Use your ears

Growing up under the Suzuki method of violin tuition, my teacher was forever telling me to "use my ears"; a skill I now encourage in all my students. Though the purist Suzuki method may rely somewhat too much on the ears and not enough on sight, the ability to play and learn with those two things on the side of your head is absolutely invaluable.

Students, especially beginners, can find themselves grinding to a halt in the middle of a line, and the usual cause is relying too heavily on "playing the dots" and not enough of thinking about the music. Listening to recordings of jazz pianists' improvised solos, it is possible to hear them sing along as they improvise - they are really using their ears to hear the music as they play.

Put simply, it is important for students of all abilities to think about more than the dots on the page. Try to sing through the phrases in your head and really listen as you play, and it makes the already tricky task a whole lot easier.