Applying the 80/20 Principle to Your PRACTICE Sessions

[@SuperFunReviews]

Make each practice session a performance!

[@dbev100]

I remember learning about the Pareto Principle (80/20) as a rough guide when learning about project management. It helped me to focus on what was essential - to realise when perfection was not desirable - getting something done so it was ‘good enough’ is sometimes the goal as ‘done was better than perfect’ as other parts of the project would not be held up by putting efforts into the final 20% trying to get something perfect. However, with the piano, especially with grade pieces, it is nice to know that I am going to be inefficient and indulge and try and get the piece as close to 100% as I can as it’s just me and I know I’m not causing anyone any headaches by taking ages!

[@MrArieArieArie]

That is VERY useful video, and not only for piano studying. 5 min. only for a great tip.

[@KeepingOnTheWatch]

What I take from this video is that we can ultimately change the 80/20 ratio to something even more efficient. Instead of mindlessly playing through a piece over and over and not getting much out of it we can deliberately focus on areas where we are the weakest. Like a professional boxer you don't want to throw punches in the air but land them squarely between your opponent's eyes (LOL).

[@santiagovillalobos2352]

I love practicing, last time I literally felt myself get better in minutes. :)

[@danielj9042]

Love you, Josh!! You’re such a wonderful pianist and teacher!!

[@nitinjaiswal7224]

80/20 is everywhere. It's in human psychology. Thanks for sharing it with respect to playing piano 🎹🙂

[@thesiliconvalleypianoteach9468]

I just read about the 80/20 principle the other day! How funny that you posted a video about this topic! Thank you!

[@erpollock]

This is very applicable to my work on a long famous aria, Tatiana's Letter from Eugene Onegin. I can run through the piece, but I have to force myself to stop and just practice the most obscure and unmelodic recit portions, reading the score carefully and listening again to Renee Fleming or another great soprano. Concentrating on the difficult parts gives me the most for my time. Then when they are mastered, I can sing the entire piece without worry.

[@teamcongelator]

Thank you for your channel. I'm a "one year piano beginner" and already, your video makes sense : for me, playing with metronome at 60 bpm is very efficient, even if I did not like to do it at first :)

[@DanChou626108]

Thanks Josh, awesome tip! This applies to many other fields as well.

[@PIANO_LAB]

Really good tip, It's always good to think through how we spend our time at the piano!

[@AnnaKhomichkoPianist]

Great idea, Josh! Will think about it

[@ThePianoFortePlayer]

Very good idea to think about when practicing, thanks for the video

[@Dominique632]

This is super interesting.... I really didn't know that when you have memorized a piece, you get more imaginitave and improve it more I'm definitely gonna try to do this

[@penelopemckimm]

This advice is especially important for those of us returning to music as adults. One of my great frustrations is that with children I can’t practice 2-4 hours a day as I did as a teenager- perhaps what I really need is to become more efficient

[@joshyman221]

Excellent video, will have to think about how to best use this.

[@mickizurcher]

Good tips Josh. I have found that after spending a couple of years practicing 4-5 hours a day, after I recently had a particularly bad lesson with someone, it really took the wind out of my sails and I’ve only been practicing maybe an hour a day, an hour and a half. It didn’t take much to throw me off and for weeks I feel like I’ve been slogging half assed through my practice. But I also just realized that I don’t ever memorize anything of the Chopin I have been playing unless I am forced to because I need to be looking at my hands. A lot of it is memorized already just bc Chopin becomes instinctive but I’ve never specifically taken the time to do that and I think that’s what I’m going to do now. Thanks! It should make a big difference in my approach and the results.

[@lameva1502]

Very inspiring and useful to me. Thanks Josh

[@ashkparsi1556]

That is the Pareto principle which says In a society, 80 percent of problems come from 20 percent of Causes.

[@markito3311]

Thank you for the short video.

[@jjuuaannii1]

You got a new piano!!!!!! Awsome!

[@jjuuaannii1]

Why???

[@maziarheidari]

This 80/20 is absolutely useful. Thanks

[@chavaambuehl7605]

I'm practicing really lazily at the moment and not improving as fast as I used to do as I tell myself just practice at least half an hour a day as I used to practice very inconsistently. The good thing though is that I have been practicing every day now but the problem with this half an hour thing is that I started to get lazy and started to just play though things until I reach half an hour :/ now I'm not getting anywhere

[@yinyangxperience5137]

Do you need theory to efficiently memorize a Chopin or Liszt piece. For example, for myself I have to highlight sharps and flats then try to figure out repetitions in the piece. Im not good with Diminished and relative majors or minors or Dominating chords. Am I doing it wrong?

[@天靈靈地靈靈-l2d]

do you suggest o listen the music first or after learn to play the music?

[@drkz4ck]

I'd heard about this concept before, but how scientific is it?

[@RP-cn8si]

Very! Look up the Pareto Principle, and the Pareto Distribution. It's an idea regularly observed in business/economics/data analytics.

[@Stemma3]

The only thing I can't remember is Mikrokosmos. xD

[@samkay5384]

Lol I'm on with those now

[@giuseppecapilli1954]

The 80/20 is called the Pareto Principle. More appropriately it says: 80% of your results comes from 20% of your efforts. Isn't that astonishing?

[@dxmzy3297]

First comment

[@KeepingOnTheWatch]

Woo-hoo... and I'm the first guy to comment on the first commenter! Yesss!!!

[@Guitar-11b]

@@KeepingOnTheWatch Yes! Then I shall be the first guy to comment the first comment's commenter~~~

[@joshyman221]

@@Guitar-11b I ruined it!

[@FocusMrbjarke]

@@joshyman221 I will be the first guy to reply to the guy who ruined it omg