This article is part of my step by step guide to improving our piano playing and practising. It looks at how we diagnose problems in piano practice (a skill that changes everything).
At some point, most of us reach a stage where practice starts to feel less effective.
- We’re putting in the time.
- We’re repeating passages.
- We’re even slowing things down.
And yet… things don’t really improve.
When this happens, it’s very tempting to assume:
- we just need more repetition
- or more patience
- perhaps more discipline
In reality, more often than not, the issue isn’t effort. It’s that we’re not actually solving the problem.
The Real Skill in Practice
The most important skill in practice isn’t playing. It’s identifying what’s going wrong, as if we can’t clearly describe the problem, we can’t fix it.
And in many cases, we end up doing something worse:
We repeat the problem over and over again—hoping it will somehow correct itself.
Why Repetition Stops Working
Repetition works well in the early stages of learning. If something is only slightly difficult, playing it a few more times can be enough. However as the music becomes more complex, the problems become more specific.
At that point, repetition starts to break down. Not because it’s “wrong”—but because it’s no longer precise enough.
We’re applying a general solution to a very specific issue.
The Hidden Problem: We Stop Listening
One of the biggest shifts that needs to happen is this:
We need to move from *playing the music* to *listening to what’s happening*.
With too much repetition, it’s easy to fall into autopilot.
- We go through the motions.
- We hit most of the notes.
- But we’re no longer paying attention to what’s actually changing—or not changing.
And if we’re not listening, we’re not diagnosing.
What Does “Diagnosing” Actually Mean?
Diagnosing a problem means being able to answer a very simple question:
What exactly is going wrong here?
It is not:
- this feels messy
- this is difficult”
But something much more precise:
- my left hand is arriving slightly early on this chord
- I don’t actually know the notes here—I’m guessing from muscle memory
- this jump is inaccurate when I try to play it at speed
The clearer the problem, the easier the solution becomes.
A Simple Example (That Catches Many of Us Out)
One discovery many of us make at some point is this:
We are repeating a passage many times and feel like we’re “working on it”.
Yet, if we stop and try something very simple—like playing the same passage with a single finger—we suddenly realise that we don’t actually know what we’re playing – we’ve been relying on muscle memory. I go into detail about this in this article.
Once we realise this, it changes everything.
Before we can even try to “improve the passage” – we need to fix a lack of understanding first. No amount of repetition will help until we solve this underlying issue.
Two Types of Problems
When we start diagnosing more carefully, most issues fall into two broad categories.
Obvious Problems
These are things we can usually spot straight away:
- rhythm or timing issues
- fast passages
- octaves
- large (or even small) jumps
- awkward chords
- coordination between the hands
These are useful to identify—but they’re only the starting point.
Take octaves for example. I watched a fascinating interview with Martha Argerich (the pianist with perhaps the best octave technique currently on this planet). She made the remark that she always found octaves hard. However, the reason was that just because we might have practiced various octave exercises, this wouldn’t necessarily prepare us for how they actually appear in a piece.
Thus, even from these ‘obvious problems’ we often need to dig further. Knowing ‘what is difficult’ is not the same as knowing ‘why it’s not working’.
Subtle Problems
This is where things become more interesting—and more important.
These are the issues that aren’t immediately obvious:
- one specific note consistently going wrong – it’s not the entire passage
- a small coordination mismatch between the hands – this often needs to be planned
- unclear fingering – we shouldn’t rely on finding this on the fly
- lack of harmonic understanding – it’s often difficult to play what we can’t understand
- tension or inefficient movement – especially if we’re playing at speed
These are often the real reason something isn’t improving, and they’re easy to miss if we rely on repetition.
From Vague to Precise
A useful way to think about diagnosis is this:
We’re trying to move from: ‘this isn’t working’
to:
> “this specific thing isn’t working, for this specific reason”
For example:
* ❌ “this passage is too fast” – is not helpful
* ✅ “I lose control because one note disrupts the fingering pattern” – gives us a real insight
* ❌ “this jump is difficult” – all jumps are difficult
* ✅ “my thumb is missing the top note of the target chord when I move at speed” – that’s my problem
This shift—from vague to precise—is where real progress begins.
Diagnosis Comes Before Solution
It’s very tempting to jump straight into “fixing mode”.
We try:
- slowing down
- hands separately
- repeating smaller sections
And sometimes these help. However, if we haven’t identified the real issue, we’re still guessing.
Effective practice follows a different order:
1. Diagnose — what exactly is wrong?
2. Isolate — can we reduce it to something manageable?
3. Solve — what change actually fixes it?
4. Integrate — can we put it back into the music?
If we skip the first step, the rest becomes much less effective.
For example, if we ‘lose control because one note disrupts the fingering pattern’, then rather than just repeating and hoping, we can explore whether a change of fingering is what will fix the issue.
Where This Fits Into Practice
This way of thinking changes how we approach everything:
* When learning a new piece
* When working on difficult passages
* When something “just won’t improve”
Instead of asking:
“How many times should I play this?”
We start asking:
“What exactly needs to change?”
That question leads us to much more effective practice.
Bringing It All Together
We don’t improve just by playing more. We improve by understanding what’s happening—and making targeted changes.
Diagnosis is the bridge between effort and progress.
Without it, we rely on repetition.
With it, we can start to practise in a much more deliberate and effective way. Once we can clearly identify problems, something interesting happens:
They become much easier to solve.
Discover more about how we can improve our piano practice in my step by step guide.
