My goal is to be able to accompany my flute students on piano. My second goal is simply to play for myself.

What goal are you all striving for?

My goal is to have a repertoire that I can play from memory of 20+ pieces of music that I really enjoy. My second goal is to be able to play simple music by sight.

I'm 1/20th of the way toward my first goal since I have Silent Night down pat. Although I do need to go back and learn the introduction and I'd like to learn a couple other versions so I can play for more than a minute and still have it be interesting.

At my age, my goal is to not fall off the piano bench.

Seriously, though, I'd like to be able to accompany a school chorus or play in a variety-type band. Not necessarily doing solos or anything particularly complicated (*that* will never happen), but to be able to do chords/bass lines.

I'd like to be able to sight-play a typical pop piece (both full sheet music & lead sheets) and get to a point where it takes less than it currently does to play a moderately difficult piano solo (of any style).

A little improvisation skill would be nice as well.

Rodney

I want to be good enough to play in restaurants and clubs when I retire.. I don't want to tell jokes.. don't even want a microphone. (I WOULD, however, consider having a fine chanteuse to accompany.. )

Just want to play what I like.. Gershwin, standards, a little jazz and a few pop tunes.. maybe even a little broadway.. and I will always sneak in some classical! I don'tparticularly care if anyone even listens.. I'll know if I'm good or not.

There are a few pieces I would like to have as part of a repertoire that I will not even attempt until I've played for many years. These would include some Chopin, Schumann, and many other romantic composers. I usually like to set short and long term goals. My short term goals are to master some intermediate pieces and to start playing "real" pieces instead of arrangements. My long term goals are to play and sight read well enough to play pop and most intermediate classical pieces with relative ease. Maybe when I retire in 20 years I'll be good enough to play in front of an audience.
Jon

"and to start playing "real" pieces instead of arrangements"
You're well on your way with that Scarlatti piece!

My wife took up the cello a couple of years ago (at the age of 41!) and my goal is to accompany her so that I can share her interest in making music.

my goal is to play some Beethoven sonatas and some Bach fugues, which of course would take a long time.

Hi Signa

I've been reading quite a no. of yr posts and looks like you are more than a beginner to me perhaps intermediate or higher. May I know how long hv u first started learning piano ?

I took lessons barely for 2 weeks and my short term goal is .... relax and able to position my fingers properly ... long term goal >>> INFINITE

I eventually want to retire to one of the more remote little Caribbean islands and run a little open air bar and grill under a thatched roof with a dance floor out under the stars and play well enough to amuse the guests and keep them coming back, dancing, singing along, or inspired to play themselves, i.e., an endless cocktail party to the grave.

my goal is to never run out of goals...

its the journey that counts, not the last stop.

My Goals as of now consist of bassically being able to learn theory so i can apply my own ideas on the piano.

For now since im starting out that just means learning as many chords as possible. And diving into chord theory..

Being a Bassist first and foremost i would like to be able to lay down melodies and later but down some funky bass tracks to support em'

M

Ps: Good Answer Bachophile!

When I started learning 8 months ago, my goal was to be able to sight read & play well enough to play church hymns on Sunday. After several months of belonging to this forum, I have a new appreciation for classical music. While I still want to play hymns, I am looking forward to playing classical pieces a well...Moonlight Sonata, Canon, Fur Elise, Chopin Nocturn Op 9-2, etc. Who woulda thunk it?

I, too, originally set out to be good enough to play hymns for the congregation on Sunday and possibly practice with and accompany our church choir. That will be a problem until I get my nerve up to play in front of actual people without passing out, throwing up or saying really bad things when I miss a note...

I would also love to sight-read out of all the Reader's Digest songbooks for nursing and retirement homes, social gatherings and other captive audiences. Liz

I think one of my problems with setting goals is not knowing if they're realistic. Then, if I don't meet them, I become frustrated. It would be helpful for me, and possibly for others, for people posting on this thread to give a brief background (e.g., length of time playing piano or other instruments, methods used, typical practice schedule) followed by how they've progressed and what goals they've met or haven't met. Then we newbies could have a benchmark against which to make our goals.

Mark, I took piano in the fourth grade and tried again in high school, but basically I am starting over. I play the flute and have mastered the treble clef, but I struggle beyond belief with bass clef! I am most certainly a beginner, although I do need to learn the basics of reading music, just the bass clef. I struggle with my hands doing two different things and with reading more than one note at a time. My goal of accompanying flute students is definitely a long term goal! My short term goal is probably just not to give up!

I would like to learn 10 to 20 pieces by memory..I'd like to sit and play without sheet music or mistakes.

Mark, you state very clearly why many of us do not clearly state our goals. A true goal is challenging, realistic/acheivable, desirable, and has a fixed deadline. Our fear in stating a goal in such a manner is that we'll have to adjust one or more of the criteria and we associate that adjustment with failure.

After all, if we have to adjust the deadline, then we've "failed", then it has to be adjusted again which feels like just another failure. We've all done this early in life, which conditions us to avoid setting deadlines for our goals. That's all fine and dandy for our self esteem, but it hinders our ability to reach our potential because we don't challenge ourselves enough.

The trick is to set short term goals that lead to mid-level goals, that lead to long-term goals.

My long term goal is to have a repertoire of at least 20 pieces. As a step toward that goal, I've set my current mid-level goal as the pieces I listed in the currently playing thread. My deadline for my current pieces is to have all except possibly the complete Fur Elise ready by Christmas.

For short term, I'm focusing on specific measures and phrases on a daily basis. I also try to make sure I get in at least one sight-read song daily.

