How should I practice : What type of learner are you?

Category: Practice and Performance

photo credit: betta design

It is difficult to know how to get the most out of your practice time.  After all, time is all too valuable these days to be wasting it with ineffective practice techniques.  I’m going to be writing a series of blog postings about different techniques you can use during your practice sessions.  What will work for some people may not work for others.  That is why it is important to try a variety of techniques and see what works best for you.

The first thing you will want to assess is what type of learner you are.  We now know a lot about different learning styles.  You may be a visual, auditory, or tactile learner, or you might be a combination of two or more.  Below we will discuss the different learning styles.

Visual Learner:

Visual learners absorb the most information usually by reading it.  This type of learner benefits from visual aids like flashcards, graphs, and flowcharts.  What does this mean for those learning the piano?  If you are a visual learner try to the following techniques to learn piano and music theory:

• Flashcards
• Worksheets
• White board learning
• Visualize yourself playing before you touch the keys
• Highlight areas of music that you are having difficulty with

Auditory Learner:

Auditory learners learn primarily through listening.  They would rather listen or talk than write.  If you are an auditory learner, try to use the following techniques:

• Take piano lessons, or watch instructional videos online
• Say the notes aloud as you play them
• Find people that you can talk to about the piano and music
• Clap the rhythm before you play it
• Try to sing the notes before you play them

Tactile (Kinesthetic) Learner:

The tactile learner learns by doing.  This person would rather dive in head first, and figure it out as they go along.  The tactile learner can use the following techniques:

• Practice by doing – play!
• Clap the rhythm before you play it
• Use worksheets to learn theory
• Write your own songs on blank sheet music, then play them

So the first step is to determine what kind of learner you are.  If you don’t know, try taking an online quiz like the one on this site. I’m a tactile/visual learner, in case you wanted to know In the next few blog posts, I will be discussing piano practicing techniques in-depth.