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I ran into my first etude with fabers book 2 and it's so simple but for some reason I'm having so much trouble with it.

First of all I feel like the action on my piano is somewhat heavy and sluggish so not sure if that's contributing to it but my fingers are so sluggish with it I don't have the fluidity that I feel I should have after a year of lessons.

Any advise? I was so frustrated yesterday I actually banged my hands on my poor piano

Could be the action in your piano, too. Some pianos are better than others at the kind of "squiggly" fingering you need for Bach and Mozart. Some pianos are too tight feeling (you can't get your fingers to move quickly through the notes) or too light (your fingers feel like a drunken man walking downhill on ice.)

Is there another piano around that you can bash out a few measures on, to see if the "feel" is any different on a different instrument?

At least by doing that you have a chance to blame it on the piano, rather than the player. I LIVE for those moments!

We are close to each other in experience, loly, so my advice is to be taken with that in mind....

Welcome to the sluggish club. I feel the same way. Sometimes the pieces come so easy to me, and then I hit reality with the next one. I think the experts that have put our lesson books together try and make us "stretch" our experience with each new lesson.

So, what I do, is realize I am learning something new, and of course it will take time to get it into my hands.

Reading posts from pianists with 4, 5 or more times the experience than what I have tells me to get used to learning new stuff, it does not go away.

When dieting, the experts say be very glad when you reach a plateau because it is your body adjusting to the new weight. Sounds good, but man is it hard to continue with no measureable progress. I am finding the piano is the same.

So, take heart - you are at a plateau, and only good stuff is ahead.

I think I'm going to get my tuner to do something about the sluggish action. I think the florida weather tends to mess things up. ya ya good answer he he.

my teachers piano is the only other piano I get to use and the action on her piano is deliberately hard. she likes it that way to strengthen fingers.

i may be looking at a piano upgrade next year. i'll post in the piano section but any recommendations on a brand of piano that will have the type of action that is not too sensitive (iv'e run into some that will practically play themselves if you look at the keys) but not so heavy as to where you need 100psi to push a key?

he he

I've had similar sluggish problems but ever since I upgraded to a Steinway, those problems have resolved. I believe the action of the piano can really make a difference in your playing. My piano has just about the right amount of "action." Some steinways that I tried at the store had extremely quick and light. it was amazing.... but i wanted something with a little bit of resistance so I chose the one I own now. the important thing is for you to find the piano with the right balance of action and resistance.
good luck

well, I think the humidity got to it because it feel fine now. we were having some really really high humidity kind of like walking into a steam bath once the temp was regulated in the house the piano started feeling nice again