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Topic: Secret to playing the piano?  (Read 1881 times)

Offline jinbrother1

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Secret to playing the piano?
on: September 03, 2004, 01:20:21 AM
When I play a brand new piece, I butcher it! It sounds horrible because my pace is so slow, my rhythm is all jumbled up, my fingers keep on hitting adjacent notes, and my hands refuse to play together at the same time. It takes me weeks of practicing until I get a hang of it. It's probably due to the fact that I haven't enough experience in playing the piano. I've been playing since I was 8 or so but within that time, I abandoned playing the piano for 2 years and just got back to it couple years ago. Anyhow, everytime I practice, I get discouraged because I just can't seem to play fluently until weeks later. I've see some people who play any random piece as if they've been playing that piece for years. Is it just me, or do you guys experience (or had experienced) the same thing when you play a new piece? Is there a secret to playing the piano? Any suggestive techniques or practice methods that can help me overcome this frustrating ordeal? Thanks for all your help.

Offline Antnee

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #1 on: September 03, 2004, 02:05:31 AM
This is relatively normal. No one can take a piece above or even at their level of play and play it up to speed hands together the first day or two. It takes months to get a piece to performance level. In some cases years. Secrets? If there are any, only the professionals know them and they aren't willing to give them away for free. Most likely there aren't any single easy secrtes/short cuts to piano mastery. As for practice techniques, look at the forum's search tool and you will find many helpful topics especially by Bernhard.
"The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead." -  Stravinsky

Offline jinbrother1

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #2 on: September 03, 2004, 02:17:47 AM
Whew! I thought there was something wrong with me :P Thanks RondoAllaTony. I'll look around the forum.

Offline bernhard

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #3 on: September 03, 2004, 03:00:03 AM
Quote
Secrets? If there are any, only the professionals know them and they aren't willing to give them away for free.



Er... ???

I have been giving them for free... :-/
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. (Hunter Thompson)

Offline Antnee

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #4 on: September 03, 2004, 05:41:28 AM
Except for you of course Bernhard, which is why I directed jinbrother1 to your posts...

However are these things really 'secrets'? I don't consider them secrets, but they are definitley useful chunks of golden information. Then again maybe what you post, Bernhard, are the secrets.....

Ahhhh.. oh well... I'm ashamed for underestimating thee, o mighty Bernhard!!!  ;)

-Tony-
"The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead." -  Stravinsky

Offline ChopinLoverInPA

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #5 on: September 03, 2004, 04:49:48 PM
I have the same problem -- I think it's just not being very competant yet at playing the instrument.  The simplest pieces take a long time to put together, to make your fingers do what you want them to do.  Add to that fact that I'm a poor sight-reader and -- well, I've been working on Chopin's Prelude in C#m (Op. 45) for two weeks now, and I'm still not all the way through it...

But, the amazing thing is -- struggling for the first time with a part and thinking "this is just too hard" -- and then after practicing it for a while, you find yourself doing it...it's really quite a feeling of accomplishment!

Offline kaff

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #6 on: September 03, 2004, 10:24:26 PM
Do you know your scales and arpeggios thoroughly, and practice them until they become second nature?  It does involve a lot of commitment and isn't going to give instant results, but your sight reading will really improve a lot if you have a very good understanding of the key signature in which the piece is written.  If you know before you begin what notes you're likely to encounter (and more importantly, which notes you're less likely to encounter) it makes it easier to sight read.  It's not enough just to know the theory. You can look at a key signature in A major and tell yourself that the piece has F#, C# and G#, but if your fingers aren't thoroughly used to playing in A, then they will repeatedly hit F, C and G naturals and then you'll kick yourself.  

For help with rhythm, have you tried  isolating just that element?  The problem with sight reading piano music is that there are a lot of different difficulties to be overcome - you have to be able to read all the notes, on two different staves, sort out fingerings, and get the rhythm right too.  Might it help if you practised the rhythm separately -perhaps by beating it out on a drum, or a table top, or on just one note of the piano - until you'd mastered that bit?

Finally, do you listen to recordings of your pieces before you learn to play them?  It helps a lot if you know what the piece is supposed to sound like in the first place.

Kathryn
Kaff

Offline super_ardua

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #7 on: September 03, 2004, 10:35:16 PM
There is no secret to piano playing.

When I first started people could sight read things I had spent months on.

Now after years of practice I can.

There is no secret to piano playing.  Only hard work.
We must do,  we shall do!!!

Offline super_ardua

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Re: Secret to playing the piano?
Reply #8 on: September 03, 2004, 10:36:20 PM
Also,  listen to Bernhard's advice.  It is ussaully very helpful
We must do,  we shall do!!!
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