Practicing the Piano with Earplugs

Along with my scores, pencils, and erasers, I always have a pair of earplugs on my music stand. You may think it strange, but I use them regularly for my practice.

Practicing is not playing through the pieces, but more like strategizing. It’s a process of figuring out the best way to achieve maximum means with minimal efforts, with consistency, accuracy and sustainability.

For example, you may find a challenging passage that requires a big leap from the lowest to the highest register. What makes something challenging is usually not just one thing but combination of things. “Divide and conquer” is a good practice strategy. The leap would not be challenging, if it was slow enough. So, take the speed out of the equation to teach your body the distance, and scrutinize the way you sit in relation to the point of departure and arrival, where your eyes should be focused on for accurate aim. Practice in slow motion, until you can reproduce the leap accurately with your eyes closed. You then gradually add the speed.

Closed eyes enhance our tactile and auditory experience. Likewise, earplugs heightens our focus on the visual and tactile information. “Divide and conquer” applies also to controlling the sensory input during practicing. Too much information is just as bad as not enough information. Overloaded brain is just as spacey as bored brain. Earplugs can help me reduce the sound exposure. Exposure to lots of sound for a long period of time is tiring and stressful. Reducing the sound volume by earplugs enhances the efficiency of your learning, just as small breaks can.

Divide and conquer the combination of elements that makes a challenge…this may be a good strategy for our challenges outside of practice rooms, too!

This is a translation of 129th entry for my bi-weekly column, “The Way of the Pianist” published by Nikkan San.