Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Am I Learning Too Many Songs At Once?

Hey guys I am wondering if trying to learn too many songs at same time to distracting snd losing my concentration for getting one song completely nailed. I started off with NYSOM Billy Joel, as I got to a part I found real differcult thought I will come baqck to it when I have improved, and try other songs I really wanted to learn, so when I practice it's like I do about maybe 4 different songs and usually wait till I see an improvement before moving on to next. Is it I should pick songs that match my skill level? Any advice please.

Try learning one song very well in all the keys.

Is playing in different keys just a matter of playing in a different octave? Thanks for suggestion.

Go around the circle of 4ths - Learn the tune in Key of C > then in the key of F> then the key of Bb >then the key of Eb> and on circling back to the key of C. The next key is up a fourth interval from the key just used. No octaves in the mix. You study the song twelve times.

There's no such thing. Seriously. The more tunes you know, the better. The more keys you can play a tune in, the better.

I think it depends on a few factors, like how much time you have for practice and how long your mental focus lasts. I make the most progress when I can play each piece I'm learning in all or most practice sessions and when I change activities frequently. For example, suppose I were learning 6 new pieces and had time to practice an hour a day for 6 days a week. If I practice one each day, I might feel like I'm making a lot of progress on each piece, but when I finally get back the first piece a week later, much of that progress will be lost. On the other hand, 10 minutes a day might not be quite enough time to really get into any piece. So 6 pieces is probably too many. Practicing half of them every second day for 20 minutes each might work, but in this example I'd prefer to work on 3 pieces and have a chance of practicing them every day. I'll learn them faster that way. Also, life gets in the way so I may not always get an hour to practice, and there may be other things I want to work on in the hour as well, like technique or just playing through pieces I've already learned. Having a lot of pieces in the pipeline can add stress to something that should be an enjoyable, relaxing activity.

How much time I have is always a function of how important the activity is to me.

What's the goal? Bringing these tunes to a jam? Studio work? Just fun in the basement?

Sometimes you don't know how tuff something is until to try it. So try it. Try twenty. You're not harming anybody (including yourself) by fooling around, if you know it's fooling around. I'll bet you already know how complete and polished a song/tune has to be to play it at a jam or gig. So ask yourself what do I want to do with this tune(s)?

Thanks for all the great feedback, I really need to knuckle down and practice my fav 3 tunes and then play each for at least 15 mins...so effectively 45 mins a day? how ever I used to just practice when learning differcult guitar pieces until I had seen an improvement after each time I sat down to play, I'd call it finishing on a high note. So I could walk away knowing that I was getting better. As for what i want to get out of it is, just pure fun/ just for myself, the piano moves me and I only play these tunes that speak to me. Thanks.

To be honest I find the right hand reasonably easy to play simple melodies but my left hand is not so great, its alright wjhen playing octaves but not good at all when trying to play a chord which requires more than two fingers I need to do it one finger at a time...any tips on that one please?