Well guys, I've done some thinking. What's something that is a weakness in your piano skills/rep/knowledge? We talk about strengths here alot, but what about stuff we don't do quite as well?


I am god-awful at sightreading duets. I am horrible. Counting and working with another player on top of sightreading drives me insane and I usually do poorly with some pretty simple stuff. Sightreading duets has been something I've been working on as part of my teachers plan to make me a pretty well rounded pianist and musician. Just like anything, I'm going to need to practice it alot more.

What's yours?
Matt

As you say, I'm bad at duets. And I've got to do one for a Christmas recital with my teacher...

My greatness weakness IN the piano is my height. Just not much space in there, especially since I don't get to play in the F308.

Sightreading definitely! And speeding through pieces, my teacher is always yelling at me to count and slow down!

Hahah, a lot of people have that problem I bet.


Matt

My knowledge of theory, especially harmony, is somewhat superficial.

I know the rudiments well enough to be conversant and can recognize common chords and cadences, but but structural analysis is, by and large, beyond me.

I'd like a deeper understanding both as a matter of principle and because it might make me a better memorizer.

Steven

Technique and precision. I play very sloppily. Trying to improve that, but it's an uphill battle.

octaves...but i've started to overcome that problem

Arpeggios are my weakness and have always been! Back in the days when I took piano lessons every single teacher told me I was stiff, especially with arpeggios. I remember a time when I was 14 and entering a piano competition and had to do this Chopin Waltz in Db major and literally spending 3 hours in my teacher's class trying to get them right and I was almost in tears by the end of it!!

Plus, I'm a horrible sight reader. I tend to learn things "perfectly" then play it off by heart, and do that forever with that piece. So my repertoire is quite limited...

So don't get me to sight-read arpeggiated passages

My weakness is my left hand: I just don't have the dexterity I would like. My 3rd and 4th fingers are particularly immobile. It's been getting better, particularly since I've been concentrating a lot on Bach, but its still not at the level I want it to be. Arpeggios are particularly bad in my left hand so I understand Tar above.

All technique all around.

Since I compose, my weakness will be fugue writing. I cannot committ to writing a decent fugue . I hear Bach pieces and Sorabji's fugue writing and I feel so crappy. It will be another couple of months before something decent is written on the paper.

I've noticed that my right and left hands are capable of completely different things. My left hand is MUCH better at arpeggios than my right hand is, but then my left hand sucks at doing runs (even simple ones) and repeated strikes. I guess it goes on to show what sort of thing I've been playing: tuneful at the top, "boring" arpeggiated accompaniment at the bottom...

In case it wasn't noticed, my earlier post was a hint at the syntactical error of the OP. In piano performance, my greatest weakness is tempo control.

It reminded me of Groucho Marx's quip:

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

Steven

Feeding too much technique into my improvisation to prove to myself I can perform certain extreme movements. This is unnecessary and can be detrimental to the musical result. Once in a while is okay but I still do it too often.

- I'm a horrible sight-reader
- I somehow get tired in my left shoulder
- x against x, except for 2 against 3

1. Saying "Yes" too much.

2. Inconsistency on stage.

Pretty much every weakness in the book :p

But if I had to pick one, sight reading.

Getting the motivation to practice and not just play

1) Tempo control. I tend to rush things, particularly rests in slow movements. It's partially the drugs (don't ask).

2) Arpeggios.

3) "Stride" type bass parts. While my left hand is pretty strong, I've never been particularly good at bouncing from place to place down yonder. I like to blame it on my small hands.

4) Everything else.

That was about the last thing I would have said, until you said it.

But I have arranged and transcribed and done my share of composing—composing has only been for students. I can mimic the style of most famous composers to some degree, with one absolute failure, and you just mentioned it.

I could not write a fugue even remotely like what Bach did on his worst day, not if I had 10 lifetimes to work at it. I just look at them, take them apart, study them in every possible way, and remain totally amazed.

Some of his earlier ones aren't all that hot. I bet if you actually practiced writing fugues by writing one a day (wasn't it Bruckner who did that, first thing in the morning?) you eventually would get the hang of it and write one as good as some of Bach's worst ones.

