How long will it take until I can play....

[carlyd5]

Hi! I'm am new to this forum. My name is Carly and I am 20 years old. I have been playing piano very non-seriously for 16 years. I never took lessons, taught myself to sightread and can sightread at a basic level. I'd say around suzuki book 3 level, I've always only sight-read music that I've printed off the internet such as coldplay music, keane, yiruma, etc and only for fun. On the other hand, I've been classically trained in violin and have played a majority of the most difficult repertoire for violin and am planning on auditioning for a major symphony orchestra in the next couple years. After hearing many piano concertos over the past year, I've made it a life long goal to learn the Rachmaninoff Concertos 2 and 3, Prokofiev 3, Grieg and Shostakovich 2 concertos before I die. Given that I have a basic level of sight-reading on the piano and I've been highly classically trained in violin, if I didn't study with a teacher and practiced maybe an hour a day how long do you think it would take me to get to a level where I could learn these pieces? Is it absolutely necessary to get a teacher or could I get to a point sometime in my life where I could play these pieces only having self taught myself? I don't plan to play professionally or at the highest level of musicianship, I just want to do this for my enjoyment and entertainment. What are the standard etude, scale books and repertoire I should go through to get to a point where I am at a level to play these pieces? Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!!

[j_menz]

Hi Carly.  I'd suggest you consider the question of how far you would now be with the violin if you had not had a teacher.

While it is possible to get to some standard without a teacher, it is more difficult.  The pieces you have mentioned are extremely difficult, among some of the hardest in the piano repertoire. They require a very high level of technical skill. You will not get there on an hour a day of unstructured practice.  You will not need a teacher all the time necessarily, but having one at the beginning, and then periodically, will make things much easier and save you time in the long run by helping you avoid bad technique (which can not only hamper your progress, it can cause real physical injury).

[cadenza14224]

This has got to be the grandest ambition I've ever seen stated by a person who doesn't primarily play the piano!

Personally, I haven't played any of the concertos, but I kind of fall into the same category of how I took piano. I wasn't serious for the first 8 years till I was about 17 years old (however in my case, I did take lessons); then I just started to connect with the music and started taking it a lot more serious.

It's only been about 4 years now since I started taking piano extremely seriously (though still just a hobby). But through those four years I took it upon myself to become a great sight-reader, and took on pieces that were much more above my level. Even though it took a LOT OF EFFING WORK to get the pieces done, they in the end would be finished, and after doing so, repertoire of the same level wouldn't seem so hard anymore.

In the last year I started to play through a lot of Rachmaninoff, and I took a look at the score for Rach 2 just recently...and I can say it is quite accessible, though obviously with a ton of practice.

Moral of the story: just practice a ton (seriously), and within some time you should get there. Learning piano isn't instantaneous, so don't worry if it takes you a while to achieve what you want to =).

[cadenza14224]

and one last tip if I can oblige:
-play a lot of smaller repertoire by each of the composers you named. once you get a feel for their music, the way their concertos are constructed should make more sense and should come to you more naturally! this way, you don't need to just grind at scales/arpeggios/technical exercises all day (though its always a plus).

[danhuyle]

Concerto repertoire I don't know, the piano solo side of the coin, anyone can surpass me in 2 years or less if you're that determined.

Truth be told, in my opinion, piano concertos are better heard than played. I'd rather listen to Vladimir Ashkenazy's rendition of Rachmaninoff concerti to avoid the pain.