so little time, so much music

[Derek]

Now that I'm not a kid anymore, am married, have a job and am considering starting a family, I'm finally realizing I am mortal and will definitely not become a virtuoso by any stretch of the imagination. I thought I wanted to be one at one point but now it doesn't seem worth it---i'm an amateur and I enjoy the piano immensely even at the sub-virtuosic level I've attained.

My biggest problem these days is figuring out what pieces to play and dealing with option paralysis. I keep trying to learn various pieces and never finish them. So, the only thing I can do is prioritize. Going by what I think I have the most to learn from (and what I seem to be able to learn more quickly and memorize), I'm thinking of putting baroque music at the top of the list.

Obviously I've thought through this a lot so I'm not looking to pianostreet to figure this out for me, I'm basically putting this out there for sounding-board purposes. Any other amateurs out there with a similar predicament?

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Me....
Except I am still a "kid" and I'm mostly just worried... But with schoolwork, commitments at school and home, and university preparation just around the corner, I'm starting to panic a little. I wonder about what I will do with piano when I'm an adult. And I've also got goals for piano exams. One day I hope to get an ARCT in piano. But I can't help but think... Will I still have time for it? I really hope I can continue to enjoy piano for the rest of my life, I definitely do not want to quit!
 It's always hard for me to choose pieces, I wish I could just learn everything all at once. I also wish I had more time to practise my pieces and enjoy my music. I was thinking just what you said "So much music, so little time". If I had I time machine I'd go back in time just to practise piano.

[djealnla]

I understand what you are saying and fully share your feelings; despite having begun playing the piano while a teenager, I still hoped that I would manage to achieve a formidable level of technique without too much of an effort. It's not that I can't play the piano and can't play even one piece that I love, but I just can't envision myself playing the Hammerklavier anytime soon, let alone something by Sorabji (whose music I greatly love).

[lostinidlewonder]

You know the great gift that free sheet music and printable sheet music gave also came with a curse. I remember the first few years when internet piano sheet music started to grow at an exponential rate I was printing literally hundreds upon hundreds of pieces. I had massive folders full of sheet music. It was great I could read through everything and see which pieces I could actually play comfortably and those I couldn't. However, it confused the hell out of me, I had so many pieces that I liked and wanted to learn, I tried to study all of them simultaneously but the rate of improvement on individual pieces is not so fast and I wanted to be able to play pieces straight away and perform them.

It did provoke the idea in me that there was a possibility of learning music this way but I feel if you lose contact with the pieces even for a day or so your improvement regresses faster than if you dedicated time to only a few pieces. I applied this method of study for many volumes of works which i wanted to learn all parts of simultaneously and I have to say it works a treat increasing the rate of your learning but the real cost is that you need constant effort daily (which is impossible timewise for those who are not professional pianists sometimes).

The benefit of doing many pieces simultaneously is that you can learn the bare bone structure of the piece which then later on you use to as a catalyst to learn other parts of the piece. Often only small parts of a piece have to be learned to appreciate the technique requires to control the piece, the general patterning, form at the keyboard, expression etc. It is more efficient to solve these by studying simultaneous pieces since you may absorb them more quickly without treating it as merely the initial stage of the "product line".

We put many pieces in the initial stage and get them all prep'ed up ready to start producing, then start the production line. Instead of stopping the entire production, putting one or two products at the start, setting them up, then starting up the whole production line up again. We should keep the line going continuously and attempt to saturate the start of the line as far as we can go and apply a new product when one is almost finished.

I meet many people who are in the same boat as you, many many pieces that you can play parts of but never completed. I think we are all in that boat to some degree as there are plenty of pieces I know but don't play completely (usually they where only a mere curiosity or simply too difficult for me for now to bother learning at a good rate so they just ferment there in the background ).

I always remember this powerful quote "What gets written gets done". We should write down what we want to learn and make what we write down is the Law. Keep this stuck on your piano so you constantly know which pieces you will be learning, it is no good just keeping it in your head, write the list down, paste it where you can't miss it and where it constantly reminds you what you should be doing. Because being human we give ourselves all the excuses in the world to put off the work and just go off enjoying ourselves.

You should choose pieces which are at your level and at least one which is easy for you and one which is difficult. This keeps things various and interesting.

I think you could easily pursue a part time career in piano performance Derek (maybe not what you perhaps would be capable of if you could give all your time to music but what you will produce will intertwine with your family and work, it will give it more special personal meaning), we don't have to be fully this or that. Try not to think about how good or bad you are at the piano, or comparing yourself to others. It is really unimportant I have found. You love music as much as any professional musician and you have an ability that most piano players would love to have.

[prongated]

Well, Rachmaninoff did say "music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music"!

In any case, I think it's really wonderful that you've chosen music to remain a part of your life. It just encapsulates you as you journey through life doesn't it? I reckon what'll be even more wonderful is if you get together with several other instrumentalists who are like you, and read through some chamber music together.

[thinkgreenlovepiano]

Well, Rachmaninoff did say "music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music"!

I really like that quote!

[Derek]

Thanks for the responses. I actually did try to create a list of pieces I wanted to learn at one point---but even this failed. I think though it failed mainly because I tried to work on 4 pieces at once, like my piano teacher had me do while in college. I can't really afford to do that many at once these days---life is quite busy. I think at the end of the day I'm going to have to do perhaps one piece at a time, and make certain it is something I can learn from. That's pointing me squarely towards the baroque era, at the moment! After all I am an "amateur of the keyboard" and I am very "desirous of learning."  

I've created a document for pieces to work on...I've entered the Aria from the Goldberg Variations as the piece I am currently working on.  

...hopefully this will work. I've been using the same "write down what I'm working on" technique for several years now in another hobby of mine, and it has been working like a charm.

