Biggest pitfalls for beginners, things you wish you knew then

[torchygirl]

Hey all!

I am wondering in your experience as students and/or teachers what are some of the things you wish you hadn't done, wish you knew then what you know now, see students make the mistake of doing, etc.  It would be extremely helpful to me to get tips on doing things the right way from the beginning (I can read notes fairly well, but am just really learning how to play (I hope!!)).

I find this forum so terrifically helpful.  Thanks!!!!


Karen

[xvimbi]

I have three main things I would do differently.

1. I wish I had known more about how the body actually works, what muscles move what joints, how the tendons run, what proper posture is, and what correct movements are in general (the same basic principles apply to opening doors as well as playing the piano).

2. I wish I had known more about how a piano actually works, i.e. how sound is produced in detail (down to the physics of it).

3. I wish I had paid better attention to listening. I mean really carefully listening to all the sounds I produced and how they were related to how I moved and pressed the keys down. I found that many technical problems are easily solved by carefully listening and adjusting the motions. In hindsight, I think that listening is the most difficult aspect of piano playing. How can I master playing legato if I can't detect gaps or dissonaces because of note overlap. Listening is the first and most important aspect of acquiring technique. That's why doing technical exercises while watching TV is useless. I did that too, and I wish I hadn't done it.

 

[ted]

I wish I had acquired from the start the confidence to embrace complete musical freedom and to realise that the thing I possessed at the beginning was precious.  Had I not had the extreme good luck to meet possibly the one teacher ( in my country anyway) capable of transmitting the means of getting rid of my creative inhibition, I would have been musically dead before I was twenty. Even then it took me ten years to do it and every now and then I have brief lapses, although much less often now. The silly part is that it was all there when I was a child, I distinctly remember it, but various well meaning people said I "must" do such and such and "should" do so and so. By the time I was thirteen I had left my musical self in a street many blocks away and had lost the map.

This has nothing whatever to do with physical technique, you understand, and it's entirely hypothetical as I made up for lost time once I met myself again for the first time - like "Little Gidding" eh, Bernhard ? Now I have only to fuse the fire and the rose into one and hopefully "all manner of thing shall be well..." and I shall exit a hero, at least in my own eyes.

[asyncopated]

3. I wish I had paid better attention to listening. I mean really carefully listening to all the sounds I produced and how they were related to how I moved and pressed the keys down. I found that many technical problems are easily solved by carefully listening and adjusting the motions. In hindsight, I think that listening is the most difficult aspect of piano playing. How can I master playing legato if I can't detect gaps or dissonaces because of note overlap. Listening is the first and most important aspect of acquiring technique. That's why doing technical exercises while watching TV is useless. I did that too, and I wish I hadn't done it.

  Hi, I agree with xvimbi.  The focus of music should be sound; it is the ultimate goal and should not be foresaken at any point.  I am a beginner at the piano, but have been singing and playing the guitar for several years.  My voice teacher uses a bel canto technique, which means that she listens to the sound that I produce and trys to adjust by giving odd instructions to make your body behave in the correct way, slowly changing my singing habits, so I am forced to listen to the sound that I make and this has changed my listening habits dramatically.  What I do have to add is that in the process of listening, one has to discern.  I hesitate to write "differentiate a good from a bad sound".  But I would like to say is that a sound suitable for classical music should be refined.  It should sing and project.  The funny thing with many beginners is that they don't play deep enough into the keyboard, or they bang away at it.  In the former, the tone quality is weak and with the latter it just sounds awful.  There is often little or no attempt to improve things by trying to produce a better tone quality. I would also say that a classical sound is very different from that produced by a jazz musician (I love jazz) or pop (say electronic) where the required tonal quality is more casual.

One should be able also to distinguish a bright from a round tone, a metallic sound from a mellow one.   Many people are also content to play with instruments that are not tuned properly. How is it possible to produce a good sound, when of the three strings in the piano vibrate to give the tone, all of them are fighting one another.  All that seems to matter is the sequence of notes written on the page.  Most people (that I've taught guitar to) seem to think that just playing the right sequence of notes is enough and that a "perfect" rendition is to play every note correctly.  How did this type of mindset creep-in?  I don't really understand why it is so difficult to teach beginners to listen for these qualities.  Does it come automatically with time? 

