Played for 8 years and stopped. Want to start again.

[hornmusiker]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here.

So, here's the story. I played piano for about eight years and then stopped because my family moved and we couldn't bring the piano. For the first five years of my playing, I took lessons, at first with someone who I now know had NO idea what he was doing, and then with a relatively well-respected teacher from where I'm from (California), who I only studied with for about a year. My first teacher never really taught me the basics, and just said "learn this piece" the whole time I was with him, and so I never really learned any fundamentals like scales, fingering, etc. My last teacher, though, had me doing scales, Hanon, Czerny, and that kind of stuff as well as solo pieces in an effort to get some fundamentals in, although I didn't stay with him long enough to really get much of that. I remember him saying that I was around Grade 8 or 9 (out of 10) by the Certificate of Merit program (it's a California music certification program), of which he was a judge, and last I remember, I was working on some Chopin etudes, Bach Suites, and the 2nd Beethoven Concerto before I quite taking lessons. The last three years of my playing were mostly fooling around and playing with other people - not much practicing at all.

It's been about a year since I've even touched a piano, but I'm going to Indiana University as a French horn major next year (where I'll have access to plenty of pianos), and I'd really like to take it up again this summer. I don't have any money for lessons, so I'll probably do most of my learning on my own. Naturally, I have the basics down but I'd really like some suggestions for books on the "fundamentals" - would Hanon and/or Czerny be good for that, or is there something better? I don't know much past those. It might also be helpful for maybe a list of piano repertoire (maybe with difficulty levels if possible), because I really don't know much of that either. I just need some guidance of how to start and what to play.

Thanks to everyone that replies!

[candlelightpiano]

It's great that you plan to play again and it's never too late to start again. I did that, too. Stopped playing for 9 years when I moved to California because I had no piano and no real steady place to stay that would allow me to have a piano.

Hanon is good for finger exercises, scales, arpeggios, and stuff like that. And Czerny of course, for his boring speed work. It sounds like you were at the intermediate level or above when you stopped playing.

I really enjoy the ANTHOLOGY OF ROMANTIC MUSIC by Maurice Hinson. It comes with a DVD, too and it's very interesting to listen to Dr Hinson talk about the romantic era and play some pieces from the anthology. If you prefer other eras, you can also get anthologies from the classical eras, etc. I think Dr Hinson presents them as well.

I hope this helps. Right now, I'm learning to play Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu in C # minor. I started a blog last week. I hope you'll visit it. Perhaps you might play along with me. Here's my blog address:

https://projectfantasie.blogspot.com/

Good luck and I hope I was able to help.

Choo

[pianoplayjl]

I would play scales for at least 2 weeks and work on technical exercises before tackling any piece because you need to warm up and get your fingers 'in shape'. You can always become profficient at the piano because it is never too early or too late to restart or learn the piano. I'd also recommend some etudes by Heller, Burgmuller, Moscheles, Moskowski, Cramer  and some Scarlatti sonatas to start off after scales. These pieces not only provide technical work but also musical work because most of the pieces are in the Romantic period and have names to them, unlike Hanon and Czerny where they only provide speed work and finger dexterity. However, I also recommend Hanon and Czerny like others do. Stay around the intermediate grades briefly before moving on to the harder grades. It shouldn't take long for you to gain back the mastery of the piano. Good luck.

JL