Re: Young Pianist Seeks Help !!!!

[Celeste]

Definitely! I have been playing the piano for ten years, am also 15, and can't play pieces that difficult. How do you find so much time to practice? Do you not go to school or something?

[Davek]

yeah i'm in high school but i get up around 4 or 4:30 and practice then i practice from 9pm to 11pm. because i am in marching band, jazz band, wind ensemble, auditions for esyo, track meets like every other day. but i really love the piano so i don't mind, oh and don't forget the ap classes, but its all good i had my mom write out a schedule(sp? )

[dreamaurora]

Hi, Dave

I believe you are taking things too fast currently. You have only started learning piano for only one and half a year. That's really rather premature to attempt the masterworks like G Minor Ballade and the concertos. These are works of great technical and musical difficulties.  I would suggest you spend at least another 3 to 4 years learning piano with a good teacher before you start attempting these pieces. I have heard many horror stories of young pianists attempting insanely difficult pieces within one year of study, but they can't even play simpler pieces like Schumann's Album Young and Mendelsohn's Songs Without Words well. I know you wish to be a concert pianist soon, but it takes immense determination and discipline to achieve this, and most importantly patience. I know sometimes it is our ego to compete with others who are the fastest in learning piano, but do take note take playing piano well is not about hitting the notes right or how many difficult pieces you can play, it is also about intepretation, knowledge, creativity, etc.

I really can't give you much help over your technical problems. Technical agility requires years to develop, so there's no shortcut. Please take my advice and start step by step. Have you ever played and mastered any Chopin Nocturnes, Waltzes, etc prior to attempting the ballade ? Or other pieces by the same composers you are playing now. Bear what I say. I started another thread ( speed learning ) on people like you who claim to be able to play these insanely difficult pieces in order to help you all understand that speed learning does not produce good musicality.

Cheers

[Davek]

thank you very much for that comment and i do beleive that i am a bit ahead of myself, but i well had and excellent teacher(died at age 79   ) and i would always ask her about that and how people would say that if you play peices that are to hard for you that you will suffer later. and i am like just now relizing(sp? sorry) that for velocity and stuff like that it does take years but honestly those peices aren't hard for me musicly i have been playing clarinet, basson, and i have studied voice since i was in 5th grade and i have take music theory. yes i do agree with you and i will slow down a bit, but besides that one problem everything else is easy for me and i really don't struggle, its not like i'm killin myself to do these peices. i will take your advice but i really don't see the problem. thats how i feel. but i do respect your thoughts.


Dave

[amp]

I think what Dream....is saying is that it is impossible to learn the basics and apply them so quickly. A lot of teachers distourage their students from playing by imitation. Some is useful, but when it is all you do to learn a piece, it's not good.  It seems like (from the amount of practicing you do), that you are learning the pieces all by memorizing. It's important to be able to sight-read also.

You seem very musical anyway, and I bet that's why you've picked it up so far. Try to find a new teacher, piano will be so much more rewarding.

Do your fingers hurt when you play? That's an example of the imitation in poor technique I was talking about. BTW, sounds like your schedule is hetic. In my opinion, take a practice break from piano at least once a week. A year down the line you'll hate it. Not because you are practicing so much, but the added stress in a crazy schedule. Sorry for this extra imput, that doesn't ahve to do with the topic. :-)

[Davek]

i can sight read pretty good um i would say i can sight read 2 and 3 part inverntions fine almost perfectly. i always sight read my peices before, my previous teacher wouldn't let me play a peice that was to hard for me, she would say why i can't and about when, which would sometimes make me mad, for my first year about the most difficult peice i played was jean sebeius(sp) Romance. and no my fingers don't hurt when i play, the only time they have hurt is when i first started lessons my teach wasn't a big fan of hanon, but we used it to build up strength and different touches and such, now when i first started playing that my wrist would kill after about the first page, but she corrected that and showed me differen't ways of relaxing at the piano. imitation- not me. i have worked very to get where i am and i know that is may seem that i am going to fast but it's not like i skip anything i do almost all the same things a beginning pianist does except i do it faster (and the correct way) and that break i am finding that i ahev to take it anyways because some days its just all to much for me,

thanks for your comments

[amp]

Wow, sight read inventions perfectly? This is different matter. Sounds like you are doing great keep it up. You're right, you are not playing by imitation. Sounds like you are doing it right, just amazingly fast. Sorry I misinterpreted your playing :-)

[Davek]

thats okay a lot of people do that


DK

[ThEmUsIcMaNBJ]

Ah I'm really glad I read this thread....  Davek sounds EXACTLY like me....  It was actually kind of freaky...  You've got all the same classes and play all the same instruments as me!  And have been playing for the same amount of time....  And by what you say we have pretty much the same skill at piano...  Man I was worried I was going to fast too cause of some threads I read...  But I can play the stuff I'm working on too...  No real problems....  Anyways I just thought that was kind of freaky...  ^^

[Davek]

thats awsome same here i was like really scared from reading books but my teacher told me don't always belive whats in books. lol thats awsome what peices are you playing? hope to hear more from you.


dk

[CloUd^-^]

hilo guys....me a newbie in this website...been learning piano for 1 yr plus...juz an amatuer pianist here...well...juz wanna make u guys know me here...haha me a 16 yr old this yr...taking piano lessons in cristofori...