Method books vs. "pieces you love" for a self-teaching intermediate student

[lauren897]

I studied piano for about 5 years when younger (ages 7-12), and have been playing a bit for pleasure on and of since (I'm 23 now).  I played through burgmuller, got to playing a few "real pieces" - sonatinas (I think Clementi's sonatina in C...), I started a Beethoven sonata at some point, which was a bit over my head, some Yanni ("until the last moment") that is a bit challenging to me.  Lately, I have been playing a bunch of Yanni, Dave Matthews, other pieces that are pretty within my comfort zone, and working through "Improvising Blues Piano" to pursue a long term goal of improvising jazz :-)

Anyway, besides that blues book, I don't have a lot of direction.  I would like "generally get better" in the sense of being able to play pieces that are currently inaccessible to me, from classical romantic to pop, new age, and jazz.  I don't expect to be incredible, but I would love to know that I am capable of learning most pieces I could want to (

So my question is, should I try to work through the rest of a series of method books, or just take the advice I've heard often to just make a list of pieces you want to play, try to arrange them from easy to hard, and play through them?  I still have the method book I was finishing when I quit lessons, (John Thompson's Modern 3) and have bought a handful of other books (the Schaum series, the "Piano Handbook", more Thompson) etc.  I also have some collections like "Classics to Moderns in the intermediate grades" that I can work through, though that book is just alphabetized so it's hard to tell where to begin.

The problem with method books is that I struggle with how long I should play a piece, and when I should be satisfied that I learned something from it and move on.  Should every piece be performance-polished, or is that a huge waste of time?  My teacher always seemed to let go of pieces when they didn't feel finished to me, and I think I have the tenancy to do that too, which I think is a bad habit.

On the other hand, working through a list of pieces is difficult because 1) I'd miss having the tangible progress of moving up "levels", and 2) I don't have a great grip on "the repertoire", so it would be hard to pick pieces that are appropriate for my level.  For me, point (1) is huge.  I'm addicted to working out because I love seeing gradual improvement in my abilities.  That said, I wonder sometimes if my desire for progress is actually preventing me from completing and enjoying what I'm playing, since it's all about pieces I "have to" play, and when I'm "allowed" to move on to the next piece.

So - thoughts on continuing with the method books?  If so, when do you call a piece in a method book "finished"?  If not, how do you grade your own pieces and measure progress?  How on earth do you begin creating your own list of pieces to play - just clicking around on youtube?

My anxiety about all this ("paralysis by analysis") actually keeps me from practicing, because I don't know what I "should" be playing!  I'm writing this post because I've spent two days' worth of practice time reading on this forum trying to create my "master plan" and driving myself crazy.

Related (sorry this is getting long!) - I'm slightly open to taking lessons again.  Since I stopped when I was 12, I've taken lessons twice for a few months each.  Both experiences felt like a waste to me.  The teachers asked me to pick pieces I'm interested in playing, and they basically assigned me however many lines to practice, and held me accountable the next week.  It didn't feel like anything I couldn't do myself with discipline.  Maybe they were just mediocre teachers, or I was too passive a student.  Thoughts on lessons would be helpful too :-)

Thanks for any response at all - any advice, books, pieces, recommendations to just "chill the heck out and play something fun" - all are welcome and greatly appreciated :-)

[cabbynum]

I taught myself for the first 6 months, I played a lot by ear. A few Bach preludes, the toccata from toccata and fugue in d minor. A Chopin nocturne and some other preludes from Chopin.
I'm not sure if I went the best route because once I learned to read music I noticed I was missing some notes, or I added notes and various other things.
I never did the method books, I also started when I was 16 so I didn't have any interest in them.
My biggest piece of advice to you is start listening to more of the repetoire. Pick an easy Mozart piece, K.545 is popular!
Learn about the repetoire, learn what's hard and what's not hard.
I'd go ahead and learn the pieces you love. It may be a stretch and take you a while but it will be worth it in the end, most times.
Don't jump into obvious challenges though, do some prep before diving in.
Practice as much as possible.
Playing what you love is very important, but so is learning the technique.
Do a mix of both.
Go ahead and do that clementi

[iansinclair]

I like "paralysis by analysis"!  All too common.

