Hey everyone, here is a way to really know a brand new piano piece, one that you never had worked on before. COPY IT DOWN! Yes copy it down. Get a piece of line manuscript paper and copy down the entire piece - NOTE FOR NOTE! Also all the expression markings, legato markings, pedal markings, dynamics, breathing marks (yes play the melody as if it is to be sung). On another piece of manuscript paper, write down all the cantabile melodies and sing them in your own voice. Pick an easy tempo you can play and play it at this tempo until you master it. Use a metronome. Move the dial up to the next tempo marking and play it at speed until that speed is mastered. Do this everyday until desired tempo is achieved. This is just the beginning.

You are a great teacher. I love studying the brain and the mind: it's true that if you repeat the same thing FIVE times, it gets etched into your long term memory, anything less is short term memory. So I LOVE that you stressed fixing your mistakes as soon as possible: your mind commits the mistakes to long term memory after five repeats too, thus causing a (bad) habit. Thanks for another brilliant lesson.

Were you listening to a performance of the great Valentina Lisitsa?!

your channel is amazing! nice job. congrats from Brazil :)

Know a few people who took music lessons before the Internet became widely available. The main resources included books from the library and available sound recording (vinyl records & cassette tapes). When you came across the title of a piece "Gavotte" you wouldn't think of doing research on a piece before playing it. Whatever the teacher said was it. Now most pieces can be found online with a click of a button. Doing a search on the genre down to the individual pieces becomes easier than ever.

Glad this is still available to rewatch. And I did!

I was so happy to see you watching Valentina playing your Waltz! There is no greater pianist!

"Maybe don't taste your piece, though."

Great advice, I need to start with small fragments instead of playing the whole page over and over. Thanks Alyssia, this is very motivating.

Your videos are all amazing and i would just like to say thank you for helping me in my journey through music .

You represent everything that is awesome about learning.

I absolutely adore your channel 😍🤓🤓🤓

Great tips. The tips I would add are look at the key signature to see what sharps and flats you need. Have a play around of the key first. Make up some chords and patterns in that key. For an obvious example Pachelbels canon is in D and you analyse straight away it is basically d major scales going up and down. The left hand are mainly easyish octave chords and arpegios, sometimes the third note in the arpegio is missed and sometimes it is hit. So I practice my DADF# AEAC# F#C#F#A and combinations where I miss out the third or fourth note. My next tip comes from another great youtube channel who always talks about matching the left hand to the right. Have a look at which notes match and play slowly getting the rythm right.

Dear Alyssia, This video is instantly one of my favourites I have seen thus far. I am learning Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor right now and encountered countless issues. After watching this video, I saw my obvious mistakes and would apply them as much as possible. That being said, I wish you well. Many thanks! With regards, Lai Yin Quan

Love your videos. So helpful.

Something peculiar is missing from phase 1: the key. This piece is written in Cis minor. In Europe this is the very first thing you learn about the piece so you can read and analyze the harmony.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO! Recently, I have been wanting to learn one of Chopin's nocturnes and I have been eyeing it like this 😏

I am just starting to learn that Chopin waltz you played! Glad I came across this video, I really helps me break down that particular song and learn it better!

The best advice I've ever got as a pianist. For real! ❤️

Hi I just wanted to say that I’ve recently found your channel and absolutely love it! I have just started learning the piano, I was a woodwind player first (flute and alto sax currently both at grade 5 ABRSM so I have music theory skills to a decent level, I hope 🙄). I love how challenging the piano is and what a variety it allows me compared to my other instruments. My reason for this comment is watching this particular video on how you break down your new pieces, this is exactly what I’ve always done when learning major new pieces. I just love finding like minded people and your videos are so enjoyable and really connect with me. Thank you so much for all the great info you provide. I’ve really enjoyed the videos you’ve done on the great composers and listening to your own take on learning approaches and how to interpret music. Sorry for the essay! Just really wanted to say really that I love your channel. Gemma (Hampshire, UK) xx

You're so right about overtraining the brain sometimes you get so emotionally involved in a piece that we become the piece and then we lose the peace in our mind. By giving the brain freedom do enjoy the peace but also to relax and be disciplined enough to know when to stop playing the peace so you can actually learn the peace is priceless information. Thank you so much for this tutorial. I would tip also if you can sing it you can play it if you can sing The rhythms glad you're having a problem with and get them first separated from the music then when you play the music the brain has less to do because repetition already have done that for you great advice love you Channel thank you

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING YOU ARE AMAZING!, I´M REALLY LERNING SO MUCH; I HOPE YOU CONTINUE WITH ALL THIS AMAIZING WORK, IT´S VERY SPECIAL, I LOVE ALL THE MATERIAL YOU ARE MAKING HERE, IT´S JUST VERY GOOD!! JAJAJA

Excellent advice! Thank You!

