Building a lesson plan for myself…

[flipture]

Hi Piano friends! This is my first post and I’m excited to be a part of the community here.

First of all, my goals are to learn to read sheet music quickly, play well, and understand the music theory behind the chords and keys that I’m playing in. I enjoy a wide variety of music from classical, to jazz, to Christmas songs and more.

I’ve been playing piano for years (since I was a child) and grew up with a piano in my home but never got past the point of being able to play a few songs and very slowly reading sheet music. The songs that I have learned, I used the sheet music until I memorized the piece and didn’t always learn the entire piece. I can play with both hands fairly fluidly with enough practice on a song so am doing OK on the coordination piece but could definitely do a lot better.

Over the last couple of years I have been using the simply piano app and going through the lessons which has kept me at a minimum level of skill but I’m not improving as much as I’d like. I also have been studying music theory off and on learning about how to build chords based on the chord name. I’m aware of the circle of fifths but want to be able to understand and use it more.

Now for the question…
What should my practice routine consist of on a daily basis at this point to help me progress? Here is what I think might be a good start so please provide feedback, criticism, suggestions, etc… to this. Also, what point should I be working toward on each of the areas before I replace a section of my practice with something different or harder?

1) Warmups - I imagine something that involves both hands varying which hand is doing the heavy lifting. Also maybe something that involves crossing over both directions on each hand.
2) Sheet Music Reading - Work on learning a new song from the sheet music.
3) Music Theory & Chords - Play chords by name (suggestions here?). Play scales (suggestions on which scales to learn in which order?).
4) Improvise - Play around with what I’ve learned and improvise (suggestions on how to structure this?)

My specific questions regarding the above:
1) Are there better ways to help me memorize the notes on the staff and the notes on the keyboard and make it all more second nature? Or is the only way to simply push through it slowly and painfully until it starts to click?

2) For learning new songs from the sheet music, would you try to play through the song all the way then repeat? Or would you work on a section at a time until you perfect it then and only then start adding the next section?

3) Are there any good ways to quiz/teach myself chords by name? I assume I should first learn the scales by heart first? Which scales would you suggest I learn, in what order, and why?

4) Any suggestions on how to structure practicing improvising?

Thanks in advance for any tips and pointers. I’ve done my best to do my homework and give context so that my question is not too broad.

[ranjit]

Welcome to Pianostreet!

First of all, my goals are to learn to read sheet music quickly, play well, and understand the music theory behind the chords and keys that I’m playing in. I enjoy a wide variety of music from classical, to jazz, to Christmas songs and more.

You need to progressively work up your sight reading with pieces of increasing difficulty. You may need to start very simple if you don't have much experience, as the rhythms etc. on the sheet will gradually need to become instinctive for fluent sightreading. I don't profess to know much on the matter, because I am still quite bad at sightreading.

For music theory, I would highly recommend the Coursera course, Write Like Mozart. Even today, 90% of the theory I use regularly is from that course.

Over the last couple of years I have been using the simply piano app and going through the lessons which has kept me at a minimum level of skill but I’m not improving as much as I’d like.

The apps such as Simply Piano aren't really that useful, beyond around a grade 1-2 level if even that. You need to be able to hear and produce the sounds yourself. For that, I'm sure that even now you would be able to pick up an easy piece using sheet music.

What should my practice routine consist of on a daily basis at this point to help me progress?

I don't exactly think that you need a practice routine, but roughly speaking, you should touch all the major areas on a semi-regular basis, that is even if not every day, a few times a week or month depending on how they are prioritized: technique such as scales and arpeggios, quick study pieces, long-term pieces, sight reading. You will eventually need to learn a lot of things when it comes to the pieces -- i.e. how to interpret them.

1) Warmups - I imagine something that involves both hands varying which hand is doing the heavy lifting. Also maybe something that involves crossing over both directions on each hand.

I think scales are a perfectly good way to warm up, if you know how to do them. I personally don't really see the need for a warm up, and I've never done it. Especially as a beginner, I don't really see the need, in fact I would prefer playing without warming up so that technical blindspots are more evident at the starting, because the music is so simple that the demands on your hands should be really minimal. If you really want to warm up, you can check out Danae Dorken's hand warmups on YouTube.

3) Music Theory & Chords - Play chords by name (suggestions here?). Play scales (suggestions on which scales to learn in which order?).

Generally, people go according to the circle of fifths, in the following manner: C major, 1 sharp (G major), 1 flat (F major), 2 sharps (D major), 2 flats (Bb major), etc.

1) Are there better ways to help me memorize the notes on the staff and the notes on the keyboard and make it all more second nature? Or is the only way to simply push through it
slowly and painfully until it starts to click?

Check out the landmark system on YouTube. Remember the position of middle C, middle G, high C, high G, low G, low C, etc. Count up or down from these. Gradually, you should be able to recognize notes quicker by sight. It will still take a lot of time, but it's faster imo. Also, you can remember the spaces as FACE (treble clef) and ACEG (bass clef).

2) For learning new songs from the sheet music, would you try to play through the song all the way then repeat? Or would you work on a section at a time until you perfect it then and only then start adding the next section?

This depends a lot on your level. I would suggest breaking the piece down into sections of say 2 measures or 4 measures, according to how much you can comfortably work on at once. Then work on these sections in parallel, spending about 20 minutes on each section before moving to the next. The goal of your practice should not be to cram all of it into your head blindly -- instead, you should try to work on fluency and getting smooth hand motions which feel easy and controlled.

3) Are there any good ways to quiz/teach myself chords by name? I assume I should first learn the scales by heart first? Which scales would you suggest I learn, in what order, and why?

Check out musictheory.net for a way to quiz yourself. I wouldn't care about the order as long as you are able to memorize both eventually (in maybe a couple of months).

4) Any suggestions on how to structure practicing improvising?

You don't really practice improvising especially at the start. First, you need a baseline level of technical facility and comfort with the keyboard. You can start improvising off the bat by trying to come up with interesting melodies, and seeing how melodies can work on top of chords or chord progressions. It's all about exploring at this stage, you will gradually build up an internal compass of which sounds work and which don't. There are, of course, methods to learn a certain style of improvisation, such as New Orleans jazz or whatever, but it makes no sense so early on as you will have so much trouble coordinating stuff that you won't be able to focus on listening to the music.

Also, for improving improvisation ability, one thing you should work on is developing your ear. Learn how to play any melody you can think of at the keyboard by listening to it. Once you can do that, also try to hear the chords or countermelodies.

[stringoverstrung]

1) Are there better ways to help me memorize the notes on the staff and the notes on the keyboard and make it all more second nature? Or is the only way to simply push through it slowly and painfully until it starts to click?

see:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=4726.msg45264#msg45264

you might want to look up various tips by user Bernhard.  You should definitely break up pieces in short practice parts. -> 7 repeats see also Bernhard for this.


To get an idea of some practice methods see for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKQ1m3KEAvk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGs_AjSc4-M

Regards,
Gert