I am sure a lot of people wanted to know how I did on this after I practically pulled a lot of people's hair out asking questions about it. So here it is. Enjoy.

Tyler, post this in the pianist corner (member recording area) if you already haven't (I haven't looked there yet). There are too many issues with your playing here and I could not even listen beyond the first couple of measures. Trust me, I'm being completely honest here. This is absolutely terrible and you are doing yourself a huge disservice by picking up pieces that your technique isn't ready for. So I repeat: get a good teacher, start from the basics, play hanon, scales, exercises, start from simple five finger pieces and learn to play them in time and with an even tone.. then move on to playing with both hands, when you've played through a couple of method books that introduce these basic skills, then pick up some easy classical literature. Fur Elise is not a simple piece. It shouldn't be attempted within the first couple of years. Take or leave this advice.. if you take it, you will thank yourself 10 years later for doing so. Similarly drop the Chopin prelude. Get a good teacher and do a couple of method books and basic finger exercises, theory, etc before trying to play these pieces.

First of all if your teacher let you play this piece in this condition during her recital then you need a new teacher. One that cares about your playing and improving it and not just about getting your parent's money.

I spent 3 months on this piece as well so I kind of know if inside out by now and hearing it in such a bad shape was a terrible experience for me. There really are many issues but do not get discouraged! However, it is very important to know when you are doing something wrong and then to try and find out what you can do. In this case maybe let it go and stop practicing this piece for a good few months and work on improving technique.

It seems that maybe you didn't do enough slow practice and no practice with metronome. Your left hand was quite heavy in the beginning and it contributed to making this a painful experience for the listeners. You are not 100% familiar with the notes either, you must know how it goes even in your sleep before you perform it for people. Rhythm was all over the place, the dynamics were random, depending on how difficult the section is. ALSO you need to remember that the piano is not in control, you don't need to struggle and fight with it. You are in control and you are by no means required to rush to a tempo which makes things too difficult for you. I'd much better hear a slower, well thought performance with adequate dynamics and phrasing then someone trying to keep it all together at the highest tempo possible.

Can you play this piece slowly with no errors by now? If not it's probably beyond your current ability. When I first tried fur elise, I spent some weeks on it and decided it was best to let it be for now. So I came back months later after having done a lot of hard work on other things and it just worked. Still with some issues but the piece flows 99% of the time and sounds like music, while it sounded something like your try the first time I tried it.

Listen to a lot of music, listen to recordings of the pieces you're studying. Czerny op 139 has some nice etudes getting progressively harder. Bach has some very nice pieces you can attempt by now which you will spend much less time completing and will have more pleasing results and the added benefit of improving your technique.

Play scales with proper fingering. But do not rush the tempo like you did with your Fur Elise. The point is not speed, it's accuracy and ease. Everything has to flow and sound musical, you will feel it when you are doing it right, just be more mindful of what you do at the piano. Practice daily but practice good, an hour a day spent practicing with 100% attention and with clear goals is better than staying at the keyboard all day and just messing around.

That's it. Just set yourself clear goals. Have an idea of where you wanna be but also know what you are doing daily and why you are doing it. You can achieve a lot but it's up to you. You seem like an intelligent person and you should do fine with proper guidance

I think rhythm and consistency between your right and left hands are a main issue. A new teacher may be in the cards for you if s/he let you perform this piece at this stage of learning it. I'm not saying it was bad, it's definitely on it's way, but it was not performance ready.

Hey Tyler,

Don't get discouraged by the "advice" you get here. Those "advisors" remind me of pedantic piano teachers of my youth.

The main thing, IMHO, is that you enjoy what you are doing and that you are open to improving. For starters, consider finding a CD that has this piece performed by a mainstream professional and study it and compare it to your rendition. Ask yourself why the CD version sounds different.

Have fun.