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Topic: Which Piano Board should I spend the most time reading?  (Read 1313 times)

Offline 1piano4joe

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Which Piano Board should I spend the most time reading?
on: February 08, 2014, 06:21:01 PM
HI all,

Which Piano Board should an intermediate adult learner focus on?

Naturally, I use the search function as needed but sometimes I just read and learn about things that I'm NOT currently concerned with such as some obscure music conservatory that I never heard of and obviously at my age will never attend.

I have been reading mostly the "Student's Corner" since I'm more of that than anything else. I find I learn many things to consider from the questions that other forum users are asking and very often learn practical solutions from the many helpful responses supplied. Although, I often have to try and decipher the contrasting opinions and views by the different members.

So should I keep my focus or maybe spend some time reading the "Performance" Board and maybe the "Repertoire" board?

Am I wrong to focus? Or should I read all the boards? Some I don't think are as "critical" to my development. "Teaching", "Miscellaneous" and "Instruments" come to mind.

The "Teaching" board can be helpful when it's discussing how to teach a piece. However, it often discusses the business end and dealing with difficult parents, students, etc. Useful? Somewhat, I'm not teaching. Informative, yes, but does it make me play any better?

The "Miscellaneous" board also can be helpful by mentioning a book which could be beneficial to my playing. I don't see any immediate benefit though in reading about some competition.

"Instruments" could be useful if I were planning a purchase which I'm not. Tuning, adjustments, okay, but how much do I really need to know about them?

I could be wrong about all this as I haven't read as much of these boards but what do you guys think?

Maybe I should focus on two or three boards not just one and maybe not all of them?

I have read approximately 15% of the "Student's Corner". It can be quite repetitive.

The same old questions over and over:

1. What grade am I?
2. What grade is this song?
3. Don't say song, say piece (Ha Ha)
4. Should I ditch my teacher?
5. How should I practice?
6. I can't afford a teacher.
7. The same old arguments and debates on Hanon.
8. Don't post here, post there.
9. Should I quit playing?
10.  And the NUMBER ONE, ALL TIME MOST OFTEN ASKED QUESTION OF THEM ALL, "Am I too old to learn to play piano?

Yeah, Blah, Blah, Blah and so on and so on.

How much have you read of the different boards? Which is(are) your favorite(s)? What has been most helpful to you and why? How much reading of them do you actively do on a weekly basis? Does anyone here read them a half hour each day? So, several hours a week?

Is reading like practicing where a little every day is better than a marathon weekend session like cramming all your practicing one day before your lesson?

For the avid readers, what percentage of the time do you spend reading the different boards? For example, 15 minutes student's corner, 5 minutes repertoire board, 5 minutes performance board, and 5 minutes teaching board.

Or do you just skim the new posts, and like reading the headlines in the newspaper, only read what interests you?

Thanks for reading the long post, Joe.

Offline deidre

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Re: Which Piano Board should I spend the most time reading?
Reply #1 on: February 08, 2014, 06:37:35 PM
Performance and repertoire ''most likely'' would be best suited to any questions you might have, on how to improve upon your, well...performance. lol If you are in the process of studying a piece and are stuck say on a particular technique, performance would be a good forum to ask your question, or search for already-asked questions on the topic.

I'm new here, and haven't really joined any other piano forums on the internet, so for me, I tend to gravitate towards areas that I need help in, thus have an interest in. ATM, that would be performance and repertoire. But, it depends on what drew you here, what you are seeking, what you are hopeful of accomplishing with the knowledge you gain from here.

The only downside to a message forum, any message forum, is while you can glean some insightful knowledge, much is based on opinion. Everyone works on a piece of music a bit differently. I took lessons through childhood, and college, and don't know many people in the 'real world' who have played piano, so this site has been interesting to view how others view a variety of issues, from interpreting measures, to memorization, to scale progression, to fingering, to the benefit of improvization. The end result is the important thing, but obviously...there are a variety of way to get there. Just my thoughts to it, anyway.

Good luck with your piano studies! :)
Without a piano I don't know how to stand, don't know what to do with my hands. ~ Norah Jones
 

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