Only when we do this can we associate in the correct way, our actions with the sound that is produced.

2. I wish I had known more about how a piano actually works, i.e. how sound is produced in detail (down to the physics of it).

If you give me a rough guide and perhaps some references, I'll do some research write something for the forum.  I was meaning to learn some when hunting for a piano but find that a lot of the websites are too technical.  I don't need to know the names of all the mechanical parts in the piano at the moment.  What I want to know is how things are designed what are the  different advantages and disadvantages (apart from $)  and essentially what goes into producing a good sound.  Perhaps some history is useful as well.  I can explain the physics (with or without equations), and will aim to write in layers.  Broad sections for general knowledge, and even going into more difficult bits explaining the harmonics and what is meant (in a physical sense) by a good tone.

1. I wish I had known more about how the body actually works, what muscles move what joints, how the tendons run, what proper posture is, and what correct movements are in general (the same basic principles apply to opening doors as well as playing the piano).

Hmm, was think more along the lines of Alexander classes.   How difficult is it to get simple guidelines to determine if you movement is correct?  At the moment I don't know how all the muscles work, but there are a number of things is Sandor's book that are interesting.  He shows the extremes of motion of may of the joints in the hand.  He goes on to define a comfortable region.  One guideline is to try to keep all the joints in the comfortable region whilst playing every note supported.  This does not tell you what the best motion is, but it becomes quite obvious when you are doing something incorrectly.  Perhaps compiling a list of such guidelines from the different schools and trying to explain the reason behind them will be a good thing to try?

One thing does help a lot though is if explanations are given.  For example, my teacher kept saying when I first started. Play hands separate.  I did not understand why.  Playing hands separate does not make playing hands together easier.  So i did very little hands separate practice.  Having read the post in this forum and now understanding that hands separate practice is for you to concentrate on the motion of each hand and I now do a lot more hands separate practice.  So my point is try not to give instructions without stating the aim.  Especially for what seems like menial, laborious tasks. 

I'm a beginner, so I don't know what I wish I knew.  I'll tell you in 10 years.  What I am doing is that I'm exploring.  It is amazing how my playing has changed week to week after reading posts in this website.   For example right now. I've noticed that I use very little shoulder and don't  move my trunk when playing.  This causes a lot of tension in the back, and it is easier for me to expresses what I'm playing if I do consciously try to use my shoulders to place my hands in the correct area of the keyboard. 

The amount of good information contained in this site is amazing.

al.
   

[asyncopated]

I just came up with a short wish list (as an impetuous beginner)

1. I wish I were able to play harder pieces.
2. I wish I can play faster
3. I wish it did not take so long to learn a piece.
4. I wish I knew how fast I'm really improving, although looking back over the past nine months, I know I've improved a lot, it does not seem that way day to day.
5. I wish I knew where I'll be as a pianist in 10 years time. 
6. I wish I were able to sight read better.
7. I wish I knew what it is like to fail to be able to play a piece.



Hmmm ok I think these need a bit of explanation.

1.  I don't understand what's so hard about difficult pieces.  Somehow to me it seems to be shrouded in an aura of mystique.  I know that people claim that playing la campenella is difficult and I wish I were able play it, but I simply can't comprehend the difficulties because I am at a much lesser level (grade 5/6?).  All that I know is that I won't be able to play it.  So if I know why a piece is as difficult as they say it is technically, at least I know what I have to do and where to go -- progress into virtuoso pieces.  At the moment, my teacher selects pieces so she determines the progression, I'm sure that eventually I'll get all the required technique, but I wish I could see the road that I'm walking on.

2. This is self explanatory. 

3.  I take about 3 weeks to learn an easy bach invention.  Come to think of it, there are not more than two notes played in any of the inventions at any one time.  (ok except for the final chord).  So why do i take so long to learn it?  Just one not for the right and one for the left.  That's it.

