Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Just how long SHOULD it take ....?

"...Yes, but how to make my teacher agree ... not to mention that it would put me four "grades" back at my recitals ..."

Yeh "teachers" hmmmm!!!*!

Seriously though, you could Google "Dr Dianne Hardy, Diagnostic and Prescriptive Sight Reading Program" and print of this article for your teacher from the Piano Pedagogy site.

It's here

If I was to get a teacher now, I guess key questions would be around this topic. My experience was with a teacher who did not feature sight-reading at all, other than the first play through of a piece and pushed pupils up the grades as quickly as possible and without adequate consolidation at each level.

Great article, Elwyn! Thanks for sharing.

I sincerely hope I didn't offend! - I just meant that piano should be enjoyable (especially for those of us of a certain age who take it up as a passionate hobby, not a career option!).... I really do think it is an excellent strategy to avoid what feels like "black hole" work.

I agree with your ideas on the limits - and I think that having a number of pieces that are immediately playable or require not too much of a stretch is a must - and then I like the challenge of that harder piece that might take a few weeks to a month or more. But you are right - that "harder piece" still has to be in a certain range.

Last summer my teacher gave me a piece to "sink my teeth into" and though I could play it after about 6-8 weeks, I wasn't playing it really well (I was not ONLY playing this piece, btw). We talked about it after the fact and she said that she was really making me stretch and in retrospect perhaps too much. In a way I didn't mind, because it was a very interesting piece... but at the same time towards the end I got a bit sick of it and then didn't even look at it for about six months, whereas I generally to play all my hard-earned repertoire regularly.

I played it again last night and it was SO much easier and sounded pretty good. I may refine it some and play it in a recital later this fall.

Of course, I'm just as bad




I read that link some time ago; though re-reading it gave me more food for thought. I think I'm doing a reasonable job at "catch-up" in sight reading by myself. Do I really want to just do grade 4 pieces until I can sight read them well? Probably not ...

Thanks to all of you for your replies! Because of the insights you've offered, I can look at my process in a more realistic way. That's made for more relaxed practice time, and I hope more relaxed lessons.

I noticed that pretty much everybody count "time"... I tend to count "repetitions"....
meaning that I "guesstimate" the number of times I need to repeat a certain piece to be able to play it fluently.

I consider easy a composition that I can play in less than 10 repetitions, average in 30 to 50... hard if it takes more than 100 times to get fluent in my hand... and too much if I can't handle it in 250 or so.

that just to play the notes at 90/100% of performance speed... interpretation, nuances, 105% of performance speed... they might take a lifetime as well be elusive forever.

I translated to time, but often I count repetitions too (and I think I actually got the idea of keeping track of this with hashmarks from you, Ataru ).

Per section of music, if it is at my level it often takes me less than ten repetitions to get each hand playing correctly and dynamically at tempo, and then between ten and twenty to get it clean and reasonably paced at speed. Another day to sleep on it and then polish any rough spots and a piece that is genuinely at my level and well under control will be ready for play in two or three days, hence my guesstimate above

For example, a simple level two piece I learned on Saturday for my kids' homeschooling was the children's song "Father Abraham". I spent about a half hour and ten repetitions of each hand and then hands together on it, plus some ironing out of a measure or two that had some trickier progressions. It was polished for ten minutes on Sunday and then I accompanied them with only a stumble or two on the second repeat (while singing it at the same time as playing) this morning. For me, that progression of learning to playing is typical of a piece I consider at my level. I can't sight read it prima vista perfectly by any means, but it takes fairly minimal effort to make sound nice.

Doubling the repetitions for up to two levels above my current one sounds about right as well, in terms of time it takes to learn, as your formula suggests. Beyond two grades or so above my skill level the effort expended isn't worth the payoff. I'd learn more in the long run playing five or ten pieces at my level than one three grades above it

It depends on how familiar I am with the technique in the piece. I've been working on The Entertainer for about 4 months now, but I had no stride bass or octave technique to begin with. The pieces I was learning before that (Beethoven op. 49/2 and a Telemann Fantasia) took a month or two to get to a passable level, but those had mostly familiar technique.

I guess it also depends on when you feel a piece is "done." I'm a perfectionist, but I have to draw the limit somewhere. :P