practice the Piano every day
How often do you practice the piano? Every day? Twice a week? Only when you have a piano lesson? How do you expect to get better if you don't practice?
The most important things you can do to improve your piano playing is to practice every day. If you're in the lower grades, do 30 minutes practice a day. Intermediate students should practice an hour a day. Advanced students know how much they need to practice :-)
We see a lot of students not improve over the course of the year. These students are always far short of the amount of practice they need. Remember, the music teacher is your guide. The actual learning of the piano happens when you practice. All a piano teacher can do is point you in the right direction.
Think of learning the piano like driving a car. The piano teacher is the remotely guided steering system. You are the driver. Practice is the engine and wheels. If you don't practice your piano every day, it's like not having the engine running. You won't go anywhere. It doesn't matter how much you want to be able to play the piano or how good your teacher is at steering you; if you don't turn that engine on and get your practice in, you'll just stay in one spot.
What should you practice? Your teacher will be more than happy to tell you what your practice should consist of. If they aren't, fire them and get a good teacher. As a guide, you should probably warm up with some scales, do some technical work and practice some of your pieces, then cool down with more scales. You should spend most of your time practicing what you are weak at.
The most important things you can do to improve your piano playing is to practice every day. If you're in the lower grades, do 30 minutes practice a day. Intermediate students should practice an hour a day. Advanced students know how much they need to practice :-)
We see a lot of students not improve over the course of the year. These students are always far short of the amount of practice they need. Remember, the music teacher is your guide. The actual learning of the piano happens when you practice. All a piano teacher can do is point you in the right direction.
Think of learning the piano like driving a car. The piano teacher is the remotely guided steering system. You are the driver. Practice is the engine and wheels. If you don't practice your piano every day, it's like not having the engine running. You won't go anywhere. It doesn't matter how much you want to be able to play the piano or how good your teacher is at steering you; if you don't turn that engine on and get your practice in, you'll just stay in one spot.
What should you practice? Your teacher will be more than happy to tell you what your practice should consist of. If they aren't, fire them and get a good teacher. As a guide, you should probably warm up with some scales, do some technical work and practice some of your pieces, then cool down with more scales. You should spend most of your time practicing what you are weak at.