This channel is really growing

Thank you for this video! Hopefully it will smooth out my general sloppiness, since I just got back to piano after 10+ years of absence, and since I stopped during late intermediate level, I am trying to go on without a piano teacher. I think I need a more 'careful' pace, and thank you for introducing and keep repeating the idea of 'not practicing mistake' over and over in many of your videos, it definitely helped me on fine tuning my 'little tricky' phrases I have problems with. Thank you!!

Great tutorial

Thank you Allysia for the great instruction videos. I have a question regarding to learning new pieces that's been bothering me for a while. I'm an adult learner and I started learning piano about a year ago. At the time, I promised myself to learn at least one song per month and since then, I have 15 songs I can play or more accurately "I could play". It was ok at the beginning but as time goes and the number of songs I have increases, I begin to forget what I've learned. This is almost always the case when I attempt a new and harder song. For example, I've learned Moonlight sonata 1st mov and Chopin's nocturne #20 last year and I memorised them thoroughly. However, this June, after I spent 4 weeks playing nothing else but learning Chopin's nocturne #2, I went back to play nocturne #20 and I blank out :( Although it only took me 3 hours to get my memories back, it felt terrible. I then tried the opposite approach by playing all the pieces I've learned frequently even when I'm learning new songs. But then I couldn't focus on the new song (especially with harder ones) and it only resulted in super slow to almost 0 progress with the new songs. Is forgetting songs you've learned very common for piano learners? Is there any method to overcome this? Thank you

Very informative...like the brain info.

I agree using pedal right is quite important from the get go. Much harder to add pedal afterwards. Pieces at high tempo needs pedal transition to be very precise or else it will just sound bad and it's much harder to add. And some pieces that, when played slow "sound good" with heavier pedal, will sound poorly with the heavy pedal at higher tempo which will require a much lighter pedal. It's a pretty interesting topic.

I'm so glad I found your channel, I've learned a lot from your videos. Keep up the great work!

Great information young lady. Thanks.

I needed this so much thank you ✨

Hi, Allysia, please tell me the name of your score that you are learning in this video as I would like to study that one as well. What a great video-it is well reviewing again and again. Personally, I like to sightread through every new piece first thing, even before listening to it with my music score. That gives me an opportunity to practice sightreading and to hear it's melodies and harmony and to begin to analyze a piece and to sense how a piece is organized. I am going to try to study and then let it marinate over night like you do. I also agree with you almost 100 percent about adding pedal right away. Some teachers though say with Chopin it is best to get the notes, fingering, rhythm, rubato, dynamics, phrasing, and articulation perfected first before adding pedal, which then is like the frosting on a cake. Thank you for helping me with music theory, understanding history and genre, and teaching me how to analyze music in general. Please keep up the great work; you are such a wonderful inspiration!

When I am learning a piece, dynamics is the last thing I add to my playing, and I think dynamics aren't too difficult to manage them when you know the piece blindfolded. My teacher says that dynamics is the last step before mastering a piece. Everything else you said in the video is pretty accurate and right

The one piece of advice that was meant for me is to not over practice a section learned on that day. Too many times I’ve felt (erroneously) the need to practice until I’m exhausted.

Very helpful insight! It is too bad that I’m in the US, otherwise I would definitely register my daughter to your classes.

Ever since I saw the "meeting the editor" video I watch your videos till the end 😂😂

Great advice. Love your videos.

I really should delve a little deeper into a piece by learning the background of the composer and style, as suggested. I was wondering if you can create a video on the actual instrument itself (ie. evolution from clavichord to the modern day pianoforte).

hmmm ... "maybe" don't taste the piece ... hmmm - better not take any chances by skipping that. Love your videos!!! Fun to listen and so informative!!!

Thank you very much. You have been very helpful.

Just sight read it. Just make sure you are not mixing salad

You did it again, read my mind. I'm actually practicing Waltz 64 n2 Chopin

Oh my, I've always been so confused about videos saying like "the first four bars" because I thought they were called measures and that bars were like four measures, like a bar going across the page. I decided to finally Google it and realized that they mean the same thing hahaha. A bar is a measure!

