[Lesson Note] What is causing Piano Mistouch?

Mistouch - we all want to get rid of it. It's hard to get rid of it completely, so we at least want to minimize it as much as possible.

"Piano mistouch" refers to unintentional key strikes, often resulting in incorrect notes or awkward phrasing. 

Symptoms of mistouch

・There are times when you accidentally play the wrong note (not every time)

・Even if you know it in your head, you can't play the correct notes physically for some reason (there are some parts where you can't play)

・You don't even notice that you are playing the wrong notes

Why do you play wrong notes?

"Because I don't have enough practice"

Is that really the reason?

So if I simply practice the parts I'm not good at, will the mistouch disappear one day?

Identify the part that I often do mistouch 

            ↓

Just practice the part repeatedly until you improve

This approach is to reduce the mistouch just with guts, and it takes time.

If you can improve with a realistic number of hours, I think this approach is an option.

But in my own experience, this approach does not work most of the time. The sense of weakness does not disappear, and the difficulty of playing will drag on forever, but somehow I may be able to take it to a level that I can play for the time being. I never be able to feel confident with this approach.

"I've practiced the same part over and over again, but there's a part that I can't play"

I think every piano learner has experienced such problems.

Identify the part that I often do mistouch 

        ↓

Just practice repeatedly

        ↓

Even so, it won't improve

        ↓

Give up

Let's go back to the original question.

Why do you play the wrong notes?

Ms. Do (my current piano teacher, Do as Do, Re, Mi) always says.

"Because you don't know what the real problem is"

Even things that can't be fixed by repeated exhausting practice, some times they can be easily improved with a little ingenuity, if you do a proper approach. 

To unravel it, first you need to know "what's the real problem”, “what makes you play wrong notes”, then you can see the "measures (treatment methods)" of practice.

Below is a list of what I have noted about my real problems in past lessons. 

・poor reading skill (insufficient score reading)

・the finger numbers don’t fit you

・not looking at the sheet music while playing 

・only looking at my hands while playing 

・shape of the hand is bad

・wrist is stiff

・putting too much pressure into the keys

・hands/body are making useless movements

・tempo is too fast

・not focusing (thinking about other things)

・nervous

There may be more than these.

Looking at these specific problems, it is easy to guess that "just repeating practice" is not effective. Rather, if you practice repeatedly in a state with a big problem, you will forcefully rub the problem into your body. It seems that injuries and diseases are getting worse after making wrong treatments. 

If you can identify the real problem, there is a rational approach that helps you to improve the particular problems. There got to be a correct treatment. Sometimes you could solve the problems quickly in a very short piano lesson where you were not able to fix after repeated practice for thousands of hours.

In the past 6 years since I restarted my piano life, Ms. Do has often suggested great practice methods, and I have experienced a storm of wow emotions. Those have been noted in this blog. I often ask my piano teacher about the parts that I struggle before practicing them in vain, so that I can reduce the mistouches efficiently. This kind of thing cannot be learned by self-study. I always think it is the biggest advantage of learning piano from a great piano teacher.

Identify the part that I often do mistouch 

        ↓

Find out the real problem

・What exactly is the problem?

・What makes you hit wrong notes?

        ↓

Practice the part with the method that is appropriate to the particular problem

        ↓

Improve effectively and efficiently

As I wrote before, piano teacher is like a doctor for piano learners. Ms. Do always points out my issues quickly and suggests appropriate treatment methods, so I feel like I’m “seeing a piano doctor" in my lessons.

It would be best if you could figure out what the real problem is. It's hard to know myself what's wrong, what is causing the issues. And if you know the proper approach for the problem yourself, it’s even better. Will such a day come to me someday?