Is it bad that I mostly only play songs that are beyond my level?

[lordnishka]

I'm like a level 4 player but I really dislike practice songs. I usually end up putting them on hold so I can play songs that I truly enjoy, but like I said, are beyond what I can actually play. Not that I have a teacher (anymore) anyway, lol. I know that if I practiced my piano technique a lot more instead of just jumping into songs, I could probably practice a lot more easily.

But yeah, is it alright to practice difficult songs for months as long as I enjoy it?

[lostinidlewonder]

It's like swinging the heavy practice baseball bat before going up to bat. It can help you learn a great deal and when you reduce back to your normal level it can feel a lot easier. But one has to learn to hit a ball cleanly and easily also, if you only subject yourself only to the heavy practice bat you might miss the important feeling of control you get when manipulating pieces that are easier or closer to your playing level. You may fall into the trap of making what feels uncomfortable and inefficient a natural response rather than a more effortless technique.

[kevin69]

But yeah, is it alright to practice difficult songs for months as long as I enjoy it?

No, the piano police will come and take you away.

[outin]

I suggest you do what I do: Find pieces of your level that you really like. There's so much piano music, with a little effort you will find them.

[brogers70]

I don't think there's anything wrong with fooling around with "aspirational" pieces, meaning things you love and hope to be able to play someday. But I wouldn't do too much of it. I spent a lot of time working on things above my level when I was beginning, and I ended up playing with a lot of tension and very poor tone. I made much, much more progress when I learned to enjoy fussing about how to position my hands in the most perfect, relaxed way and play a single line with good tone and good shaping of the phrases. Even now that I've worked up to some fairly difficult repertoire I still sometimes take a whole practice day or at least an hour or so to figure out how to play a single line in one hand in the most efficient and beautiful way. There's lots of very beautiful music without too many notes. Working on playing simple things beautifully will improve your technique in the long run more than struggling with stuff above your level. Like I said, that doesn't mean you can't fool around with your "dream" pieces, too, but spending most of your time on them isn't the fastest route to being able to play them well one day.

[kopower]

Playing above your level, only improves and increases your own level!

It is more work, but you will see better results !

[j_menz]

A step up - all good.

A real stretch - now and then is good.

A giant leap - probably a complete waste of time.

[g_s_223]

I would say it's OK provided you have acquired practice skills which would allow you in principle to master advanced pieces given enough time. These would include, among others, HS, slow practice, dotting even sequences, chordal decomposition etc. What isn't OK is to hack your way through a piece time after time in the hope that the result might improve - it won't.