What is your weakness at playing?

[BoliverAllmon]

I am curious what everyone's weakness is at the white ivories? My biggest problem right now, is staying loose and play legato in one hand and staccato in the other (bach's 2-part invention NO. . What is yours?

Boliver Allmon

[Diabolos]

Well, for a long time a weakness of mine was tending to speed up while playing - that's, fortunately, past, not present. However, I tend to work on too many pieces at the same time, which lengthens the progress of learning them. Besides that, my biggest weakness is probably a common one: I always have cold fingers, it takes a long time to warm up.

Regards,

[NetherMagic]

everything for me, sometimes i can play staccato very well in one song and just can't even seem to play loud on another

I guess i have weaknesses everywhere hehe =]

[10Fingers]

I think fast leggiero-chords in p are my biggest weakness. Or fast staccato-scales in p or pp.

regards!

[88keys]

Playing 2 against 3, 3 against 4 etc.

Given my general playing level, this is a very marked weakness - especially the (supposedly) easier 2 against 3.

[Johnnylightning]

As a beginner, mucho weakness.  Most of which, I'm not even aware of.  But the one I fear is the worst, is performing publicly.

[BuyBuy]

You mean, what is NOT my weakness ? Cause everything is hard for me...

No, really, what gives me the most trouble is fast playing (fast scale-like or arpeggio-like passages, moto perpetuo...), double notes, trills with melody combined in the same hand.

[PoSeiDoN]

I'm pretty comfortable with my technical, rhythmic, and interpretational abilities, but I wish to God that I could SIGHTREAD better!  It's my supreme weakness...quite embarassing when I'm playing Beethoven sonatas easily from memory but can't play a Disney piece when a random vocalist hands it to me..

[Black_Key]

I can't sight-read at all, and I rely on the pedal too much. Whenever I play without the pedal, the notes are chopped up. I think I 'll get a teacher to help me with that.

[BoliverAllmon]

Here's is a trick that my teacher advocates when sight-reading. Pick a piece that is easier than the level of playing you are playing right now. Study the sheet music for a bit. Look and find out  if there is any weird fingerings. Figure out any notes on leger lines and anything else that might give you trouble. Once you think you have a basic understanding of the piece. You set the metronome at a slow pace. Now here is the trick, you keep up with the metronome. If you hit a wrong note or don't know a note you just continue on with the piece. You don't try to figure it out and then continue, you just keep going on. You do this for 10-15 min. a day and you will be surprised how much better you will become.

BoliverAllmon

[remiX]

Here's is a trick that my teacher advocates when sight-reading. Pick a piece that is easier than the level of playing you are playing right now. Study the sheet music for a bit. Look and find out  if there is any weird fingerings. Figure out any notes on leger lines and anything else that might give you trouble. Once you think you have a basic understanding of the piece. You set the metronome at a slow pace. Now here is the trick, you keep up with the metronome. If you hit a wrong note or don't know a note you just continue on with the piece. You don't try to figure it out and then continue, you just keep going on. You do this for 10-15 min. a day and you will be surprised how much better you will become.

BoliverAllmon

I can back that statement up - I've tried doing that (except learning how to play rythmic patterns) and everytime I mess up I just keep going, instead of going back and starting over again.

[MeLisa]

Here are my weakneses:
1) Strict Timing : Sure I can count, but to follow strictly to the metronome beat for 5 pages requires supernatural concentration. My teacher said I focus to much, I should relax... yeah right!

2) Legato Ditonic Thirds :  I can cheat and pedal to mask my technical deficiency, but my teacher put her shoe underneath the pedal to hear if I really could play it. She gave me tips something about lifting the fingers in a certain (magical) sequence.. yeah right !


3) Octave spanning arpeggios : I can rearrange on the fly to its roots or simple inversions and fool casual listener. But you might be wondering why am I improvising but still sound the similar to the original ?!?

4) Sight reading at tempo with expressions. and this is not a myth. NO, I am not talking about HammerKlavier or Islamey what have you... I am talking about intermediate level material which my teacher sight read, at tempo with expression at first sight.....