I needed this video so bad. thxxx

Good video I found it very useful thanks for making it

6:11 I maybe run through it hands separately once or twice. Come on: YOU ALWAYS PLAY HANDS SEPARATELY...then and ONLY THEN you start putting it together. Get a feel of the melody line if possible in your right hand helps a mountain!!

such a usefull one

Thank you for this video! Would it be possible to talk about how to train your hands to play different rhythms independently?

I guess the like-dislike ratio speaks for itself (mathematically it is even undefined!), great lesson for sure! A lot of what you said - I feel like - is underrated but gold.

What a BEAUTIFUL piano! Is that oak? (I'm an oak man, myself-Pulp Fiction). Much prettier than the usual black.

When I'm working my way through a "self-teaching" book, when should I be comfortable moving on to the next piece? When I can play the current piece perfectly, without any mistakes? Or when I can play it "fairly smoothly," with occasional mistakes? Or does it even matter?

Hey, I have come across many people (even concert Pianists) who say that it is very important NOT to add pedal in the first few practice sessions. I also find it easier to learn with pedal from the beginning.. what are your thoughts on that? What could be the reason for not adding any pedal until starting with the advanced learning process?

This video is so important. Thank you! Question - i'm just getting back into playing after years and years. Finished at about a grade 5 RCM level. Every song is new right now. Should I take the same approach? How many new songs is too much to take on at once. I'm trying 3 - 4 right now.

Great video Alyssia! Thanks for explaining the learning process so well :) Do you recommend looking at the fingers while playing and trying to memorize a section? Or should i avoid looking at them? My teacher tells me to avoid looking at my hands while playing...

2:31 Funny, I'm currently learning 3 pieces: Minute Waltz, Impromptu no. 2 , and Fantasia in D minor.

allysia - Hi, another great video! Well done! I'm from north east England - do you think you could do an episode on British composes?

My teacher said to me not to listen to the piece first and play it what you think it should be played but then again this is only for some specific pieces but is this a good idea? I am doubting myself if my teacher is a good teacher or a bad teacher. Also can you do a video explaining what is a good teacher and what is a bad teacher etc? Sorry for my bab English I wish you reply back /)

Hi Allysia! Great video! Answered so many of my questions. I still have one unanswered question: once I learn a new piece, including memorization (sheet music no longer needed), how long will that piece stay in memory? And when you learn many, many pieces over the years, are you able to recall any of them? I know concert pianists have a huge repertoire of pieces at their fingertips at any one time, but for the more “average” piano student, what percentage of pieces might we be able to recall?

what an awesome chanel

is the 30 day summer practice challenge thing gonna be on again that was fun idk

Hi I can read sheet music but can't play it on keyboard. Can you please help me Allysia.

is that the same deal with very fast pieces ? ( for example revolutionary etude, should I work HS until I'm fast enough or should I quickly switch to hands together and then work on the speed ? )

Hmmm, it could be an option for a beginner to listen first, but definitely not a good practice for the intermediate and advanced student. It creates a practice of copying... it is always recommended to try to figure our it yourself first, and listen to a piece once you have your own idea how to play it. Russian school does not recommend this practice.

Your approach onlearning a piece could be called "holistic" or "background-oriented". To collect information about the piece before, understand the structure of the piece and so forth. I think this is very good, if you are going to play the piece on an exam or many other occasions (concerts etc) and you need to deal with the piece for a long time and for that need deep processing. But in my opinion, doing this for every piece you want to learn is too time-costy. If you want to enlarge your repertoire very fast and learn a piece very fast, I still find the classic method "Play through, pick some parts and repeat them until you can play them" more effective for getting much done in a short amount of time.

Pls check the song Another Love by Tom Odell pls

is there sheet music for that little tune at the beginning??

Two questions. One, when you do a review of a part you've practiced do you try to do it from memory or with the sheet music? Two, I tend to learn a piece starting at the beginning and working to the end. I've heard that that's not a great way. Any suggestions?

HI I want to learn Piano in the future?

As my first Chopin piece, I chose to play Ballade no.1 op.23 in g minor. I already learned the first 2 minutes and I'm now struggling with very hard parts, should I just give up and learn easier pieces first or what do I do?

How to identity the section of a pieces

I am failing with Prokofiev toccata op11...can you help Pianotv :/

The fact that each of your vids are only averaging 10k views means that half of your views are probably from me.

Chopin Prelude no. 9 and no. 10 in the thumbnail, lol.

"marinate overnight" really works for me. Wonder why? Your not practicing more in your sleep.

He Allysia(?) Why do you call every piano piece you play a SONG???

You need to differentiate thumbnails more.

Wait a minute, are you Canadian? I feel like my life is a lie. lol.