What is the hardest part in learning to play piano?

[go12_3]

I don't recall what the hardest part in learning to play piano as a  young student.  but perhaps you students can remember when you first started to play the piano. However,  I am still learning new pieces and I feel that the  fingering, tempo, changes of key signatures, memorizing(I used to in my earlier years)are the hardest. Of course, you will think of the most hardest piece you have and are learning.  And that can cover most areas of piano playing.  Did you have a hard time with counting?  Or fingering?  Technique?  Whatever, that comes to mind.  Thanks!      go12_3

[trish89]

Do you know what was the hardest part when I was younger? For me definitely to come in front of the people and play...I had stage fright...Well it's better now, still not that perfect I would like it to be. And I also remember I had problem with expression - but I guess it was because I used to play very hard pieces, which weren't for me. Now I have problem with rhytm, I thought it was my plus before...But now with my new teacher I see my rhytm just isn't good enough. And honestly last half year I had very hard time with Bach and memorizing Fugue....I think Iam getting slowly better....
wish you best
Tr.

[m19834]

Well, honestly, I think the most difficult part for me is finding my way through the mental mine-field.  I don't get myself sometimes.  I have realized that if I make goals for myself, I have to fight some kind of self-sabotage (I think I am afraid of success).  I am thinking about making a list of goals for tomorrow, and then including the goal to sabotage all of the goals on the list, and try a little reverse psychology on myself.  I told myself this just a bit ago and felt myself automatically have a resistance toward that goal ... I will sabotage my sabotage, just so long as the initial sabotage is an actual goal  .  Well, I have really focused in on a lot of different aspects of playing at different times, and while those things have taken some effort, it's the mental stuff that I am realizing is quite a challenge, partly because it hides from me.

[Petter]

patience 

[ganymed]

I'm learning to play piano right now. I find rhyhtmn, fingering and contrapunctual playing to be quite challenging. Especially in Beethoven Sonatas or Mozart sonatas it can get quite rhythmically challenging.

[fenz]

rhythm and tempo...

[csharp_minor]

I think the hardest part is just starting out, and going through the doubts about ever being able to play anything like a real piece of known music, when you just begin learning the piano. But once you get over it, it’s a fun journey and you keep surprising yourself and you will often say ‘wow, I can play that! now what should I learn next?!’

I have trouble keeping in time and counting as I play. My sight reading is also week.  I don’t find knowing what fingers to use a problem, if it doesn’t work what’s written on the score; I change it to suit me, and keep to the same fingering if it produces a good result.

[general disarray]

Learning how to remain RELAXED AND TENSION-FREE while my brain is boiling over trying to sort out all of the complex, interlocking, and often seemingly contradictory tasks required of me -- the poor piano student.

[tunneller]

Volume control is hard for me. My "PP"s are either very weak and out of rhythm or they sound much like my "P"'s, which actually are not that different from my "F"'s, etc. Harder again when one hand is loud and the other quiet.

That and arm relaxation with the hand in the right place rather than me over-stretching with fingers.

[goldentone]

Like C-sharp minor, the early days were very difficult for me, despite my love of playing.  I had to deal with the mental tape of how could I ever be the great pianist that I wished to be?  The piano is a challenge in so many respects, and certain areas can challenge us over others as individuals. 

[kytribefan21]

I am older and just now trying to learn the piano.  My stumbling block is fingering.  I have to practice the same piece for several weeks before I am comfortable with playing correctly.  I am using the Alfred's All in One adult method, which I like but am currently struggling.

[go12_3]

kytribefan21,  Good for you in starting to learn to play piano.  I would recommend the Piano Adventures the Accelerated Learner  for the older students, Books 1 and 2.  You can get the Lesson and Performance books which are two separate books and they will provide a variety of music for you to learn. Best wishes, go12_3  = )

[ramseytheii]

The hardest thing in my experience of students is definitely producing a variety of expressive and communicative sounds.  Issues like fingering; voice-leading; arpeggios etc can all be solved by logical thinking and good training.  However creating a beautiful sound is so abstract; even if you explain it in the most accurate physiological terms, people are not necessarily able to picture or reproduce those actions, and they always have to discover for themselves not only how to make a beautiful sound, but what is a beautiful sound!

Walter Ramsey

[csharp_minor]

I am older and just now trying to learn the piano.  My stumbling block is fingering.  I have to practice the same piece for several weeks before I am comfortable with playing correctly.  I am using the Alfred's All in One adult method, which I like but am currently struggling.

