Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
The reason most adult piano students stall is not talent and it is not time. It is that they will not leave a measure until it is perfect, so they spend three weeks on four bars and never get to the song. Here is the rule I give my own students instead: get it to an 85 and move on.
Try every lesson for $1 for 7 days: webpianoteacher.com/subscription/offer
This is a clip out of my new SMOOTH PIANO JAZZ course, built on "Asking You Out" by the Quinn Perry Trio.
"As you do these, you practice one lick a lot. Get where you feel pretty good about it, where you can give yourself an 85, you know, a B-plus or something. And then move on. Don't stay on it until you feel like it's got to be absolutely perfect. No, it does not."
An 85 is a B-plus. It means you can play it from memory, at your tempo, and it sounds like the thing it is supposed to sound like. It does not mean it is clean at full speed with your eyes closed. That last fifteen percent costs more practice time than the first eighty-five did, and you do not need it yet -- because the next lick, the next measure, the next chord is going to send you back to this one anyway, and it comes up a little better every time you return.
WHY THE 85 RULE WORKS
- You cover ground. Eight measures at an 85 is a song you can play. One measure at a 100 is not.
- Perfect is a moving target. The better you get, the higher your own standard climbs, so "perfect" never actually arrives and you never move on.
- Practicing the same bar past the point of learning is just rehearsing your own boredom. That is where adult students quit.
- The material teaches itself in layers. Lick three lands better after you have played licks four through ten, because your hand has seen the shapes from more angles.
- Keep stacking. Do not throw away lick one when you get to lick two -- play one first, then two, so every practice session rebuilds what you already own.
WHAT IS IN THE SMOOTH PIANO JAZZ COURSE
This is the sound you have been chasing: the piano on a late night record, warm and unhurried, thick chords hanging in the air, a right hand that wanders off and always lands somewhere beautiful.
PART ONE is the full song, hands together, line by line, from my annotated sheet music with the letter name printed inside every notehead, and my hands on camera from directly overhead.
PART TWO is seven eight-bar chord progressions pulled out of the tune: quartal minor 11 shapes, the stubborn A pedal, slash chords, half diminished, borrowed major 13 color, the Lydian sharp 11, the minor four chord that makes a major song ache. Every bar gives you the chord for two beats and then two beats of silence, and that silence is yours to answer in.
PART THREE is over fifty jazz licks, one over every chord in those progressions: chromatic enclosures, chromatic descents, arpeggios up and walks back down, and the diminished arpeggio off the 3rd of the V chord that resolves by half step into the I. Play-along tracks and printable sheet music included.
Start the Smooth Piano Jazz course on your $1 trial: webpianoteacher.com/subscription/offer
#pianopractice #jazzpiano #smoothjazz #pianolesson #learnpiano #pianotutorial #adultpianostudent #practicetips #jazzlicks #improvisation #pianoteacher #musicpractice #pianochords
👍 Try 1,000 free lessons today on webpianoteacher.com ✅ Learn to play piano with Shawn’s revolutionary method
Read Google Reviews by Shawn’s actual students google.com/search?sca_esv=5009c1303de011b0&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1008US1008&hl=en-US&q=web+piano+teacher+reviews&uds=ADvngMgvgkdrPGdvQSDLpEVP-ZodsumYvHbzDCPdZxu7y1dxdo5qqAYWcbG74nStvB1P7oPuKgMFxvRIzd_DZN3tMyxEyrPXSMvg62M7DhKnaOoXRrvMRlR2qOzpuVB5MFvbzhVxfpnLmeUii_UEMspRA9Sb2_UNlNmYcxD8gSa_9Y-ZrAhmC7PMo4dC-3yAW2NaRCTwbTkIJFF0zACFe0MmWygbXUnSyy4URj5yYn7f6Y92qL5F7C65sP-AwHchpQ_w3yruheB24nu-AvcfFQo-ckINkBqWAeio4R0dm9r8cmVn2A7RlUhPAPOZyHpYJ2DontEmnoCi9_eEmhwW9RpGrsajaR7u8_U58p0eD_M4AQtnaQce2g4_3U4ECJVG1OOQrlRFwR4byywOQYKXK-PF9b_wDOJ4wtlppDpfX1FhULjD2H_jbmF3keFLT-JjbHx5mU1wYAbm&si=ACC90nwjPmqJHrCEt6ewASzksVFQDX8zco_7MgBaIawvaF4-7tVxiqnhHYhqKwDDsP2tv6FAZ1fBoW06Zy-5I4bv_4sVUMNgTvp0JS4qCRvaokEGreiT-RV-opIxhvzKSE6856yE4kgwpddtdtU31HEpdWwEdq8gXg%3D%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwik1uakreOIAxVxKkQIHU2mGhQQk8gLegQIKRAB&ictx=1&biw=390&bih=657&dpr=3
🎹 #learntoplaypiano #learnpiano #pianocover #pianolessons #pianoteacher #pianotutorial #easypiano #howtoplaypiano http:webpianoteacher.com
🎹 Testimonials from Shawn’s actual students: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bI83Iun0tmCk-4IOSVAxm6S
🔥Billy Joel Song Lessons: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bKGJ1HDqNoqdQ02-o579MQk
🔥Elton John Song Lessons: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bJV-8LhjXDcX5W4XRLhFhQZ
webpianoteacher.com
instagram.com/webpianoteacher
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The reason most adult piano students stall is not talent and it is not time. It is that they will not leave a measure until it is perfect, so they spend three weeks on four bars and never get to the song. Here is the rule I give my own students instead: get it to an 85 and move on.
