Top Ten Tips on How to Practice the Piano

1. Practice every day, or at least five days of the week.Taking piano lessons is not merely a half-hour per week commitment. It needs to be a daily commitment to progress and be successful in achieving your goals. A shorter daily practice time is far more effective than one long practice time the day before your lesson...also known as "cramming."
2. Practice at a set time every day. If practicing is part of a daily routine, it's much more likely to happen. Don't expect a child to have the discipline to practice on their own. They will need daily reminders and guidance.
3. Practice right after your piano lesson! Practice as soon after your lesson as you can, while your teacher's instructions and advice are still fresh in your mind.
4. Don't forget your warm-ups! Start your practice with scales and arpeggios or finger exercises. Start out slow to allow yourself time to warm up. 
5. Do it right at the beginning! Don't allow yourself the luxury of mistakes. Once you have practiced something incorrectly, those mistakes "stick" with you and it's very difficult to correct later on. Practice makes permanent not perfect.
   
6. Analyze the little things. Pay attention to the notations in the music. Notice the tempo marking at the top of the piece (there commended speed), the dynamic markings (how loud or soft to play), the finger numbers, the accidentals (sharps, flats and natural signs), the extra markings such as ritardando (gradually slowing down), the staccato/legato markings, and the phrasing of the music. Your goal is to "make the music sing." 
7. Divide your piece into sections. Isolate problem areas in pieces and practice them first until you can play them fluently. Start slowly and increase speed gradually. Avoid practicing the entire piece repeatedly until you are sure you are able to play the entire piece without mistakes. Parents will often tell their child, "play your piece 3 times and then you'll be done practicing." This gives students the wrong impression that practicing is simply running through the entire piece. Students should be working on all the fine details of the piece in small sections. Playing the piece repeatedly is called "playing" not "practicing." 
8.  Practice one hand at a time! Always practice your songs with separate hands first until you know it well enough to play it with both hands. Once you have gone through the song a couple times with hands alone, it is important to put the hands together in small sections. Your brain needs to work on coordinating the two hands together. Take it slow and steady. Don't try to rush this process. It will take time and a lot of concentration, but eventually it will happen. 
9. Count aloud or use a metronome. It's always a good idea to practice with a metronome to help you avoid speeding up or slowing down. It's easy to cheat the beat. In the players head it sounds perfectly fine, but to the audience it often sounds like a jumbled, out-of-control mess. Counting aloud or playing with a metronome will help you play with a steady pulse and be accountable for all the beats in the song. Metronome tip: start slower than you are capable of playing and slowly increase the tempo. 
10. Be your own teacher. When a student plays a piece for me, I often will ask, "Does that sound right to you?" Their answer is usually no. If you know it does not sound right, do something about it! Check for wrong notes, sharps or flats, incorrect hand positions, etc. Trust your ear to let you know when something isn't right and take the initiative to correct it instead of waiting for your teacher to make the correction.