Is this a beginner problem or does everyone have it?

[cossie0]

I am an adult (39) and have been learning for 3 months. I am currently at the end of Alfred basic book 2.

When I start to learn a new piece I start off slow and eventually after a couple of days I can play it reasonable well. However I seem to be able to play it excellently one day and get a real buzz yet the next day it is awful and full of mistakes and I ask myself why I ever thought I would be able to pick it up at my age. The next day would be good again.

I also find that for pieces I have practiced and practiced to the point where I rarely make a mistake I cannot play them without having the book open in front of me even though I am not really reading the notes. It is like having a security blanket.

Last one is that I can play a piece great at home yet when I play it at my lesson I end up making mistakes I have never made before. It is so frustrating when the teacher send me back home to practice it for another week and I get home and it is fine again. Nerves at my age.....never 

[Nana_Ama]

You're not the only one, it happens to me too!  I played a Bach invention last week for my teacher and it was amazing, especially considering that I had just learned it, then I tried to play it this wekk and it was terrible.  It also happens with other pieces... I just don't understand!!! Sometimes, I have to play the piece for another week when I know that I shouldn't have to.   

[jsoftware]

I am 33 and I have been playing for 2,5 months. Usually I spend several days to memorize the whole new excersice. After having memorized the new one I play it again and again. So after several days I can play the new one really well. I like memorizing and it is more fun for me to play from memory than looking at notes all the time even if you need them for psychological support only. I think you should try to memorize the notes first and then play without them. May be you will make no more mistakes. Chang's book is very useful, you can find in it a lot of great ideas.

[Bob]

I would imagine the day to day consistency would varying more for someone with less experience than for someone with more.  Consistent practicing too and give consistent results.

It depends how you think about a piece... if you hear it in your mind while performing, if you let your fingers run away...

I know what you mean about not reading the music but not being able to play it unless the score is in front of you.  The mind must be picking up something.  You don't even have to focus on anything specific on the page while you play.

Stress of performing changes everything.  It puts pressure on everything.  You have a different energy.  I find I have more laser-like attention.   I can have super hearing and hear all around a single note or phrase.  While doing that, I can be completely oblivious to other things I play at the same time.  One time, I was able to hear in much more detail than normal AND hear everything as a whole at once.  It's difficult to describe, but it was very awesome.  Everything changes when you perform.  The performance environment is probably not the same environment you learned the piece in.  Practicing performing may help.  I've noticed I am different when someone is in the room or even if I convince myself that someone may be there and may be listening. 

[chopinisque]

Well, according to Chang's book, you should end your practices with a slow run.

[asyncopated]

Hi,

I'm a late beginner as well, started about 9 months ago.  I used to have that problem, but find that I don't get it as much now. 

I've noticed that factors that affect my consistency can be classed into two groups, basically environmental factors (external), and practice method (internal).

Find that a change of environment, possibly due to the following makes me play differently.
1. Using a different piano
2. People listening,
3. Background noises

I suppose that the only way to work with these problems is to get used to these changes.  I used to get fear pangs, when my teacher asked me to play for her.  Anxiety does funny things -- sometimes I do better than I normally practice, and sometimes everything falls apart.  Now it's much better, I don't feel anxious playing for her.

The second big thing I've noticed is how I practice.  I used to just bang away at the notes and lately have found that I sometimes contorted my arm in an odd way but was not aware it.  That is where, a lot of mistakes creep in and where on some days I miss most of the notes.

I think that this is because I did not know or understand the motions (or technique) well enough for playing the piece.  I was choosing a motion that is awkward and unnatural for myself. Moreover, I did not realized that I was doing this until after reading a number of posts in this forum carefully.  Your body tends to make more mistakes if you force it to do an awkward movement.  I find that consciously analyzing and experimenting with motions until you find one that you are happy with for the speed you are aiming at helps.  After that, I practice the motion (just small sections) with the aim of producing a beautiful sound (playing in slow motion). This has changed the quality of my practice sessions dramatically. I do this repeatedly making sure that the back, chest, shoulder, arm, wrist and touch feels right -- fluid and graceful with minimal tension, at the same time bringing the section up to speed, setting the phrasing and trying out the dynamics.

I also find that warming up with some slow motion play, for a difficult section of the piece that I am are learning, puts me in the right frame of mind to practice.  I basically start listening more carefully and try to consciously be more aware of the feel and the touch.  At the same time, it reminds me of how it feels like to play that section, so that when I do practice it up to speed later, it comes more easily.

After trying all that, the problem with my inconsistencies just goes away! I think this is because my body knows what to do and is comfortable doing it!

Hope this helps!

al.

P.S. I have one thing to add, about being an adult beginner, that I've found useful.  You can actually (usually) afford to buy a good piano -- one that you like.  I've recently bought a reasonably good piano, and i think it has made me much more sensitive to the actions I'm using and the sound I'm making.  It is difficult to connect action to sound on my previous, cheap, clunk of a piano.  If you know what you are doing, playing on a good instrument does make a huge difference!
 

[timothy42b]

I think there are three classic adult beginner problems we all struggle with:
1.  Learning the keyboard
2.  Working hands together
3.  Forgetting everything you learned yesterday.

3 is deceptive though.  Mostly it means you didn't really know the piece.  You have learned it when you can play it well the next day.  But partly you are comparing how well you play it cold, at the beginning of a session, with the last and best rendition from the day before, when you'd finally got it right.  That isn't really a fair way to judge progress. 

