Music Lessons question

I do review the old pieces, but some I cannot because I gave the books back to my friend and have only the two recent ones. It is just that he wants for me to just do the main piece, but after a while of doing just it, I make more mistakes then when I first started so for me, variety works.

I know, I would have that problem as well. I just know that he is ill and it sounds like he is just as bossy as ever.

He is getting less bossy. What we need is someone who teaches music lessons to tell how things work. Luckily I know of a couple. I have been learning on my own, getting music books at the thrift store and have send for some cds and dvds, but with the music books at the thrift store, why do not they erase all those pencil notations? I do not what a b flat is. No one has to point it out to me.

He never took lessons, family did not think music was important and when he got the accordian, he got the books. Now if I were practicing Bach or Handel or something complicated like that, I would concentrate on those pieces, but then they are usually so long I would need the whole half an hour to an hour to learn them.

If I were playing just for pleasure, I would not try to borrow my friend's lessons books, would I? I plan to help out at church as an accompanist or play when the other pianists are either on holidays or are sick. Or maybe at the concert when I am not singing, but I would rather be singing. For me, doing several pieces works best. I do practice a piece about three or four times or until it is almost there, and then go to the other pieces and do a lot of review, but I am not going to play one piece for the whole half and hour. Oh I plan to increase the time later on. I am looking for online lessons. My friend told me what her lessons cost a week, and I checked and it seems that the best online lessons are about the same price, but I will have to buy all at once.

I don't know, would you? I would. Learning can be a pleasure. Do you not enjoy playing the piano? Will you consider playing for the church a job or an enjoyable ministry?

I love playing the piano, but if I were better and someone asked me to play for the church or at a Christmas do, I would do it. It also just that I am also a writer and when someone speaks of writing for pleasure, we feel as if we go and use pastel colored paper and weird fonts because we are just writing for fun and a hobby and really do not care to do it professionally. I am also a perfectionist and want to see a piece and even though I do not play the notes exactly, want to put my own interpretation, make it my own. I am also good at playing by ear, both hands, not just the right. I feel that piano playing is creative like cooking. You do the recipe right the first time and after that you add a little of this and that to make it your own. The same with piano playing.

I never got the peices memorized. But I could play boht hands reading the music. WHat age did you start I think I was 5 or 6. have to start erarly to get bth hands going together and never read ahead!

I was always getting ahead of my piano teacher and he would tell me to slow down. I also was not that good at memory. I mean it was not as if I was slow but because I was always looking at the next line, I could not concentrate. Also although I did not know it then, I was more of a listener and a visualizer then a reader and I was more interested in what the piece sounded like then what the notes looked like. In fact, at that time, I could only play the right hand by ear and I was so frustrated that I could not play the left hand to correspond with the right.

You started young, didn't you, Lakota12? I couldn't start until after I started school. I took piano lessons for a little while when I was in the second grade. However, I had to quit because it was interfering with my school work. I started piano lessons again when I got in high school and I took for two years. I can't remember how long I took exactly but I took until I went off to college. I majored in music when I was in college but I was a voice major. I did take piano lessons at the same time. Kathy.

I prefer after doing scales and chords, starting with the review pieces and then starting on the main piece or pieces I am leaning. I have a lesson book and a theory book (actually it is my friends and I am borrowing it, and it already is penciled in, but I plan to get the best piano lesson software after I finish putting money back in our equity account) My husband never took lessons and he just said that after observing our friend who is learning and is doing a few pieces with her teacher. And she told me that she had difficulty with the pedals and applying the right finger pressure on the keys. That is because before she first learned on the organ. The pieces she is playing are quite simple and she is doing a duet with her teacher. Now that is one thing I could not do, duets. I am too much of an improviser.

I never learned how to drive. I did get a license but never used it and for me it was the parallel parking that I had the most difficulty plus if I passed the written, I usually failed the driving, but if I passed the driving, I usually failed the written. No coordination. I do find it hard with the pedals, and besides I prefer to do a solo. I do like to play different pieces but I usually try them for three or four times before getting on to the next. So far I am able to learn a new piece a day, but I am only on level 3A (most of it is review) and probably when I get a higher level it might take a piece every 2 days or a week even and instead of half an hour practice, it will be an hour. Right now I am doing 40 minutes.

