State of mind

[lovingmusic]

Hope someone understands what I mean. Just started to play. How do you keep up what you are playing. You have two hands and if you are more experienced, the notes will go very fast. If I am playing, I know the melody after a while, but I can't keep up with reading the notes. If I keep on playing, I loose track where I am. In other words, I can play the melody, but not simultaneously follow the notes. Do you really have to know which note you are playing during playing? Or am I thinking too much?

[hfmadopter]

There are two approaches that you will learn if you are to continue reading your music to play vs memorizing it. One is read ahead of what you are playing , almost a measure ahead. It's like leading the shot in bird hunting, aim ahead and follow through ! The other is read and feel the notes under your hands, so you don't keep looking down at the keyboard. Many or most good typists do the same thing, they don't have to look at the keys to type. Many good pianist don't have to look at the keys to play just as well. You are new so give yourself plenty of time to learn the techniques. Piano is a life long experience that doesn't remain stagnant. I see that many new comers today want it to happen over night, it doesn't work that way !

I'm in a similar boat actually, though more advanced than you obviously since I've been around piano for a long time. I'm aging and finding it more difficult to memorize, which has been my most effective way to play, memorize the music. So I'm reading more and more now. I get lost once in a while too, it's mostly when I let my guard down though and maybe daydream a bit. I'm a rookie at reading a finished piece of music, since once I roughed it out in the past, I then memroized to polish the piece.

[keypeg]

You don't try to keep up with your playing.  You slow down your playing to your learning speed.  There are also ways of preparing a piece gradually, in sections.

[lovingmusic]

Thanks the both of you. I thought I had a weird problem, but now I know I am not the only one. Patience isn't one of my best things. But I had the feeling being on a T split and didn't know which direction to follow. Now I can move on.