Oh, let's see:

- scales, in all of their permutations
- arpeggios
- block chords
- broken chords
- tone
- Schubert
- expression
- dexterity
- analysis of pieces
- Mozart, Haydn
- anything with "transcendental" in the title
- stylistic appropriateness
- anything moving faster than MM 60
- anything with "etude" or "study" in the title
- anything written in the last 100 years
- Debussy
- never playing for others
- playing for my own pleasure with low standards
- getting spread to thin
- often feeling a sort of knee-jerk competitiveness with other pianists, even though I don't even play for others (yikes! - how neurotic is that? and how do I stop it?)
- not having a teacher
- mindless playing out of habit
- being old
- lacking confidence in what I can do
- trills
- contrapuntal music

LOL!!

Another one I know I'm guilty of:

"Adhere to a constant note density as far as possible throughout the performance. If a passage is full of notes, slow it down. If a passage is full of minims and semibreves, speed it up."

Weaknesses? Who has weaknesses? Who - having any - would admit it publicly? What is this, a PWA (Piano Weakness Anonymous) meeting? :p

Since we're all "spilling the beans" on ourselves here, here's mine:

Impatience. (sorry, I know some of you have rather extensive inventories, but that's the only one I could think of right now).

I'm impatient to get to that intensely pleasurable point in the study of any given piece where I've reasonably mastered it - where I can play it as the composer intended, with all the right notes at the correct tempo with all the specified dynamics and all of the required "musicality".

In most cases aftera few brief run-thrus I can "hear" almost immediately how it "should" finally sound and I know instantly how I want to be able to ultimately play it, but I end up trying to do so far too soon, rushing thru it's phrases in my practice much too fast. I'm constantly battling with myself to slow my practice down and gradually over constant repetition increase the tempo up to speed, add the dynamics and play the whole piece with the feeling and emotional substance and technical precision expected from the work's composer.

But that's probably just a unique problem with me - or maybe not . . .

Regards, JF

I definitely relate to that, John.

And a counterproductive corollary is impatiently ramping the tempo up to speed too quickly, which makes it difficult to return to the slow-tempo practice that's most needed.

Steven

p.s. Is there really a Piano Weakness Anonymous? Usually, the acronym PWA means something different.

Hmmm...probably speed with accuracy. I can never play La Campanella's top fast notes right, it either gets sloppy or I hit wrong notes.

2nd thing would be actually practicing. I play a lot but I never actually take the time to practice the pieces I should.

Thank you for your input. What you said is true. Bach's compositions from Art of Fugue are just written in such a masterful way with good melody and perfect counterpoint. I can do all of it and yet I rip the compositions to threads because I can admit I am horrible at fugues. Sorabji loved Bach and transcribed a prelude and the chromatic fantasy, but we see the influence of the fugue in his huge works, and those make me cry. How is someone able to write such complex fugues using up 3-5 staves? Perhaps this field of composition is not for everyone but I will continue my personal studies. Good luck with you as well. =)

I'd say mine is getting discouraged. I'll go through periods where I feel like I play horribly and can't do anything right, then there are other days where I feel great about my playing and play much better.
I also get very nervous when performing ><

All the above!!(except for the composition stuff.. that is well beyond my pay grade)
At times I get so impatient and my tempo so inconsistent throughout a piece that my (cruel) teacher decided that "the only remedy" is to make me c o u n t, loud
The IPBAH does not work for this teacher ..

Despite his love for Bach, Chopin didn't have much affinity for writing fugues. Listening to his sole essay in that form might make you feel much better about your own skill.

Steven

^ Thanks . I still plan on writing fugues in the future. There are so many contrapuntal pieces that I seem to have a strong liking for, so I must committ to learn and better structure my compositions. I just hope they are blessed with good melody, something Chopin possessed in abundance.

Human being that I am I will admit to having many weaknesses, musical and otherwise. As far as playing the piano goes I enjoy and play all kinds of muic. Classical is my favorite, but I also enjoy baroque, romantic, pops, jazz, ragtime, new age and anything else in between. My problem (or weakness) if you prefer, is that I play so many different pieces during my practice times I never seem to master anything. I read in the PW forums where pianists talk about pieces they are working on and only dream of having the discipline to do that.

Several people have mentioned rushing and consistency (specifically tempo control) in performance. I certainly can identify with these.

With me it would seem that in the heat of the moment my sense of time/tempo is somehow distorted by adrenaline/etc.; I don't realize I am speeding up. Focusing on breathing, mindful awareness and simulating performance situations while checking actual tempo at interim points have helped somewhat.

Question: what specific approaches have worked for others to successfully address this weakness?

Technically- Octaves...fast octaves to be exact

Musically- I'm not sure if this is a wekaness or not but I tend to be quite narcissistic when it comes to practicing. I will spend 2 hours or more trying to get the most out of a phrase or a group of two or three phrases. After a couple hours i'll realize that I haven't worked on anything else and that I still have a ton of music to learn. I do this most with Beethoven than I do with most other composers.