Hi kytribefan21

Don't worry, knowing what fingers to use seems difficult at first, I was there 12 months ago! The more music you play and the more you familiarise yourself with scales the more logical it all gets, and you will soon be knowing what fingering works best for you for that piece. For now I recommend sticking to the finger numbers on the piece you are learning so you get a feel for it.

Keep at it!   

[kytribefan21]

Thanks all for the advice.  I will stick with it and not give up!

[agnor]

I'm learning piano since December from last year (self-taught), so I'm a early beginner.

I find that the most difficult parts are:

1 - Paying attention at hand posture while playing (I often curve the hands instead of playing more at the front). I'm making this my main concern, because I don't have a teacher to help me correct it
2 - Sight-Reading. I was a violinist before learning the piano, so I can perfectly sight-read them separately. However, I haven't yet "triggered" my ability to read the two at the same time, at a satisfying speed. This actually helped to improve my memorization skills, because it's the only way I can play a piece...
3 - Not looking at the keyboard. I am improving this, so I can focus on sight-reading the score, but still, when the hand needs to change octaves and to do uncommon chord combinations, I still need to look...
4 - Coordinating hands. This took me a hard time on the very beginning, but I found that the note dropping technique by bernhard can work out wonders, specially at beginner easy pieces
5 - Playing piano/pianissimo with the left hand. I played a simplified version of a Chopin Prelude (Op.28 no. 7, from John Thompson Grade 2) and found that I couldn't play softly with the left hand and the pedal working. After lots of practice I can now play it very softly, but sometimes notes fail or are too loud...

Well, I think that's all for now...

[ana carolina]

rhytm and technical 

[Bob]

I don't think they go away.  We're always learning.

For me...
Not having the technique to really play the piece.

Being stuck playing pieces because of a teacher.

Along with technique, not really having a good idea of the final sound of the piece.  That could be good though if you can't play it like that anyway.

Not being able to read the piece.  Still having to analyze it.  Ditto for aural skills I suppose.  I'd like to be able to glance at a piece of music an pick up more information instantly.

[db05]

Why does it say that go is a guest here?

The starting out is the hardest for me, the first months of learning and the planning of practice sessions and simply sitting at the piano. At one point, I gave up the planning entirely! It was a relief, actually. It's hard to plan things out, every piece is different and every day you study it is different, and I can't quite predict difficulties before they come. And having to work on many things at the same time also became a disadvantage. It limits the time for studying in-depth. How frustrating!

Once the ball starts rolling, though, I love piano as much as I love my teacher. 

[aharris16]

the hardest part for me when i was little was understanding the concept of the keys being lettered and related to the grand staff. i just went by sound because it was aggravating to do otherwise;however, once i caught on, it was a matter of keeping a slow 4 4 time. i always sped up.

[kelly_kelly]

Technique and accuracy for me... and I guess sight-reading, but I'm not at the point where I really need that skill yet. Memorization has always come easily to me, as long as I keep listening. My rhythm can also be a little weird... The different type of sounds I can hear, but sometimes I don't have the technique to create the type of sound I want. I also seem to be unable to play ANYTHING note-perfectly.

[go12_3]

 Say, db05,  go12_3, was a guest for a moment in time.  I'm back as a member.  Sorry about the confusion.   

[meli]

I have a difficult time playing legatissimo passages. I seem to have an easier time playing loudly, and angrily - but playing softly & lightly, quickly & EVENLY (tone & rhythm) - phew! I seem to enjoy just sight-reading it more than mastering the technique to play it well. I think relaxation and playing notes evenly is what I need to work on. I also agree with patience - its alot of hard work, and there is no magic pill to take to be able to play well!

[littleman713]

Playings hands together with a new piece of music...

[end]

I'm a real beginner and what I find really difficult is sight reading at a good tempo. I'm slow  . For the rest, I'm finding the piano less difficult than the violin, for instance. I'm by no means saying it's easy, but it's just about doable.

I don't have a teacher and any new discover is a bliss. For instance, I had to deal with a jump to a 4 notes chord with an 8th in there. Then I decided to do only the 8th and only when I could do the jump with my eyes closed, introduce the other notes. It worked like magic.

It's surely obvious for all of you pros, but for me it was like... I can't put it into words! Liberating. I put a lot more hours on the violin and I haven't "discovered" a single "magic" such as this... everything is hard, very hard work. Overwhelmingly pleasant work, but hard work nevertheless.

What I see will be a problem is developing speed. I'm working Hanon really fast to prepare myself to deal with it in the future.

