advice on playing and perfection

[matt_haley]

hi,im matt and have been playing now for 3years after i stoped brass and tried piano and it suddenly clicked as i could read music,ive never had lessons and teached myself but i believe a lot could be due to my memory,i am now 18 and have played ,amy chopin nocturnes polonaises,attempted the sonata no3 in bminor,gone through works of liszt hungarian rhapsody no 12 and liebestraum beethoven sonatas and etudes of scriabin,i was told by some teachers this is excellent considering the time ive played but i believe i do not played to perfection maybe because i haven't learnt from people who already know. i love to play more than anything in the world,to watch evgeny kissin perform an amazing prodigy,could i get any advice from you teachers that could  helpme and maybe put  me in a better direction towars practice and approaching a piece        

thank you very much,     matt

[monk]

There are many advices -

but when I read your post, the first very important advice is:

Learn to ask really good, concise, concrete questions!

"Tell me something so that I get better" is not a good question.

Best Wishes,
Monk

[dongsang153]

i strongly suggest taking piano lessons.  it is possible to teach yourself (in fact, i know of many who are self-taught and a lot better than i) but taking lessons really speeds up the rate of improvement.  if you only played three years and are already playing the works of composers that you have mentioned, it seems you are very dedicated to the piano.  so i think that you would get a lot out of lessons.

[matt_haley]

any more advice please    

[bizgirl]

My first thought was get a teacher, however, you seem to be doing pretty well teaching yourself, and you may find taking lessons from someone else to be more rigid than you like.  Perhaps you know someone who could be a mentor to you.  Someone who is knowledgeable and can listen to you play on a regular basis (maybe only once a month), critique your playing, encourage you, suggest new pieces to add to your repertoire, and keep you moving forward.  Keep it up!

[monk]

Again: Learn to ask questions.

The worst students are the ones who come to the teacher and say: "Show me something! Advice, please!"

The best students are the ones who can say what they want to play, who can say what their problems are, who really try to understand things, who take the teacher as a guide and help instead of a "magic wand".

Best Wishes,
Monk

[matt_haley]

okay monk, il try and explain,   ive never had lessons i just purchased theory books and went othere them many times and went through as much music as possible , ive played in two concerts   one playing the nocturn by chopin op 9 no 2, the most famous and the other playing hungarian rhasody no 12 (a transcription),   okay i fully understand your comments and i agree, i do want to learn everything at the heat of a magic word because i am so eager. ive played to two piano accesors and they recomend me to college of music, i no im doing well  but i have never done the basics for example ive rarely touched scales or arpegios ( i can do them)  but i do not posses all the techniques many students will have learnt,my left hand is weaker than my right,although i can play such pieces as moonlight 3rd,liebestraum chopin etudes etc when i come to some difficult bach when both hands are working together fast i struggle, i hope you understand me monk,   all your advice would be appreciated- if there are any very good study books around or something  or is it definately a teacher i need.

i read many things on this site people asking what is the hardest piece ever written,  and all the music they name are just difficult scores to comprehend,many of them i play, but the most difficult music is where  a lot of musical maturity is needed (beethoven no 32 op111) for example, and this is what i definately lack.   some music every detail has to be finese and perfect , also monk apart from technique i am not using the pedal to a peices capability,  i ignorantly blame this on the time if been playing,  but i want to learn,i work out musical ideas in my head all day and play them back and play by ear taking them to the piano,i practice endless hours  get,i am also very sporty so dont get as much time as i may want.     this is why i ask for advice from people such as yourself who seem very matured minded  

thanks matt

[Stolzing]

,could i get any advice from you teachers that could  helpme and maybe put  me in a better direction towars practice and approaching a piece        

thank you very much,     matt

Have you read the threads in this forum before you asked this?   :-/  It's practically nothing but teachers giving advice and directions.  Try reading the FAQ thread and all the links in there.  I am a novice myself and have learned a lot from this forum in the past couple months.  And there is a lot of info about how to practice and to approach a piece on here among other things.