4.  I am at the piano everyday (almost) for at least 2 hours.  I spend most of the time on technique and know that in the past month, my technique has changed a lot and is still changing (I hope that it is improving).  But there are is little or no progress in terms the number of pieces I'm playing.  I still seem to be toiling away.  In other words, no vast visible (aural) improvement. 

5. I wish I knew where I'll be as a pianist in 10 years time. 
The eternal question - rach's 2/3 or preludes? la campenella? chopin etudes? transendental etude? appasionatta or hammerklavier?

6. I wish I were able to sight read better.
Haha... yes yes.. i know.

7. I wish I knew what it is like to fail to be able to play a piece.
This is the problem with having a teacher.  Without a teacher you I would choose to play something way above my level and am doomed to failure.  Maybe that's a good thing?  I don't understand what it means to progress into a piece.  It's sort of like blind faith in your teacher. 

When my teacher says that piece is to difficult for you, sometimes I wonder why, I can read all of the notes, and probably press the correct keys (perhaps not in the most musical way and not in succession without stopping).
 

al.

[dorfmouse]

To have always had  teachers who build confidence and develop one’s own musicality .
 I think this is something similar to  what Ted was saying.
I started lessons  with the “little old lady down the road” who was warm and accepting of 10 year old me, who of course had no concept of anything being impossible. I’d more or less figured out reading music from some old piano tutor that was lying about the house and I distinctly remember having worked out a version of Schubert’s Marche Militaire, happily crashing out fortissimo chords, and the easy bit of Rondo Allla Turca. I was warmly praised and gently directed to pieces more appropriate to my beginner technique without in any way being put down. I felt at home and unselfconscious at the piano. Then, due to a move, got a new teacher who was into balancing a coin on your hand (bang went the relaxation in the cause of correct hand position) scolded me for not having my eyes glued to the music (out the window went memorising). I see and feel clearly now how I was infected with stiffness and caution from the first lesson with that teacher. I feel sad that something was lost then.

I wish I’d been taught how to go about improvising from the beginning, relating that to learning about theory, structure of music etc.
That would have helped so much not just in supporting creativity but with freedom and ease at the keyboard and also supporting learning and memorisation of pieces, a process that I’m only now really learning slowly and painfully as an adult.

Learning to listen to self.
Have only belatedly realised how difficult this is and wholeheartedly second xvimbi and asyncopated's comments.

To have learned to memorise and maintain a playable repertoire.
I read it again and again in the various forums; so many people saying they work hard, learn piece after piece and yet never have anything they can just sit down and play except maybe at exam time. 

That a resource like this forum had been around!

[will]

3. I wish I had paid better attention to listening. I mean really carefully listening to all the sounds I produced and how they were related to how I moved and pressed the keys down. I found that many technical problems are easily solved by carefully listening and adjusting the motions. In hindsight, I think that listening is the most difficult aspect of piano playing. How can I master playing legato if I can't detect gaps or dissonaces because of note overlap. Listening is the first and most important aspect of acquiring technique. That's why doing technical exercises while watching TV is useless. I did that too, and I wish I hadn't done it.

1. I wish I had known more about how the body actually works, what muscles move what joints, how the tendons run, what proper posture is, and what correct movements are in general (the same basic principles apply to opening doors as well as playing the piano).

I agree with the above by xvimbi, however I rearranged them into my order of importance.
I wish I hadn't been so glued to the score, and worrying only about getting all the notes 100% accurate without actually listening to the sound I was making.

[robertp]

Hard to add to the excellent comments so far, but I do have one. Slightly odd....

I wish I'd known that when I got to the point in a piece where I was playing it at least *well*, every so often something would go off in my head along the lines of "I can't believe *that* music is coming out of me." With instant chaos on the keyboard resulting. Obviously happened/happens most with a piece I known before I actually played it.

%%robert

[anda]

1. I wish I had known more about how the body actually works, what muscles move what joints, how the tendons run, what proper posture is, and what correct movements are in general (the same basic principles apply to opening doors as well as playing the piano).

2. I wish I had known more about how a piano actually works, i.e. how sound is produced in detail (down to the physics of it).