I've been playing for about a year. Most of that year was spent with the Alfred's adult method course and an old-school teacher who had me digging into Hanon. This month I dropped the Hanon, Alfred's, and the teacher and I'm focusing on the pieces that I've selected to be the start of my repertoire.

My practice schedule is broken up into 20 minute sessions with a deliberate goal for each. About half-way through the session, I can tell if the goal was too big. For example, on the Scarlatti piece I'm working on, I might think I can get through four bars in a session. But if halfway through the session, I'm still looking at the score or keyboard for some of the notes, then I cut the section in half to finish up the session with a measure or two definitely mastered.

While modifying my goal like that *might* seem like failure to some; I look at it as ensuring that I'm making steady progress. If I had kept at the entire four bars, I *might* have been able to nail all four in the next session, but I *know* I'll be able to if I immediately reduce the scope in the first session to just the first two bars.

One thing that is vitally important is consistent practice. Everything I read, from Cooke's empowering "Playing the Piano for Pleasure" to Bernhard's enlightening essays over on the Piano Forum site, hammer's home the necessity of having consistent daily practice.

The reason I've selected four pieces is that I know I can scrape together 4 sessions of 20 minutes at some point during the day. Even on my busiest days. If I can squeak in additional sessions, then I work on additional measures of one of my pieces or I'll read one of my books, or I'll sight-read another song or two.

This post is too long and I've probably blathered on too much, but I hope you can pick something useful out of it. I highly recommend reading Bernhard's posts if you want an epiphany.

Chickgrand.. I will sail my boat to your island and play on your off nights..

Me? In general, I want to be able to play musically. Specifically, I'd like to be able to knock out Claire DeLune, Fur Elise, and some of those Rachmaninoff etudes.
OK, that last bit is a dream, but the former ones may actually be achievable!

Bassistonkeys, I love both your avatar and your signature quote!

Mikhailoh, it's a deal! I was wondering how to make time to tool around under the moonlight in the motor-yacht to make time. :p

Luckychwee, i have been playing 'piano' for little more than 3.5 years, and started on a keyboard actually. but because i didn't have to learn most of music reading or basic theory, had some knowledge of classical music before and used to play accordion long long time ago, i already had some familiarity with music and keyboard. but starting playing HT, which is quite different from playing accordion of course, was hard at the beginning. so, i pretty much taught myself playing anything since, and went through an easy piano instruction book and then went on playing some classical pieces. i wasn't really working hard on learning at the first 2 years, but forced myself to read through some books and more theory part and to play some pieces i thought were necessary in the process. starting from last year however, i began to play more seriously and since then, i have finally got through some tough pieces for beginners (like Bach's inventions) and started feeling better on my technique progress, which led me of course to learn some music maybe at the intermediate level. but i really don't think i am actually at the intermediate level yet, but to me it seems no longer unobtainable goal in near future. that's all, and i don't want to exaggerate my skills at the moment.

My goal is to be able to play Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi. I have what I suppose is an "easy" arrangement, but I know it'll be a while before I can play it.

My goal is to take my talent as far as I can without ever stopping. My teacher once said I am one of the most talented pianists he's ever taught, but one of the least ambitious. That was a while back, but I still find myself becoming arrogant sometimes (thankfully my mother has a way of stopping me). I love music in general and just want to keep playing for the rest of my life to the best of my ability.

Well Chick... I don't know now.. y'know I am a wind man, myself... this motor boat thing of yours...

What the h-e-double toothpicks.. it's in the Caribbean.. I'm in.

My Goal, by jasper_garcia...

I aim to learn some of the nicer contemporary songs that allow themselves to be played well enough on the keyboard. I want to learn some of the really popular classical movements that we all grow up listening to in cartoons and elsewhere in pop entertainment. I'm really into theme songs from shows. Even though I'm interested in playing for myself, I'd like to be able to play things that people wont fall asleep on. For example, I really like Gymnopedie No. 1, but I doubt the average person will enjoy it the way I do. In short, better to knock two birds with one stone. Ofcourse, I'm still going to learn those classical pieces which I really want to be able to play (and share with those who would enjoy it).

My initial goal when I started piano was to play Mozart's K466 Andante movement by the end of my 2nd year the way Clifford Curzon recorded it. The part about Curzon, well that wasn't originally part of the goal, it came in a dream.

Another "dream" is to play anything anyone requests, an unfathomable repetoire of show tunes, classics, blues, jazz, Brazilian jazz and of course, all of Chopin.

A goal and a dream are one and the same so long as your mind can believe, so too can it achieve. Paraphrase of a Norman Vincent Peele quote.

I hate to admit this as it seems so far out there.

I want to play Fantasy Impromptu by Chopin and the 3rd Movement of Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. After that I have been dreaming about Chopin's Etude 10.12

I am learning Chopin 9.2 right now and I almost, almost have it memorized.

David

AKA He who bites off more than can possibly be chewed.

My short-term goal is to work my way through all the John Thompson books. Right now I'm halfway through the 4th grade book, so I've got a ways to go.

Then after I polish off the 5th grade book, my long-term goal is I plan on starting with (don't laugh) Burgmuller, and the easier bits of Chopin, Schumann, Grieg, Schubert, Beethoven. (I have promised myself that one day I *will* learn to play all three movements of the Moonlight Sonata, not just the first movement plus sorta fumbling my way through the 2nd.) I love baroque music, too, but playing it on the piano aggravates my tennis elbow (both arms), all those sixteenth notes, very problematic, so I just listen to Bach on CD.

My basic expectations are to have a good time sitting down and playing the piano, just for myself, for a half-hour or so every day. Not for public consumption, unless you count the dog, who generally goes up to the stair landing whenever she sees me pull out the piano bench.