If a teacher could please give me some pointers, I would greatly appreciate it. I'll give a rundown of my situation.
I started teaching myself to play piano a year ago. I've been using Ableton Live for a good number of years to produce dance music, and my initial goal was simply to be able to play and compose chord progressions and melodies using a midi keyboard. I was tired of relying on midi packs/not knowing how to develop a 4 bar progression, and then getting stuck in a hole. I've since taught myself a lot about music theory and I guess that my interest has expanded. I'm always hungry to learn more at the piano, and about music in general. I play daily. I also do relative pitch exercises daily.
My current schedule involves 4 hours of practice per day. I try to distribute these hours evenly, so as to break them up and ensure that I'm refreshed for each session. I start each hour with scale warm ups (with a metronome). I usually select just a few scales for the first 20 minutes of each hour block, eg. I'll practice hands separate natural minor, then harmonic, then melodic for a key. Perhaps two keys. If I feel I've got the scale well under my fingers I do hands-together contrary motion.
Alternatively, I practice arpeggios. With my left hand I play a block chord and with my right hand I play the chord in arpeggio form over 2 octaves (With a metronome). I then switch hands. I only manage to complete a few chords per study block, as my metronome speed is only 128 BPM and I like to do a lot of repetitions. I suppose I'll get faster with time. Over the week I run through all major and minor chords in arpeggio form, and all major and minor scales.
I then practice pieces for the remaining 40 minutes of each block, hands separate until I feel I've mastered it, then hands together. My rhythm is lacking in this area, so I've started to use a metronome to correct timing errors.
I've never had a teacher, and I'm looking for feedback on my schedule.
In addition to this, I wanted some advice on technique. For the first 9 months I played without much consideration toward my technique. I was playing with mistakes, and sometimes individual knuckles would lock on my fingers when I moved my hands into certain positions. Until I watched a professional pianist and witnessed how graceful his movements were. I've been in the process of ironing out kinks ever since.
I've started to involve the upper arm in my playing, and I can feel a lot of the power coming from my pectoral muscles and upper arms. I keep my elbows and wrists loose, and I push slightly forward into the keys (With the power coming from the shoulder joint). I'm working on controlling this force, as I sometimes push into the keys too hard and my hands and fingers do tense up slightly in response/ feel a little sore. It feels great when I manage to keep my wrists and fingers loose enough while playing a piece. I often stop if I realize I'm tensing up at all and drop my hands into my lap to get a feel for the natural force of my arm. Keeping the wrists and fingers loose is easiest when I play triads, and it feels great when all the joints are loose and accept the impact of the stab as a unit. When I play scales, I'm not so sure though. I can keep the fingers quite loose, but usually it's just the 1st key (or cross over) that gets the benefit of gravity, and then my other fingers do have to press down a bit to depress the keys.
I wanted to know if I'm on the right track and if there's anything I'm missing in regards to my schedule and technique. Any recommendations? Any additions to my schedule?
I want to develop an an adequate, smooth ability. I'm not looking to reach concert pianist level or anything.
Much appreciation to whoever feels it within them self to answer my question. Like I said, I"m hungry for knowledge. (And, I would get a teacher in real life, but I live and work in China, and it's proving a little difficult).
Topic: Piano Self-Study Curriculum - Practice Schedule/Technique Advice Needed (Read 13529 times)