What, that's all?

Oh, I'd like to add a general lack of repertoire.


Matt

Trills, for sure. I can do any small trills, as in just one or two beats without a problem....but extending trills particularly in my right hand is trouble. I'm improving that though pretty quickly.
Also sight reading....I'm getting a lot better through constant practice....but it still could improve a lot.

well, let's see... how long of a list do you want. But I can probably narrow it.

I graduated in Theory/composition, so that's no problem.
My musicology work was in early choral music, so that's ok--in transcribing and performance practice, especially of Baroque & earlier.
sightreading is cake to me--I love it--and I really enjoy piano 4 hands.
I can't rush through pieces--every tried rushing through Rachmaninoff's 3rd? ha! If you can, I'm sure out of my depth, here.
My biggest weakness is playing at speed, arpeggios and chromatic. especially 16th note arpeggios, when the quarter is set to 144 --but that's changing, as I'm finally understanding the advantage of flat-finger playing and when to use it. Go Horowitz.

I have small hands with hyper mobility.
Thus, I tend to over-extend, to reach notes, I shouldn't even attempt. This can be physically detrimental.
Octaves are okay, but go to a 9th and it's a real stretch.

In performance, it's nerves--shaky hands.
It's not so good to be playing a trill when I'm supposed to be holding a single note : ) .

My memorization is poor, sometimes non-existent.--even with analyzation.
I can still flub when playing from memory.
& any pianist, to be able to play, has to get out of the (sheet) music and into the sound that is being made.

My transposing is also not as I'd like.
I'm trying to use movable clefs, but they are a struggle.
when asked to move a piece to a key further than a third away, I panic.

I practice long, too long. This could be cut down if I really focused and worked only a few things at a time, instead of many.

Sorry for the late entry.

Technic


oh .. and sightreading


oh oh .. and theory.

accuracy, cleanness and nerves

Sight reading.
I cannot read/play anything right away that I haven't practiced/memorized (memorizing comes by itself while practicing), unless it is something extremely simple.

Nerves.
When I record something I'm totally on edge to play it as good as I possibly can. If the recording is going well, I will realize this about halfway through the piece and then I can get very nervous with shaky hands. So bad it affects playing.
I'm less stressed when playing for other people because they don't care for mistakes as much as I do when I make a recording.

Tempo control. And anything dissonant takes ages to memorise. As for fugues - yikes! Polyphonic and me not friends!!

And my fingering sucks but somehow manages to pull difficult pieces off....devil at octaves though!

The urge to play it MY WAY regardless of how it's written... fine for me... not good if it matters...

Frankly, that was more than sufficient, and horribly depressing. One wonders why not just quit playing the piano and be done with it. Obviously there are too many issues at stake, best to give it all a miss. Piano playing should not be that difficult, nor the appreciation of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert or Debussy. To me, they are utterly great composers, and piano music would not be the same without them.

Score-reading. The distinction with sight-reading being that it usually involves more staves and/or other clefs (alto, tenor) and/or mental transpositions.

I wasn't especially strong at sight-reading regular pieces to begin with (though I could get by), but with so much extra stuff, my brain just explodes.

in a full fighting mode tonight Afan, are you not?

Well I noticed the (always comforting from a contributor I admire and quite like), but I just couldn't help being a bit alarmed by that list which literally covered everything a pianist should not be weak in. Otherwise, what is the point?

One is reminded of Richard Strauss's comment upon hearing that Hans Pfitzner found composing extraordinarily difficult. 'Well then, why does he bother?'

I don't claim to be a great pianist -I think I'm a much better service organist- but if the basic components of playing the piano are that difficult, I suggest one's energy be put to better use elsewhere. That is all, okay? Eh?

Wow this could almost describe me, except I don't play new age or ragtime, though I'm planning on tackling ragtime sometime in the future.

Related to this thread, I recently read a thread at one of the keyboard forums I go to. Most of the people who post on the keyboard forums are rock and pop musicians who are gigging musicians, usually in bands, but sometimes solo. Many have been playing and gigging for 20 years or more. The question was, who feels like they are a good keyboardist. In a thread that was at least 4 pages long, no one felt satisfied with their playing, or that they were an accomplished musician.

