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Luckily I actually do not fall into any of these categories. Phew!

There are three reasons. First, I have a fairly busy career. I'm at work away from home 60+ hours a week. Second, I have 2 children at home, both requiring a fair amount of time and energy when I get home. Then there is my spouse whom I try not to ignore. Everyone has needs including me. As a result, I have very limited time for piano. I practice as efficiently as possible, since piano is my outlet, I would not give this limited time up for other "events". Third, my teacher has high standards. She said I could do it and doesn't want to accept a typical 12 year old treatment of RCM 6 from me. I find that inspiring. What do I care whether I'm playing RCM 6 or 8 or even 10? Just another number. I just want to do my very best with whatever music is in front of me. I'm not doing this to pass exams. I don't care how many years it takes to finish RCM 6. It can take as long as it takes.

I do believe only youngsters have the right mental tools to do what you suggest. Do the minimum for RCM 1-8 then really spend time on RCM 9-10. That's actually a recipe for failure for adult beginners. My children are doing exactly what you suggest with good success. Adults are not children. Adult re-beginners are not adult beginners. You under-estimate the gift you had as a child. If you were to learn what you did in your 40's what you learned as a child, it would take you much longer as it is taking me. For me, each grade level felt significantly harder than the last. My children kept telling me that's not the case for them. In fact, they say it is getting easier, and they have the exam scores to prove it.

I think my teacher understands that I may never have the chance to practice 3-4 hours a day like she did in high school, and 6-8 hours a day in conservatory, so she is asking me for as much details in my playing as possible as early as possible, maybe to spread the difficulty out over many years instead of compressing it in a few years for most conservatory students.

She has this 20-year plan for me. Our joke to each other is let's neither one of us get hit by a bus. Recently I got pretty frustrated, so we did have several long conversations already. I had a near total mental breakdown, from stress, from work, from family. I think it's in every student's rights to have a total mental breakdown at least once or twice in front of their teacher over the many years. Almost always, I am in agreement with my teacher.

BTW, let's continue this discussion off line in PM and not take the thread off too much on a tangent. I do appreciate your input!

How do you manage to find time for anything let alone the piano???!!!

Which is why I had a complete melt down in front of my teacher recently. She helped me understand my limits and help me devise a completely different approach to week nights compared to weekends.

Aotw , I recall having some difficulty in finger fluidity in some of my czerny studies last year and beginning of this year (299) and ever since I got into working w Chopin etudes this year for technical practice, I revisited some of my czerny last night and lo and behold how wondrous it was to note how facile it was for me to grip these passages like none other before. Progress provides a euphoric feeling.

My lesson today elicited the closest to a compliment I have gotten from this teacher to date:


"You played that the best you have played yet"...

may not seem like much but that is the equivalent of high praise from her.

Hehe, that sounds like my life, except we have 5 little kids I'm happy with my 15-20 minutes of piano at 9:30 pm before bed.

Yes, and you're so wise to be happy with 15 minutes. With my teacher's support, that's my new routine, 15-20 minute a night during the week.

My AOTW of the week was hosting my last local piano party today. It was really wonderful. We had eleven people, eight who played piano. After everyone played their performance piece, we had an apero and then we all went back to the piano. I ended up playing my three ABRSM grade 6 pieces plus my recital piece, and it went better than I expected. I was very happy with my performance and all the time away from the piano with my travel lately.

Once I get relocated to points south, I definitely have to start another piano club!

Feeling great this week. Things are really coming together on the two pieces I have working on with my teacher. Still a fair way to go on those, but all the same it is obviously time to add a couple more to the WIP list so yesterday we were chatting about repertoire.
The two we've been working on are baroque and classical, so for variety we decided we'll pick a romantic and a 20C piece.
His suggestion for the romantic piece is for me to choose a Chopin nocturne

Now, decision time - do I pick up the C Minor posth one I started 18m ago and abandoned halfway through, or start fresh with a new one?

No real AOTW's for me here in teacher-limbo, but a couple of things to look forward to.

I decided to spend a week at Christmas with my sister's family and grandkids in the Seattle area...my great nieces and nephews are at ages I don't want to miss out on, and it will be great to get away for a while.

Then I realized they have a nice old Steinway sitting there going mostly unused. So, the collection of Christmas tunes is already on the music desk and I am working on three or four simultaneously. Planning to copy my current pieces and the Christmas tunes and mail them to myself in Seattle. Oh, and the Christmas gift I want from my Sister.....tune that Steinway, I'm on my way.

