The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making the Music from the Heart

Through learning the piano and understand how it is played is really important and that I began to use a method where I sing out the notes and listen carefully to how it sounds to put those feelings towards playing the song."We connect more naturally to music by singing than by playing an instrument. Also, when we sing, the vibrations of the voice massage the inside of the body. This sensation adds energy and vibrancy to the music we make" (Bruser, 168). It would gives us and understanding how the song would sound and how the dynamic of the sound should be heard.


1. Singing out loud to the notes from your song to hear the melody and the beat and how it would go for the song.

2. listening to the music on youtube, or any website of your song, can help you have an idea of how the song would go different dynamics and how fast or slow the song should be.

3. Warming up before playing any song would be play different scales for finger exercises and to loosen up your finger muscles for better rotation on your wrist.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

Through learning and understanding piano, is that the most important thing to be able to play piano more correctly is to understand how rotation is a main factor in piano playing, and how it can help you so much in many different ways and different speed or scales. "Pure rotation, uncombined with any forward movement of the arm, is also an important technique" (Bruser, 128).

1. Being able to use your forearm rotation is the main part on rotation for piano playing.

2. While playing a scale or trills or repetitive movement, start with the first note and put more weight on it as your go the next, while rotation on every key.

3. At the end of a part of a scale or trills or any repetitive movement, the hand should be rotated more towards the last key. First from the left rotated to the right.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

The book gives me different type of way to play the piano for a different style, but through the process of learning those techniques in bouncing which gave me more understanding and specific details on how to exactly learn those techniques. It helps me learn more about staccato and give me more depth into the movement of my hand when playing in staccato. Playing the piano by springing the hand and arm up off the keys. "Springing forward from the fingertips provides a great deal of power with minimum effort, it's an easy way to make a loud sound on the piano" (Bruser, 122).

1. Springing fingertips up off the keys with a light bounce instead of your hand, to give a nice solid sound.

2. Lift your arms as your lift your fingertips off the key, to have a motion of transition and and strong sound in every key you play. And to help more on different techniques like staccato.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

Practicing the Piano also requires a good posture and a comfortable position for me to practice. Having a good posture and a comfortable position will help me to practice with more freedom and use my full potential. Also won't have any muscle cramps or strains. "Good posture allows free movement of all the breathing muscles, including the diaphragm, the thoracic muscles, and all the abdominal. Collapsing the spine and chest constricts these muscles" (Bruser, 81).

1. Sitting in an upright position to prevent any strain during your practice

2. having your wrist level with the arch of your hand would be able to hit the keys more comfortably and easily and to able to having more weight of the arm to drop into the keys.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

These stretches will be able to help me and improve on practicing by helping me feel more comfortable when practicing and to able to be flexible on the movement of my hands and to able to have a relaxed mind and to loosening up my muscles so I don't get any muscle cramps. "Musicians tend to be sedentary and out of shape. Even two minutes of stretching works wonders by circulating blood and oxygen to thirsty tissues throughout the body"(Bruser 30).

1. The Forearm Extensor: Stretch: Extend your left arm in front of you with you elbow straight. Let your hand drop from the wrist, and place to palm of your right hand against the back of your left hand and pull the left hand toward you to bend the left wrist farther

2. Arm Twist: Cross your right arm over your left at the elbow in front of your body. move your two forearms towards each other and press your left fingers against your right palm. Close your right hand.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

Through understanding the first step to practicing piano and understanding the techniques can bring out the beauty of music and harmony of the song. "The Art of Practicing is a step-by-step approach that integrates movement principles with meditative discipline, which consist of focusing on sounds, sensations, emotions and thoughts in the present moment." (Bruser)  It sums up the first couple of chapters.

The first step to practice on a song is to think about what is your goal when you practice the song, how far will you go.

Next, relax and make yourself comfortable, and loosen up before practicing and to have a open state of mind.

3rd step, is to listen to the song that you are trying to play and feel and see how it should sound like.

The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart

For my IRP 2 project, I will be using Madeline Bruser's The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart to improve my learning skills and technique and to understand the body that is used to play the piano and to give more feelings to the song. I am a advanced pianist, I have been playing the piano since I was 6 years old. This will be a some what a review about the terms and different technique that I have learned and also for me to learn and become a better pianist.

 Bruser, Madeline. The Art of Practicing: A Guide to Making Music from the Heart,1999. Print.