Need some tips, my teacher disappeared. D:

[roseli]

Hello!

I'm a beginner, I had lessons for a year and maybe 3 months, until my teacher disappeared (no, it was not with my money lol), 1 year with a person, 3 months with the other, and since I can't afford what some people ask me for an hour a week (like 70€), I decided to go on my own.

With teacher number one, I learned:
- A little piece by Robert Schumann
- Sawns and Ducks by
- A very sad story by
- The bouncing ball by
- Little waltz by
- Russian dance by

My more complex piece was the one from Robert Schumann, I decided to change teachers because I didn't felt like I was improving as much I would like, and as yong adult, I didn't enjoy to play kids music.

With teacher number two... I continued with the same piece from Schumann because the teacher told me I had an awfull tecnique and started Hanon, Czery and some other stuff (I just realized I lost my notebook... I was sure it was on the piano... D: )

What do you suggest me to continue? What should I learn next? Books to read? Anything please.

[gerryjay]

dear roseli,
of course, the basic idea is to find a teacher, but in the meantime, a couple of advices that could be helpful.

first and foremost, don't do any hanon! it's a complete waste of time and a constant risk to your hand and arm. then, focus on the music you like and forget about side repertory that you don't know even the name of the composer, simplifications, and step-compositions such as czerny studies.

that said, what to play? schumann's album for the young op. 68 (the one where your piece by him come from) have another delightful works. in the same fashion, tchaikovsky's album also have interesting (though a bit harder) pieces. if you like the russians, look also for shostakovich, stravinsky, kabalevsky: they all have very simple masterpieces.

then, there are composers and works that you must play (basically, yes or yes): on the top of the list, bartok's mikrokosmos, followed by bach's anna magdalena notebook, and easy pieces by haydn-mozart-beethoven.

well, that's a lot of stuff to look at, and most of it are in the imslp.org portal.

best regards, and enjoy!

[gerryjay]

as a post script, two helfpul tools:
- search on the forum for posts by bernhard. he wrote tons of insightful advices and lists and comments and anything you might want to read.
- search on youtube for the pieces you want or will play. sometimes, listening to a fellow companion who play the same piece you do is more interesting than a outstanding recording by an accomplished pianist.

[slane]

What about getting some graded repertoire with CDs?
Like the Hal Leonard "getting to" series, or the Kjos Keith Snell series?
That way you could teach yourself grown up pieces by copying the recordings??
And whenever you meet someone who plays better than you ask them to listen to you and give you some pointers. 

[roseli]

What about getting some graded repertoire with CDs?
Like the Hal Leonard "getting to" series, or the Kjos Keith Snell series?
That way you could teach yourself grown up pieces by copying the recordings??
And whenever you meet someone who plays better than you ask them to listen to you and give you some pointers. 

I don't like that kind of method of learning, I want to learn to read music not copy from recordings.
I don't know anyone else that plays.

[roseli]

dear roseli,
of course, the basic idea is to find a teacher, but in the meantime, a couple of advices that could be helpful.

first and foremost, don't do any hanon! it's a complete waste of time and a constant risk to your hand and arm. then, focus on the music you like and forget about side repertory that you don't know even the name of the composer, simplifications, and step-compositions such as czerny studies.

that said, what to play? schumann's album for the young op. 68 (the one where your piece by him come from) have another delightful works. in the same fashion, tchaikovsky's album also have interesting (though a bit harder) pieces. if you like the russians, look also for shostakovich, stravinsky, kabalevsky: they all have very simple masterpieces.

then, there are composers and works that you must play (basically, yes or yes): on the top of the list, bartok's mikrokosmos, followed by bach's anna magdalena notebook, and easy pieces by haydn-mozart-beethoven.

well, that's a lot of stuff to look at, and most of it are in the imslp.org portal.

best regards, and enjoy!

Thanks for the advices, I will see if I can get a mouth of classes before the summer in a school over here, so that I can get some homework until september.
Until that, I will play what I have here.
I fell super lost without a teacher...

[slane]

I don't like that kind of method of learning, I want to learn to read music not copy from recordings.
I don't know anyone else that plays.

Oh no .. that's not what I meant. Those books come with a CD and score. I meant read the music, but "model" your playing on the recording. So you know what it sounds like when played properly.

[faa2010]

Look at this web page, here you can find practical books that could guide you and have scores which are neither numb nor abridged. I hope you can find a fine book there and find it at the nearest music or bookstore you have:

https://www.alfred.com/AlfredPiano/Masterworks.aspx