Czerny and Manual of Scales, Arpegg, and broken chords

[violinist]

Maybe this goes in the student board.. I'm not sure where this topic goes.  Forgive me if I'm posting on the wrong board.

I wanted to get your opinions on these two exercise books that my piano accompanist gave me.  She just dumped them in my lap (to borrow).

She only gave them to me because I asked what scales and exercises I should do.  She's heard me play piano and thinks I should stick to violin.  But anyway I wanted your valuable thoughts on these two books... Anything thoughts at all.

1. Czerny:  The art of finger dexterity (complete)
2. Beringer and Dunhill:  Manual of Scales, Arpeggios, and Broken Chords (the associated board of the royal schools of music).

Obviously the pianist who gave this to me thinks they are worthy.  But she's not my piano teacher and I didn't want to bug her on details of what she thought of these books.

My goals:  I want to become a much better pianist.  What level.. hard to say.  I want to sort of be at the level of my violin playing someday.  And how to judge that... I've played most of the major concerto's for the violin:  Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mendelsohn, etc.  I'm not saying I want to play concerto's for piano.  I want to be able to be at that level that I could play them.  I don't think there will ever be an orchestra to back me up... maybe music minus one!!!!!!!!

[xvimbi]

I'll tell you what must be my favorite statement as of recently: make sure somone shows you HOW to do the exercises and tells you what their objectives are. Without that they are just a bunch of notes that may well be quite useless if not done properly.

[violinist]

I'll tell you what must be my favorite statement as of recently: make sure somone shows you HOW to do the exercises and tells you what their objectives are. Without that they are just a bunch of notes that may well be quite useless if not done properly.

Very good advice!  I will be in contact with some expert like   you as I try these things.  They look pretty hard.  I think I'll be happy to just get the bunches of notes in place as a first step.  I've just never really played scales and arpeggios on the piano.  Never really liked them for the violin for that matter.

[bearzinthehood]

Violinist, you seem to have a fair amount of resources.  Have you looked around for a good teacher?  A really good teacher can make your playing grow in leaps and bounds.  Even people who are presumably good at the piano need a teacher because they simply cannot see what they are doing the same way a teacher can.

Even with good advice from this forum, IMO you'd still be wasting your time if you tried to learn by yourself.

[violinist]

Violinist, you seem to have a fair amount of resources.  Have you looked around for a good teacher?  A really good teacher can make your playing grow in leaps and bounds.  Even people who are presumably good at the piano need a teacher because they simply cannot see what they are doing the same way a teacher can.

Even with good advice from this forum, IMO you'd still be wasting your time if you tried to learn by yourself.

Hello Bearz!

I'm looking for a teacher.  Sigh... haven't really found one.  But my next strategy is to go around signing up for free masterclasses.  At least I'll get some pointers.  I spent all my money on the steinway.. so I'm trying to get free lessons from these masterclasses - I haven't done one yet on piano.  My piano accompanist person is too busy to take on anymore students.  I'd like to have her as my teacher though.  Maybe I could beg.  I also been scarred by my previous piano teachers   I quit or when I was 9.  Started when I was 5.  But actually I think I was fired by my last piano teacher so... in my mind I said I quit - some kind of defense mechanism.

My good amount of resources come from my connections with the music world, with music professors, etc from my violin.  It puts me next to some great musicians and most importantly pianists!  People seem to be intrigued that I'm learning piano and want to see if it's possible to go from violin to piano.  Although because I learned violin starting at age 7.  It's really going from piano to violin then back to piano after 25 years of not touching the piano.  So... I've only been at it again for now almost 3 months.  So far I've learned two pieces:  Bach invention #1 and the Debussy Arabesque #1.  And as you know  I'm trying out Chopin Nocturne 72, #1.  Lots of #1's there.  I wonder what I should try next?