How to practice effectively and learn a piece in less time?

Developing a practice routine that follows these steps will help you improve your piano skills in less time:

1.      Warm up hands either with technical exercises like “A Dozen a Day” or Hanon for around 10 minutes. Then play a piece you already have mastered for pure enjoyment! That will put you in the “warrior mood” and you are more likely to spend enough time so your new piece sounds good as well.

2.      Sight-read and write fingers before you play! Everybody knows that playing an instrument requires patience. Take some time to look through a new piece and write some (if not all) fingers. That is mandatory for key places where you need to extend fingers or play chords in a row! During that phase pay attention to key signature changes (if present), articulation (staccato, legato, non legato, accents, etc.), dynamics… Simply sight-read the piece. This step is very important because every time you play a note, the repetition forces your brain to associate a specific finger with a specific key on the piano. The only way to memorize a piece is to use the same fingers for the same keys. If you don't number every note, you may be playing the keys with different fingers every time, and then you're wasting time because your brain will be confused and won't memorize anything! If you don't do this right away, your brain will be working double the effort to unlearn a habit and then relearn a new association of key to finger.

3.      Learn hands separate first! It is recommended most times to play hands separate first. Only if you are learning a piece easier than your level you can afford to play hands together right away. For most people left hand is the weaker one and that’s why I would highly recommend that you start by playing the left hand first. Right hand is usually the one that carries the melody and it is the top row (which you follow by default).

4.      Work the hardest measures first and then connect with the previous and following measure! The first time you play a piece play really SLOW and correct finger numbers if necessary. Try not to change the fingers after that. Play loud with your fingers curled up. Curled fingers are stronger than flat (straight) fingers. Find out which bars are the hardest. Spend enough time to repeat only these measures - the hardest ones with the correct fingers. As you get better at playing them (after 20-30 or more repetitions), you can connect them with the previous and the next bars. Repeat a few times until it sounds smooth. If you are a beginner and you are working at a shorter piece, you are now ready to start from the beginning and play until the end in a SLOW tempo. If you are working on a harder and longer piece you should divide it in sections and work one section until you are not making any stops and can keep up the same tempo.

Work each section like that - starting from the hardest and connecting with the easier in an even tempo.

5.      Keep up the beat and don’t stutter! Always practice in a slow tempo when starting a new piece. That way you are giving yourself enough time to process all the information and you will play smooth without making any stops. How slow? – Measure by the hardest part of the piece. If you can play it without stops, keeping the steady beat and with correct note values – that’s your tempo. Keep the same tempo even through the easier parts where you can play faster!  If you get used to stutter because you play in a faster tempo and you cannot play the note values correct right away on the hardest part it will be harder to straighten up the piece. SLOW is actually going to take you faster to your goal – learn the piece. Remember to play loud with nicely curled (strong) fingers!

6.      Make the piece expressive by adding dynamics, ritardando, etc. Once you can play the piece in a steady tempo with the same fingers and without making any stops you are ready to try the piece in its original tempo and start paying attention to dynamics and to make the piece expressive. Make it yours: I’ve always loved it when a student comes up with his/her own idea about dynamics.

The articulation should already be there so now you can concentrate at dynamics and put your personal expression into the piece. It will be enjoyable because you aren't going to be stuttering.

Congratulations, you're on your way to memorizing it! Now, you just have to repeat the piece over and over, and your brain will soon have it memorized.