Beethoven - Fur Elise

[whitewing95]

Hi this is my first post here at this site
I am a self taught pianist I had no music teacher or music lessons (except some videos no youtube).There is no one here in my country that teaches piano or music so I had to learn everything by myself, which made me worried about my way of learning piano and the way I play. also there is no one I know who knows about music so that I can ask him/her about my performance,my family and friends says that I play well but they are not musicians. So this site is my only way to know whether I am good or bad at this.
also I must say that I am practicing piano for a year and a half and the pieces I learned so far :

Chopin - prelude in e minor
Bach - Prelude in C major
Beethoven - Fur Elise
Chopin - Nocturne op.9 no.2
Beethoven - Moonlight sonata 1st movement

other thing I'd like to say is that I don't learn by sheet music or by ear.. I only need to know the sequence of the notes and hear some record multiple times.. eventually I learn to play it.
please give me your honest opinion regarding my record of Fur Elise any advice will be appreciated.
on a scale of one (very bad) to 10(perfect) how good do you think it is
note: I am playing using a keyboard (Casio WK-6600)
Thank you.

[whitewing95]

33 people listened to the record but no one replied.
I don't want an expert or something
Whoever you are "if you play piano" just say what you think.. if its bad say its bad
If its good say its good
Seriously I'm cool with it

[mjames]

Articulation is very important, it provides flavor. So in the more technical parts try to practice them separately without pedal. You should be able to connect your phrases without the pedal, at least for this piece.
Go ahead and learn to read music, not because your playing is bad, but because if you intend on going further in classical music then it'll greatly benefit you. In fact, not learning will be a handicap for your...a big one. Besides it's not hard, it's very easy to learn, just requires practice.

But yeah, you did it! It's not bad, okay actually. I've heard a lot of self-taught musicians butcher this piece XD
There's a really good thread about teachers who provide lessons through skype, you should check it out.

[chopinlover01]

I'm not a teacher, but I'd be happy to do some mini masterclasses with OP through Skype.
If you'd like some examples of my playing to compare to, I have a couple recordings here in the audition room.

[whitewing95]

Thank you mjames for your reply I will try practicing what you told me and maybe give music reading a shot . I'm glad you think that my recording was okay  .
chopinlover01 I'll check your recordings thank you .

[109natsu]

Hi whitewing,

I'd be happy to help you, however, I can't listen to your recording.

[chopinlover01]

@109natsu; it's likely because it's a stereo only recording. If your headphones, like mine, only play out of one ear, it's likely that the broken ear would be the one to play the sound you want.
In my case, that was the case, and I had to use a pair of earbuds on my phone to listen.