Can there be a 'too hard' beginner song for someone with prior music exp?

[nobu]

 I'm a 5 day old pianist wondering about my first song choices and whether or not they're 'too hard' or if there is even such a thing. I've gone through a bunch of old Bernhard posts to get an idea of how to practice and checked the first couple of pages to see if a question like this has been asked before.

Some background: I have ~7 years of high school band music experience on the trumpet, and an 11 year gap where I went to college and forgot all about playing music. I finally cracked and bought a $100 keyboard for $30 used with a stand that doesn't have pressure sensitivity.  (Yamaha CTK-496) I spent the first few days reviewing and learning basic music theory (imagine all those years in HS music and I never learned about the circle of fifths or the pattern of tones and semitones that make up a major scale..yeah.) Also learned a couple of etudes to just get a feel for actually playing the keys and looked up proper fingering for major scales and chromatic scale to get an idea of how to move across the keyboard.

I'm working from a favored game series and music source that has a lot of good piano music (Touhou) and a site offering free simplified versions of the songs. I decided to start with trying to learn 5 in a month.

This is one of the first ones I've started working on, Hartmann's Youkai Girl. I just love the rhythm and weird sound to it:

Even though I'm incredibly slow at reading bass clef, I seem to be able to manage decent progress on 4 measures in a 20 minute session. And it's fairly repetitive. But I have a nagging wonder if it's possible that I could hurt myself by being overambitious, or that I should choose something a little easier from the getgo.

Additional question: What were your experiences with tackling something way above your skill level? Worth the trouble?

[j_menz]

I'm a 5 day old pianist

They're starting younger and younger. 

Knowing another instrument is a huge advantage, but it really doesn't mean you can skip the basics. Mostly it just means you'll breeze through most of them much more easily. Trumpet and piano are quite a bit different, and you need to learn those bits that trumpet didn't teach you.  It will be time well spent.

There is a certain frustration inherent in it, because you can't play stuff on piano nearly as well as you can on trumpet, and many of the pieces will seem pretty basic and trivial. I'd advise you to persevere through that, though - you'll get the time back soon enough by progressing faster later.

Additional question: What were your experiences with tackling something way above your skill level? Worth the trouble?

A  bit of a stretch - often good. A giant stretch, mostly disastrous.

[quantum]

Give yourself a selection of pieces that have a rage in difficulty.  Having a current repertoire only consisting of challenging pieces may prove overly frustrating and slow down your progress.  Very very easy pieces can be used to work on your score reading, non-technically challenging music to work on musical expression at the piano, etudes and technique builders, a challenging stretch piece within reason, and pure fun pieces.  

Additional question: What were your experiences with tackling something way above your skill level? Worth the trouble?

In my experience, generally worth the effort if one skillfully manages the challenge.

[nobu]

They're starting younger and younger. 

Knowing another instrument is a huge advantage, but it really doesn't mean you can skip the basics. Mostly it just means you'll breeze through most of them much more easily. Trumpet and piano are quite a bit different, and you need to learn those bits that trumpet didn't teach you.  It will be time well spent.

There is a certain frustration inherent in it, because you can't play stuff on piano nearly as well as you can on trumpet, and many of the pieces will seem pretty basic and trivial. I'd advise you to persevere through that, though - you'll get the time back soon enough by progressing faster later.

It has been long enough since I played music that I've lost most of the bravado that comes from being skilled in another instrument. I realize that the main things I have going for me is familiarity with scores and reading music, rhythm, dynamics, and a good but no means perfect ear for pitch.
Enthusiasm and experience in research and determining optimal methods also helps.

Give yourself a selection of pieces that have a rage in difficulty.

This folder full of concertos should be all the rage I need!

 

Having a current repertoire only consisting of challenging pieces may prove overly frustrating and slow down your progress.  Very very easy pieces can be used to work on your score reading, non-technically challenging music to work on musical expression at the piano, etudes and technique builders, a challenging stretch piece within reason, and pure fun pieces. 

Thanks for the advice! I have made my starting music list much more well-rounded and reasonable. Gradually making my way through Prelude in C and the easier melodic songs of the game music that i'm interested in, using etudes from a early intermediate book to work on score reading, practicing scales and arpeggios based on the key signatures of what i'm practicing, looking at fingering rules of thumb (hah), etc.

[quantum]

This folder full of concertos should be all the rage I need!

Yet another reason to bring back the modify button 

[outin]

Some people think (my teacher is one of them) that it's not possible EVER to play really hard stuff unless you learn solid technique. One might be able to hack through the notes somehow, but it won't sound good. Learning such solid technique without a teacher and starting only with the hard stuff doesn't seem that likely. For a beginner something simpler is often very hard anyway, so it's all relative.

And "technique" required to play complex music is not only what you do with your hands, it's understanding the elements of the music and that sort of maturity takes time to develope as well. Then one either has to have excellent reading skills or memorizing skills to play large scale works. A beginner don't usually have those either.

OTOH to learn new things one has to be challenged, so I see little value in spending months or years with things that seem easy to learn. I do believe in "no pain, no gain", but the pain should be in your mind, not your body 

My experiences in tackling things way too difficult: Usually had to give up at some point because it just didn't get better. But have found it rewarding to return to them later. So there's value in it if one knows when to stop, understands what the final product should be like, how far it is and accepts that some things may take a long time, like years instead of months.