Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Adult beginners - what is your number one question/problem?

Some great advice already being offered, and some questions that perhaps could better be answered by a scientist than a piano teacher, but that's ok! Loving the broad range of challenges that different pianists face.

Keep them coming! And thanks for all your input so far

You chaps are all ducking "the bullet" ...
the prime hangup is bum sight-reading.

Solve this and the world is your oyster.
ps Does anyone know what annoys an oyster?

Well obviously we can't be 100% humble, else when asked by fellow musicians looking to recruit a player for a gig or what have you, you probably won't be hired by humbly replying that you're not very good and/or nothing special (my teacher likes this example). We were simply talking about practicing at too fast a tempo, however .

You chaps are all ducking "the bullet" ...
the prime hangup is bum sight-reading.

Solve this and the world is your oyster.
ps Does anyone know what annoys an oyster?

To be fair, I am a beginner, but I have no trouble sight reading because I constantly read and play music. When I learn a new piece, I read and play through the piece very, very slowly. If I slow down even more slowly - or stumble then I look at that measure to see if I am playing a wrong note or my timing is off as I read the measure. Before I learn a new piece I always read though the piece measure by measure to make sure I can say all the notes without hesitation and I understand, of course, the timing. It usually takes me playing the piece very slowly for about a week walking through the piece. It varies piece by piece. Sometimes I can walk through a piece a few times and then just keep playing it to improve the piece which, of course, takes weeks and months. I am working through the John Thompson method so the pieces are just gradually more difficult which is cool. If a piano player tried to sight read a piece beyond his curently ability, it would be very difficult to read and play and be problematic in all areas. Also so you should know that even as a beginner, I play all my pieces all the time so at any given time I could open up my piano books and play any of 60 or 70 pieces and read and play the piece without difficulty because I constantly review every thing I have ever learned and I will keeping doing this because it is the only way I keep in shape. If I didn't review I would get rusty and I love playing all the music I have learned always trying to make the pieces sound better. I have never heard anyone say they play the last 40 pieces they have learned on a daily basis but maybe they do that; I don't know.

Getting the fast runs in advanced pieces smooth, even and up to performance speed



Grit in its shell?

I really didn't intend to get into answers. I realize this is just for the questions/problems.
I appreciate Michael 99's thoughts.
Even though hand independence/interdependence. I brought it down to the finger level. This being my biggest issue. Everything else, I personally am soaking up like a sponge. It's coming back easy. Sight reading is a cinch. Looking at the hands? My right I can tolerate that. My left, from the beginning, looking at it just goofed me up. I understand mapping the keyboard in my mind. Positioning the feel of my arms, hands and knowing what chord I'm on. Easy knowing what note, depending on how many black keys I feel there.
I have extremely good teachers on my biggest issue. It takes someone who knows physiology. I have an exercise coach who is extremely good at physiology. I also have run into an excellent piano teacher who deals much with injuries. She knows physiology. I can easily understand what she talks about in physiology. I can easily expand this knowledge. I have learned intuition from the exercise coach.
The piano teacher I ran across from a suggestion here on a book. She is extremely good. Not cheap either. Yet, when she says a little, it means alot to me. You get what you pay for.

Getting the fast runs in advanced pieces smooth, even and up to performance speed

Trying to play anything "faster", means you have to first establish the speed you can play it at comfortably without any mistakes or as the original poster called it "smooth, even and up to performance speed" . You should know that for anyone to play anything at any speed they have to be able to play the music at 20 MM metronomically higher. Let me explain. If a piece says to play it at 100 then you would have to be able to play it at 120 to be able to play it easily at 100. Depending on the speed and your ability it can take anywhere from weeks or months getting your speed up to the next level. If you were playing at 50 mm and trying to get to 60 mm it may only take a few weeks. If you were able to play at 180 mm and were trying to get to 200 mm, it could take you from 6 months to a years to get the difference of 20 at that speed. It would be very difficult at that speed and take a consider time in weeks or months. And remember you have to be able to play 20 mm higher just be able to play comfortable without errors at 200 - so effectively you would have play at 220 just to be able to play comfortable at 200 without errors.

Unless of course if the "bullet" is technique. In which case, reading skills don't solve anything in that department.

Any noise annoys an oyster, but a noisy noise annoys an oyster most.