[jacksolem]

I'm learning, but I get confused when it comes to playing with both hands, only sometimes

[concerto_love]

I'm learning... And I guess the hardest part is in student's willing to keep on practice. Of course many difficult parts too, but I think it's the hardest.

Getting bored, playing again, getting bored, playing again... Like that. Feel minder hearing someone's playing, don't want to practicing, kind like that.

[cai hong]

The hardest part is... how to be always motivated, especially when learning difficult pieces, somehow I could get bored. If a pianist is dedicated to music, then there's nothing called hardships in learning piano.

[momopi]

The hardest part is the fact that you know very well that you might stop taking lessons (again again again) because:

1) You are busy with uni
2) You are sent abroad to study
3) You have to find a job
4) Lessons are getting costly and you're on a budget this month
5) and others

-----------

The other most difficult thing is memorizing... 

[quasimodo]

The hardest part for me is to be sticking to a strict discipline of *efficient* practice.

[maisymouse]

practising. i HATED practising my piano when i was a kid, and my mother bought an egg-timer especially for me so that i wouldn't try and cut down the time, haha.
plus, i've always had a bitter relationship with scales. i loved playing the exam pieces, but hated the monotonous scales, which sometimes pulls down my marks. i'm SO glad i've finished my Grade 8 and won't be required to do scales anymore

[db05]

Lately, not having the respect and trust for my teachers. I don't listen to them anymore, unless it's to argue with them, and therefore I don't follow through with lessons. I skipped lesson last week, I was sick and felt terrible but part of it was also not wanting to see my teacher again.

If my teacher can't discipline me, then how the heck am I going to discipline myself? I don't claim to know any better that my teachers, it's just that we're not in sync most of the time and I'm having to learn music that I don't really like, and to top it off, Czerny and Hanon. Teacher believes in going through the entire Hanon, and I just got sick of it.

*vomits Hanon*

*contemplates skipping lessons*

Nonononono just think about the school pianos, they're a lot better than the one you use for practice!

[m19834]

patience  :-

Oh man, you are not joking !  I was thinking about this thread today as it was quite funny; yesterday, I had to literally fight myself to be productive at the piano, and finally I snapped out of the problem (literally after hours of confronting it) and broke through to some kind of productive zone.  But, then I went to sleep wanting to be still practicing and I kept waking up throughout the night, wondering if I could get up yet and start practicing again ... I just couldn't wait !  So, today I was really motivated but I came to realize this kind of anxiety within me ... just like this huge undercurrent to my general thinking, and it was really getting in my way of actual learning !  Anyway, I realized that patience is a HUGE problem for me with this.  I am *very* impatient about this sometimes !  I want things to be happening NOW !!  Yet, I know that the quality is just a whole different world if I really take all the steps. 

Yesterday, mental struggle and fighting to be productive and motivated because of it.

Today, mental struggle because I was over-motivated in some way, and had to take a step back, slow down, and allow myself to be productive despite my impatience !

Patience, patience, patience... well, there's more to it than that, too, of course.

[go12_3]

I must say, the hardest part for me to practice is when I am mentally and physically tired and my mind cannot focus what my fingers would like to GO.   Anyhow, the past few days has been better with the shorten practice sessions throughout the day so that I *give* myself a break from the piano.  Besides, I have my violin to practice too.  But, today, I am surprised that I practiced my pieces for  (drum roll)  2 hours and 20 mintues!!!      Which is not my usual length of practice time at all; I only get in an hour or so each day.  But today, was a good day;  I was focused and not as tired as usual.  (Of course, I devoted 40 minutes practicing my violin.).

best wishes,

go12_3   

[dr. j]

The most challenging part of learning to play the piano as an adult can be motivation.  As an adult we have the "sound" of great music in our minds and understand musical concepts.  Putting all the pieces together - mental, physical, and musical - is the challenging part.  We want to play beautifully from Day One and often get frustrated with the actual WORK it takes to successfully play the piano.  Finding a method that encourages creativity and actual playing of songs while developing technique and building concepts is important.  Check out my blog if you'd like to read other thoughts on the subject at https://www.playpianosongstoday.com/play-piano-songs-today--the-blog.html

Dr. J

[techlogik]

For me it always seems to be 1) Speed on runs/scales in general...and 2) Related to 1, playing hands together while performing a run/scale.

Chopin Nocturne 20 C#m Post I've worked on, stopped, and back at it again, and the same problems I am having.

