has become more 'boring'. What I am doing during my routine practice now is to just play the piece I was taught the previous week, nothing else, no scale, no other songs. For example, I started Für Elise weeks ago and I have been only practising the same song during practice.

Back then, I used to learn a new songs almost every week from Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Book and it was interesting back then(guess those pieces were shorter and easier).

I will be going for Grade 3 prac next year and I have learnt both B and C piece, and halfway of A piece. Haven't touch done any scale nor sight reading yet.. Now I took a break and started learning Für Elise.

I would like to ask what other 'elements' could I add to my routine practice so that I will have a better sense of achievement after I have done the piano practice for the day? Should I add in scales or some nice popular pop songs?

Thanks for the help in making my learning journey a more enjoyable one in advance 

[musicman99]

Hi,

It is always good to maintain a varied practice timetable, as otherwise practice may become boring and monotonous. Here are some suggestions for what to do in practice:

- Warm up. Play a scale or a short section of a piece.
- Practise scales or studies. It is a good idea to practise scales, as they help develop one evenness, finger dexterity and knowledge of keys. When people say scales, they usually refer to scales, arpeggios, dominant sevenths and the like. Short studies are good for developing certain aspects of piano technique. The burgmueller studies are at your level, from what you say:

https://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/b/bd/IMSLP253725-PMLP07983-FBurgmuller_25_Etudes_faciles__Op.100_BNE.pdf

-Practise a section of a piece that needs work on.

-Play through some pieces. This is a more relaxed thing to do.

Apart from the warm-up, feel free to change the order of these elements to vary your practice.

Hope this helps,

Carlos R.