Learning playing a piano for adults.

[jowook]

I'm a 33 year old guy. It’s been a month and half to learn playing a piano by myself. I don’t have a time to learn from a private teacher, but I practice more than a couple of hour everyday. Is there any effective and efficient approach to learn for adults who can’t hire a teacher? I’m reading Piano Handbook by Carl Humphrey as a text book.  T

hanks in advance.

[ryan2189]

If you have time to practice for a couple hours a day, then why don't you use some of that time for some lessons? If you start out with about an hour every week for each lesson thats plenty.

Good luck 

[jowook]

My playing time is like 10 pm to midnight before I go to bed.  It must be very hard to get a teacher who is willing to teach at this time frame.

[lostinidlewonder]

There are a lot of variables that you have to ask yourself if you want to teach yourself. Firstly you have to have a good ear for music to teach yourself, know when you play a wrong note and know which finger causes the wrong note. To be able to correct yourself quickly is another issue. Being able to read rhythms fluently, recognise chord/scale/arpeggio other patterns both on the sheet music and at your hands. What is your memorisation and sight reading like? How do you improve that? What is your preparation of the score and study like? Do you know how to highlight patterns in the sheet music or write comments to guide your memory?

There is not one book that will help you, you will need many books. Which direction do you want to take? "Classical" or "Jazz/Modern"? Each one works in a different way, jazz places a great deal more emphasis on rhythm control and creativity (with selection of chords/scale improv etc) than classical does, where classical places a lot more emphasis on memorisation and physical technique. Don't get it wrong this doesn;t mean one is easier than the other or harder than the other, they are just two different schools of piano playing the Rhythmic/Creative vs the Technical/Memorised. Both of course can exist between one another but they tend towards their natures more often than not.

Since I am a classical pianist I can only talk about good books for the classical training. Bach 48 Preludes and Fugues, Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Chopin 24 Etudes, Liszt 12 Transcendentale Etudes, these are what you use to further develop your keyboard techinque, of course there are easier pieces you must face before you tackle these but these are the goal, once you play these pieces you are well on your way to play mostly anything out there. These are the only books I can say EVERY SERIOUS pianist should study some time in their life. What you study to lead up to the ability to study these pieces is completely left up to you.

[jowook]

There is not one book that will help you, you will need many books. Which direction do you want to take? "Classical" or "Jazz/Modern"? Each one works in a different way, jazz places a great deal more emphasis on rhythm control and creativity (with selection of chords/scale improv etc) than classical does, where classical places a lot more emphasis on memorisation and physical technique.

I'm a huge fan of jazz. I want to play some jazz songs. That's why I started learning. But my book( Piano Handbook) seems like focusing on the classic rather than jazz/modern. I probably need to change books. Thanks for advice.

[plunkyplink]

I think it's really cool that you're interested in learning to play piano. I have a classical piano background, and I went for my first jazz piano lesson on Wednesday. Wow, I was surprised at how different classical and jazz playing are! I was also surprised that jazz piano is based heavily on theory. Basically jazz is all about improvisation.

My jazz teacher said there's a saying in jazz that goes like this, "if you're playing from a piece of paper, you aren't playing jazz". Interesting. But, it's not all loosey-goosey play random stuff, there's a ton of music theory, and jazz language. It's well worth the investment to get a teacher, I think. Although my jazz teacher mentioned there was a good jazz piano teaching program for the Mac, so maybe you could check that out. I bet you might be able to find a jazz piano teacher who'd be willing to give a lesson at 10-12, they're night-owl types, I think.

[notturno]

For me one big advantage of a teacher is that someone else is listening to you play and is pointing out flaws in both musicality and technique.  I'm in the same boat, an adult who doesn't have a teacher has to practice in the deep dark of the night.  I've found that recording myself performing a piece really helps me to hear the weak spots and hear whether the piece has a flow or is just a series of unrelated segments.  Even using a cheap tape recorder will work, since it tends to accentuate harsh playing.

Still, get a teacher if you can.