I'm 17 and am currently studying for my AS-levels. All of my friends are doing their A2's and are a year above me because I flubbed my GCSE's from toking too much and generally not caring. I am doing Music, Maths, Media Studies and
Applied Business Studies (more coursework, less exams).
When I first started piano (I think I was about 5 or 6) I loved it, mainly because my teacher was hot
She had to stop teaching me though after Grade2 because she had to go to University, so I took up lessons with a new teacher, who was quite harsh and demanding. This made me completely lose passion for the piano, and I never did any practice. Eventually she stopped the lessons because they were just becoming silly (I wasn't improving whatsoever) and I stopped playing for quite a few years (during which I tried and failed in learning the saxophone). Then, during my GCSE's, I made friends with some other pianists, one of them being awesomely good and giving me inspiration to take it up again, so I did and have ever since been playing, but not been doing grades. I have great ease with memorising pieces but my sightreading is quite poor - the complete opposite of my dad: excellent sightreading (if ever he wants to play a piece to me, he can play it straight off with minimal mistakes and a fair bit of musicality) but poor memorisation. I feel I am quite good at the piano, being able to play most stuff after learning for a long time, but mistakes are quite often. Unfortunately, my hands aren't completely independent, and this hinders my learning, added to my weak fourth and fifth finger and inability to trill with any but my second and third, and still not that controlled. However I am determined to better my technique, and have recently come across an online book which seems extremely helpful, so hopefully you will read my name on a concert poster at one point in time
The only piece I know entirely is my friend's AS Music composition, and it's a wonderful piece. All other pieces I have tried I have stopped learning them from lack of motivation, and I can't seem to carry them on. They include:
Capriccio in F#minor - Brahms
Song without words (don't know which one) - Mendelssohn
Prelude in C#minor Op.3 No.2 - Rachmaninov
Mephisto Waltz No.1 - Liszt
And the one I'm currently 2pages away from completing is Gnomenreigen by Liszt, which gives me grief with the runs.
Hiline: try reading this online book that was posted on this forum, here's a link to the topic:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,15855.0.htmlIt teaches great basic fundamentals for practicing and learning to play the piano, many of which are counter-intuitive.
Henrah
Topic: Introduction