Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum need help determining my progress so far

Hi everyone , so before 5 days mark my 3 months start. Since I dont have a teacher and right now can't get one , I'm not aware if my progress till now is sufficient for a 3 months beginner. That's why i compiled some snippets of pieces that I can play (not the whole piece though) and added them in a video , hoping you can help me criticizing and analyzing it ^_^ (I learned those using synthesia , but now am getting rid of this bad habit and am learning to read music. (and am sorry if some of you already saw the video in a post of mine before).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h389wOdxhDQ

No-one can tell what you're progress is if they don't know where you started from.

You need finished pieces not snippets.

Three months is nothing on the ten year path to competence (rough average for those under instruction - usually longer for those without).

Are you practising every day for twenty to forty minutes? Too little won't do the job and too much in your first year will risk injury.

Are you spending that time working on things you can't do and not on things you already can? I.e. practising rather than playing. Playing time is extra but should still be done.

Are you spending some time reading from the score, some time memorising and some time reading from an unfamiliar score (sight reading - not so important in your first year).

Are you paying attention to rhythm, accuracy, relaxed facility and a singing, musical tone over speed, agility or just getting to the end?

Positive answers suggest progress. Before and after recordings of complete pieces can give a better indication.

Some people can dazzle by their progress in a few months. Some don't show any in six. You can sort the wheat from the chaff in about five years.

What will you do if your progress is sufficient?

What will you do if it isn't?

If it is sufficient , I would focus more into bringing the technical facility I learned so far in composing , my goal isn't only to be able to play Chopin,Debussy,Ravel,Tchaikovsky repertoire.
if it isn't , i will spend more time into practicing, thats all i guess

If you started from zero three months ago then you have made great progress. However there are no shortcuts in piano even for the very talented. While you may find yourself with some strengths early on there will always be weakness's. As someone who has been playing for a year with a teacher, and I would describe myself as very focused, what I didn't know at three months could fill and does fill volumes of books. I am only a little clearer now a year on. My advice is to take a holistic view of the process. All aspects of the piano need to be learned simultaneously as they are intertwined. Example, you wish to compose and you can do that right now but you are limited with your theory knowledge, technical ability, sight reading etc etc. As these skills develop so too will your composition.

Just to repeat, there are no shortcuts, but if you are working diligently and in a methodical way (hopefully you are at least using a method book) you will get results. If you don't and your expectations are too high you may find yourself dissatisfied and that is one reason so many quit piano.

PS comparisons to others is useless it will only give you misleading feedback. Rather research how other people practice, find out and research the best practice regime and implement it. Resist the temptation to "cherry pick"

+1

This is a theme that you will hear over and over coming from those who have enjoyed some measure of success. They, too, may have had unrealistic expectations initially but they have slowly recognized and accepted that fact. That, I believe, is when you will truly begin to learn.

You need to get a teacher or if that is not possible, get a piano method book and start on page 1 and do things carefully and get it right before moving on. Will this take time ? Absolutely ! But, there is no alternative.

Good Luck

I already have 2 method books (didnt use them yet) on my PC,
-Carl Humphries - The Piano Handbook.
-Alfred all in 1 book.
Which one do you recommend to start with since they differ alot in the teaching method (and honestly both have 20th century pieces which I dont really enjoy , so ignoring them is prohibited ?)

My personal opinion is the Alfred book is good as we have a thread here on Piano World just for that book. There you can read all the trial and tribulations of those that have gone before and listen to their work as well.

While the material may not be to your taste, a piece can be loved just for the challenge and pieces you hate may grow on you as a result of the learning process. Sometimes that is simply an appreciation of the musicality.

Ultimately though the material is disposable and just a means to an end. Best to be thought of as foundation work. No one really enjoys starting at the bottom of the heap but we all had to start there.

For classical training I would recommend this site:


http://fundamentalkeys.com/index.html


There is a method book that goes with it. You also have options to purchase videos for a reasonable price which demonstrate portions of that book. Technique is demonstrated by a classically trained pianist.



The Alfred's book you mention is fine too.

Whichever you choose, make up your mind you are going to take your time and master each part before moving on to the next thing. That is very difficult to do but will give you the best and "quickest" result. Think of this as if you were beginning a journey around the world ... walking ! The journey is so long, you would never consider starting to run. Just keep walking and enjoy the scenery.

For 3 months from absolutely 0, quite good but would be better to listen to the full pieces, tempo is mostly gone and you need to start counting or using a metronome.

Synthesia is not a good idea. I'm happy that you have started reading music, as I can only understand the use of Synthesia for people like me, who simply cannot read music and will never be able to do so. If you don't have any learning disability that stops you from making sense to a lot of round things flying over lines, then you'll be much better reading music from the beginning, take it easy but do it.

Also, it's quite hard to get good quality midis for Synthesia, and the versions you find in YouTube might not be good, so you'll end up learning a bad version. I have several of those!

It's quite important to pay attention to things such as posture, bench/stool weight, position of hands... those are very important not only to avoid bad habits but purely to avoid injuries.

I know that the starter pieces are quite boring and that you'll be tempted to go directly to difficult staff to show off a bit to others or to yourself, but the point of easier pieces is to learn little by little so that you can advance with a sound ground. There are quite a lot of simplified music for beginners that allow you to scape from nursery rhymes, and later on you can go back to more advanced versions of those and check your progress. That's what I have to tell myself in order to really progress!

I'll agree that there are really no short cuts to disciplined bench time. I also agree that the approach offered here is a good one. But, it certainly is not the only one. I am personally aware of more than a couple of very accomplished pianists that never had a teacher and/or do not read.

There is more than one way to Skin a Cat, as they say.