Chopin's Thoughts on Mastery at the Piano

December 15, 2023 / Lani Elston

Ok, so I love this quote from Chopin! If you think of it, to really know your music, you need to practice it well beyond just playing the notes. When you work hard on a piece of music, mastery is achieved when it becomes so simple that you cannot make a mistake - ever! I also like to think of it as practicing until you can play it perfectly with your eyes closed. When you do achieve this level of mastery, you deeply engrain the techniques and skills you learned to conquer the piece. The result is that you will retain your current pieces better and learn new music more quickly. Sounds like a win-win, right?

So try this with your next piano piece: after you have learned the initial structure (notes, fingering, rhythm, dynamics, memorization, etc), keep working on it. You may get a little bored or tired of playing the piece. That means you are on the right track, haha! See if you can play it perfectly over and over and over again. See if you can do that in front of an audience. See if you can also play it effortlessly with your eyes closed. If you can’t… you haven’t mastered the piece yet. Keep going until you can. I promise if you add this type of practice to your routine at the piano, you will grow so much as a musician! Happy practicing, #gopractice

Questions? Feel free to contact me anytime. - Lani

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