Need help organizing...

[penny_18]

Hey there!

The last time I came here was to ask your advice on changing teachers and I evetually did, so thanks  . I do think it was the best choice for me, however I feel I'm still lacking something. This year has been pretty hectic and I feel like I haven't made the most of it... not even close. I finally made some changes in order to make the most of my lessons but they only last 50 minutes and I only have them on tuesdays. Do you guys think its enough? with my other teacher I used to have 60 + minutes and I'm really feeling the difference.

 Anyhow, I decided to make more time to practice at home and for the first time in 2 years I actually think I'll be able to. So now I'm just unsure about how to practice. I've been studying my two pieces and a popular song but there's only so much I can do on my own. I don't follow any kind of method with my teacher because I didn't use to have the time to study much at home and he would just go through the music with me and talk a little about how it was built (he's  composer, so he can get pretty excited about it). Should I ask him for more? Or should I wait to see if he'll suggest something once he sees I'm managing it all better? I certainly would hate for it to look like I'm complaining but... I don't know.

Thanks in advance to anyone who'd take the time to read this, let alone reply.

[iansinclair]

The length of the lesson is probably OK.  It's what you do with it -- but I don't have to tell you that.  Perhaps if you brought rather specific questions to your teacher it might help some.  They could be technical questions (how fast should this go?  How can I finger this?  That sort of thing) or interpretive (should I have more of a crescendo here?  Should this be accented this way or that way?  Do I need more or less pedal?  Should I slow down a little here?  That sort of thing) or even compositional (how does this chord succession lead to this key change?  Why is this section slower (or faster!) than that one).  Or anything of the sort.

This might both help you and your teacher focus your lesson on what you need to work on -- and it should also help you focus your practicing.

Don't worry about not having a method.  I never did... (but then, I never turned out to be a concert pianist, either!)