3. I wish I had paid better attention to listening. I mean really carefully listening to all the sounds I produced and how they were related to how I moved and pressed the keys down. I found that many technical problems are easily solved by carefully listening and adjusting the motions. In hindsight, I think that listening is the most difficult aspect of piano playing. How can I master playing legato if I can't detect gaps or dissonaces because of note overlap. Listening is the first and most important aspect of acquiring technique. That's why doing technical exercises while watching TV is useless. I did that too, and I wish I hadn't done it.

I wish I’d been taught how to go about improvising from the beginning, relating that to learning about theory, structure of music etc.

That would have helped so much not just in supporting creativity but with freedom and ease at the keyboard and also supporting learning and memorisation of pieces, a process that I’m only now really learning slowly and painfully as an adult.

Learning to listen to self.
Have only belatedly realised how difficult this is and wholeheartedly second xvimbi and asyncopated's comments.

exactly!

in one word: i wish i had started the piano with the pianist who was my teacher in the conservatory.

[donjuan]

The most helpful bit of advice came just 2 years ago for me, although I have been around a piano for ages:

a dotted quarter note has the same value as 3 eighth notes.


that's it.  If I figured out this little rule of thumb maybe 6 years ago instead of 2 years ago, I would have been able to figure out rhythms that confused me. 
ay me

[Steve T]

I wish I'd found Chuan Chang's ebook sooner. Transformed my playing and understanding of practice and technique. Search on google for it. You really need to have been playing for at least a year before starting it though.
I agree with the 'right teacher' comments already made. This is the single most important thing to develop. A forward thinking, positive, friendly, relaxed, knowledgeable teacher who cares about your progress and has many useful approaches to helping you progress.
The rigid 'old school' hard, arrogant teachers out there should be avoided at all costs. If you're teacher makes you feel stressed, belittled, or is in any way unfriendly, change!!
Another thing I wish I'd done (I knew it because my teacher told me, but I didn't do it), is to practice relaxing all the body (not just the wrists) and sit up straight and BREATHE whilst practicing.
Also try to practice every day, even if it's for a short time. When you do have a long session, take regular breaks and never continue when you are aching or feel pain in your hands or wrists.
Good luck 

[silva]

I wish I had known what key signatures were from the outset lol 

- Silva

[donjuan]

The rigid 'old school' hard, arrogant teachers out there should be avoided at all costs. If you're teacher makes you feel stressed, belittled, or is in any way unfriendly, change!!

I agree and disagree at the same time here, so perhaps I contradict myself..  I think a good teacher is one who knows what to do to get the student to improve at all costs, even if it involves flipping out and yelling.  Their job is to make us better pianists, not to stroke our egos and build up our self esteem.  I remember a few times when my teacher and I had an argument and I felt so bad when I left the lesson -like quitting- but the next day I began to see the situation from another point of view and realize that my teacher did what he did because he cares about me and does not want me to be one of those useless students who never practice - whose parents force into music.  Only after our fight did I realize he does not want to teach me for money alone, but to start an amazing adventure with me.  If all he wanted was money, then at the lessons he would sit back and tell me how great I am doing, no matter how badly I played, and I would be wasting my money at the lessons.

Like I said, I also agree with you Steve because if the teacher upsets the student too much, they will lose all motivation to keep learning and come to loathe the lessons.  A mean teacher who throws the sheetmusic at the student and yells "get the hell outta here and dont come back until you lose the 'stupid'!", then it's time to leave the teacher - for the sake of everyone's blood pressure!   

donjuan

[torchygirl]

Thanks all for the excellent comments! 

I'm very happy to report that I just received my hard copy of CC's book.  So I will pore over that soon.  I also am learning a bit of theory.   And I received the "Freeing the Caged Bird" tape.   It is really hard that I feel I'm just starting to really learn, and my arm is hurting.       As to my teacher - so far, so great (I require a non-yeller)!

It's interesting about all the "listening to yourself" comments.  I will take that to hear, and figure out how to record myself.  (Oops!!, I meant take that to *heart*!!!   )

I did learn about dotted notes a while back , although any true understanding of music and playing is something I'm just starting to get  .

