What pieces/excersizes/anything has helped you the most?

[musicsdarkangel]

I am talking in terms of helping your technical abilities more so than musical.

For me, I would say the Winterwind, Ocean etudes, as well as op 10 no 1 for the Chopin etudes....but then again, i've only done 7-8 of the set

So far, La Campanella has helped me greatly, but I still am not nearly satisfied with my performance (actually part of the reason I posted this)

I know that many are against the use of excersizes on this board, but I have started using the Liszt excersizes that I thought would be most helpful, and I do believe that they are jems.

Please, share your thoughts on whatever has helped you.  (heck, doesn't even have to be sheet music of any sort)

[ted]

That's an easy one for me - my practice clavier.

[maxy]

Schumann toccata.

After that, a LOT of stuff suddenly seems quite easy. 

[steinwayguy]

Mephisto Waltz and Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 2 will help you a ton.

[anda]

flight of the bumblebee. helped me with my finger/wrist technique.

also, chopin etudes 10/4 and 25/6 helped me assimilate the least-possible-moving-fingers ( ) technique

[presto agitato]

Bach WTC Books 1 and 2.

Blues and Jazz piano pieces (interdependence of my hands)

[Anton]

I playd the whole moonlight sonate last year and i would say that  that was one of the pieces that helped me the most. espesialy the first movement, for the first time i learend to use my wrists.
I had to play the whole first movement using only my whrists and wasnt aloud to play the notes with my fingers .I had to use the movement of my whrist and only the wheight in my fingers to play it. i was just wondering if anyone els played it that way.i mean the first movement is eays f you just play it normaly but then u dont get a even sound

[pianonut]

i don't know if this is true, but it seems like if you pick a certain composer's difficult works it helps you play THAT composer's works better, but not necessarily another composer's.  they all seem to have different techniques (and hand spans) and goals harmonically (to memorize).  maybe what helps me the most is not to become content with what i am playing, but always look for new pieces to try (sightreading or using for exercise) and experiment.  it makes practice more interesting, too.

the music libraries are GREAT.  they have so much music you can copy to see if you like it.  then if you do, you can get the score in the edition that has the most help and/or correct fingerings.  (a lot of things in wcu library are already fingered!)  major help when you have limited time to practice.

[lostinidlewonder]

Beethoven Sonata's when I was younger jump started my standard over anything else I got my hands on. During my teenage years it was Chopin Etudes and Bach WTC 1+2 (Which i refuded to do when i was younger cos i hated them for some reason), and in my 20's now it is Scriabin Prelude+Etudes and Liszt 12 Transcendentale Etudes. And i have to say Ravel does a great deal to your control at the keyboard especially with all his strange chords all over the place.

I have found that mucking around on the piano which leads to improvisation (controlled mucking around artform ) at the piano, is very important. Even if you don't know what you are doing at first, learn to control randomness of your playing. Slowly make more logical progressions, play in particular keys and come up with little patterns of your own. I have found this helps correcting yourself when you make mistakes when playing actual peices. It also helps increase your creative mind(you can hear interesting combinations of notes in your explorations and use them in part to write pieces), it also keeps your fingers moving which is most important since you can discover movements with the fingers which are most natural and stuff which is harder (eg:double note trills with one hand).

I feel if you don't have a massive repetiore it is important to make your fingers do things it isn't used to do. I tell lots of my beginner students to really muck around at the keyboard as well as practice their peices. Even if they have no idea what they do, keep the fingers moving and make up patterns and controlled movements. The more they do it the more flexible their hands they become, the more fluid they can move. Of course not just bash the piano but have some sense of control even if it is miniscule.

This to me is like a baseball player who warms up swinging 4 bats at the same time before he goes up to face the pitcher. When you come across physically taxing sections they don't seem so overwhelming because in your mucking around you do even more taxing stuff. Which leads to this idea that the "harder" the piece you try to learn is for you, the more is has to teach you. If you can play something insanely hard, then something which is hard is easy. Logical huh.

[tds]

meditation and disciplined mind/correct practice. not so much la campanella, chopin etudes, schumann tocatta, et al. best, tds

[dinosaurtales]

Beethoven's Appassionata doubled my technique!  The first movement especially - my trills improved dramatically, finger-switching , I learned to keep my hands flat to the keyboard more, and I had to learn to trill my 4-5 in one spot, so the strength of those fingers improved.  i also had to learn to "walk" octaves, and got plenty of arpegio work.  The second movement, "slow" section taught me to play really nice, even notes, and the last part did as well.  My playing definitely bumped up a notch with that one!

[musicsdarkangel]

I have also realized that it is possible to overwork a piece, and in this case, it is better to play more pieces, giving all equal dedication. 

Of course, only if it is managable.


I am now practicing la campanella once every two days, and it is coming together quite well.

[bernhard]

Teaching has helped me the most.

It forced me to analyse consciously the way I was playing so that I could explain it to the student.

It brought into my awareness the fact that many of the wrong things/bad habits I detect on the student, I also had, so it made me clean up my act.

Many times (especially with little children), some movements they made spontaneously provided elegant solutions to technical problems I had been struggling with.

Next I would say the practice of martial arts and yoga because they taught me how to use my body efficiently and properly.

Modern technology: CDs with most of the piano repertory played by different pianists; notation software that allow you to write music and hear what it sounds like; digital pianos that allow you different sounds and recording facilities (on mine you can record right and left hand on different tracks, for instance); the net (pianoforum) (Unfortunately most of this was unavailable when I was a student).

My own teachers, some of which keep teaching me everyday, even though they have passed away many years ago.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[tds]

Teaching has helped me the most.

It forced me to analyse consciously the way I was playing so that I could explain it to the student.

It brought into my awareness the fact that many of the wrong things/bad habits I detect on the student, I also had, so it made me clean up my act.

Many times (especially with little children), some movements they made spontaneously provided elegant solutions to technical problems I had been struggling with.

Next I would say the practice of martial arts and yoga because they taught me how to use my body efficiently and properly.

Modern technology: CDs with most of the piano repertory played by different pianists; notation software that allow you to write music and hear what it sounds like; digital pianos that allow you different sounds and recording facilities (on mine you can record right and left hand on different tracks, for instance); the net (pianoforum) (Unfortunately most of this was unavailable when I was a student).

My own teachers, some of which keep teaching me everyday, even though they have passed away many years ago.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

I totally agree with Bernhard. I believe, teaching is pure learning in disguise.

[Steve T]

Chang's book has helped me the most, and still is