I personally would suggest that you work at this point on things you enjoy and like to listen to; as to when they are "finished", they never will be, but they will get to the point that you can play them for yourself and really enjoy them and relax (and play them for friends, too!).

A teacher is helpful in examining what you are doing and your technique and in correcting faults.  This can be hard to do on one's own.  Perhaps you can find a person who is willing to work with you in this regard.  Difficult, but possible.

The other thing which I would suggest very very strongly is to broaden your knowledge of piano repertoire as much as you can -- all genres -- so that you can find out what sorts of things you like, and what sounds like you can play it.  Recordings.  Serious music radio (I'm including jazz here!) if you can find such a thing... perhaps even internet services such as Pandora might help.

[sucom]

If you are unsure about the order of music to play and would like to have some idea about the level of various pieces and where you might fit in the grand scheme of things, you could try using graded books with offer a mixture of pieces of different styles and by different composers.

For instance, Hours with the Masters (Dorothy Bradley) has graded repertoire as do the ABRSM Piano Anthology books.  Or you could try working through the pieces required for the graded exams. 

Using this method might give you a real feeling of progression.  And don't forget to add in the scales and arpeggios added for each grade! 

[1piano4joe]

Hi Lauren897,

If you have played through Burgmuller then I don't think you would learn much from method books that you don't already know.

In the 5 years you studied piano, what exactly did you study? Did you have a teacher?

Skip method books if you know the following:

1. All scales major and minor.
2. Chords and their inversions. Major, Minor, 7th, Augmented, Diminished.
3. Arpeggios and Cadences.

I assume in 5 years of previous study you covered all of this. If not, then they could be useful to you. You could also use them for review or as supplementary material or even for sight reading.

May I suggest a graded course of study? There are so many. I personally like RCM but there is AMEB and ABRSM.

The RCM has graded repertoire books, etude books and technical requirement books all correlated by grade. There is even a Christopher Norton Series of books that correlate to these by grade in nonclassical styles such as latin, blues,swing and jazz which you expressed an interest in, in your post.

Many of these pieces are performed on YouTube by teachers for their students and by many accomplished students as well. A big plus if you are going to self-teach.

You should still make that dream list of pieces you want to play anyway.

Hope I have been helpful, Joe.

P.S. Welcome to Pianostreet!

[lauren897]

Wow – this is so helpful – thank you all!

Joe – I had a teacher for those five years, and I worked through a couple method books, supplementing with scales, chords, etc. I’ve also taken a few theory and composition classes in high school and college, so my theory’s pretty solid.  There’s certainly room to improve in my scales, chords, and arpeggios, but I don’t need a method book to learn them, just patience and discipline.  The books I have aren’t instructive as much as graded repertoire, though many are simplified, and I would rather not learn a simplified version of something I can’t play yet – I’ll just work harder / wait until it’s feasible for me. 

What I’m hearing from you guys, and how I’m putting it together, is this –
1) My knowledge (or lack thereof) of repertoire is a big missing piece.  I’ve been aware of that, but have never really thought about how it has held me back, or had a game plan for exploring more.  I will DEFINITELY start checking things out, from Pandora/iTunes Radio to some pretty great youtube channels and lists.  I am sure that the more I listen and start to develop specific tastes and “dream pieces”, some of this will come into place. 
2) I’ll go ahead and try to start a list of pieces I enjoy and I think are possible but a stretch for me, and keep another list for longer-term pieces.
3) I’ll skim through my method books for pieces that I actually find interesting, true to the original, and are at / a little above my level, knowing that this will mean skipping a lot.  I also like the idea of using them for sight-reading.  Makes me feel a little better about letting them go.
4) I’ll check out the graded books / graded exams stuff.  It sounds like that’s a great compromise between method books and just picking pieces.

Thanks again – I feel like I have a lot to work with now.