I agree with Keystring, sight reading is a modest move up the ladder to proficiency. Rhythm and dynamics tend to be more common issues with beginners. Few beginners ask about them because they don't know they are lousy--they haven't learned to hear that well yet. Before that even, there is posture, breathing, playing with minimal tension.

More than a few beginners struggle with tension and end up sidelined due to injury. After basic dynamics and phrasing, there are the finer points of voicing, rubato and interpretation. A beginner doesn't ask these kinds of questions, because they don't know they are deficient in these areas. Learning to play piano is a rather large oyster, no one skill will open it all up.

I'd guess about 20% of beginners have a high aptitude for sight reading. 60% are somewhat average, and 20% that struggle with it. Depending on which group a beginner is in, it may be super easy, or require average diligence, or be a big obstacle on their piano journey.

It isn't that different for ear training, a percentage have a natural aptitude for learning by ear. A large average group that can work with it after modest training, and a below average group that has to really work at ear training to get anything useful.

People are different, and tend to have different strengths and weaknesses. Things that come easily to some will be a huge struggle to others and vice-versa.

My number one question as a beginner has been how do I move?

Learning how to hold my fingers, hands, wrists, and posture has been my biggest issue. I didn't move at all. I had to be shown by my teacher how to loosen up my elbows and shoulders. She had to demonstrate how to cross my arms in front of me so I could figure out how far back to sit.

I didn't read this entire thread until recently and was surprised that rocket88 made a reference to a blog post I made. Well, that explains that extraordinary traffic my blog has been getting. Thank you rocket88! It encouraged me to write some more. Rocket88, I can tell from your "list" of common problems that you are an excellent teacher. I hope that beginners here pay deep attention your comments. They are consistent with what I've learned.

That post referenced above is 3 years old now. It is interesting how my opinions haven't changed but as I've progressed further, my improvement pace has not dipped at all. And the main difference between then and now is that now I'm a semi-pro musician.

I just made a new blog post that sort of builds on the same issues as described in the older blog post.
Filing Skills into Your Subconscious Storage
http://jazzwee-blog.blogspot.com/2013/02/filing-skills-into-your-subconscious.html

Here's another old relevant blog post.

Hearing Your Faults
http://jazzwee-blog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hearing-your-faults.html

Oysters got ears!!??

Just made a new blog-post which probably answers this question.

http://jazzwee-blog.blogspot.com/2013/02/piano-technique-my-two-cents.html

Playing at too fast a tempo is a good thing!

Now before you all panic let me explain. I always practice at very fast tempos. Why? Because I need to have the facility to play even faster.

BUT - I use the "fast playing" as a means of identifying problems, which I will then SOLVE by playing it EXCRUCIATINGLY SLOW.

So practice is also about "PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION" vs. "PROBLEM RESOLUTION".

This totally encompasses my issues. Practicing is different from playing. When I started practicing sections of a piece instead of playing from beginning to end, I improved dramatically. There is a marked difference between playing and practicing.

The second issue I think is relevant is about understanding how people learn and having a teacher that fosters an optimal learning environment. My daughter and I love our teacher but she needs to push me harder; set expectations, really. She does fine with my kid but I am a different sort of learner. However, we all have a very close personal relationship and, as an adult learner, it feels like a safe learning environment. That latter may help me long term.

A safe learning environment for you is something to treasure, Halfstep. But can you ask your teacher to try to give you some realistic expectations on a week by week basis? She might be hesitant about pushing you, but you could explain that you might thrive with such pushing.

Worth a try for both of you.

I second that!

I think this idea alone, without any subsequent explanation, is a dangerous notion for a beginner to consider. Remember, this is the adult beginners thread. Most are in the very early stages of piano playing, where slow is far better than fast.

But for more advanced pianists, and with some additional controls, I would tend to agree with the assessment.

Derelux, I understand what you mean.

I just didn't want to leave the impression that "playing fast" has no role in pedagogy. And to make it clear to others what I mean, I meant to speed up ONLY until you hear the faults, which in theory shouldn't be too fast as a beginner.

...which leads to my main point: most can't hear their faults (at whatever level).

I think this is a significant issue because until you hear your faults, you can't solve it. I believe training people to have this "problem identification" attitude is a good thing even at the beginner level, especially for those without teachers.

But I do appreciate you framing the context.