New , looking for some tips

[martinsl]

hi my name is Martin, sorry for my english (i'm from Argentina), i started to play piano with a teacher a year ago. My teacher comes one day of the week and he gives me the material and we practice on it. For y'all to know.. i can play like level 3 pieces.
  My problem is that i want to play a lot of hours a day , and i don't know what to play , on what to spent those hours, i need like a routine, in order to play and get better everyday so i don't waste my time , and when i go to the piano is for something usefull.

i would be very appreciated if y'all can give me any advice or tips.. Thanks ! 

[gerryjay]

Dear Martin,
bienvenido! My suggestion is very simple: talk to your teacher. If you can afford it, why not having a second class every week? If it is out of your current possibilities, ask him/her to give you a more detailed schedule, perhaps with new stuff that you will work for yourself during the week.

Do you have any friend that also plays the piano? If so, why don't you study a couple of times together each week?

A final idea, which is perhaps the most important one: piano is not only about the pysical part of playing. There is a vast repertoire that you must know, there are composers and performers whose biografies/stories you must read, there are videos on youtube, there is this forum (and other internet sources) to look and to read. If you are in Bs. As., there are many recitals and concerts to attend. I mean, get in touch with the piano as much as you can.

And your English is fine, btw . Mis cordiales saludos,
Jay.

[martinsl]

Thank you! , yes i live in Buenos Aires, i want to go to see Martha Argerich, she probably presents in the Colon Theater, she's from Argentina. Thanks for the advices , i'll kepp them in mind

[gerryjay]

Thank you! , yes i live in Buenos Aires, i want to go to see Martha Argerich, she probably presents in the Colon Theater, she's from Argentina. Thanks for the advices , i'll kepp them in mind

Is there any recital/concert by her scheduled in Buenos Aires this year?!?

[lostinidlewonder]

Ask your teacher to observe how you to practice the piano, not play. Show him in one lesson what you would do on your own without him there to help you, let him observe how you tackle learning or improving your fingering/notes yourself, ask him if your approach to solving problems in the music is effective and efficient. Some teachers if asked how to practice a piece will start teaching you this, if you don't say anything they might expect that you know, however all good teachers I have been taught by encourage refinement to our practicing methods (learning the fingering/notes) as well as our playing. 2nd rate teachers just consider how you play not the method and do not scrutinize how you get to that point (although for the most advanced students they might be more interested in sound since their learning craft is already developed, however even these students can benefit from some refinement to their practice approach).

[gerryjay]

2nd rate teachers just consider how you play not the method and do not scrutinize how you get to that point.

Dear Wonder,
Remarkable statement. And something to remember everyday, because it is much more nice and easy to sit and listen someone playing than doing your supposed job.

Best regards,
Jay.

[martinsl]

Ask your teacher to observe how you to practice the piano, not play. Show him in one lesson what you would do on your own without him there to help you, let him observe how you tackle learning or improving your fingering/notes yourself, ask him if your approach to solving problems in the music is effective and efficient. Some teachers if asked how to practice a piece will start teaching you this, if you don't say anything they might expect that you know, however all good teachers I have been taught by encourage refinement to our practicing methods (learning the fingering/notes) as well as our playing. 2nd rate teachers just consider how you play not the method and do not scrutinize how you get to that point (although for the most advanced students they might be more interested in sound since their learning craft is already developed, however even these students can benefit from some refinement to their practice approach).

  Thanks for helping!

[lostinidlewonder]

...it is much more nice and easy to sit and listen someone playing than doing your supposed job.

I agree. The difference between playing and practicing was highlighted to me from a very dear teacher of mine when I was younger who was the first one that pointed out I had no method as to how I learnt my music and I should so that I can take control of how I learn. She taught me tools like separating the music into parts, creating exercises to conquer technical difficulties in pieces, how to change rhythms to deal with long strings of notes which you wanted to play evenly etc etc. From her methods I found a whole lot of other things that could be built upon it and new ideas that worked for me that I started to develop. I also noticed that some things that helped me a huge amount (like drawing shape that the black and white notes created from chord,scale and other forms for example) didn't help others as much who where not perceiving events as I enjoyed. One young student of mine who was around 7 years old at the time told me how she saw combinations of her fingers, like 12 was a pinch, 13 was a flick, this made me consider other combinations of fingers and what they felt like, like in RH 123 was bottom half, 345 was top half, 234 was middle fingers, 15 outside fingers and so on. Some students really find it easier to learn their music if they know what parts of their hands are activated and which order they run in.

So in the end you see everyone works a little differently, but even if you find one style of analysis not as helpful for you it is helpful to try to understand them and try to use them, perhaps in time they will become easy for you to use and the more tools you have to learn your music the more efficient you become.


Sight reading which is really a vast topic to discuss, is a critical skill to develop if you want to keep your rate of learning high also and allows you to put more of your music through analysis than you otherwise would. It is also a more natural approach to your music rather than brute force memorizing one bar at a time. But sight reading is fraught with dangers, you can easily play without emotion or sloppily, you can easily abandon ever memorizing music again if you do not know how to make a two way bridge between conscious memory with muscular and sound.

It is rather tricky when one talks about sight reading and separates it from muscular and sound memory. In fact all good sight readers have plenty muscular memory and sound memory experiences. They have learned a great deal of music and understand many different procedures that their hands can undergo. The thing is that pure sight readers cannot remember exactly what to do without the score, they cannot rely on hearing the sound in their head to cause a reaction to their hands because they are so used to letting their eyes tell the hands what to do, likewise they cannot completely rely on the feeling on their hands to tell them where to go next because again it is their eyes on the score that guides that (especially from phrase to phrase, mid phrase often sight readers can fill in the blanks with past muscular/sound memory). I have taught many excellent sight readers who wish to be able to memorize and the greatest difficulty I always face is making them realize when they do not have to read, in the end I have to prove it constantly to them by cutting out post it  notes and sticking them on parts of the score, or by telling them to look at their hands while they play. You will be amazed that some of them find it very peculiar to watch their hands while they play because they are so used to watching the sheet. It is as difficult for them as it is for the memorizer to finally not look at their hands and keep their eyes on the score! So whichever one you are you can at least sympathize with what the other has to contend with!

 Thanks for helping!

Would love to hear what your teacher had to say about your practicing if you get the chance!

[gerryjay]

Dear Wonder,
Indeed. What you tell about that teacher is, to me, the fundamental aspect: what is control and how to have it. If you have that in your mind and daily practice, everything will come eventually. Without control, on the other hand, you become so used to smash your nose against brick walls that you end up thinking that bleeding is a natural thing.

Best regards,
Jay.