Duets? That sounds hard to me too. It's best to play solo, though I don't know much about piano techniques. Thanks for explaining it to me there.. The pedals look hard, but I think just like learning how to drive skillfully and etc.. with practice, one can be good. But I think I would have to take a bit more time in mastering piano lessons, LOL..

Right now the pieces are fairly easy and when they get harder, it might take a whole lesson just to play a one piece. But he does not understand that I cannot play it at a fast tempo the first time, I have to start slow and then gain speed especially when there is a lot of octave reaching and jumping from one octave to another as well as doing scales in both hands, etc. I do practice every day. That sort of helps.

I think it is best to do a few pieces during practice, else you would get bored. I find if I just do one piece all through the lesson, not counting the scales and appegios and the theory, then I tend to make a whole lot of mistakes and I do not want to do that.

i thought I was the only one who did that. And your piano teacher sounds a bit like what mine was. He would give a lot of pieces to play. I did not know about the 10 minutes. Usually I do each piece about three to four times, but maybe that is equal to 10 minutes. I will have to time myself and find out.

That is like me in chemistry. I always wanted to be a nurse, but I was bad at Math and Science. I did love music, it was just that I wanted to switch from classical to popular, so what I would do when I got home and after my lessons, would play the popular piece from the radio on the piano with my right hand.

I was only 9 the first time I took lessons and 12 when I took them again. I actually wanted to take them the second time, but I think that was the final straw to understanding that I'm just not musical...

If I played just one piece all the time, I would get bored. I never learned that way when I was younger. My teacher would have me review, start a new piece that was hard and also a new piece that was not as hard. He knew I was the type that would try the hard piece first, and then got back to the new piece that was not as hard and was really the one he wanted me to learn. I am that way, I cannot learn just easy things, I have to do the hard way first and then when it comes to the one that is not as easy, I find it just a breeze.

He is not a music teacher, but he is a knowitall. I do know what I am doing and when I did take lessons, the teacher gave me at least two pieces to play at a time, and more often three or four. I think it is because each piece has something in it I had to learn.

It would not get better for me to just play one piece over and over again. I find when that happens, the piece sounds worse and worse and then it is like me just having cheesecake for dessert seven days a week. Pretty soon I stop liking it. I am also doing a lot of sight reading and I can recognize a piece just by looking at it.

I find if I keep playing the same piece over and over again, I start making mistakes. I can do it about three to four times, but that is all and then I have to go to another piece. Of course, when I start to play Bach, Handel, or a piece written by one of those guys it will be a little different, but then they have such long pieces that I cannot get through one in a half an hour session. But right now I am on the 3A level, so the pieces are rather short.

Well he did not realize why I wanted the piano. He thought I was like his niece who played and practiced and now that she got into her teens, was no longer interested. He did not realize that my dad sold the piano not because I no longer wanted to play it but because he was not that creatively inclined. He also realized that his family was the same way and how he missed out. Also it could be that he never realized how joyous it is to have a piano and it could also be because he might not have that long to live. Oh if you think he is a perfectionst, I am a bit of a one myself, but if I keep playing a piece forever, it gets rather boring. So I do scales, chords, review, and then do the piece.

I thought that it might be your husband's illness, for one thing. Like I said, I'm just glad he finally got you a piano and that you're enjoying playing it so much. I know it can get boring playing the same piece over and over so much but like I also said, just keep practicing it until you get it right. I find that once I get a piece right, I want to play or sing it again to make sure, lol! Kathy.

Good but is it best to just practice one piece over and over and over again. Or is it best to practice two or three pieces at the same time? I think that the second way is best because it means more pieces to play and also you do not get bored. That is how my old piano teacher used to teach me.

Thank you. I feel that I am doing it right, playing a variety of pieces so that I do not get bored. I used to play a lot of classical music and found it very hard. I know what you mean about Bach, his pieces are very difficult. I wish i had had a piano most of my adult life instead of getting one now when I have just 30 to 40 years left in me. I could have used one steady for the last 40 years.