[vera]

I have taught a good number of adult beginners and many had those troubles, that when they played for me, things went wrong. But they were always certain, that it went well at home. I think it often is a psychological problem. What I did was asking them to make a tape of their playing at home, and then bring it to the lesson, where I would play the tape immediately. So they knew then, that I had heard them playing well. Immediately thereafter they would play  the same music life, and that works almost always, or at least they play it in such a way, that they are happy with it.
You keep doing that for a while, until selfconfidence is regained. Students have been surprised, how that boosted their confidence.
Mind you, I can remember exactly, how I felt playing for a flute-teacher, after I had taken up that  instrument as a new instrument in my 30s. Being a professional pianist and all,this still was an unsettling experience.
It is probably more a beginner problem (beginner on any instrument) The development of coordination is still in the early stages then and this is easily disturbed in environments different from one's home.

[asyncopated]

Hi Tim,

I did not have much of a problem with the keyboard, I hand the luxury of learning this when I was young.

Here, are some suggestions -

1.  Learning the keyboard

Sing the sound of music out loud at the top of your voice.  When you sing 'Doe, a deer, a female deer' press on C (if you don't know where this is, check a book).  Keep singing until you get to the end of the octave ('that will bring us back to doe!'), pressing successive white keys as you go along.  Do it with your index finger.

Do that about 7 times, everyday for a week increasing by one octave everyday and by the end of the week, you will probably know all the white keys.  The black keys just go in between some of the white ones.

Also, try to do this when there are other people around, preferably people you don't know.  In which case, you just might be embarrassed into learning the keyboard.

2.  Working hands together

There is a simple solution to this.  Work hands separately first.  It works!

3.  Forgetting everything you learned yesterday.
3 is deceptive though.  Mostly it means you didn't really know the piece...

Yes, I agree. But that's ok, start learning it over again.  I will take far less time when you do it a second time round.

al.
 

[stormx]

I am an adult beginner too (36, and playing for 4 months), and i can tell you that i suffer ALL the problems described in this thread   

I will add another one, particulary disturbing 

Not only do i usually play worser with my teacher sit next to me, but i also SWEAT A LOT (tension? nerves?).
The room where i take my lessons doesnt help tough, being a little hot, at leat in this season 

[timothy42b]

Hi Tim,

I did not have much of a problem with the keyboard, I hand the luxury of learning this when I was young.

 

These are good suggestions.  I guess I should have defined what I meant by learning the keyboard. 

Close your eyes.  (or look at the music!)  Put your finger on D.  Where the heck is it?  <grin>  I know the keys and how they correspond to the notes on the staff.  But knowing how to reach for one quickly, especially if I have to make a jump, comes slowly.  I need to be able to reach for D as confidently, and as unconsciously, as if I scratch my nose. 

[cossie0]

Thanks for all of your replies I will try hand separate and slowly hands together for each piece at the start of each practice session in future.
I am not learning under the best of conditions as I work on an offshore oil rig and the only thing that is available when away for 2 weeks is an Yamaha EZ30 which is one of the yucky light up plastic portable keybords.  I have to perch it on a table which is too high and uncomfortable. It is better than nothing I suppose and It was only the chance of being able to play a keyboard while offshore as well as at home that I was able to fulfill my life ambition. I recently joined the rig and it is the first rig I have been on which had a keyboards for use.
Fortunately when I get home I have a clavinova digital piano fully weighted. I have normally a day to redo each piece on this to get used to the different feel before I go to my teacher the day after. I then have 3 lessons within the 2 weeks I am home. My teacher also uses a digital piano which feels a bit clicky and it can put me off at times. He has an upright but he only lets the advanced pupils use it.
I am enjoying it and feel I am making good progress in the time I have been learning. It is good to see that the difficulties I have experienced are normal and should diminish with more experience. This forum is really good and I have learnt a great deal from the posts. I would like to thank all of you that contribute and give your valuable time and experience to us lesser mortals 

[asyncopated]

Hi Tim,

I guess I should have defined what I meant by learning the keyboard.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Close your eyes.  (or look at the music!)  Put your finger on D.  Where the heck is it?  <grin>  I know the keys and how they correspond to the notes on the staff.  But knowing how to reach for one quickly, especially if I have to make a jump, comes slowly.

Well, I guess even the most advanced pianist have diffculties with this!  Try playing the Rach 3 with your eyes closed (such a cliche, ala shine).  I do think there is value (somewhere) in playing with your eyes closed -- I have not tried it for my pieces. (Sounds interesting, i will soon!) Many have suggested that shutting down your visuals allows you to concentrate in sound and touch.  However, apart from using it as a pratice technique, I don't think it really helps if you want to perform. Unless you are ray charles that is.

al.


P.S. Here is one more thing that I've read, don't know if it is useful.  Tell me what you think.  If you are sitting properly infront, relaxed, not slouching.  Close your eyes. Lift your right hand, reach directly in front of you and press a white key. That key should be D above middle C.  If it is not then you are sitting in the wrong position.  This was from a thread about relative vs. absolute positions, and that one must have a command of both.  For me it will almost certainly, at this stage, not be a D.  Maybe it's time for me to practice sitting at the piano.

[lagin]

Hi, When I started, my teacher had to go into the hall so I couldn't see her and then I could play my piece okay.