Most people are interested in making progress, whether at the piano or other aspects of their lives. Of course there are many who just enjoy playing the piano and are content to just do things as they have always done them. There is no problem with that. After all, having fun and enjoying your music-making is the best reason to do it.
However, if you are taking lessons, or even if you are not, you may wish to improve your skills, deepen your knowledge, and be able to play progressively more difficult and challenging repertoire. It stands to reason, then, that you will want to assess whether this is happening, and at a rate which is encouraging rather than discouraging.
For classical music, many people assess their progress by the percentage of "right notes" or "wrong notes" they have. (Jazz pianists and others who improvise would probably not have this view.) Fewer wrong notes means you're getting better, right?
Unfortunately, no. I would ask, fewer wrong notes at what cost? If you have to play the piece, or the passage in the piece, dozens or even hundreds of times in a sitting, that is a terrible trade-off. More often what happens is that in the pursuit of 100% correct notes, the musicality of the piece is lost. There is no room for expression -- for nuances of timing, phrasing, and dynamics. There is almost always a lack of real "flow" or continuity. You may feel anxiety over the "notes" and your muscles may be tight, which can lead to other problems. And probably the "fun" aspect is also gone.
Instead, I would offer these metrics for assessing your progress.
1. Continuity. Are you able to play the whole piece (if it is short) or at least a large section of the piece, without stopping, pausing, or back-tracking in order to "fix" notes? Whether or not you are interested in performing, or even playing for friends, surely everyone would agree that this is how the music is meant to be heard. No one enjoys hearing someone play in fits and starts. Playing start to finish may not sound that difficult, but if you have made a habit of stopping and "fixing," you will see that it is not so easy. Focus on changing that habit more than the notes themselves.
2. Musicality. This is that word which can be hard to describe, but you recognize it when you hear it, or when you don't. If your playing sounds stiff, mechanical, even somewhat harsh in tone, then you aren't playing musically. See some of my previous posts for more discussion of this issue. But it is safe to say that if you don't have continuity (see above), it is even harder to play musically. I like to say that no one cares how many right notes you hit if the playing is mechanical and unpleasant to listen to. Focus on always playing with 100% emotional engagement regardless of right or wrong notes. If you feel you cannot play musically until the notes are all correct, you will never play musically. Your habits of playing without it will be too strong to overcome. Love the wrong notes as much as the right ones. That is my mantra.
3. Ability to play more challenging music. If you have a teacher, she/he should be selecting music which continually exposes you to new challenges, and of course, teaches and guides you in developing the physical techniques which enable you to play the music. If you are working on your own without a teacher you may not be sure how to do this. When people come to me for lessons after having worked on their own, they almost always have chosen pieces that are too difficult. Naturally, in the struggle to learn "the notes," everything else gets lost. If it's too much struggle, they may not actually gain the technique they need which would make it easier because they resort to methods which don't work, such as playing too slowly too much of the time, too much time spent hands separately, too many repetitions, and all of the above at once. You may notice when you are struggling for notes, the actual listening takes a back seat or gets almost completely lost. If you are not listening to your own playing, how could you possibly assess your progress?
4. Fun. Last but certainly not least, don't forget the reason you are doing this: fun. Or maybe, more than fun, a deep-level satisfaction. If you don't have continuity, expression, some level of feeling "relaxed," and true, open listening, you probably aren't going to be having fun. You know the saying: "If it ain't fun, you're doing it wrong."
If you make these your priorities, your technique and your ear will improve, and, ironically, you will have a greater percentage of "correct" notes.
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