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Topic: Where to go from here?  (Read 1473 times)

Offline student1325

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  • Posts: 1
Where to go from here?
on: February 07, 2015, 04:37:15 PM
Hello, all. I've finished learning my most recent piece and I'm wondering where to go from here.
These are the pieces I've learned in the past two years:
Arabesque No. 1 (Debussy)
Prelude/Carol of the Bells (George Winston)
Nuvole Bianche (Ludovico Einaudi)
Variations on the Canon by Pachelbel (Winston)
Various other pieces out of the John Thompson grade 2 book.

I know, it's a pretty short list, mainly because I only spent 30 minutes a day practicing the first year, and it takes me a very long time to learn a piece. I've now found the time/focus to spend an hour and a half a day on piano. With that in mind, here are my goals/pieces I'd like to learn:

1. Get better at sight reading. This is VERY difficult for me. How do I start?
2. Learn pieces more quickly. For example, the Arabesque took me about three months. Is that          too long? How can I lower the time in the future?
3. Be able to accompany my brass-playing friends
4. Learn some jazz and get a spot in one of my school's jazz bands
5. Learn some new pieces (Asturias, The Old Caste, La Campanella)

I already have a teacher, but my lessons are only 30 minutes once a week. Plus, I thought it would be good to get some outside opinions. So what do you all think? Where should I go next?

Thanks so much to anyone who answers!

Offline singingsheep

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  • Posts: 5
Re: Where to go from here?
Reply #1 on: February 16, 2015, 10:25:37 AM
As far as sight reading goes, I got good at it just by playing tonnes of music that I'd never laid eyes on before. I like worship music so I just went through modern hymn/song books for the most part - it's not the most technically challenging stuff but really helped with sight reading.
 

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