Giacomo, that sounds like great way to spend your Christmas!
I just got out my Christmas music and was pleased to see how much easier the pieces seem this year. They are a sort of benchmark for me, as I only look at them from Nov to Jan each year.
I think the first year I had the book I could only play the right hand!

Barbaram, as much as I love the posthumous Waltz, I would suggest you go on to a new piece. Pick up some more technical skills and then go back to it. I tried going back to pieces partially studied and found that my timing was off and I still couldn't get into them properly. Of course, it might be different for you, ... Let us know!



My AOTW: After missing my lesson last week and having seversl days away from piano (travelling in and around Madrid for Hubby's big birthday celebration), I still managed to get several "good" comments from my teacher....and he is sparing with those, so I am really pleased to have heard more than one in a single lesson. This tells me I am practising more efficiently, for sure!

I am also really excitd, because he has suggested that I move up to a full hour a week instead of 45 minutes. 45 is the standard slot for this school. Little kids get 30 minutes (5-6 year olds) then everyone else has 45.

I am going to start the second movement of the Diabelli sonstina (op 168, n2), and another Bach minuet.


Also, on Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting Whizbang who was traveling in Italy, in person. What a friendly, easy to talk to fellow pianist- you really can know what to expect from reading someone's posts for a few years!!
We were joined by f3r, a new member who lives in Italy.
Very pleasant, indeed.
We found a piano and entertained each other for a bit.
It was great fun

My AOTW:
- My teacher saying "The opening was beautiful!" on Bach Invention 1. The other pieces and the exercises were not great, I'd say horrible.

- For the first time I was able to play relaxed in front of my teacher, it is so much better and also that's what made me play the "beautiful opening".

Now I have to work again on what was today's assignment + Rondo from Kuhlau Sonatina Op.20/1 + play the Invention again and again and again... and minus one exercise. I really played horribly today.

Cheryl, that's great that you are moving to 1 hour! My lesson is 45 mins for logistical reasons, but an hour would be great. Maybe next year.
I think you may well be right about the Chopin, my teacher and I had that very conversation :-)

f3r, feeling relaxed when playing in front of your teacher is quite a breakthrough if that hasn't been the norm for you. It certaily hasn't been for me, and actually I had that same experience this week. I think that's a big reason I felt so good about my lesson, but I didn't really pinpoint it until you said it!

JimF, I *love* your Christmas plans, and especially your suggested gift from your sister.

SwissMS, good luck with your relocation - I'm sure you will soon have a great piano circle going in the new area

Cheryl, I think you will like the hour long lessons. They still go by like a snap of the fingers, but you might be pleasantly surprised at how much more you can cover with the extra time.

Like you, I was pretty stoked when I pulled out Guaraldi's Christmas Time is Here from the Charlie Brown book I got 4 years ago. Seemed almost trivial after a few passes... then I got out the Silent Night and Chestnuts Roasting arrangements that my teacher gave me last year and... ooops... they looked like hieroglyphics.

This year, traveling in kiddie-zone, I will try a different batch of songs. Like Rudolf, Frosty, 12 Days, etc., which suits me just fine. My most likely audience will probably have the attention span of a gnat, so I'll try to keep them quick and fun... saving the likes of Debussy or sonorous jazz ballads for late night encounters with eggnog and Mr. Steinway.

My wife and I moved to hour lessons a year ago. It amazing how fast the time goes by, even with an hour . I think there has been just one lesson in the past year where after about 40 minutes my teacher and I basically said "OK, I think we covered everything now what?"

My AOTW: Played at our teacher's fall musicale in front of 25 people. My first piece went very well, only problems in two measures (out of 34).

The second piece was a duet with my wife, playing my newest composition. It went almost perfectly; I impulsively high-fived my wife right on the bench after we finished . I think the best part was I finally felt a slight diminishing of my performance anxiety; I was actively thinking of retiring from public playing if this did not go well.

[quote=BrianDX I think the best part was I finally felt a slight diminishing of my performance anxiety; I was actively thinking of retiring from public playing if this did not go well. [/quote]

Congrats, Brian! I can attest that each public performance will reduce your anxiety. See where else you can play prior to your next 'recital'

BrianDX I changed after my first year from a half hour to the full hour and have never regretted it. It affords the luxury of sometimes just chatting about music and gaining valuable insights from the teacher.

Well done on the recital, there is a performer trapped inside everyone of us if we can get over the nerves.

I got my new piano glasses yesterday and I love them! No more fussing around trying to hit the sweet spot on my progressive lenses.

I can relate to this! I bought piano glasses about six months ago, and what a difference it makes when you can actually see the music!