Can you study a score without touching the keyboard and still make musical progress?

Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
Emma_Leiuman
updated 5 days ago
18replies

This is something I've been thinking about for many years.

When we say we're "practicing," we usually mean sitting at the piano. But how much of learning actually depends on the instrument being there?

I don't mean simply analyzing harmony or marking fingerings. I mean mentally hearing every note, sensing the phrasing, following the direction of the musical line, imagining the tone, the voicing, the timing, and even the path of movement through the hands before a single key is pressed.

I've often found that some of my biggest breakthroughs happened away from the keyboard. When I returned to the instrument, it sometimes felt as though the hands were simply catching up with work that had already been done inwardly. This aligns with the way I now structure practice, where analysis and advanced mental practice precede the later learning and performance stages.

I'm curious how others experience this.

Have you ever made genuine progress while away from the piano? If so, what exactly were you working on, and did it transfer back to your playing?

- Jessica_Chapman
- 5 days ago
- Reported - view
This is a timely topic for me as I am in hospital for some days and plan to look closely at some scores here.

I expect that how much you get from this depends largely on your reading/analysis skills and ability to 'hear' all the written notes and harmonies. I find I get most from practicing away from the piano if I have first listened to recordings of the piece played by several good pianists. A great skill to develop though.
- Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
  
  Emma_Leiuman
  
  3 days ago
  
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  I hope your hospital stay is a short one, and that the scores make good companions.
  
  I like your observation about listening to recordings first. It's almost as though they help "feed" the inner ear, making it easier to hear the score away from the piano.
- Vicki_R
- 4 days ago
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Pianist David Chang posts so much on this topic on youtube, and there is a course here on Tonebase on that topic with him explaining his techniques (as you may know already perhaps).
- Peter_William
  
  3 days ago
  
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  could you please post the class name ?i have seen David Chang play on YT—wizard !!!
- Vicki_R
  
  3 days ago
  
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  Hi there! Under 'Livestreams', I searched the keywords 'mental practice'. In the responses there is :
  
  Livestreams (on the side menu)
  
  1) Mental Practice That Actually Works: Tools for Real Progress (with David Chang)
  
  2) Why Mental Practice is Important! (Tips/Advice With Asiya Korepanova)
  
  Hope it helps! :-)
- Peter_William
  
  3 days ago
  
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  Great ! Thank you !
- Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
  
  Emma_Leiuman
  
  3 days ago
  
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  Thank you, ! I actually wasn't familiar with David Chang's work, so I really appreciate the recommendation.
  
  I couldn't find the course on Tonebase, although I did find that exact video on YouTube. I’m always interested in seeing how others approach the development of inner hearing and mental practice.
- Vicki_R
  
  2 days ago
  
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  Hi Emma. It's on Tonebase under 'livestreams'. See my post above to Peter. Thank you for initiating this topic - it's an interesting one. Myself, I can only 'visualize' the music and do the mental practice, once I've tried the piece (or passages), and only then can I perform mental practice. For any complex passage, I find it very difficult to just read the score without any attempt at the keyboard and visualize how it might realistically feel under my hands in order to commit it to memory. Are you able to fully memorize a piece (or section) without any attempt first at the keyboard? David Chang seems to be able to do this I gather from his YouTube posts, he mentions learning it even one hand at a time. And in small sections, even half bars. Perhaps my chunks are too large. I'll have to retry with smaller chunks as training..
- Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
  
  Emma_Leiuman
  
  2 days ago
  
  Reported - view
  Hi ,
  
  My experience is a little different. I don't usually sit down with the goal of memorizing a piece from the score. For me, memorization becomes an almost inevitable consequence of audiation.
  
  As I work on a piece, I gradually enrich what I experience inwardly. I imagine every note in both hands, connect each interval through inner singing, and progressively add layers such as tone quality, harmony, dynamics, voicing, sound texture, and movement. Then I bring those inner experiences into the physical motions at the keyboard.
  
  After several days of working this way, most of the piece is simply there. I don't feel as though I have "memorized" it - it has become familiar because I've experienced it so many times inwardly. Of course, there are always a few more demanding passages or occasional memory slips that need specific attention afterwards, but by then they usually represent only a small part of the work.
  
