How should i approach a practice session?

[arian88]

Hello,

When practicing the piano, what should a practice session entail and what should i aim to achieve/concentrate on?

Sometimes i feel like i am losing motivation or direction as i don't have a clear path and don't know where to begin in structuring my learning.

Thankyou!

[klavieronin]

That's a huge question which is really impossible to answer without knowing more about you but the first step I would suggest is to ask yourself: "What do I want to achieve?"

The answer to that question might give you some sense of direction as well as making it easier for others to reply here.

[ranjit]

I have a suggestion for you.

Use the search bar and waste the next day reading through all of the posts that come up.

No, seriously, try it.

[arian88]

Thankyou for your reply.

I'm an adult student and tackling Grade 2 AMEB practical piano.

I am taking both practical piano lessons and theory lessons.
I believe my theory is stronger than my practical and i need to focus more on practical.
I'm finding that my teacher is currently focussing on scales, chords, technical exercises and improvisation rather than pieces at this stage. I am following through with the teacher's current direction and choosing my own pieces to learn in the background. We will move onto Grade 2 pieces once i've mastered the prework. Has anyone else experience this?

I don't know how to proactively plan my practise sessions at home and how much time i should be focussing on learning new pieces, scales & technical exercises and improvisation.

My main goal is to be an all round confident piano player who can navigate the keyboard and pieces. I am finding that Grade 2 piano is a bigger step than Grade 1 and Preliminary and you would need to grasp this well before being able to progress to further levels.

Thankyou!

[brogers70]

Josh Wright has some advice on this.

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[lelle]

Josh Wright has a ton of videos but I have never watched them though I am aware of him. Is his advice useful in general, do you think? Should take some time to watch?

[ivorycherry]

Josh Wright has a ton of videos but I have never watched them though I am aware of him. Is his advice useful in general, do you think? Should take some time to watch?

His advice and videos are REALLY useful imo. He gives lot of great tips and exercises.

[brogers70]

I second ivorycherry. Josh Wright's videos have been very helpful to me. I've paid for his subscription service and think it worthwhile, but he has lots of free videos, too, none of which are obnoxious adverts for the paid ones.

[lostinidlewonder]

Sometimes i feel like i am losing motivation or direction as i don't have a clear path and don't know where to begin in structuring my learning.

Bring this up with your teacher, doing AMEB exams is NOT the only path to take and in my opinion is not the best one if that is all you are focusing on. Practice method, motivation, direction all are very high priorities much more so than exam preparation and technical work. If you really want to stick with exams the AMEB has a repertoire only exam which requires that you only play pieces and nothing else, ask your teacher about that it might be more interesting.