Jocelyn Lai on finding time to practice, and why even professionals sound dreadful at first
The Juilliard-trained pianist on practice journals, imaginary audiences, repeats and why even professionals sound dreadful at first.
Jocelyn Lai is a pianist from Vancouver who studied at the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music and earned her doctorate at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She taught secondary piano at Juilliard and now teaches at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Here are twelve of her best tips, from her Piano Star Masterclass on finding time to practice as a teen on Piano League.
1. Everyone sounds dreadful at first
I suggest listening to lots of different recordings of pieces, different varieties of pieces, and find a piece that really moves you, emotionally and spiritually, and that will motivate you to persevere through that awful time of having to learn the notes and sounding dreadful for a long time. And I can tell you, professionals as well, we also think pieces sound dreadful for a while before actually getting to the heart of whatever we fell in love with in the first place.
Jocelyn Lai
2. Give every practice session one small goal
Just do whatever you can to write down your goals. I had goals for each practice session, so I kept a journal, and I used my really colorful pens that I used to get from Japan to keep me really interested in keeping that journal. And in it were goals like: on Monday I have to practice this certain section, and then on Tuesday I have to polish the specific movement. So try to make your goals as small and manageable as you can, so that you’re going to the piano with one goal in mind.
Jocelyn Lai
3. Say something new on the repeat
Your job as a pianist is to give that gift to the listener. So the first time you play it has to say something. The second time you play it has to say something else with the same words.
Jocelyn Lai
4. Tell it as a secret the second time
I’m talking really practical things you can do to make it sound different the second time around. So maybe you can start the second time really quiet, as if you’re telling it as a secret.
Jocelyn Lai
5. Rehearse for an imaginary audience
At that polishing stage, I would make it a goal to just play it through as if it was a performance. And maybe, when I was younger, I used to put my stuffed animals on the couch and pretend they were my audience, or just pretend that someone you really care about is watching, and that might help you get into that performance mindset.
Jocelyn Lai
6. Play it like your favorite pianist
Once you’ve gotten a handle on the piece, a few things that I learned over the years that kept me going was to pretend that you are your favorite artist, and play it in the manner of your favorite pianist or rock star, just for that confidence boost.
Jocelyn Lai
7. Put a deadline on the calendar
What helped me is the kind of external goals as well, things like recital and competition performances that had finite deadlines. So I had to make a plan to practice so I wouldn’t be a complete fool on stage.
Jocelyn Lai
8. Sing it first
You could really pay attention to where you need breath, or where you can crescendo, where you can take time, based on how you sing the melody. I think that’s a really good starting point for any piece that you learn and play: sing it first.
Jocelyn Lai
9. Give the piano a voice
Pretend your piano is your friend and it also has a voice, and you want to make the piano sing and speak like a real person. And you can do that through crescendos, you can do that through rests, and every other musical device that you’ve learned so far.
Jocelyn Lai
10. Parents, stay close until the pre-teen years
From my experience I think it is pretty necessary up until the kid is maybe pre-teen. My mother sat in on all my lessons, and she had a book and she took down everything the teacher wanted me to do by the next week, and I would take that book and be accountable to actually completing whatever my teacher wanted me to by the next lesson.
Jocelyn Lai
11. Make peace with uncertainty
Perhaps the bigger lessons that I take away from pursuing a career or studying music seriously is this idea that you have to be at peace with uncertainty. In a music career there’s no straight path. So what I’ve taken with me is to be at peace with uncertainty and to lean in really prepared when opportunity presents itself.
Jocelyn Lai
12. Ten minutes is enough to start
I think the key is really to ask yourself how you’re going to get back into playing piano, and how to get yourself back into enjoying what is meant to be enjoyed at the keyboard. So my advice is just go sit down at the piano, whether it’s just for 10 minutes or an hour, just start to play something.
Jocelyn Lai
Quotes are lightly edited for length and clarity. They come from Jocelyn Lai’s 2020 Piano Star Masterclass on finding time to practice as a teen. You can watch the full masterclass on the Piano League YouTube channel.
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