Still my right reading and little fingers. Hanon has really helped to improve my left hand and I can play fluently by ear with either hand, but playing difficult pieces for too long causes cramping and pain down the outer little finger side of the hands. However my strength is gradually improving as is the length of time that I can play for using all fingers. I have only been using my little finger for 4 months in total now, all my life of playing I avoided using it because it was too weak to do anything.

I find it difficult to learn to sight read because I am an accurate player by ear. Once I have played a section a few times, I have already memorised it and no longer play it by reading the score, but it takes me far too long to learn the whole piece by memorisation.

I bought the score for the Charleston last week, and my difficulty is not in playing the notes or the piece, but in learning the 7 pages of 4 note quaver chords on both hands .

I want to be able to sight read, but it is the most difficult part of playing the Piano to learn.

Pretty much everything listed by WR could apply to me - except swap Bach for Mozart and Hayden, and emphasise the 'tone', 'expression' and 'analysis'.
(Oh, and I have a teacher.)

Where are the teachers here??

Of course teachers don't have any weaknesses, right?

Wrong!

I'm with you Debussy... My greatest weakness is accompanying at sight and duet playing at sight, unless it is really easy. I definately feel more comfortable practicing what I am going to play, especially when it is with someone else... I have a hard time faking through it, which I've been told is what you need to do, when playing from sight. I suppose I don't like to be a sloppy player. Too much of a perfectionist type... maybe

Another definate weakness is that I spend too much time HERE. When I should practicing!
Although, the stimulating conversation does add up to something!

At the conservatory we did so much analysis that when it came time to actually play the piece I was already sick of it. There are a few Bach pieces that I still won't touch to this day because they bring back memories of horrific theory assignments.

Anyway, I would say my biggest weakness is not being more well rounded. I don't seem to have many obscure composers on my repertoire list. There's a lot of beautiful stuff out there from people that are nearly forgotten.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by pianobuff:
[QB] Where are the teachers here??


I'm with you Debussy... My greatest weakness is accompanying at sight and duet playing at sight, unless it is really easy. I definately feel more comfortable practicing what I am going to play, especially when it is with someone else... I have a hard time faking through it, which I've been told is what you need to do, when playing from sight. I suppose I don't like to be a sloppy player. Too much of a perfectionist type... maybe

Hang on, I'm new to the quoting business. Anyway, I'm just beginning my foray into my performance education, but that is something that I am already worried about. I don't think I will be very good at accompanying because I tend to sort of lose myself in the process. I'm worried that I won't do any justice to the person I'm playing with.

Bachchica, you need to add the following to end[/b] of the post you wanted to quote:

[/qb][/quote]


It's not case sensitive.

Essay: "Winning the Game" - "About reducing our "big weaknesses"

Like friends are former strangers, strengths are former weaknesses.

It's just a conversion process requiring you being at the helm, because, without you, little to nothing would happen.

Whether one new friend at a time, or, one new strength at a time, the one present moment that we now have is the place that you make your progress in meeting goals.

Time management and task management produces good results. Accumulate as many of those one moments as you can, and sometime in the future you will have accomplished your goals.

In working on converting the ratio of weakness and strengths, one might consider that a musician learns to thrive on practice and work and our efforts and time soon contribute to a winning ratio.

In a way, "Resolve" enters into the equation, does it not? The carpet cleaning product really works well to reduce and eliminate the annoying "spots" on our dirty carpets. When we give serious attention to the carpet by "zapping" the areas needing treatment, we get results, isn't the formula for piano study similar?

Resolve these things!

Betty

Small technique passages that go on for pages and pages. Which is why the winterwind etude freaks me out more than any other piece. There are a few pieces I refuse to touch because of this.. If it's something I HAVE to do I'll learn it (like the 3rd mvt of Chopin f minor concerto.. NIGHTmare for me) but I never feel comfortable performing such pieces/passages. Ugh.

A lot of things, but i'm slowly but surely getting better at allof them.
My worst thing would be my sight reading, and it also takes me ages to learn pieces

My biggest weakness? My nerves, no doubt.
Nevertheless, I'm getting rid of them (although there will always be some nervousness... for example, in auditions), plus I'm going to start doing some sports, so I'll be feeling much better!

What are you guys sight reading? Because if you're sight reading Rachmaninov's Concertos, then I understand your problems tee-hee! No, I was only joking, but I'd like to know what kind of things are you sight reading, please.

Objectively, my biggest weakness is probably sight reading. However, the weakness I hate the most (purely because I can get past bad sight reading through practice) is poor dynamic control. I hate that I can't/it's really hard to separate pp/p/mf/f/ff in more minute adjustments because it makes a lot of difference, IMO, in how the final product ends up sounding.

