Skill Versus Age?

[tadhg]

Right. Maybe a slightly misleading title but i have a question.
While looking around this site, i, for some reason, get the impression, that the majority of user's here are absolute prodigy's!I keep seeing posts with people saying how they have mastered the Hungarian Rhapsody and Rach's and yet be in 8th grade. Now, im 17, and have been playing for 10 or so years, and could only even start to atempt any Hungarian Rhapsody etc now (and i'd only end up insulting liszt trying!)Its only in the last year or so that i have really grown a love for the instrument. I get the impression here, that its normal to have tackled all these masterpieces by the age of 18?!

[tadhg]

While i have this topic going, i might as well ask another question.
I find myself more and more, just playing music and pieces, without doing excercises or scales. Now obviously scales are important, but what sort of excercises should i be doing to improve overall and what should be the ideal ratio of playing pieces to doing excercises?

[lostinidlewonder]

I mean what really is normal? I think that it is perfectly normal to see young insipred pianists play lots of melodic, virtuosic peices. Things that sound exciting, have lots of sound and movement. It is just not strange at all to be insipred to try and learn these things. It is strange if they master it all and build a huge repertoire of it! It would be even more stranger if they build a repertoire of much more soulful/serious music like Beethoven Hammerklavier or Bach Goldberg variations. But I would expect to see Liszt, Chopin you know the general stuff we all know and listen to in awe.

Don't ever compare yourself to what others do, its not healthy, especially in music where there are so many different in paths to take. Stay on your journey and things reveal themselves to you, so what if a 8yr old is studying the Liszt Sonata in B minor, actually i have seen a 10 yr old play it the whole thing, ridiculous, but amazing!