Strategic piano practice in cognitive and metacognitive regulation

This integrative review synthesizes evidence on how cognitive, metacognitive, and repetition-regulation processes shape strategic piano practice. The review corpus comprised 63 empirical, review, and theoretical sources spanning music education, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and motor learning; the original corpus was re-screened and updated through September 2026. Piano practice is defined here as intentional work undertaken to prepare, stabilise, evaluate, or adapt a performance, including keyboard rehearsal, score analysis, mental rehearsal, and recording-based review. The synthesis focuses primarily on advanced and professional pianists working in Western classical solo and studio traditions, while evidence from children, novices, and broader instrumental settings is used to identify developmental and contextual boundaries. Findings indicate that segmentation, tempo manipulation, hands-separate work, auditory imagery, goal setting, self-monitoring, and delayed self-assessment become effective when they are selected and revised in response to performance evidence. Unvaried repetition may produce immediate fluency that does not necessarily predict durable retention, whereas strategically varied trials can expose errors and strengthen adaptability. The proposed model aligns these processes with cyclical self-regulated learning: forethought guides strategy choice, performance generates evidence, and self-reflection updates subsequent goals and repetitions. The review supports explicit strategy instruction while cautioning that effects depend on expertise, task, repertoire, feedback source, and musical goal.