Thank you all for your comments.  I feel more confident that I'm off to a good start!

Karen

[outsyde yn]

i talked to my friend about this topic and asked her what she thought.  She says that she wishes she didn't place limits on what was possible for her.  My dad says that a student doesn't know her own potential and so I think that means you should never decided that you will never accomplish something because you don't know.  well, atleast you should try and maybe then you will see your star rising in the night sky.


bye,
Clair

[musik_man]

This was mainly a problem for me because I'm self-taught, but choose a good fingering and stick religiously to it.  You can't get away with poor fingerings.  It took me a couple years to learn that one.  For example, I had bad fingerings in Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca when I first learned it about 2 years back, and I still can't play it well, even though it's easier than alot of the other stuff I play.

[vivace]

I thought that practicing was all about playing for a set amount of time. Oh, and mindless repetition. Haha, I wasted so much time. It's important to have general and specific goals during your practice; there should always be a reason behind each repetition. Also, don't fall into the "go back to the beginning" trap when you have problems elsewhere in the music. 

[tds]

the fact that i did not study with Bernhard.....

[asyncopated]

Finally found something that I think I wish I would have known in future, had I known what I had to wish for right now.  Hmm, let me try that again.... ok ok, maybe not.

I wish I knew how to practice with feeling.  I keep reading that I should practice not only the notes, the the whole motion as well as the mind set/rhythm for any passage.   Perhaps that's why my playing is so inconsistant.  Some days it sounds good, some days it sounds crap.  Somedays I do feel like i'm sensitive to the sound and others, I can't control it.  It drive me crazy.  My mind wonders alot as well.   What should I be doing to keep my mind from wondering?  What mindset should I practice, given that I might one day perform the piece I'm playing? My teacher recommends humming the right hand when playing the left hand, now that really requires virtuoso technique! 

al.
 

[whynot]

What a heartbreaking thread!  I mean, fascinating, but still...  I'm writing all these down to remember when I'm teaching. 

I thought the practice-with-feeling question was a very good one.  Do you have a story that goes with your piece?  I don't do this a lot, but it helps when I sound "cold" or disinterested in my practice.  If you were reading aloud from a storybook and let your mind wander, you'd end up skipping a paragraph or using the wrong voice for a character, and the story wouldn't make sense anymore.  If you let your mind wander while playing, your piece doesn't make sense anymore.  Sometimes I just design a "set" in my mind, picturing where and when the music takes place.  But if I'm really stuck, I think up a whole fairy tale with costumes, plots, dialogue, the whole thing.  It keeps my attention fixed on my playing because I'm trying to express something very specific at every moment.  This isn't original, I think a lot of people do it, and it really works.

[torchygirl]

Oh, whynot, I wouldn't call it heartbreaking at all.  Just think how many people can take advantage of this knowledge.  The internet, this website, these people are fantastic.   I am so grateful to all of you.  With all the bad news in the world on 24 hours a day, it's nice to have this worldwide refuge of shared interests and helpfulness.

Karen

[asyncopated]

I thought the practice-with-feeling question was a very good one. Do you have a story that goes with your piece? I don't do this a lot, but it helps when I sound "cold" or disinterested in my practice. If you were reading aloud from a storybook and let your mind wander, you'd end up skipping a paragraph or using the wrong voice for a character, and the story wouldn't make sense anymore. If you let your mind wander while playing, your piece doesn't make sense anymore. Sometimes I just design a "set" in my mind, picturing where and when the music takes place. But if I'm really stuck, I think up a whole fairy tale with costumes, plots, dialogue, the whole thing. It keeps my attention fixed on my playing because I'm trying to express something very specific at every moment. This isn't original, I think a lot of people do it, and it really works.

Thanks! No I don't, and I've never tried that! 

