6 months in, have some questions

[butterfly79]

Hello All,

I am new to Pianostreet and have some questions. I am an adult student, I have loved the piano since I was a child. I have been taking lessons now for 6 months. I practice daily 30 mins or more and I have no issues with reading the music sheets. My question is how do you know exactly what grade level you are at? What did you guys do to increase you ability to play? My main issues at this point is rhythm (still counting while playing) and speed.
I want to go all the way with learning piano, any help or suggestions is appreciated.

[stevebob]

Some nations have organizations that establish curricula for grade levels and criteria for exams and diplomas.  The boards of those countries (ABRSM, RCM, etc.) have individual systems for such classifications, and designations could be arbitrary or inconsistent.

The U.S. has neither a national board nor a standardized system for categorizing musical advancement, but you could get a rough idea from the way pieces are classified according to perceived difficulty in anthologies of repertoire (or or even from online retailers like Sheet Music Plus).

The usefulness of knowing how advanced you are is debatable, as there's no absolute way of measuring it and everybody experiences technical challenges differently.  And planning to "go all the way" with piano is admirable—but keep in mind that it's a journey, not a specific destination.  Schumann said "There's no end of learning," and we're all on that same path no matter how far or how fast we progress.

Best wishes!