Getting Started

[swim4ever_22]

Ok. So I decided to pick up the piano after 10 years of never playing. This is what I've got to get me started:

Schumann's Album for the Young
Debussy's Children's Corner
Albert's Piano Favorites
Albert's Piano Classics
A bunch of sheet music by Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff from the sheet music archives.
Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist
Czerny: School of Velocity
Schmidt: Opus. 18

Now here's the question... where should I start? I know all my basic theory... such as rests, notes, their values, etc. I can read both clefs. I want to build up my repertoire and technique so that in a few years I'll be able to play some of the great works by Chopin, Liszt, and other composers. So where should I start?

[leucippus]

I only just began recently myself.  I'm 57.

I downloaded a whole lot of sheet music like what you have listed.  And I wasn't sure where to start either.  I actually started with a Burgmüller piece "La Candeur".  Although, there nothing special about that piece and I wouldn't recommend it for any reason whatsoever other than it was fairly easy and I kind of liked it.

What I would recommend isn't even on your list.  I would recommend the 12 studies by Köhler to start out with. I found them to be the most useful of all.  You can find them here:

12 Köhler Etudes

I actually wrote the review on that page so you can read my thoughts there.

Here's what I has to say about Hanon:

Hanon Review

If you are a self-learner you might find Hanon useful like I did.

After that I tried several different pieces by Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann (from his Album for the Youth)

I didn't find any of those pieces particularly rewarding.

Then I started in on some stuff by Debussy and I found that to be EXTREMELY rewarding.  But that's just me.

In short, I would recommend that you play whatever you LIKE.  Let that be your guiding principle.

[robertp]

I started again after a similar hiatus.

Started small, about 20 minutes a day. Scales, arps some Hanon, some beginner's pieces (Burgmuller) (last time I'd played I was sort of Intermediate Plus. Gradually upped it to an hour a day, then started upping the pieces. After about 6 weeks I thought I had enough back to go after a teacher. It made a tremendous difference, and my playing...got way beyond where it was when the hiatus started.

I'd be just a little caeful about the Schumann and Debussy. What they ask is variably difficult, depending on the piece. Is why I think getting a teacher once things are going again is essential. In the hiatus, I found I'd lost a lot of previous bad habits. But it became clear to me that if I'd waited much longer for a teacher, I would have...picked up some new bad habits  .

[lostinidlewonder]

It doesn't really matter what you learn, so long you learn pieces which each do explore different technique. So there is no real point to learn every single peice in the School of Velocity because some practice basically the same idea as others.

It would be good to be able to identify what pieces explore what types of techniques (sometimes this is why having a teacher to help out here is good), and what you feel you need to improve most upon. Also identifying movements which are totally impossible for you, and determining procedure to move up towards being able to produce it.

Basically for those starting out again I get them to know how to play Chordal passages, that is chords in both hands. Melodic passages where one hand takes a melody, the other supports with chords/patterns (like a Chopin Waltz/Joplin Rag Lh leaping patterns), arpeggios, scales etc. Part writing, such as Bach's two part inventions, where both hands produce polyphony. I would ignore fancy stuff like huge stretching arpeggios or chords, fancy ornamentations or intervals with great velocity and intricate fingering in one hand. It is important to learn the general way to play pieces again, then learn how to dress it up.

I would really stress the importance of learning Bach. You shouldn't ever seperate yourself from his works no matter what level you play the piano at. It is in my opinion the most essential keyboard music to play, with the least number of notes producing the fullest sounds, excersising an enormous amount of technique.

[swim4ever_22]

See... this is what I was going to do. I can't get a teacher because I work too much, and because of school, I wouldn't be able to find time to practice regularly and prepare material for a teacher, so I was just going to go at my own pace. What I thought about doing was going through Schumann's Album for the Young, sort of as a workbook, because they are simple pieces. After that, I thought about going through Debussy's Children's Corner, building up more technique/repertoire. My favorite works are Beethoven's Sonatas, anything by Chopin, Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and many of his other works, Some things by Debussy, and Rachmaninoff. That is what I want to play, but much of it is beyond my ability at this point. So... I want to build up to that. And I thought that that plan would be a good way to go about it.

[Yui Vo]

Hi Lostinidlewonder,

I'm just starting to learn how to play the piano and I'm reading and playing the notes very, very slowly. I printed 50 Little Studies by Carl Czerny and practiced for 30 minutes or more almost every day. I'm making progress. Please recommend me some easy, short classical songs for me to practice as well.

Many Thanks,
Yui.

[kimba1055]

Hi Lostinidlewonder,

I'm just starting to learn how to play the piano and I'm reading and playing the notes very, very slowly. I printed 50 Little Studies by Carl Czerny and practiced for 30 minutes or more almost every day. I'm making progress. Please recommend me some easy, short classical songs for me to practice as well.
well, 1 j s bach 18 short prelude
        2 j s bach  15 inventions
        3 well temperded clavier
   

if you master that you can play any piece you like.
Many Thanks,
Yui.

[Yui Vo]

kimba1055,

I will try those. You encourage me. Thanks for your kind advice.

My Best Regards,
Yui.

[eva maria 144]

Hey!!
I'd start with Hanon and Schumann

Schumann's Album for the Young[/font][/font][/font]
Debussy's Children's Corner
Albert's Piano Favorites
Albert's Piano Classics
A bunch of sheet music by Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff from the sheet music archives.
Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist
Czerny: School of Velocity
Schmidt: Opus. 18

[eva maria 144]

Sorry... don't know how this happened...

so i'd start with hanon and schumann, after some time czerny instead of hanon or better: complementary, then some of the sheet music or schmidt.

Good luck!!! Eva

[guendola]

I think you should have a big project and a small project all the time. The small projects will be short pieces that you can learn within a week or two, the big project will take longer, up to a few months (you said you can't practise regularly).

For the big project take something long such as Schuberts Impromptus or Moments Musicaux. It doesn't ned to be difficult but you want to play this piece without mistakes, with good musical expression and confidence when playing - and it should always feel good (no bad tension, no distorted wrists or overstretched fingers etc.). So this will actually take quite a while but it leads you back to good technical playing.

For the smaller projects, just have fun with easy pieces, try to play them as nicely as you can, analyse the music for more appropriate expression, experiment with wrong interpretations etc. This is where you reactivate your musical instincts, and you build up a small repertoire for causal performances.

Czerny, Cortot, Hanon - whatever you like - just don't overdo it, these things can hurt badly, especially since you are used to be playing much better than today.

By the way: I had a break of 28 years on the keys and now, after 7 months I am far beyond what I could do earlier. Thanks to a good teacher, internet community and a somewhat more mature brain

[slobone]

Take a look at Bartok's Mikrokosmos. It starts at the VERY beginning but goes up to a pretty good level (by the end of V. 6). Somewhat modern in tonality, but not painfully so, and a good introduction to one of the greatest 20th century composers.

And don't forget to allow a little time every day for just fooling around. That means sight reading an easy piece, or trying to play pop tunes by ear, a little boogy woogy, whatever you enjoy. Piano playing doesn't have to be deadly serious all the time...