Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Hello! Advice, please?

Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forums, and this is my first post.

I'm in my early 20's, and I live in New Jersey---just outside NYC. I am already an intermediate pianist, however, for reasons too embarassing to publicly explain, I would like you all to treat me as you would anyone who has never studied music. Strange, I know, but believe me I have my reasons.

So, just a couple questions:

1. If one wanted to study music, specifically piano performance, what would you advise as the VERY FIRST STEP they should take to achieve this goal? They don't own a piano, and cannot afford one, however, they do own a Kurzweil PC2X. So what would it be? Buy a book (what book?)? Call a teacher? Call a school or program? Something else, perhaps?

2. If you were to advise ONE piece of literature to study or improve piano performance---one thing to practice absolutely every day from day one 'til death---what would it be? The Virtuoso Pianist? An all-in-one "For Dummies" book? Something else, perhaps?

Thanks very much. I'd appreciate as many responses as possible, from everyone from the concert pianist to the rock 'n' roll studio musician. Looking forward to them all!

What are your goals and what do you hope to achieve?

The best advice I think would be to find a good teacher, they can best determine what you should read, study, perform, drill and practice.

I really don't think there are 'one size fits all' solutions out there for studying piano performance. If you are at an intermediate level then Bach's two and three part inventions are indispensable.

Again, I would recommend finding a teacher first before pursuing any particular books or pieces.

1) A good teacher.

2) In piano playing, you will find that every piece you play will make you better .. there is no such 'absolute' study piece.

However, try to play those pieces that are great music + technical exercises in their own right .. like Bach, Mozart .. in fact every music will make you progress, you just have to choose what suits your level at the right time.

My goal is to learn everything there is to know about the piano and about playing the piano---from classical to rock 'n' roll, technique to tech. I'd like to get myself to a point where I no longer need to rely on a teacher, and get there as soon as possible. That being said, is it safe to assume that attempting to study without a teacher is foolish? And if so, how can I find the best one in my area (NJ, just outside NYC)?

Oh, and thanks a lot for the response!

Number one, stop believing that you don't have
a piano. A digital piano is a real piano,
and you can learn on it just as well as
on a concert grand.

It sounds like you want to learn all this
on your own, and if that's the case, then
just go to it. If there is one thing that
is most important in playing the piano, it
is to get into the habit of not looking
at your hands when playing with sht. music.
Everything else follows from this.

It's true that I would prefer to learn on my own, as I can probably only afford one 30-minute lesson every two or three weeks. But how can I teach myself? Isn't there a great risk for adapting poor technique? I'm a professional singer-songwriter, so I need to take my studies very seriously if I'm to do well. I need to learn as much as possible, and learn it all the right way. I'd be a bit more relaxed about this if I were only doing it as a hobby, but competition is fierce for me, so whatever I decide to do, I need to make sure it's a sure bet long before I do it. If you can recommend a method or book or study or something for self-study, that'd be great.

Thanks!

Um... I have to say that I think that what you are asking is a bit over the top, but I guess it's not impossible as long as you don't expect immediate results.

Classical-Buy a technique book with all your scales, arpeggios, chords, etc. Buy the Gr 8. celebration series-repertoire and study book(or whatever grade you think you are at), found at any local music store or at
www.frederickharrismusic.com. Practise sight reading.

Pop/Jazz/Rock-Buy sheet music books (real/fakebooks) and learn how to read chords. Learn your sevenths and extensions with inversions. Transcribe as many solos as you can. Get together with other musicians and jam.

Both-LISTEN, listen, listen hardcore. Buy as many recordings as you can and attend as many concerts as you can. And take that 20 bucks for a half hour lesson every 3 weeks. It's better than nothing. Once you think you're good enough, get some student loans and audition for a university! It's not always impossible to get into universities at just above an intermediate level.

If you have the belief that everything
needs to be absorbed perfectly and in "the
absolutely right way" before you even attempt
it, then you won't be able to learn piano on
your own--or even learn it at all. There
are too many physical and psychological
variables involved in piano playing. There
is no one right way to learn it. People
differ too much in their physical and
psychological makeups: what may be right
for one person might be wrong for another.
Piano playing takes experience, you need
to just dig right in and start playing.
The idea that you may pick up bad habits
learning on your own is a completely invalid
consideration, because the number one
place where pianists pick up bad habits is
in formal piano lessons. When you learn
on your own, you will naturally tend to
play in the way that best suits your
particular physical and psychological
makeup--whereas when you learn in formal
piano lessons, you will have to conform
to the teacher's way of playing, which may
be completely wrong for you.

Emmanuel Ax was at a reception after his recital in Chicago last Sunday, and someone asked him if he still had a teacher. His response was that he didn't, but he still played for people - for Leon Fleisher, for instance, to get their comments. An independent set of ears can be quite helpful especially if they're acquainted with your instrument.

I strongly second both of Gyro's comments.

