Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Easy Pieces for Adult Beginners--Rediscovering David Nevue

Oops... I should've checked to make sure he had put it up on his website before I posted my recording. It will be available soon, Edtek; I got a sneak peek at it because I am one of the people David asks to rate his sheet music.

Hi Monica,
Do I gather that twinkle is not on the first to try music list?....Rank beginner here and I won't have my DP for another month as we are traveling but I really liked the arraignment and have already down loaded it. I guess I should select something "easier".

A maybe stupid question.....generally do piano teachers expect you as a student long term or will most accept a student for say three months?

Thanks as always
H

No, I'd start with Solitude or (when it becomes available) Winter Twilight first. But if by "rank beginner" you mean you've just found out where middle C is, you will need to wait for some weeks, maybe months before tackling them. The first few steps for you will be learning to read basic music notation and getting the fundamentals of hand independence down. That can take a frustratingly long time, and it's best to do it with material that's specifically designed for people new to piano.

You may want to start a thread on the teacher's forum to get their perspective on your second question. My sense is that teachers naturally prefer to have a student for the long term. However, I think most teachers would also agree that they'd much rather have a new beginner take lessons for three months and then quit, if necessary, than try to self-teach. The early weeks are very important for establishing proper posture and hand/arm movements etc.

p.s. By suggesting you wait on "Twinkle Twinkle," I'm answering from a pure logical perspective. However, if it's a piece that's captured your heart and you're just dying to learn it, a case could be made that--why the heck not?--just go ahead and work on it in addition to your regular material. There have been many threads debating the wisdom, or sheer folly, of working on pieces that are too advanced for one's level. I usually fall on the side that it's better to be enthusiastic about piano, so go ahead and work on dream pieces as long as you don't get too frustrated over the difficulty and as long as you recognize you probably won't be able to get it sounding like the original right away. Others disagree with that position and argue that once a piece is learned badly, it's extremely difficult to go back and learn it right later.