Why practise technical exercises?

Have you ever wondered why technical exercises like scales and arpeggios are necessary when it comes to piano playing? You might be wondering why you need to warm up with such exercises before starting to play or perform your pieces. Practicing technical exercises not only prepares you for your practice of the day, but actually prepares you to perform better for all your piano playing.

If you are looking for reasons why technical exercises should be included in your daily practice, this article is for you as we will be sharing facts as to the importance of technical exercises.

Warm Up

Playing the piano is like a sport, it is considered to be a workout, as you will be using the muscles of your body when you play the piano. You also need to prepare your muscles, especially on your hands and fingers by doing warm up exercises and technical exercises before playing any piece. It helps in raising your body temperature and increasing the blood flow of the muscles of your body, which prepares you to play the piano efficiently. Warming up also reduces muscle soreness and minimises the chances for injuries.

Musicians should regard themselves as athletes, because they need to maintain their body in a healthy and good condition all the time. They need to take good care of their health as their level of performance will be affected by the condition of their bodies. That is why it is important to include warm up and technical exercises with your daily practice to prepare yourself to perform excellently.

Muscle Development

Aside from aiding in warming up during piano practices, doing technical exercises also contributes in developing muscular strength in the hands and fingers. As our fingers are not equally strong, technical exercises will improve our finger muscles, especially the fourth (ring) and fifth (pinky) fingers, which are naturally the weakest fingers of our hands. When these particular exercises are included as part and parcel of your daily practice, it sufficiently improves your technical skills on the piano.

It is strongly advised to begin the practice with these exercises as it prepares you in performing tricky passages in your pieces. It is important to develop strong hands and fingers when it comes to piano playing as it will increase your endurance when playing long and advanced pieces. Sometimes, you will be learning pieces that are written with dynamic markings like forte and fortissimo which means you will have to play a passage loudly or very loudly, and that is why it is essential to possess strong fingers for piano playing.

Avoiding Injuries

One of the last occurrences that a pianist should avoid happening, is getting injured. Professional musicians treat their bodies as one of their most prized possessions, because it is their vital tool in producing music. Being a pianist, you must ensure that your body, and especially your hands and fingers are well conditioned to perform pieces with good technique. Regardless of the difficulty of the piece, a piano player should possess good technique to avoid having any type of injury.

One of the common reasons why pianists get injured is because they attempt to learn pieces without being knowledgeable in the proper technique. Even when you are a beginner or just starting to learn the piano, it is advised to learn the proper way of playing the instrument, to avoid getting the habit of playing the piano without the right technique. Practicing technical exercise is the best way to improve your technique so that you will perform piano pieces efficiently and also help in reducing the risk of getting any injury.

Finger Dexterity

One of the main reasons why technical exercises are advised, is for a pianist to improve his or her hand and finger technique in playing the piano, like learning how to play with relaxed arms and playing without any tension, so that the learner will avoid getting injured. Learning how to execute technical passages are vital if you want to improve as a pianist, because there are advanced pieces that are composed with these kinds of passages. It will be extremely helpful to be knowledgeable and become skillful with different passages in order to execute them effectively on the piano keys when you are performing advanced pieces on the piano.

Improves Sight Reading Skills

If you are already accustomed to playing technical passages, it will be faster and easier to read pieces that have them because your hands and fingers are already familiar with it. It makes your sight reading more convenient as you have acquired the skill already. No need to invest more time in practicing challenging passages. It surely is an added factor to make your sight reading skill better and efficient. One of the advantages of having good technique is the ability to learn new pieces faster as your hands will adapt quickly when you happen to stumble upon passages that you have previously learned. You will also have the benefit to learn many pieces in a short amount of time and make them achievable for you.

Mastery

Being proficient and skillful in playing the piano gives you the benefit to give more attention to other areas of a piece like dynamics, interpretation and many more. It allows you to have the extra time to improve on your artistry because you do not have to worry about practicing technical passages as you are already capable of executing them well. Practicing technical exercises as often as possible will surely contribute in improving your skill on the piano, even if only for thirty minutes a day. It is indeed an asset for a pianist to have good technique and the ability to play pieces with mastery as it will give you the confidence in learning new pieces and performing in front of an audience.

Acquiring good technique is best when guided and instructed by a professional piano teacher. If you are dreaming of becoming a proficient piano player, S & C is the best place for you as we offer world class learning catered for all levels of learner! Contact us now and book your lessons to start your journey to become the pianist that you want to be and make that dream come true!