AM I WRONG ?

[Terry-Piano]

Hello, im Terry from the Laurentians...I've been playing for 2 years.. and consider myself advanced for that period of time... If you know or are a good teacher in the region i'd love to play for you and hear your opinion on what i should focus... or any really bad habits i should take care of... i got one in mind... i have great difficulty in taking a piece from the start to the end....
I always learn more than 10 pieces at the same time... i just cant bear the idea of playing the same thing over and over again until i got it....My opinion is that when something is stopping you... you should focus on it... but not discourage yourself with 2 hours of failing the same passage... example.. chopin etude no . 2... any hints on how to improve my 4,5 fingers ?? they are weakest since im self-taught and always used ther fingers i felt more comfortasble with... are these common bad habits? or am i just plain weird ??

My force is improvisation .. even if i dont know a piece completely.... i can still manage to not stop in the middle and end the piece so someone who doesnt know the music thinks it is incredible But then people who do know the music tells me it was great .. but i still have to finish the piece like it was written...

Teachers.. give me input on this,.. is this common? is this bad ? I got a digital piano and am working on putting some of my recordings up on this forum for your opinions and input on my playing...Thx again

[la_razon]

any hints on how to improve my 4,5 fingers ?? they are weakest since im self-taught and always used ther fingers i felt more comfortasble with... are these common bad habits? or am i just plain weird ??

This is quite common. You should try some Hanon excersises, they work on building finger strength and promote evenness of the fingers.

- la razón

[Lilo]

hi terry

Well, I'm 18, I'm not self taught I have taken 10 years of piano lessons, then I took time to work on and improve my own repertoire... and now I can teach it to others  

I got the same kind of trouble 3 or 4 years ago, as I began to learn the pieces I wanted to be in my repertoire. I think I was learning about 20 pieces I found beautiful or just difficult. but I got bored. there were long, so I just read and learnt the first pages, or the most exciting moments, and then I learnt another. After a few months, I stopped and wondered what was I able to do really, perfectly from the beginning to the end.

Nothing. I had 1/4 pieces, 1/2 pieces, 3/4 pieces, sometimes just 3 lines to work on to finish, but I never learnt them. So I decided to learn whole pieces (at first, I wanted hard ones, but I eventually accepted to work on easier ones -I was ashamed to learn such easy pieces ); it was quite boring at the beginning, but it showed me I had much work... it was hard. But now, I feel just like I can play anything well nearly anything, and when not, now I can throw the paper and say "too hard for me, I'll wait"... there are pieces I can play, like rachmaninov's, but I know I'm not good enough to perform beautifully...

well, I think you're wrong the way you practice, just as I was... you say you are advanced, but you cannot finish a piece,  spend 2 hours failing the same passage... and in spite of this, you keep learning 10 pieces in the same time   I'm sure you can play well a part of the piece... but the entire work, you'll see, it's not the same. playing the piano is not just "pressing its keys"...

the chopin etudes you mentionned are not so difficult, so if you were of required level, you wouldn't have so much trouble practising it.  but you are doing too much in the same time, for a 2 year beginner... so you get problems. try easier ones, from the beginning to the end !

hints to improve your 4,5 fingers

you should take time to read, to practice your etudes with the correct fingers (fingering is really important in chopin etudes, your fingers should be of equal strenght if you want to perform correctly one of chopin's pieces...)

if you have weaknesses, then do some exercises ( some of Hanon's, for example ; or Czerny, or Cramer) and after you feel that weaknesses have disappeared, then you can come back to your pieces and finish them easily.

if you don't like exercices, you can work on Bach's inventions. It seems easy, but it requires technique, and it will show you exactly what your weaknesses are.

Learning a piece from the beginning to the end shouldn't be difficult. It is boring because you spend hours learning it. Imagine you could learn any piece in 20 minutes (try mendelssohn's venetian boat songs, good 2-3 year piece), you wouldn't get bored this way. If you spend too much time, the piece is too difficult for you. Let it down, and try it months afters when you feel ready -then you'll take fewer time to learn it, and will enjoy it...

remember that the most important work is after a piece is learnt : interpretation.

PS : sorry for this big post, I'm not english so it takes me hundreds of words to explain something simple  

[thierry13]

I would really love to ear you Terry! If you ever got a recording, join me at : counter_striker325@hotmail.com , or just post a new subject on the forum Thank you!

[surendipity]

Imagine"


Half a Tajma Hall
Half a Sistien Chapel
Half a Eifel Tower
Half a Statue of Liberty
Half a Mona Lisa Smile

It's in the virtuoso, the master, the scholar to complete the work at hand.  No matter how long it takes.

I'd rather have mastered one solitaire piece in my entire life time to the utmost beauty than to become a slave to procrastination and guilt.

I don't have a huge reportiore, but I have a complete one.  I often think of Chopin standing over me, saying
"Nononoon this way, this way."

I feel it important to honor the composers as well as myself.

Surendipity

[surendipity]

Schumann too was obsessed about his fourth finger.
Lead to his demise.  

Chances are you're not finishing your pieces and your fourth finger (fifth also) have something in common.

Try playing the unfinished parts, they will probably exercise that fourth finger.  

Slow slow slow Pianissimo playing will also help.

Play like you're a water bug on tranqs.

Four note form broken/solid
Arpeggios and Dim/Dom V7's

Technical Work or as I perfer Technical Meditation

And time, lots and lots of time.


Surendipity

[bernhard]

Technical Work or as I perfer Technical Meditation

Very nice.

I must remember this.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Terry-Piano]

don't get me wrong.... i do finish pieces... but some i think i'm not ready to tackle yet until the end...
I've only been playing for 2.5 years and im entirely self-taught from the research of repertoire to reading music... i need a teacher to tell me i haven't got it all wrong....but im really determined..and i ain;t even sure if i would listen if he told me ..like a teacher of beethoven's in counterpoint once said..."HE"(beethoven) will never learn anything right...