If you want to improve your piano playing, one of the most useful things you can learn is how to practise properly.

And one of the simplest and most effective ways to practise is focused repetition.

If you’re struggling with a chord change, a rhythm or a particular bar of music, don’t keep playing the whole piece from beginning to end and hoping the difficult bit will eventually sort itself out.

Stop at the difficult bit.

Slow it down.

Work out exactly what’s causing the problem and repeat that small section until it starts to feel comfortable.

Divide and Conquer

I use this idea throughout Pianoforall and Classics By Ear. I call it Divide and Conquer.

Instead of thinking, I have to learn this whole piece, divide it into very small sections.

It might be two bars.

It might be one bar.

Sometimes it might only be two chords or a few notes.

Practise that tiny section slowly and repeatedly. Once it feels comfortable, add the next small section and join the two together.

A piece that initially looks complicated becomes much less daunting when you approach it this way.

Why Repetition Works

When you first try a new chord, rhythm or fingering pattern, your hands don’t know what to do. You have to think about almost every movement.

But each time you repeat the movement, it becomes a little more familiar.

Eventually you don’t have to consciously think about every finger. Your hands begin to recognise the shape and movement automatically.

This is often called muscle memory, although the learning is really happening in the brain and nervous system rather than in the muscles themselves.

It’s the same reason you don’t have to think about every movement when you tie your shoelaces, type your name or use a knife and fork. You’ve repeated those movements so many times that they have become automatic.

Piano playing develops in much the same way.

Practise the Part That Needs Practising

A very common mistake is to play a piece from beginning to end every time you practise it.

Suppose you can already play 90% of a piece quite comfortably, but there are two bars where you always make a mistake.

If you play the entire piece ten times, you’ve spent most of your practice time repeating something you can already play.

It makes much more sense to spend those few minutes on the two troublesome bars.

Play them slowly. Work out what is going wrong. Repeat them several times. Take a short break and then try them again.

Once they’re comfortable, put them back into the piece.

This is a much more efficient way to practise.

Slow Down Before You Speed Up

Another common mistake is trying to play something at the finished speed before your fingers are ready.

There’s no prize for playing a difficult section quickly and getting it wrong twenty times.

Slow it down until you can play it comfortably.

At a slower speed you have time to notice what your fingers are doing, where the chord changes happen and which movements are causing difficulty.

Once the movement feels easy, gradually increase the speed.

Strangely enough, practising slowly is often the quickest way to learn to play quickly.

Piano Practice Is a Bit Like Learning to Juggle

Imagine you’re learning to juggle.

You throw the balls in the air, drop one after five seconds and then go away and do something else.

Ten minutes later you come back, try again for another few seconds, drop the ball and stop.

You’d probably never get very good at juggling.

Instead, you’d repeat the same movement again and again while your brain works out the timing.

Piano is much the same.

If a chord change is difficult, spend a few minutes just moving between those two chords.

If a rhythm keeps going wrong, forget the rest of the piece for a moment and concentrate on that rhythm.

If one bar of a classical piece is causing trouble, that bar becomes your entire piece for the next few minutes.

Don’t Practise Mistakes

Repetition is powerful, but there’s an important catch.

You want to repeat the correct movement, not the mistake.

If you play something incorrectly ten times at full speed, you’re also practising. Unfortunately, you’re practising how to play it incorrectly.

That’s why slowing down matters.

Find a speed where you can play the section correctly and comfortably. Repeat it there until the movement starts to become familiar.

Then gradually bring it up to speed.

Come Back Tomorrow

Something else happens when you practise that can be quite surprising.

You may work on a difficult section for ten minutes, get it reasonably comfortable and then stop.

When you come back the following day, it can sometimes feel easier than it did when you left it.

Your brain continues consolidating what you’ve practised after you’ve finished playing, particularly during rest and sleep.

So don’t feel that you have to conquer everything in one sitting.

A few focused minutes today, followed by another few minutes tomorrow, can be much more effective than struggling with something for an hour.

Keep Your Hands Relaxed

Repetition doesn’t mean hammering away at something until your hands hurt.

If you feel yourself becoming tense, slow down.

Let your shoulders drop. Loosen your wrists and hands. Take a breath and try the section again.

You are trying to teach your hands an easy, comfortable movement. Repeating it while you’re tense can simply teach your body to associate that passage with tension.

Short, relaxed repetitions are much more useful.

A Simple Way to Practise

When you come across something difficult:

1. Isolate it. Find the smallest part that’s causing the problem.
2. Slow it down. Play at a speed where you can get it right.
3. Repeat it. Give your hands time to become familiar with the movement.
4. Stay relaxed. Don’t force your fingers or rush.
5. Add a little more. Once it’s comfortable, join it to the bar before or after it.
6. Come back tomorrow. Give your brain time to absorb what you’ve learned.

You can use this approach for almost anything — chord changes, rhythm patterns, scales, improvisation, reading music or learning a difficult classical piece.

To Sum Up

Getting better at piano isn’t simply about spending more time practising. It’s about using your practice time well.

When something is difficult, divide and conquer. Break it into the smallest useful section, slow it down and repeat it until it becomes familiar.

Then add the next little piece.

It’s a very simple idea, but it’s one of the most effective ways I know to learn piano.

If you’d like to see this kind of step-by-step approach in action, you can try the Free Test Drive and see how Pianoforall breaks new skills down into small, manageable steps.