Intermediate Piano Student looking for Improvement Tips

[greggory123]

I have been playing piano for 10 Years, I am 16 years old. I was taught through Piano Adventures by Faber and Faber, I graduated per say from that and have sense began playing mostly contemporary christian songs and hymns. I read sheet music well, i have great sight reading abilities. I was asked to play the digital keyboard in church several months ago and i have throughly enjoyed that. However, I feel like I am stuck at my current skill level. I can play in any key, up to 16th notes and almost any speed. I'm not a pro at counting, especially 8th and 16th notes, but i do okay. I am really looking for tips to improve the way my playing sounds. My piano teacher taught me how to chord the left hand and sometimes roll the cord, if it fits the song. I have somewhat created a habit of that and have gotten away from playing songs as written. I don't have much experience with arpeggios. It would be helpful to have a little bit of guidence as how to arpeggiate something in the middle of a song. Modulation is also a bit fuzzy for me. If someone could explain that also. I am also looking for some songs to practice to help me move on. I don't have much experience with Classical playing, so some sugesstions on that would be helpful also. I am not looking be a professional pianist, i just want to be able to sit down with something and be good enough to with a few hours of practicing be able to play it through with no mistakes. 
Thanks

[mussels_with_nutella]

mmm that makes me wonder... What have you been doing playing those 10 years!? hahaha
Anyway, it's practice.

Try, try and try, and please don't be rational. Don't make music from what you have learnt about harmony, but play music and admire how it seems like what you have learnt about it. Because what's music, your feeling or the representation of it called Harmony?

[gerryjay]

dear greg,
the obvious suggestion is to find a proper teacher. notice, please, that by 'proper' i mean a good teacher that can guide you through the classical repertory. there is nothing against your old teacher. he did his/her job.

considering you are able to actually read music, you should try some standard repertoire: bach, mozart, chopin, perhaps debussy, or rachmaninov. there is endless possibilities and here it is the hidden danger: pick up something impossible to you. the teacher would do the trick, but if you don't have or don't want one, find any syllabus (abrsm is fine) and start playing something level 3 or 4, and proceed in your own pace.

notice that the syllabus won't help you more than that, but it is a starting point notwithstanding.

anyway, my best advice is to find a mate that is interested in the same music you are, and do chamber music. it will be an outstanding experience to develop all your musical skills, regardless of the nature of your partner: another pianist, a singer, a string player.

finally, listen to as much music as you can. it is the only way to study real music.

best!

[geze]

Dear Greg,

My advice will be the same as gerryjay.  Get yourself a teacher that can guide you through classical music and some theory as well. By experience, a lot of contemporary Christian songs composed by Matt Redman etc have a lot of syncapation (off-beats) and when I started off with contemporary christian songs in 1989 (Graham kendrick was all the rage then), I found it quite difficult even though I was Grade 8 at the time. Hymns are very structured and once you know how to play one, you can play most of them. I was a regular organist from 1987-1989.  Also, do not stick to just oe type of music - the classical pieces will be a good start because you have to plat exactly how it is written and there are runs of semiquaver scales which you do not find in church music so much.  With contemporary songs, you can play the chords and the tune and that will usually suffice.

Hope thats ok with you.

Greg

[mcdiddy1]

When you ask about arpeggiating, it depends on the style and tempo of the music you are playing. Arpegiating a chord  you typically start from the bottom note of the chord to the top, the speed of the arpeggio would be determined by the tempo of the piece. Use your ear and determine if you feel a chord would benefit from rolling it. I do not see why you would roll the chord unless you either could not reach or you wanted to embellish the chord in which you would want to be careful because rolling changes the rhythm of the piece.

Modulation is when you go from a particular tonality,C major, C minor , C dorian and change in to another tonality by using a chord some call a pivot chord. That chord may be used in both keys to have a very smooth modulation and the chord would require to have similar chord members to the chord it is changing to.  This can be done with or without the key signature and basicly it is used to find keys more friendly to singers/ instrumentalist or just to the music more interesting. There are many kinds of modulations but the common chord modulation or common tone is or course the most used. I would not want to go any further because that goes into more music theory chatter...you could definetly find more information on the internet about harmonizations, chords and ear training in order to real understand the technical side of ear training. For practice you could practice find a chord that is common in both keys like the G major chord found in both C major and D major play a tune in the key of C improvise a big build up to the G chord and then begin playing in D major. Sorry I cant be more helpful but a teacher would be able to demonstrate and model this better than me typing it.

[jaggens]

Most students I have, in the beginning rush while playing the piano. Even every note is rushed. If you listen to the sound of every note that comes after hitting the key you will give much color and space to the music. Music is between hitting keys not about hitting keys. Lengthen every note until it reaches its natural and real musical value and starts to speak. Then the music will start to live.
https://playingpianoblog.com/how-to-make-the-piano-sound-beautiful-and-natural

This is very common that pianists practice mechanically or just try to fulfill all the marks that are written into the note sheet. This approach is not very much about music. Before practicing the piece try to visualize the music in your head and bind all the notation marks into your vision. When you have a beautiful conception ready in your head it will show you the way to practice efficiently. https://playingpianoblog.com/how-to-play-every-piano-piece-as-a-musical-whole