I agree and disagree at the same time here, so perhaps I contradict myself.. I think a good teacher is one who knows what to do to get the student to improve at all costs, even if it involves flipping out and yelling. Their job is to make us better pianists, not to stroke our egos and build up our self esteem. I remember a few times when my teacher and I had an argument and I felt so bad when I left the lesson -like quitting- but the next day I began to see the situation from another point of view and realize that my teacher did what he did because he cares about me and does not want me to be one of those useless students who never practice - whose parents force into music. Only after our fight did I realize he does not want to teach me for money alone, but to start an amazing adventure with me. If all he wanted was money, then at the lessons he would sit back and tell me how great I am doing, no matter how badly I played, and I would be wasting my money at the lessons.

I used to have a choir mistress who said that if you scream at your choir, you're teaching them to make a bad sound, not a good one.  She never screamed at us once and she almost always managed to get a good sound out of us.  I completely agree with her --  screaming at people invariably makes them sound worse musically.  There are a myriad of "soft" techniques that one can use in teaching.  It requires a lot more patients, tact and time, but it's worth while.  The end results are usually spectacular.

al.
 

[CJ Quinn]

I'd have to say I wish I had more foundation in understanding the pulse and rythmic elements, and forced myself sooner (way way way sooner) to do some work with a metronome, even on the pieces I "knew" already before I started to play them.

But as an adult starter, I'd encourage anyone to stop beating themselves up for past transgressions, get with a good teacher and learn the stuff you wish you had learned earlier.

[abell88]

My teacher used to ask me to feel the music (so I'd play more expressively). I did feel the music...I just had no idea that I could play expressively by doing something different physically (louder/softer/faster/slower/more or less legato). I wish I'd known how to hear what the differences were between his playing and mine...not in terms of "feeling", but in terms of how to make the sound different.

Also, as has been mentioned above, I wish I'd known that just playing through my piece over and over wasn't practising...sigh!

Alice

[kilini]

Well, this is about the pitfalls I might have fell into.

I am SO glad I found this place and Chang's book. That came at a critical time in my piano life--transition from the easy to hard. My teacher is nice, friendly, etc. but she also uses too much intuitive methods. That might have been detrimental to my selfesteem and technique.
And I'm so glad I got an electric piano--this lets me record my pieces and listen to how I actually play. Also, without the 50 prerecorded masterpieces on my piano, I would never have started Fur Elise and then Invention no.1 and then Raindrop prelude...

[Triton LE 76]

I wish my left hand was as good as my right hand...
In difficult pieces, it will be difficult for both hands..

[Triton LE 76]

things you do with your right can also be done bu your left!
Practice with your left also!

[melia]

RYTHYM - I wish I knew how to actually count properly and pay more attention to rythym. I now understand how important good counting is to give vitality to the music. Before : 'just play, and speed up and slow down whenever you 'feel' like it! I thought I was being a cool pianist (I was young and stupid then) but the music didn't sound like music to my teacher!
Apart from that, there are so many others like I wish I knew about Chang's book (cut my practice time by half!) and I completely agree that LISTENING is the most important part of practicing. I wish I didn't practice so much with the soft pedal - my worst habit. It completely ruined my ability to play properly.
Oh yes, TECHNIQUE - I wish I knew that expression is just good technique and how to use your body to produce a certain sound. Sure you 'feel' the piece, but if you don't have the technique then you won't be able to create the atmosphere or emotion.
Its strange but I kind of think that music is like maths, there are so many parts to the equation. You have to make sure each one is correct before you get a correct answer. Don't 'just play', you might as well be watching TV.

[squinchy]

I wish my first teacher had let me use the pedal. Perhaps this is ad hoc-ish, but I always half-pedal instead of going all the way down and the no-pedaling policy may have caused that. I suppose it's better to be able to half-pedal than to have a foot of lead, though.

I also wish that I had been exposed to polyrhythms earlier. It took me eons to get down a terribly basic 2-3 pattern, and I still can't do it perfectly, much less play scales that way.

One thing that I'm very glad for (that happened when I was a beginner):

The extended-perfect-authentic-cadence was on every page of my scale/arpeggio/chord book and consequently became implanted in my brain. I didn't know anything about theory--my teacher dismissed the little Roman numerals as unimportant, but [loses train of thought]..it's helped.