  Will be watching right now how David Chang approaches this process.
- Vicki_R
  
  Yesterday
  
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  Thank you Emma. It appears you could give your own course on this topic! Appreciate the details. One question - so you approach the 'imagining' of such details as described, without ever having tried the notes first - or after a first pass or so? If so, that's a wonderful skill. Thank you again.
- hot4euterpe
  
  Yesterday
  
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  I would just add here that there are many ways and levels to practice away from the piano and I have known a number of performers that practice away from their instrument. They all thought of it a little differently. Some listened to recordings while they did it, some used inner ear to 'listen' to different voicing, some focused on harmony, some moved their hands as though playing with the specific fingering, some focused on checkpoints for memory etc.. Some would do this before playing at all but many would play it first or certain parts first and continue to work on things away from the piano (especially if waiting for a practice room!).
  
  You can combine these or do them individually. If you start with one, even for a section, you can then build on the skill and add other details. The more repertoire you play and listen to, the more you have to draw on for your ability to 'hear' away from the piano. Musicianship skills like ear and rhythm training can also be very helpful!
- Vicki_R
  
  Yesterday
  
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  I appreciate your enlarging on the definition.. My listening with scores (which I do a lot of ), seem to be part of this broader explanation.
- Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
  
  Emma_Leiuman
  
  23 hrs ago
  
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  ,
  
  That's a wonderful question. I think of it a bit like baking a cake, layer by layer.
  
  The first "cake layer" is usually practical. I spend a little time at the piano, often with separate hands, finding comfortable fingering, wrist motion, elbow motion, and position changes. That gives me the first physical feedback.
  
  Then comes the first layer of icing. Away from the piano, I imagine every note with its ideal tone quality—warm, round, singing, and full. That imagined sound immediately begins to influence the physical movement I discovered at the keyboard.
  
  The next cake layer is harmony. I return to the score and listen to the emotional colour of each harmony. Then comes another layer of icing: I imagine exactly the same notes again, but now coloured by those harmonic nuances.
  
  Some layers don't require going back to the keyboard. For example, once I understand the harmony, I can continue enriching the same inner performance with dynamics, voicing, inner singing and arm weight, and many other musical details entirely through imagination.
  
  So the process isn't simply "play first" or "imagine first." It's a gradual layering, where each new musical element enriches everything that came before.
  
  Hope that helps.
- Vicki_R
  
  21 hrs ago
  
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  Yes it does help very much.
- Peter_William
  
  13 hrs ago
  
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  This ability that Emma is talking about would be fantastic for beginners/early intermediate players like myself but I think this may only be possible for super advanced concert pianists after many many years of training. It may be possible for pianists who are sight singers as well. Since they can see the notes on the page and hear it in the head without playing the instrument. I cannot hear anything from the score without the note being played.. :-)
- Peter_William
- 3 days ago
- Reported - view
Hi Emma ,

Is it even possible to learn this skill or is it just innate ability ? Meaning hearing the music in the head while just looking at the score away from the instrument.
I do not hear the music from the score unless it is played .. hence my question .. any thoughts on how to acquire this skill would be immensely appreciated .. Thanks in advance
- Concert Pianist • Piano Researcher • Piano Educator
  
  Emma_Leiuman
  
  3 days ago
  
  Reported - view
  I don't believe it's an innate ability. In my experience, it can definitely be developed, although it takes time, dedication, and a gradual progression.
- Mark_Cooper
- 16 hrs ago
- Reported - view
An interesting topic indeed.
my current piano teacher is also a performer, and most of his practice is done in his head away from the piano, he claims his house is quite silent when he is practicing!

He also relates a story of coming across a well known Russian pianist at a party one time standing on his own smoking a cigarette and going over a tricky passage in his head !!

So I’ve made it my own routine of doing 5-10 minutes of mental practice myself before my usual practice session , with the score open and trying to imagine myself playing a passage , imagining my fingers moving through it . I think it’s a matter of practice and persistence , and definitely a work in progress at this stage ….