Practicing in All Keys?

[B3Girl]

Hello all,

I have been playing piano for a while now and can play through a service by myself if I had to. I have been reading the posts about keeping fresh material learned, but my queston is, when practicing new material, should I learn that song or progression in every key at that time while learning it or what is the best way to learn the song in every key? Practice it in 4ths? I just need good practice tips..

thanks

B3Girl

[Mysteryman]

One advantage to practicing new material in every key is that it teaches you chords in new keys that you may not normally use in a certain key. Also you may go to a church and have to play for another choir or they might come your church and do a song you know but they sing it in another key. The downside to learning new material in all keys is that it takes alot of time out of your schedule. The easiest thing to do is to take sections of a song and learn it in every key if you don't have the time. When I do practice in every key I practice simple stuff like shout or simple congregational songs. The more information you can put your mind around the faster you will learn things as you practice.  Say if you were learning just the 2-5-1 progression in every key then you move up to the 3-6-2-5-1. you will get more quality practice time but practing the 3-6-2-5-1 because it's like you are working on two routines at once. If you are a beginner it best to stick with the basics but as you progress or don't have as much time to practice try combining practice routines. So if you are learning scales try to learn the same scale in both hands at the same time. The best methods I think of practicing is:
Chromatically
Fourths
Fifths
Whole Steps
Up and Down the keyboard

You don't have to do it all in that order but anything you do try to work in it moving up and down the keyboard.
If you play and arpeggio up the keys play that same arpeggio down. I have been playing all together maybe 12 or 13 years and I see not where I could have improved myself faster if I had followed these methods. These are just the basics but there are more things you can do that would get into more advanced stuff.

[JoyCH]

Mysteryman:

I agree. I wanted to say the samething until I saw you wrote it first. Its important to learn the progressions in every key. You will be surprise how much this will help you with playing other songs.

Joy

[T-Block]

When I practice, i just start playing something then take it up through every key.  So if you feel like practicing your songs in every key, more power to you.  It won't hurt you so you can only get better by doing it.  It will be a little time consuming, but it's worth it in the end.

I am teaching myself the song "One Thing" by Marvin Sapp just for like an offering type of song right now.  Everyime I practice this song, I go through every key even if I make mistakes (and boy do i make them).

[B3Wannabe]

I practice my progressions, like Mysteryman stated, in all the keys. I usually practice in fourths, but I do all the others he stated to, along with diminished and augmented.

For beginners, I recommend practicing progressions in fourths, because you'll be able to use those chords across keys easier than you can chromatically.

When practicing just a single chord, you should practice moving it chromatically, in whole steps, minor steps; major steps, tritone steps, and diminished. That's pretty much all of the basic ways. I learn a lot of new stuff by doing this.