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Hello everyone. I'm in my early thirties, and have just taken up playing the piano again after a long absence. I took lessons for three or four years as a young kid, but lost interest for various reasons. I'm excited about starting again, but unfortunately it's difficult for me to commit to weekly lessons at this moment and so I'm resorting to working on my own for the time being.

I was wondering if there are others who have done this who can give me some pointers? At the moment I'm just practicing playing a few simple pieces - I've been working on Bach's prelude in C major from WTC 1 for a week or two, and I'm now at a point where I can get through it without hitting too many wrong notes. I've also started looking at Burgmüller's Op. 100.

What I'm looking for is tips on how to improve my playing skills, and how to best spend my practicing time. Should I start doing scale drills or similar, for instance? Is there anything I can do to help train hand independence beyond the obvious, which is to just keep practicing problematic sections?

I'd also like to learn more music theory, having taken a brief course in high school that only touched on the basics (and even most of that is forgotten by now!).

Book suggestions are also welcomed - I've ordered these two from Amazon

I Used to Play Piano
Piano 2nd Time Around

but haven't received them so far, so I can't say how helpful they will be yet.

Thank you for reading - any pointers from you will be gratefully received. I'm already learning a lot just from browsing this forum!

I have two book suggestions, which happen to be for the two books I'm working from.

The Piano Handbook
The Piano Workbook

NOTE: Above Amazon links include my affiliate id, feel free to remove it if you wish.

Both books cover the same material but in a slightly different way and with different pieces. For this reason you don't _need_ both. But, having extra material that covers a similar technique is a good thing imo and can help reinforce ideas.

The first chapter of the books covers the very basics, which it sounds like you already know. The later sections however cover more advanced material and techniques along with different styles of play from classical to jazz and romantic.

I think there's a thread on this forum that has a few reviews of the books from other members. Worth a look

I'd also recommend the Succeeding with the Masters series by Helen Marlais. They're not method/tuition books, but each piece does include a page of notes that are relevant to the playing of that piece and practice suggestions. The series has books from a late elementary level through to advanced. Prelude in C Major is in the Baroque volume 1 book and is the last piece by Bach, with the pieces ordered by difficulty for each composer. The book also contains Handel and Scarlatti pieces too.

Thank you very much for the book suggestions! There's such an abundance of books out there that it's difficult to pick out the pearls without some guidance. I browsed the forum for reviews and people seem happy with them. I've ordered all three, so that should keep me busy for a while.

I ordered from amazon.com and not .co.uk as it came out cheaper, even with postage. I transferred your affiliate ids over, however, in case they work on both sites.

Also, this thread might become redundant as I soon after posting it discovered a piano teacher in the vicinity of where I live (no mean feat, as I live in a rural area). Not only that, she had a free slot in the afternoon that I can just about squeeze into my weekly programme if I leave work a bit early, and still have time to fetch my son from the crèche. Thus eliminating most of the reasons I had for not taking lessons in the first place.

I'm still grateful for any tips though, as the time I'll spend practicing on my own will be significantly more than the 45 minutes a week at most I'll spend with my teacher.