Teaching Yourself

[anti]

Hi.

I took piano lessons for over a year 6-7 years ago. Then, unfortunately, I quit. My teacher was driving me nuts.

Now I'm 18 and I'm starting to regret that decision. The thing is, though, now I'm stuck in college and I have a really busy schedule. There's no night time teaching available in the small town I live in, so I thought I might try some teach yourself books. I already received teaching for over a year, so I thought it might be possible to teach myself, having gotten a rather tight grasp over the basics through the lessons I took when I was younger.

But I have two questions.

1. Is it feasible for me? I'd be spending maybe half an hour each day, practicing. Would I be able to progress through books alone?
2. What are good books on the subject? (I did a quick search on Amazon and found these two books:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0793525446/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/102-3969019-2229745?v=glance&s=books&n=507846&st=*
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879307277/qid=1132029661/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-3969019-2229745?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Can anyone recommend these or others for me?

I'd really appreciate all the input I could get.

Thank you.

[zheer]

Well am much older than you, 11 years older to be exact, so my friend are either married to busy with their career ,or at univursity, so piano playing is not that important. However when i was younger i never took any piano exams so i had no answer to that question, hence i playd what i could and to the best of ability.
Play them the first MVT of Moonlight sonata and they will love it.

[abell88]

Two questions:

1. How much did you learn the first time? (Please be specific about scales - chords - techniques - pieces.)

2. What are your goals now? Do you aspire to a concert career? Do you have a few classical, pop, or jazz pieces in mind you would like to play?

The more specific you can be, the more help others can offer you.

In the meantime, perhaps you could find out if any of your fellow students are fairly accomplished, and take some lessons from them?

[anti]

Well, it's hard for me to answer that exactly as, honestly, I don't really remember. This was 6-7 years ago, and I haven't touched the piano since. I remember learning a bunch of different scales and chords, but I wouldn't be able to do more than a couple of them now. And as for pieces, I didn't do anything well known. I did a couple of the easier Mozart pieces... Can't tell you exactly which, unfortunately.

What I want to be able to do is play classical music. For myself. I don't want a concert career, I just want to be able to play some of the awesome classical music I've heard.

I'm sorry I can't be more specific than this.

I don't know anyone that plays now. I know a couple that used to play, but quit around my level... I guess that's not much help.

[aryantes]

I started out teaching myself and I thought I was learning a lot. A few days and I could memorize a piece but then I hit a wall where I couldn't teach myself how to get past some parts.

Then I got a teacher and in 2 months, I am sure I learned and played tons tons tons better than the 8 months ish that I tried to teach myself. Sure, my teacher said "wow you can play that? that's way over the skill level that I see you performing at in these books."

if you really wanted to sit down and play that moonlight sonata, all movements, no doubt you could do it, over a very long time, a lot of practice and a lot of memorization.

You could probably do this with any piece. pick it apart, learn it, note for note.

What you do get out of a teacher is going to be more than that. Even though I have just started, I can see huge differences in what a teacher can do for you.

Learn to see patterns, how music works, you can learn a piece many times faster if you know the composition behind it.

I also had a few bad habits, slurring keys, holding too long, weird posture sometimes. Things I would have never been able to fix by myself.

My teacher is taking me through the Bastien lesson books and they are pretty cool. Cool in the fact that I enjoy doing them AND they are helping me.

I am 23 now, never played in the past, but I am obsessed and live and breathe piano now and I won't let it up but I don't think I could get to where I want to be, without a teacher.

Some of my inspiration came from a lot of the classical I listen to but..... huge inspiration from video game music I wanted to be able to play 

No doubt though, if you have a few pieces you would like to learn and you can dedicate a lot of time to just those pieces, you can probably learn anything you wanted.

But if you want to be able to build up a nice repertoire and probably sight read a lot of cool stuff then I think a teacher is a necessity.

I don't expect a concert career, never even entered my mind. Passion is the only thing that can make up for lack of time.

I have the hanon and it is a supplement to my learning, feels like its helping but it doesn't make me learn any faster.

If you merely cannot get a teacher, then hopefully someone can recommend some books for you hehe. The bastien is pretty beginner stuff, not sure what your level is.

[lani_piano_learner]

Thanks aryantes ...

I've been trying to ignore that fact i KNOW i need a teacher but your post reminded me this!

I already play clarinet and felt the exact same way about getting a teacher verse self taught. I dont know why i thought i could manage without one!

Now I'm off to try and find a good teacher I can afford and lets me have fortnightly lessons!