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Friday, December 19, 2008

Piano Exercises Help Students

By Georgia Reader

The goal of piano practice is usually to help the student become a better pianist. However, every student needs specific goals to work towards improving himself. Once you determine what you need to work on, that will help you prioritize your piano practice time.

If you want to become a good pianist, work on strengthening your fingers through studies when you practice. When you work on building strength and power in the arm you can also develop finger dexterity when you practice piano exercises for warm ups. After a few weeks, you will begin to notice a difference as your playing is more skillful, endurance is better, and your arm strength is much better.

Scales and arpeggios are the backbone of piano technique and with regular practice fingers will become more agile and dexterous. Speed will gradually be gained after much practice, but it is not crucial until accuracy is achieved. Pianists can practice these exercises at any speed in the beginning, as accuracy will get better with repetition.

Before you officially start a practice session, perform you piano exercises to get your fingers warmed up and ready to play your assignment. You do not want to do other exercises that encourage larger muscles in your hands or arms. This will not help finger dexterity and will instead slow your the speed and agility of your fingers as you play.

Finger muscles are found in the arm so twisting or bending the wrist or fingers in abrupt or odd ways that can cause harm to your hand. Aim for playing with a relaxed wrist, not a tense froze wrist while you play. Tension in the arm, wrist or fingers will lead to mistakes and possible injury, so if you find your arm or hand in pain stop as you are overdoing it.

The piano student often finds piano exercises to be tedious as they are very repetitive. Therefore, they should not take up the majority of a practice session because you don't need to overdo it. Practice time need not be a drudgery and the student can practice pieces also.

There are many alternatives to repetitive sections of scales. For instance selecting certain etudes that concentrate on different technical aspects can be just as profitable and are much more interesting to play. Piano exercises will help you develop flexibility and are great for warming-up your fingers before actually practicing your pieces of music.

The long-term results of practicing piano exercises can be increased finger dexterity, which is always a good thing. However, you want to make sure that they do not do damage to your fingers or make you lose interest in your practice sessions. Keep in mind while you are practicing exercises that this is not the music you wish to make as they are merely a means to an end.

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