Just the left hand playing C#-G#-F-C#  while the right hand plays the descending run C#-D-B-A-G#-F#-E-D-C# etc....

So playing the run while increasing speed and keeping the left hand going and doing that all at once...is just a nightmare for me.

Any ideas appreciated.

[go12_3]

For me it always seems to be 1) Speed on runs/scales in general...and 2) Related to 1, playing hands together while performing a run/scale.

Chopin Nocturne 20 C#m Post I've worked on, stopped, and back at it again, and the same problems I am having.

Just the left hand playing C#-G#-F-C#  while the right hand plays the descending run C#-D-B-A-G#-F#-E-D-C# etc....

So playing the run while increasing speed and keeping the left hand going and doing that all at once...is just a nightmare for me.

Any ideas appreciated.

Take each section of the runs slowly, with separate hands and get the fingering and notes inplanted in your mind.  Only work on each section for 10 minutes and then take a *break* for 5 minutes, and then repeat that section you have worked on and see if it would be easier.  Each day do this until you know what your left and right hand are doing, play them together on the runs and scales, but do it slowly.  Only work this for 10 minutes a day though.  Then increase speed when you and your fingers feels comfortable to do so. 

best wishes, 

go12_3

[soitainly]

 I just started piano 7 months ago so I don't know many of the difficult challenges to come. I have played guitar for 35 years so alot of the musical issues are already developed. I am already able to play with good rhythm, phrasing ,and dynamics that most music beginners struggle with.

 The biggest challenge is independence of the hands, fingers, and musical lines. The main reason I was drawn to piano music in general was the counterpoint anyway, and I knew it was going to be hard. But this has to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. On guitar the hands are doing different tasks but they work together to produce the sound, on piano they are really truly independant.

 Another challenge is learning to concentrate through a performance and play even simple pieces without mistakes and memory lapses. I can make the musical and fingering connection on guitar but I haven't made that mental leap on piano yet. I don't think it's technical, I just need more time to become comfortable.

 I just started playing 3rds about a month ago, just an easy Czerny study. At first I thought my hands were going to fall off and it was very difficult, but it seems to be getting easier now, although I am still having a hard time playing them legato as directed.

[hitthekey]

Hi all.

New to the forums, though have been browsing it the past few weeks.

I've just started playing about a month ago and love it. It sucks a bit being at the beginners level and not really being able to play anything, but i'm getting better and better.

Anyways, I find the hardest thing/s at the moment are:

1) I'm playing from Bastien Piano for Adults and I hate playing songs in it that are just dreadful. It's difficult to progress past the song when I really don't care about it.

2) Actually sitting down to practice can take a bit of willpower, however, I find that when I actually do, I really enjoy it and before I know it, an hour or so has gone by.

That said, when I'm in the middle of playing a song I enjoy, I'm usually quite keen to sit down and play.

[nanabush]

   I use the Alfred Adult book with the (few) adult students I have, and I agree that there are some songs that the students find very unappealing (I'm saying song instead of piece, because many of these are folk arrangements or popular songs, so just a heads up).  There are usually small lessons added in throughout the book, and if you have/understand the technical part of a song you can learn it very quickly and efficiently. 
   It gets very painful if you push dreaded practice off to the side, because if your teacher is persistent, they will make sure you do it, whether it takes a day or a month.  Sure, some of the songs are awful and sometimes boring to play, but if you keep a constistent practice routine, the less enjoyable songs will seem to be more of a preparation of the 'better' stuff that usually comes near the end of the books.  Intermediate/Advanced students often don't like practicing scales and triads, but once they understand the importance of technique, it becomes second nature practicing these less appealing scales and triads.  Often I'll pair up a song that the student isn't crazy about with one that they like; when they practice, they'll do a bit of each for some variety.  It helps alot, especially if you end your practice session with the perferred piece.

[romagister]

I find multitasking the central limitation - along with anything else that makes it worse: key signatures, true polyphony, hand coordination, just fast speed etc. The fact that piano is a polyphonic instrument and that many people could use it (after huge, more or less work) led to that becoming an expected standard in composing ;-)

For me, "ear memory" is much better coupled to right hand than real-time reading. As a kid, progress was deceptively easy when using the natural shortcuts that worked in me better than supposed, then so frustrating (up to stopping) at ~ Levels 2-3 when that was not enough any more.

Complete, perfect memorization would be difficult too, but mostly-memorization and a sort of re-creation, supported by "reminder" reading is now my main way (allows more complex rhythm patterns, "normal" speed instead of snail-pace raw reading etc.)