Keyboardists - When you practice WHAT do you practice?

For a large part of my life I played in progressive rockbands. I developed my skills for playing (improvised) solos mainly by playing and rehearsing arpeggios and plain old scales. And for speed, practice on a weighted piano clavier ;) That's why I have both a RD-150 and a UF5 :D

I'm a priest these days with very little time and energy to play.When I have to prepare for something special, my Hanon never fails me. There are several technical exercise books that will get you there. For the brass, bass lines and licks, listening or practicing from transcriptions will help a lot. Transpose what you have to all keys and playing against good quality midi files or the originals will help!

With diligent practice, it won't be too long before ... ;)

Thanks guys for all the great tips. I already have a Hannon book and i've done a few of the exercises a few years ago. Just from doing those I did notice a basic improvement just as far as "getting around" on the keys. I really feel that one of the main things that's been holding me back for years is too much tension at the keyboard (and in life in general actually). My shoulders can actually start to hurt after not too long if am I trying to learn something new and complicated. I have had moments where I was able to relax and play some fairly simple stuff like a basic C major scale and I noticed it was much easier and I could play faster and more accurately. I really feel I need to conquer the tension issue before I get into any serious technique practice. Have you guys had this problem before and how did you learn how to relax? Thanks alot. this is all really helpful.

Hanon is of course effective, but Czerny is at least as effective, and your musical brain may suffer less while playing his exercises. :) There is nothing to surpass him for finger dexterity and speed, and the exercises are more musical to my sensibility.