Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Getting back into playing the piano- Need some motivation!!

I started learning to play the piano when I was 12. I had weekly lessons at school and I continued with these lessons up until Year 9 (Age 14).

I got pretty good. I had got to a good standard (not sure how to describe it). I could read sheet music and play songs, but I couldn't sight read.

I then took GCSE music but my piano teacher left so I was taught by the Music GCSE teacher. He was a really great guy, but he wasn't taught to play the piano, he just picked it up. He was good, better than me (but he didn't like to admit it). He gave me songs to learn and got me a performance or two in assemblies. He wanted to put me through the grades, but I wasn't too keen. I agreed in the end as I thought I may as well give it a go.

I hated it.

I didn't want to learn piddly little tunes and scales. I wanted to learn songs that I could perform and impress people. I could easily do grade one but as I didn't like it I didn't concentrate on it much. I eventually took the exam and got something like a merit and distinction (or merit and merit, I can't quite remember).

I didn't do grade 2.

After leaving school I pretty much stopped playing, which was a shame because I was given a piano for my birthday the year before.

I see the piano sitting there and I think 'I wish I could still play it' but i've given it a go but I never get very far. (I'm now 17 btw, so i've not been playing for 2 years)

I stopped playing for a few reasons:
1. I didn't have a real style I liked. I just searched YouTube for weeks looking for songs I liked. I fell more towards the dramatic exciting songs, but they were very tricky.

2. I couldn't sight read. This meant it took me months to be able to play a song well. I had to do it in sections- work out the notes for the first few bars and memorise it, then do both hands and memorise it. Then move to the next bit etc. It took ages and was boring.

3. I didn't have much patients. Kind of tied in to the above- it took me so long to find a song I liked and so long to learn it, that by the time I was about 1/4 to 1/2 way through the song I was sick of it, so I wanted to learn another.

I think if I learn to sight read, I could possibly get into piano again.

So, my questions:

1. Is there a quick way to get good at sight reading? A good method perhaps?

2. Can anyone recommend some dramatic and exciting songs that sound great but are also quite easy?

3. Any advice or tips you have if you've been in my situation would be great!

Thanks!

Ps... Sorry for the long post!

EDIT- I'd rather not have lessons again. I can't really afford private piano lessons and i'd rather learn on my own (as it's a hobby)

Hi Robert, and welcome to the Piano World Forums!

Your thread is not an unusual one, and would likely get more and better responses on the "Adult Beginners Forum" here on PW...

If you'd like, I'll move the thread there for you, so you won't have to post another thread.

As for me, I too am more or less a beginner, though I do have my own style of playing, for better or worse.

My advice? Learn all you can about chords, chord combinations, scales and intervals; become as familiar with the key-board as possible and learn your way around the flats and sharps. Posture and hand position is important too.

Of course, with my meager playing skills, this is perhaps a case of the blind leading the blind.

All the best!

Rick

Rick,

Please do move it if you think it would be better suited in there.

If I learn about chords and stuff, would it make it easier to learn songs by ear?

(I don't mind the blind leading the blind, it's better than nothing ^.^)

Thanks!

A couple of nights ago I dreamed I was taking piano lessons from Ray Charles... Maybe I was teleported subconciously to the place where great piano players go when they die; of course, it wasn't hot there, so that was a good sign.

Rick

Well I know you do not want lessons but I went through several teachers until I found one that fits me. Basically she can work with me on my needs and not have me on this strict path torturing me. I think music is something to enjoy first of all not to make you suffer.
I do work on technical stuff of course and usually I ask her on things I want to improve but that is my personal choice cause for me, I know hard work now for a solid base, will pay off later. I had the same approach with martial arts and it worked great for me.
In any case, good luck on your quest and congrats on getting back into it!

I copied a few parts that I feel like are parallel to my situation. I didn't want to learn the simple tunes in a method book. I do kind of like playing scales though. I was poor at sight reading despite many years on other instruments. It takes me a long time to learn any piece, the exception is for pieces that I compose. (I am a beginner on piano, but an experienced and competent songwriter.)

As for the questions, sorry, there is no quick way for sight reading. There are apps and flash cards, and books, but if you want to learn it, it may be like slogging through mud. If you didn't like it the first time, and didn't have much patience, it isn't likely to get better this second time. From what you write, it is likely you are in the below average sight reading group, and that may mean a long road uphill through mud to get to be able to read the complex pieces that you would like to play.

There was a thread about showy pieces. Also the opposite, simple sounding pieces that are more difficult than they sound. A third category was added SMN (shoot-me-now because they are performed so often).
link to Glory no Glory thread

Mind you, pieces the regulars on the Pianist forum find easy are likely grade 4+ difficulty and may be difficult for grade 1 or 2 beginners to attempt. I do see plenty of beginners on this forum attempt pieces way over their skill level. Most of them hack their way through and often the result is recognizable though flawed. Some are satisfied with that, or may not even be able to hear what they are doing wrong. The downside is that experienced pianists can hear all the problems and may even give polite public compliments but their honest opinion is different.