Try every lesson for $1 for 7 days: webpianoteacher.com/subscription/offer
This is a clip out of my new SMOOTH PIANO JAZZ course, built on "Asking You Out" by the Quinn Perry Trio.
"As you do these, you practice one lick a lot. Get where you feel pretty good about it, where you can give yourself an 85, you know, a B-plus or something. And then move on. Don't stay on it until you feel like it's got to be absolutely perfect. No, it does not."
An 85 is a B-plus. It means you can play it from memory, at your tempo, and it sounds like the thing it is supposed to sound like. It does not mean it is clean at full speed with your eyes closed. That last fifteen percent costs more practice time than the first eighty-five did, and you do not need it yet -- because the next lick, the next measure, the next chord is going to send you back to this one anyway, and it comes up a little better every time you return.
WHY THE 85 RULE WORKS
- You cover ground. Eight measures at an 85 is a song you can play. One measure at a 100 is not.
- Perfect is a moving target. The better you get, the higher your own standard climbs, so "perfect" never actually arrives and you never move on.
- Practicing the same bar past the point of learning is just rehearsing your own boredom. That is where adult students quit.
- The material teaches itself in layers. Lick three lands better after you have played licks four through ten, because your hand has seen the shapes from more angles.
- Keep stacking. Do not throw away lick one when you get to lick two -- play one first, then two, so every practice session rebuilds what you already own.
WHAT IS IN THE SMOOTH PIANO JAZZ COURSE
This is the sound you have been chasing: the piano on a late night record, warm and unhurried, thick chords hanging in the air, a right hand that wanders off and always lands somewhere beautiful.
PART ONE is the full song, hands together, line by line, from my annotated sheet music with the letter name printed inside every notehead, and my hands on camera from directly overhead.
PART TWO is seven eight-bar chord progressions pulled out of the tune: quartal minor 11 shapes, the stubborn A pedal, slash chords, half diminished, borrowed major 13 color, the Lydian sharp 11, the minor four chord that makes a major song ache. Every bar gives you the chord for two beats and then two beats of silence, and that silence is yours to answer in.
PART THREE is over fifty jazz licks, one over every chord in those progressions: chromatic enclosures, chromatic descents, arpeggios up and walks back down, and the diminished arpeggio off the 3rd of the V chord that resolves by half step into the I. Play-along tracks and printable sheet music included.
Start the Smooth Piano Jazz course on your $1 trial: webpianoteacher.com/subscription/offer
#pianopractice #jazzpiano #smoothjazz #pianolesson #learnpiano #pianotutorial #adultpianostudent #practicetips #jazzlicks #improvisation #pianoteacher #musicpractice #pianochords
👍 Try 1,000 free lessons today on webpianoteacher.com ✅ Learn to play piano with Shawn’s revolutionary method
Read Google Reviews by Shawn’s actual students google.com/search?sca_esv=5009c1303de011b0&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1008US1008&hl=en-US&q=web+piano+teacher+reviews&uds=ADvngMgvgkdrPGdvQSDLpEVP-ZodsumYvHbzDCPdZxu7y1dxdo5qqAYWcbG74nStvB1P7oPuKgMFxvRIzd_DZN3tMyxEyrPXSMvg62M7DhKnaOoXRrvMRlR2qOzpuVB5MFvbzhVxfpnLmeUii_UEMspRA9Sb2_UNlNmYcxD8gSa_9Y-ZrAhmC7PMo4dC-3yAW2NaRCTwbTkIJFF0zACFe0MmWygbXUnSyy4URj5yYn7f6Y92qL5F7C65sP-AwHchpQ_w3yruheB24nu-AvcfFQo-ckINkBqWAeio4R0dm9r8cmVn2A7RlUhPAPOZyHpYJ2DontEmnoCi9_eEmhwW9RpGrsajaR7u8_U58p0eD_M4AQtnaQce2g4_3U4ECJVG1OOQrlRFwR4byywOQYKXK-PF9b_wDOJ4wtlppDpfX1FhULjD2H_jbmF3keFLT-JjbHx5mU1wYAbm&si=ACC90nwjPmqJHrCEt6ewASzksVFQDX8zco_7MgBaIawvaF4-7tVxiqnhHYhqKwDDsP2tv6FAZ1fBoW06Zy-5I4bv_4sVUMNgTvp0JS4qCRvaokEGreiT-RV-opIxhvzKSE6856yE4kgwpddtdtU31HEpdWwEdq8gXg%3D%3D&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwik1uakreOIAxVxKkQIHU2mGhQQk8gLegQIKRAB&ictx=1&biw=390&bih=657&dpr=3
🎹 #learntoplaypiano #learnpiano #pianocover #pianolessons #pianoteacher #pianotutorial #easypiano #howtoplaypiano http:webpianoteacher.com
🎹 Testimonials from Shawn’s actual students: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bI83Iun0tmCk-4IOSVAxm6S
🔥Billy Joel Song Lessons: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bKGJ1HDqNoqdQ02-o579MQk
🔥Elton John Song Lessons: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCmQmIKv8_bJV-8LhjXDcX5W4XRLhFhQZ
webpianoteacher.com
instagram.com/webpianoteacher
facebook.com/shawncheekeasypiano
twitter.com/webpianoteacher
tiktok.com/@shawnthewebpianoteacher
