Any tips for someone who doesn't have a piano teacher?? but can play piano!!

[ahbach]

I have taken lessons for years I have had 4 or 5 teachers in the past few years, dew to the fact that my family moves around alot. right now I am without a teacher and I have no hope of finding one any time soon!!! it really discourages me at times because I know I'm not getting what I need, such as music theory etc.

I was just wondering if anyone has any helpful tips of what I can do to improve my piano skills???

 Thanks!!!

[aslanov]

i started playing piano a year ago, and taught myself. i only recently got a teacher a month ago. but what i did. i learned the notes on a piano and to sight read, which i assume u can do. once thats done. i moved onto a piece that i really felt like i wanted to play because i liked it.....a lot. and that piece was rach prelude op 3 no 2. for you it may be something else. but find it, then just work towards it day by day, but take it slow.

[jhallam1]

I have been getting excellent results by:

(1) Playing any difficult part of a piece in all keys--also, you can do this with any exercise from Hanon, The Virtuosos Pianist, or from Czerny's The Art of Finger Dexterity, or The School of Virtuosity. 

(2) I play any of the above in what are called slow-fast, in impulses.  For example, I play and count a small section of music slowly--maybe very slowly--for four times.  Then I playand count it fast in strict time once.  Then I playand count it fast in strict time twice.  Then thrice.  Then four times.  Then Eight Times.  Then maybe Sixteen or Twenty times, unless I poop out before that. 

(3) I play with added Sixths, Fourths, or Thirds.  I especially like added Sixths.  They never get monotonous.  I do scales, Hanon Exercise Number One, chromatic scales, and anything else, as time permits, with added Sixths, Fourths, or Thirds.  Note: It takes some creativity at times, when playing with added intervals, to work out a fingering that is in compliance with the proper practices of fingering and will still work.  In fingering the Hanon Number One in Thirds, in C-Major, for example, with the Right Hand, I am currently fingering it thus:  1,3.....3,5.....Crossover to 1,3 on F and A, then.....2,4.....3,5.....Now Descending.....2,4.....1,3 Crossover to 2,4 on E ang G, then 1,3 on D and F, and then it's time to start your ascent again... and so on.  I also like to do Chromatic Scales in added Thirds and Sixths.

Also I am currently practicing the Liszt Consolation Number Three with added Sixths in the Left Hand on the arpeggii obligati.   This has brought a lot of new strength and dexterity to my Left Hand.  Trying to makethe arpeggios as legato as if they had been played in without the added Sixths is a bear.  But I think it's worth it to get to that higher level of proficiency.

I also like to have a 20 times a day rule for the more difficult sections of the more difficult pieces.   That is, I try to make sure that I get in a minimum of 20 repetitions per day for those particular sections.  My normal practice is to play one or two repetitions in each octave of the piano, in the case of some of the material I'm working on.

If one is also trying to hold down a job, or is also engaged in an unrelated career, the above strategies can result in faster progress, in my experience.  I'm finding as a result that I'm really getting back into shape on that Hungarian Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra!