Free to print
Piano practice chart
What to play each day to learn a piece, in the order a teacher would set it: right hand, left hand and hands together without a metronome, then with it at 60 %, 80 % and 100 % of full tempo. Tick a box each day you practise; date a step when it passes.
- Piece
- Composer
- Bars
- Full tempo
- =
- Week of
| Step number | Step | Speed | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Passed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Right handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 2 | Left handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 3 | Hands togetherBoth at once, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 4 | Steady 60 %Both hands, metronome at 60 % of full tempo | = | ||||||||
| 5 | Steady 80 %Both hands, metronome at 80 % of full tempo | = | ||||||||
| 6 | Steady 100 %Both hands at full tempo, with the metronome | = | ||||||||
| Minutes played | ||||||||||
How to use it
- Each day, start at the top step you haven't passed yet. Play it a few times and tick that day's box.
- The first three steps have no metronome: find each note before you play it, however long that takes. One passes when nine notes in ten come out right and you didn't have to look up a note's name.
- On the three Steady steps, set a metronome to the step's speed and keep going through slips, to the end. One passes when nine notes in ten are right without stopping.
- When a step passes, write the date in its last box. Tomorrow, start on the next step.
- If the same bar goes wrong two times running, play that bar alone: 20 % of full tempo under the step (at 60 % on the 80 % step), 5 % faster each time it comes out clean.
- Stuck on one step all week? Step down to an easier version of the piece, or loop the bars that stop you.
The speed of each step
Full tempo is the metronome mark printed at the top of the music. If there isn't one, choose a speed the music sounds right at.
| Steady 60 % | 36 | 40 | 43 | 48 | 53 | 58 | 62 | 67 | 72 | 79 | 86 | 96 | 106 | 115 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steady 80 % | 48 | 53 | 58 | 64 | 70 | 77 | 83 | 90 | 96 | 106 | 115 | 128 | 141 | 154 |
| Steady 100 % | 60 | 66 | 72 | 80 | 88 | 96 | 104 | 112 | 120 | 132 | 144 | 160 | 176 | 192 |
Piano practice chart, from clefsight.com/learn/piano-practice-chart. Play a piece there at a MIDI keyboard and Clefsight marks each step for you.
Why in this order
Reading the notes, finding the keys and keeping time are three jobs. Each hand alone, with no clock, lets you do the first two for half the notes at a time. Hands together, still without a clock, adds the hard part: two lines of music read at once. Only then does the metronome come in, below full tempo, so that keeping going is the one new thing. Each step changes one thing, which is why a step that won't come is a sign to go back one, not to push on.
The 6 rows are the same steps Clefsight uses when you practise a library piece at a MIDI keyboard: it plays the other hand while you learn one, waits for you in the first three, counts you in for the rest and marks every note.
Filled in for a piece
Choose a piece from the library and the chart comes back with its title, composer and length written in, and the speed of each step worked out from the score's metronome mark.
Let Clefsight keep the chart. Open any piece in the library and press Practise it: the same steps, with the music waiting for you, the other hand played for you, and every step marked as it passes.
The libraryWhat the words at the top of the music mean: tempo markings. Which fingers: piano finger numbers.