The steps of practice to master the seven basic elements of a piece or composition that are:
- Scale and Arpeggio.
- Note in Alphabet, Up-Down-Same, In Out Black, Solfege and Aural Spelling.
- Fingering and Touch.
- Beat and Tempo.
- Articulation, Dynamic and Expression.
- Passage and Phrase.
- Chord.
How to Practice?
As a hammered instrument played by pressing and touching the keys, visualizing the white and black keys that spread evenly in front of you is very important. There are six steps:
- Play and say the note in alphabet (a, b, c, d, e, f, g) including its sharp, flat and natural, when the notes are in harmonic interval that is two or more notes played together, for right hand say the highest note and left hand say the lowest one. If it is too difficult to play both hands together, you may play separated, right hand and left only, then play and say both hands together at the same time.
- Play and say the note Up-Down-Same, usually for the main melody on right hand.
- Play and say the note In-Out-Black, in two black group, say out the note c is out, d – in and e – out. In three black group, say e is out, f-in, g-in, a-in and b-out. For the black keys you say black.
- Play and say the note in solfege or doremi according to its scale or keynote for only the main melody usually the highest note on the right hand.
- Play and say “beat” for the down beat note only and say “tek” for the extra down beat and say rest on the rest sign.
- Play and say the note in aural, tam-tam for detache’, ta-ra-ram for legato. pam-pam for staccato, dam for tenuto and bam for accent. When you are performing there is only aural spelling in your mind.
After practice with those steps, the next you must analyze: the Passage and Phrase also the Chord to complete your understanding of a composition.
This is an effective, efficient and logical way to learn, play and understand a composition well.