At my very modest skill level, I cannot seem to remember stuff. I have to read everything, even simple pieces. Very embarassing when "visiting a grand piano" in someone's house and they say "play something". Arghh. I'm thinking of stuffing a few Xeroxed score sheets in my pocket when I go out!
Cheers,
Roger

Improvising, even just playing basic chord progressions.

It's not case sensitive. [/quote]

Check it out, I can quote properly now! Thanks!

You're welcome! Except that with the new forums, you no longer need the [qb][/qb] tag. [quote][/quote] should do it!

Well I will mention the difficulties as the following. Cannot read music, never been taught. Have played for 70 years +.

Next,insufficient practice. Really need teaching the fingering for arpeggios runs and scales. My way, I know the correct notes usually but lack the dexterity of fingering'

Would like fingers/hands like the best jazz pianists have. Fats Waller for example.

My learning is completely by memory of the keyboard, meaning I play along to CDs with much of my time to learn the music. Stride and Boogie both need loads more practice.

I adore the piano as an instrument and never tire of it.

swingal

Sight reading is a skill you can improve so easily.. The more you do it, the better you'll be at it. And the quicker you'll start learning rep. I used to be beyond horrible but after being forced to take it school and doing some on my own I sight read well enough to get my way through a rehearsal, sight reading (not everything though.. Shostakovich akufhskdhf). Just do Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, concertos, Chopin anything, Haydn, Bach's really helpful for sight reading, etc..

Evenness in trills and generally fast passages.

Who has only one?

I can relate to John Frank's post too. I tend to hear the music in my head way long before I've learned the music, and want to bring it up to the finishing stages too soon. Combine that with good sight reading, and the rest is history. This goes along with staying focused on the current projects. I find myself wandering through a book if I choose a single sonata from it, for example.

Let's see I like this sonata by Scarlatti, but oh wait, there's another one that sounds fun to play, oh wait there another one, hmmm... that one tastes good too. So in the end, the sonata that I started is only started along with a bunch more that I've only started and never finished.

Another one of my biggest weaknesses is memorization. I haven't done it in nearly 30 years now, with very few intenions of doing it again if I don't have to.

Keeping the tempo the same when repeating a section. I think this is a momentum thing. I tend to play the second time through a bit faster than the first. I really need to work on this because this makes the 2nd half of a sonata, for example, much more difficult than it should be.

I'm also overly picky of my own playing, and sometimes will never "finish" off a piece because I find that I've done something that's not satisfying to me. I'm sure we all have this in us; it's a musician/pianists' trait.

John

My touch is like an awkward person that stares at you from the corner until everyone in the room feels terrible.

What makes sightreading difficult for so many people? (no offense to anyone!) I am just asking because sightreading is not a weakness of mine, but I played a clarinet/flute duet with a friend a while back, and she has difficulty sightreading, and I don't understand why it is difficult.

My weakness? Playing the piano in front of an audience. (and that problem only occurs when I play the PIANO. nothing else.) I remember when I used to take piano lessons for 3 years(then I quit, but I still play a lot, and I have gotten better), and I never had ANY problems with recitals. Then I attempted to play a solo for a talent show, and I my mind went completely blank and all in all, my song ended horribly (it may not be THAT bad, but I thought it was). In the end, I am now deathly afraid of playing the piano in front of an audience, except for jazz band. (I quit playing 4 years ago, for a total of 7 years of experience.)

What may have changed?
The only thing I can think of was from when I went through a 7-month period of having no interest in the piano. Then I met a good friend of mine, who is also a pianist, which inspired me to play again. Ever since then, I usually play for an hour or three (or four) every day.

without question it is runs up and down the piano at speed.....whether they be in arpeggios, chromatics or just plain scales...

also playing the same as above in thirds...

also any passage i get up to that states doppio movimento haha

oh gosh i forgot one.....learning to play pieces that have a right hand and left hand that are out of kilter with number of notes.....you know like debussy arabesque or chopin fantasie impromptu (12 notes in LH 15 notes in RH)...took me a few days just to get that one bar correct! once you've got the hang of it for your particular piece it is all gravy from there of course!

After this mornings early efforts I would say my brain is my biggest weakness. Wake up at the back there!

Technically I have many weaknesses,to single one out would be tough and unfair on the others, so I am going to plump for a tendency to stay in my comfort zone. Particularly first thing in the morning.