For the most part, beginners sound like beginners. There are a few exceptional folks, especially on this forum, but they tend not to ask for advice. The exceptional tend to be doing, usually with the help of a teacher.

That is not to say all is lost. There are many roads a person can choose. A person can reach for modestly more difficult pieces, and spend more time on them. A poor sight reader can improve, they can also choose to focus on learning to play by ear, arranging and perhaps writing their own music.

If a person can at least learn enough sight reading to get to the point of reading the treble clef and playing basic chords, they can use a fake book or guitar tabs off the Internet and bang out lots of popular modern music. If a person can sing well, it can sound rather good, especially for casual audiences. This goal is still above grade 1 or 2, but a shorter road as compared to the traditional exam based route to proficiency, or classical training.

If a person is looking for a magic pill, I haven't seen any in my year on the forum. The closest I have seen is the opposite, to slow way down so as to learn it correctly the first time. With all that, a person can choose to work on their strengths or their weaknesses, choose what kind of music they want to play. However, for almost all of us, learning to play piano takes significant time and effort.

Robertooo - You`re 17. You have all the time in the world. You can also sight read, but not well. How d`ya think typists learn to type? Practice and time! Do you play a bit by ear? Develop it, and enjoy what comes from it: who knows where it might lead? A basic knowledge of chords is necessary; you`ll get tat in any suitable book from a music store. If there`s a favourite genre of music you like, how about getting a band together with pals?

Just s few thoughts. I was much the same at your age. And I still can`t sight read well. Nor do I care . . .

If you wish to improve your sight reading ... do more of it. Work with pieces that are very, very simple so that you have a chance to be successful. As you improve, you can always try things a little more difficult. If you start out with too difficult you will get nowhere and you might quit.

Same with learning to play anything. Take it slowly and do a good job on the things you do. Pick a method book that you fits your skill level and work your way through it.

Hurrying along will get you nowhere.

Take your time and do things right. Do not harbor any expectations about how long it is going to take. You have no control over that. It will take as long as it takes.

If you jump around from one thing to the next in an effort to find some quick way of learning, it will just take longer.

Good Luck

P.S. I just noticed that you are 17 years old. That means that even if it takes you 20 years to become a very good player, you will still have 40-50 more years left to enjoy it. However, if you try to take shortcuts searching for quick, you may wake up 20 years from now and you still can't play. Just relax ... take your time... do it right.

Robertooo,

I started playing the sax at 40 and joined a community, night school, band and ended up meeting other players and we formed a band. I had a teacher to help me with the music because i was a beginner sax player. So you might think about being a keyboard/piano player and look for a band. I was the oldest beginner and they were younger and had played in school. You learn lots, had fun, and was around other musicians, so it is all good. It is cool not to like this or that, but as long as you play the piano everyday, slowly, you will improve, so keep going.

You know the people who are always reading a book, they can usually read a book pretty fast. Well, if you read and play easy music, - everyday - you will be able to sight read because you are reading and playing music everyday.

Robertoo, pay your dues. Grit your teeth. Learn the piddly little songs and scales. And then keep going. The more you whine about it, the longer it's going to take. It's not all fun. If you want to advance at all you have to learn to slog through the tedious stuff. Even the really fun stuff can be tedious at first and in parts. This is just something you have to learn to handle. It's called discipline.

+1

I think of learning to play the piano more in terms of skills rather than pieces learned. Can you recognize notes on the staff, can you read rhythms, can you work out reasonable fingerings, can you expand and contract your hand, can you read bass and treble clef at the same time, can you play different rhythms in right and left hands, can you easily play standard figures such as chords, scales, and arpeggios (so that when they appear in a piece you can play them easily), etc etc etc.

I believe that it's best to learn these skills starting with simple pieces and only gradually building difficulty.

It's like playing basketball. Sure, you might want to play with the skill and flash of a Harlem Globetrotter. But you have to start at the beginning: learning the rules of basketball, practicing dribbling, passing, and shooting baskets. You could learn some fancy tricks, but without the foundational work on the basics, all they would be is isolated fancy tricks. You wouldn't actually be able to play basketball; you would just have a limited repertoire of a few fancy tricks.

In addition to patience and discipline, I think something that would help you in learning to play the piano would be to broaden your musical tastes. Learn to enjoy simple pieces. Learn to enjoy a variety of musical styles. Explore. Experiment. Stop wanting to impress others with your piano playing and learn to allow what Kenny Werner advocates: that every note you play is beautiful. Do it for your own enjoyment, not for external accolades.

Thinking about it, my post may be too pessimistic. My own nature is to enjoy working on fundamentals, and to be engrossed by detail. There are teachers on this forum who ISTM have a track record of working with students starting from the students' own musical goals in a way that seems to be engaging from the start. Maybe one of them will post here.