niggidey noob needs some practice tips!!

[laserbeak43]

Hi there, been practicing piano with my radio shack book set for years!
i cant seem to find them online anymore, but if anyone is familiar with Hal Leonard books, these are the guys that made it. i guess radioshack just distributed it.

anyway, i can impress my old mom but i cant really play well enough for my taste.
can anyone reccomend some practice drils and things that will make my fingers fly?

[pianistimo]

i believe the dohnanyi exercises are under 'sheet music requests.'  i happened to print them out and thought they looked good.  you know - for that in-between stage where you can't quite sight read the really difficult stuff yet - just checking out music from the library can be fun.  i used to take stacks of music and just sightread through it and then pick things that i liked and play them a lot (no matter if they were easy or difficult). 

sometimes you can go to flea markets and find a load of classical music from an estate for pennies on the dollar.  from what you are saying - you need a load of music to just pick from and play.  the fun of music is exploring what's out there and finding something that interests you.  sometimes recordings can give a person an idea of what they want to play, too.

and, don't forget to do a little theory every day.  just a little scritch scratching.  i like to use the adult bastien book for students such as yourself - but there are many others to choose from as well.  also, there are many theory books in the library.

[laserbeak43]

Cool!
that was a good reply! it's like you're thinking for me! on it!
oh, btw, and recommendations for books on theory?

[pianistimo]

it used to be that everything was explained in fine detail (unfortunately smaller print, too) - so library books can be excellent , actually.  take for instance all the time fux spent on writing 'gradus ad parnassum.'  but, then - hardly anyone has the time to go through that until several years of just buzzing through some books such as bastien's theory books or alfred's.  or whatever is cheapest.  i go into the music store and look for quality AND price. 

or, you can order from pepper music some hardcore (fact only) books like 'master theory' by charles peters and paul yoder.  they have different levels - so just start with the first three books (1-3) and you'll be well on your way.  these books are workbooks - so you can write in them - unlike library books.

pepper music has a site on the internet.  i think it's www.peppermusic.com

*i'd still check out the library theory books first- because you could always just buy some score paper and write the answers on that.

[laserbeak43]

cool thanks a lot!

[pianistimo]

there's several really great sites on the internet, too.  i'll look for you.

[laserbeak43]

found an interesting one. https://www.8notes.com/

[pianistimo]

yes.  and dolmetsch has a great site.  there are others too.

https://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm

[laserbeak43]

ok cool, a bit of this a day. will do!!

[landru]

...
sometimes you can go to flea markets and find a load of classical music from an estate for pennies on the dollar.  from what you are saying - you need a load of music to just pick from and play.  the fun of music is exploring what's out there and finding something that interests you.
...

I'll say! I found a complete score of Mendelssohn's Song Without Words for $1 at a library book sale - it was a 1912 Schirmer edition that has fingering that works phenomenally well for my hands. And analyzing the fingerings has given me experience on how to tackle other pieces I don't have 1912 Schirmer editions for. For instance, on the Op. 19 no. 4 he has a fingering of 2-5-1 on the opening C#-A-E. For this beginner it made that passage so much easier and it propels the hand for the rest of the phrase - to me it was genius! Without this suggestion I probably would probably have done an unimaginative 1-5-2 and have a static position to struggle with later on...

So yeah, scores from unexpected places can be some real treasures!

[laserbeak43]

hah! nice!
yeah i'd definately love to learn some fingering secrets!

[pianistimo]

some fingering secrets are with the composer's themselves and their particular hands and what was comfortable and their own styles and education regarding fingering.  for instance, the fingering of chopin and liszt seems a far cry from the convoluted fingering of brahms.  although, brahms music is often so vertical that you have to really plan ahead vertically with three or four finger pedals going on in quick succession. 

i think it's a good idea to start with fairly simple music - even if the challenges are not terrible regarding fingering.  for instance bartok, mussorgsky, saint-saens - and a few others give some interesting insight (some of the scores are fingered) into how hand placement and closeness of lh to rh can manipulate some fingering.  ie taking some lh fingering with rh and visa-versa - or cross-overs.  bach also was unconventional with scalular passages.  typically people learn scale fingerings to help them with basic passages - but sometimes these rules are broken.  especially with modulations to another key or sudden chromatic transitions. 

i found that with portions of the waldstein - it was much easier to use 123454321 on some of the fast passages that had thumb under/over.  i just whizzed along because i knew enough at that point that pre-fingering is simply just an idea for you to choose - but it's not set in stone.  if you don't have any problem getting into the fingering or out of it - then you're fine.  some people finger their music backwards in sections.  that way - you know that what you are leading to is possible to do a certain way.   

[laserbeak43]

yeah feel like i'm gonna end up with my own style anyway. would just like to practice and discover more. it's always cool to read about different techniques.