help for a (largely) self taught student

[hedgejoel]

Just for a little background- I have been teaching myself piano over the last year having had only ~2 years of piano lessons at about age 10 (19 now). Over the last year I have generally been playing any music that takes my fancy (moonlight sonata, clair de lune etc -so perhaps in at the deep end too quickly here!) and although to an average listener they may sound pretty good (mostly hit the right notes in the right order!), I tend to play hard passages- for instance quavers over triplets, completely out of sync and generally timing wise, I am all over the place (while getting a bit lazy in missing out some notes to fit it all in).
So to sum up I am a pretty decent sight reader (often play some old hymns and simpler pieces off hand pretty well) and even harder pieces with difficult key signatures decently, but generally lack good basic technique and sense of timing. I just wanted some advice RE how to go about learning the piano in a more thorough and structured way- for instance how to structure my practice time and what I should focus on.
Just to add- I cannot afford to have piano lessons right now (poor student!) but have a good piano to play on and plenty of time to practice. Upon reading some other threads I have also invested in a couple of technical books- Hanon and Burgmuller studies along with a big volume on scales and arpeggios.
So advice would be greatly appreciated!

[awesom_o]

Put down all of the 'deep end' repertoire!!

Learn to play all of scales and arpeggios in all keys, with both hands simultaneously. Not quickly, and not with the metronome, but with both hands playing together at a comfortable, fluid pace. Learn to do this without looking down at the your hands-keep your eye on the page and use the correct fingerings! Relax! Go slow! Be patient! By learning this way you will come to realize that we play the piano with our hands, arms, and most importantly our mind. The actual fingers, despite playing a very important role, are really just the tip of the iceberg.


The Burgmuller you got is excellent, provided it isn't too advanced.

Continue to sightread hymns and simple pieces as often as possible! Focus on producing a beautiful tone when reading, keeping good allegiance to the pulse even if this means going slower than the marked tempo. Gradually increase the complexity of the pieces which you read through.

Don't necessarily worry at this point about structure of your practicing. Simply go to the instrument AS OFTEN as possible, and work until you have reached the limit of your powers of concentration. Gradually the intensity, frequency, and quality of your practice sessions will increase. But for now, just enjoy the work you are doing, but do it carefully, and often!

Learn to play easy material with good tone while keeping your eye on the page! This is a more sure method to advance in your study of the musical arts than to haphazardly take on pieces of great difficulty like Beethoven. That is a sure method to frustrate yourself and ensure the ultimate destruction of your career as a pianist!

[indianajo]

If you can detect you did something wrong, it is time to back up and slow down.  If you can't do it right slowly, do one hand at a time slowly.  Mistakes that you tend to repeat, circle that note in pencil on a copy of the score.  If necessary, write the sharp or flat you are missing, or the note name.  Perfection, in rhythm, before you speed up.  Don't do the easy parts faster than the slow parts, that leads to a variable mental clock.  Perfection slow, in strict rhythm, first. 
When perfect, then you can speed up.  And when have adequate speed perfectly, then you can start varying the speed for emotion. Don't ever vary the speed for difficulty. Only vary the speed for emotional reasons. 
If your mental clock too variable, try walking at various speeds in strict rhythm, while counting time.  We are built to walk in rhythm, you can harness that part of your brain to do music with. 
Note people that vary speed a lot, never get gigs as accompaninests for choir or other groups.  Being predictable is important sometimes, (but not in Chopin,)

[hedgejoel]

Thanks for advice,
Yes I'm sure you're right about ditching the harder pieces and concentrating on the basics (Is a bit frustrating all the same!). With scales etc. is it advisable to concentrate on one key a day/week- practising both the scale and arpeggio of it? I did actually try to use a metronome with them and found it quite hard work staying on track :/
With respect to pieces, are there any lists or books that would help to plan a sensible progression of difficulty in music? (I'm not good at choosing sensible pieces to play!)- I've read that Bach inventions would be a good place to start?
sorry for all the questions!

[outin]

I've read that Bach inventions would be a good place to start?

No...don't go there...not a place to start...

There's so much you could use...there are many sites on the internet where you can download piano syllabuses (couple of examples below),  and they have lists of pieces in different grades (= general difficulty level).

In Youtube there are playlists with graded piano repertoire.

Or you could get a sheet music book that has a selection of music for a certain grade. Try the earlier grades (2-3)  and if they feel much too easy just go up. There are some nice pieces among the very easy ones too.

And of course this site (Pianostreet) has lots of piano music to download and it's searchable by difficulty. You need the gold membership to download the sheets, but you can search pieces without it and then look for the sheet somewhere else, like IMSLP.

If you're into books, I highly recommend this one, it will help you find pieces that are not too difficult but still interesting and also you can learn about new composers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pianists-Standard-Teaching-Performance-Literature/dp/0882846558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375723012&sr=1-1&keywords=jane+magrath

Links with repertoire in different grades:

https://www.abrsm.org/regions/fileadmin/user_upload/syllabuses/pianoComplete11.pdf

https://www.musicdevelopmentprogram.org/sites/default/files/files/MDP_PianoSyllabus_2013%20online_SECURE(1).pdf

[the_fervid_pig]

Some good comments, though I think you can download some pieces from here with Silver membership can't you? The Classics to Moderns books have a nice selection of pieces from Baroque to fairly modern within each book, all in original keys and arrangements. The difficulty is usually a grade or so higher than the volume number, ie. Book 1 has pieces from around grade 1-3, book 2, 2-4 etc. They're good for sight reading practice too. You can usually pick up old ABRSM syllabus books from previous years fairly cheap although the early grades sometimes have fairly tedious pieces in them. Hours with the Masters and Step by Step to the Classics are nice books too.

[hedgejoel]

No...don't go there...not a place to start...

There's so much you could use...there are many sites on the internet where you can download piano syllabuses (couple of examples below),  and they have lists of pieces in different grades (= general difficulty level).

In Youtube there are playlists with graded piano repertoire.

Or you could get a sheet music book that has a selection of music for a certain grade. Try the earlier grades (2-3)  and if they feel much too easy just go up. There are some nice pieces among the very easy ones too.

And of course this site (Pianostreet) has lots of piano music to download and it's searchable by difficulty. You need the gold membership to download the sheets, but you can search pieces without it and then look for the sheet somewhere else, like IMSLP.

If you're into books, I highly recommend this one, it will help you find pieces that are not too difficult but still interesting and also you can learn about new composers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pianists-Standard-Teaching-Performance-Literature/dp/0882846558/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375723012&sr=1-1&keywords=jane+magrath

Links with repertoire in different grades:

https://www.abrsm.org/regions/fileadmin/user_upload/syllabuses/pianoComplete11.pdf

https://www.musicdevelopmentprogram.org/sites/default/files/files/MDP_PianoSyllabus_2013%20online_SECURE(1).pdf

Oh yes, didn't think about grade syllabus'- pretty sure I did grade 3 when I had lessons so I still have some old graded books along with loads of old books of my mums by many composers. edit: funnily enough there are some 'hours with the masters' books- those will be helpful. Thanks for the recommendations though, I will look into it further!