What is it EXACTLY that you want to be able to do?? Are you interested in playing Chopin Waltzes? Do you want to accompany yourself singing? Are you able to read notes on a staff and correspond them to the correct keys on the piano??

That's right: you gotta listen to your own performance with a critical ear. It's much easier with a digital piano: record your playing and playback it for listening and spotting weak areas you should improve.

So, you're want to be considered a beginner? Go with scales first, they will give you a tactile feeling to the keyboard, it's range, key positions etc. Go slow, then fast, play softly, then hard, legato and staccato, up and down. First each hand alone, then together.

After your hands know their way through the keyboard (some good weeks of practice), try reading and going through some of the easiest Bach keyboard pieces: Minuet in G from Anna Magdalena Notebook and Prelude n1 from Well-Tempered Clavier. These will give you some sort of rhythmic variation and hands interplay. Slow, then moderate. It should prove to be tough, but will the first full valuable music in your repertoire. Once you get the notes right, try to play with feeling, with dynamics and expression: some passages piano other crescendo etc...

I agree with Gyro: a digital piano is a real piano, it's just not acoustic. I have a DGX620 and am very pleased with it.

I'm in a similar position as the OP but I didn't want to start a new thread since our topics are so similar. I'm a classically trained pianist but I haven't really been keeping up with my training for the last, oh, 8 or 9 years or so. I'm a dummy when it comes to theory and I've never been very good at fingering and some other technical aspects of the piano, but I've been good enough to get by and even get a piano scholarship to a state university (they were trying to expand their music program so I doubt I would have gotten a scholarship elsewhere).

To complicate my situation, I work full time and have two very young children so I have limited time to practice, I might be able to squeeze in a half hour on week days (can't play after bedtime) and maybe two hours a day on days off. I've found myself nursing the baby at the keyboard lately which I know isn't the best but I'm just happy to find the time to play! My kids are 10 months and 2 1/2 years and the toddler likes to play along with me, which can be a challenge because she likes to hog the piano, but I don't want to discourage her from playing. We're on a tight income but my DH will be making a lot this summer, enough to pay off some bills which will allow me to quit my job (hopefully) to stay at home with the kids sometime this summer. At that point I'll have a lot more time to play but I will have no extra money to pay for lessons for myself. Or maybe just one lesson a month. On a sidenote, I also want to start teaching my toddler to play in a year or two depending on if I think she's ready, but I'd like to be brushed up before I start teaching her anything.

I still have most of my old piano books from HS and college. Those include a book of Bach preludes, sonatinas by various composers, a Beethoven sonata that I've been working on, a few other early advanced books by one composer, and several books with mixed works. I would like to get some theory books to work on during my lunch breaks (suggestions?). I figure I'll spend 10 minutes a day on scales, Hanons, etc, and hopefully 20 minutes on music, at least until I can get a little more time to practice, or until I can afford an electronic piano that has headphones! I am planning on perfecting songs I already know before I start learning new ones.

The goal for me is to not become a concert pianist, but to become proficient enough that when someone asks me to play for them, I won't look like a fool! My non-musically trained DH loves to hear me play and is always asking me to play for him and everyone around us. He likes to brag about his wife who went to college on a piano scholarship. I'd just like to play the way one would expect a person who got a piano scholarship to play!

I can understand wanting to get to a position where you feel independent, but I'd caution against being completely independent. I'd also read Gyro's comments carefully - I agree with a lot of what he says, but generalisations can be taken too far: a bad teacher may teach you bad habits, but a good teacher shouldn't.

I had piano lessons for a while, then stopped. I picked up a load of bad habits in the years when I 'taught myself' . I managed to get myself to grade 5 or 6 (ABRSM) but with some very screwy fingering and very poor technique. I swallowed my pride and went back to a teacher, and she got me through to grade 8, and started to correct some of my bad habits.

20 years later, I'm only now do I really feel I've left behind the bad habits I taught myself, and I'm now working with a load of very good musicians who I go to for advice. Yes I'm now at a stage where I've got the theory and I believe I'm mature enough to work away at something properly, but I'm still open to feedback from others.

Carolyn - I'm in a similar position to you in that I don't have enough time to practice. I found the most useful thing was to set myself targets such as perfecting a particular piece by a certain date. You need to get the target so it stretches you, but it's still achievable, otherwise you'll get discouraged. I also find that having a deadline to work to works wonders - so having the occasional opportunity to perform, even if it's just for friends and family, is good motivation. Best of luck to you!

Carolyn, are you quite sure about not playing when the children have gone to bed ? When our son was tiny I used to keep on playing long after he went to bed and it never stopped him going to sleep. Might not the deliberate cessation of household noises create a troublesome dependency in the child on silence in order to sleep ? I remember we were told so in our antenatal classes.

I had not thought about it for over twenty years but your post suddenly brought it back to me. You might be going without playing unnecessarily and initiating a habit which will prove hard to break later on.