[brogers70]

Derek,

You've got plenty of time. If you're thinking of starting a family you probably have at least 40 years of piano playing ahead of you. If you're already reasonably advanced, even if sub-virtuoistic, there's tons of good music within range.

I'd reconsider working on one piece at a time - that can get old, and it takes more hours/piece to learn pieces one at a time. I'm a fifty year-old amateur at an ABRSM level of 7-8. There is more music I'd like to play than I have time to learn, but that's OK. Following the advice of the great Bernhard, I made a five year plan to learn 100 pieces I love. I start a new one about every three works and keep working on the old ones until I've memorized them and can play them reasonably well. I divide whatever practice time I have by the number of pieces I'm working on, and then devote that number of minutes to each piece, and I make a specific goal that seems reasonable for the amount of time I have.

So for example. It might be 10 minutes Eb and Bb maj and minor scales and arpeggios to get started.

Bach 2 part invention in F major - 20 minutes to put the two hands together for the second half of the piece.

Schubert Impromptu 90/1 - 20 minutes to work on bringing out the melody and crossrhythms in the Ab major and G major interludes.

Same Schubert - 20 minutes to play it through twice concentrating on the big picture, integrating the march-like and lyrical qualities.

Mozart Sonata K333 1st movement 20 minutes working on the exposition to make sure the LH is clean with no inadvertant "finger pedaling"

Schubert Impromptu 90/4 - 20 minutes to work out the whole first section up to the trio as blocked chords, fingered as they'll be fingered when they're played as broken chords. There's lots of repetition so even though this is several pages, it's doable.

Bach 2 part invention in C minor - 20 minutes, just beginning, play through HS and check fingering and phrasing in each hand.

At that rate it takes me a couple of months to get comfortable with the longer pieces and a few weeks to get comfortable with the shorter, easier pieces.

Then on weekends I do something similar except that I also play through the older pieces that I've already learned satisfactorily.

I like it much better than working on one piece at a time. First, it means that every day I have some variety and get to spend time with 3-5 great composers. Second, playing pieces in different styles everyday is sort of synergistic. It makes you pay attention to the special qualities of each period and composer in a way you might not if you only worked on one piece at a time.

I'd also consider getting a digital piano with headphones. If you do start a family, you'll need to do your practicing at odd hours, at least at the beginning.

Bill

[fleetfingers]

I am an amateur and feeling the same way...I have a LONG list of things I want to learn and I'm also finding it hard to prioritize and decide what to do and in what order. Whatever you decide to work on, though, I do think it's important to finish it, memorize it, and play it well.
I love what I'm doing right now. I have a piece that is challenging for me that I've been working on for about 4 months. It's been a slow process, but it is finally coming together- right now, I am working on memorizing the second half. Sometimes I have time to work on it everyday for an hour. Other times, I go days or weeks without even looking at it. Life just gets busy.
To balance the difficulty of my main piece, I'm also studying Bach Inventions. I have found them to be fairly easy to learn and very enjoyable to play. Having some things I'm working on that are getting finished and refined gives me a sense of accomplishment. Since I'm regularly finishing pieces, it's OK that I've got the one that is taking me months.
I also accompany my church choir and accompany my son on his violin, so I have those songs/pieces that I get to work on, as well. Very fun stuff.
Every once in a while, I get tired of playing classical and will find a pop song or something else to play. I think variety is a good thing.

[thalbergmad]

am married, have a job and am considering starting a family

All 3 of which would appear to make your predicament even worse

I have no wife, no family and hope to retire next year. I still expect I will not have enough time to study everything that i would like to.

I just hope Heaven has a music department.

Thal

[Derek]

All 3 of which would appear to make your predicament even worse

I have no wife, no family and hope to retire next year. I still expect I will not have enough time to study everything that i would like to.

I just hope Heaven has a music department.

Thal

I think I may end up with my dad's solution: study hardly any written pieces and focus on improvisation since I can sit down and pop up as frequently as children or duties around the home need me.

[birba]

I think I may end up with my dad's solution: study hardly any written pieces and focus on improvisation since I can sit down and pop up as frequently as children or duties around the home need me.

And what if you can't improvise?  That's what I like about Furtwangler (not the conductor - one of the members here) He can do both.
I now have the time to practise what I want, these days. And it's interesting reading how others organize their time.  I also have started writing down what I'm doing at the moment.  Actually, I have 3 stick-up notes attached to my piano.  One is a list of what I've learned and put in my repertoire.  Since I have quite a bit, it means taking up a piece I've already done, and getting it back into shape.  It might be something I did 20 years ago.  So that's what goes on my second list:  What I'm working on now.  Here, there is 1 completely new piece and 3 old ones.   Then on the third list is what I want to learn in the future.  As you can imagine, that list gets longer every week as I add new "songs" that I want to play.  Ergo: so little time, so much music. 

[Derek]

I think part of my problem right now is I'm attempting to pursue both my music hobby and one other creative, time consuming hobby. This other hobby may draw to a close (it is a large, one project sort of deal I wanted to do since I was a kid) within a year or two; after that I think I may look up all that advice bernard gave about a 5 year plan. Funny thing is, I don't think there are even 100 pieces that I love. Probably more like 30. My plan is to create a prioritized list of all the pieces I would most regret not learning later in life, and then start plugging away at these in earnest. I think that would be best; then long term if I feel like learning more I won't have this urgent worry that I might regret not doing it, cause I will have already learned a bunch of pieces that were my top, top favorites. That's the predicament of an amateur I suppose.

[thalbergmad]

That's the predicament of an amateur I suppose.

Indeed, but can you imagine being a pro and being contracted to play a piece you hate?

I can think of nothing worse.

Thal