Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Watched too many good pianist vids, lost my mojo :(

P.S.

And by all means do the Haka before each practice session.

If I can learn it, I'll do it myself. Maybe I'll invent my own!

My pre-game ritual is a calm silence. This is way cooler.

Re: Maple Leaf -- Ragtime is one of my favorite genres, and I happen to be pretty good at MLR, so if you'd like to talk about any of it, feel free to shoot me a PM.

Thanks for your lovely post Barbara, we mustn't lose sight of the reason we play in the first place eh?

Derulux (sorry I misspelled it above) I will probably end up picking your brains too, thank you very much for the offer!

Apart from when I'm not playing, watching videos of other pianists is becoming quite enjoyable for me - not something that would have been as easily available, or with such variety, before prevalence of the internet and youtube.

It gives me something to aim for, and it's wonderful to see the many varied, and sometimes exceptional piano interpretations I see of modern music.

If I think back to when I was first playing in the late 70s and through the 80s, there was nothing like the same kind of easy access to footage / recordings of people playing the piano, and with such a wide variety of material. There are times when I think technology has truly enhanced the enjoyment of certain hobbies - as well as made them something you can quite easily waste a lot of time on!

Haha, sometimes a little too much time... my synth is linked to my laptop and my TV above it on the wall, most times when I play I use youtube etc as an aural reference if I get stuck.

Needless to say that it doesn't always remain that way, so easy to go off and get distracted nowadays that it's quite the mission and achievement just managing to stay on track (Especially during practice time )

Work on some tune you enjoy.

It is reassuring to know that others find this hard too. I am a late beginner (a very late beginner), and my teacher has cautioned me on a number of occasions that I have been too hard on myself, when I get frustrated at what seems like a lack of progress. This happened particularly, as this thread's topic shows, when I'd watch performances on YouTube of the piece I was practising.

My teacher had set me a piece to work on a while back, and I worked hard, breaking the piece down and rehearsing each part until I could play it right through with only a handful of stutters and mis-keys. After all the hard work, the elation of getting there is hard to match. I've never known anything like it.

Then I'd go to YouTube, find the same piece to see how others had tackled it, and there would be a four-year-old girl in pigtails playing it at eighty miles an hour and note perfect.

When I confessed to my teacher that it was a little dis-spiriting, she gently remonstrated with me and suggested I should be putting my own voice on the piece, and not someone else's. That has been good advice.

Realising that it really is hard work learning to play piano, and that others find this too, is actually very encouraging.

Purkoy,

During the first organized race I did after I started running, I was passed by little girl... must have been 6-8 years old, in a fairy costume waving a wand. I kid you not, and I was struggling, and she was just floating on air like gravity did not matter to her. =)

Despite that I kept going, and was darn close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon (top 2-3% of marathoners qualify)

Funny note, a great women marathoner Joan Benoit Samuelson said that...

"When I first started running, I was so embarrassed I'd walk when cars passed me. I'd pretend I was looking at the flowers!"

For years I used that for inspiration as I struggled along, thinking she was embarrassed because she was slow or out of shape, but I came to find out later that it was because she was a women, and women just did not run long distances back then.

I get that embarrassed feeling when I play sometimes... thank goodness for headphones. Some days I don't seem to be able to play something that seemed easy the day before. Today I recorded my second song to soundcloud Scarborough Fair, but I discovered that when I press the record button, I seem to disable my ability (what little there is of it) to play at all. =)

My teacher used to refuse to let me listen to recordings on pieces I was learning for several reasons. This may have been one of them (I know the other reasons were to develop my own interpretation, and also to improve my reading because my ear was really good).

Interesting observation about the recording. I had tried this several times, when it was suggested that it would be a good way to listen to my own progress, and yet however well I'd been able to play during practice, whenever I press the 'record' button, it's like I suddenly have an audience of expert pianists listening to me, and the nerves kick in with a vengeance, even though I'm the only person in the room. And you know how it is : there may be a couple of bars that were tricky, but you mastered them ; yet now, as they approach, you fear that a fumble is coming on, to be recorded in glorious multi-coloured multi-dimensional stereo, and the more you worry about it, the higher the probability that the fumble will happen. And so it does!

Still, I'm starting to overcome the fear of recording myself, and it's starting to prove helpful. In a way that's curiously linked to what Morodiene said about not being allowed to listen to the recordings of others, it's been helping my confidence in realising that I'm not poor at playing, just a beginner on the journey. To show me this, my teacher (Megan) moved me one day to her Clavinova instead, so that she could record me easily. The piece she'd had me working on was the little Scarlatti C major sonata (K95), and I was having trouble with synchronising my fingers on the ornamentation and the left hand triplets. I'd watched and listened to a recording of a concert pianist play this on YouTube, and his dazzling performance had dampened me a little into wondering why I was attempting something when I could never be this good.

So, she set the metronome to a very low speed, around 60, and had me play it right through. She had told me this was a piece that worked at many tempos and many interpretations, and sure enough, I was able to play it right through, and it felt pleasing.

Next, she replayed it, but then she dialled up the tempo. I hadn't been aware the Clavinova could do this and had expected the pitch to rise, but of course you'll be ahead of me here, for it doesn't. Instead, it sounded like me, only faster. Then she dialled it up some more, and suddenly, I was apparently playing it at the same speed as the concert pianist, and the trills and ornaments sounded fabulous!

Her point was evident, and never was that old Latin maxim festina lente (hasten slowly) better demonstrated.

I think the recording - especially video recording has it's benefits. You can often see things - perhaps posture related or to do with how you're playing that hadn't really occurred to you - especially if you're not currently having lessons or tuition.

The other aspect, though, in terms of it seeming more daunting, and things you thought you'd got down pat, show up as flaws or weaknesses - I see that as a good thing - it shows you the bits that you still need to make your own, even if up to that point, you'd done enough to convince yourself that you'd got that bit worked out.

That's a great example Purkoy.

I remember a fellow poster here (I think it is sinophilia) who sets apart one day a week for recording. This is such a good idea and the more you record the easier it becomes.

Interestingly, I have never EVER recorded anything in all the time I have had my synth... perhaps I should give it a go?

Trust me, Luca Sestak probably said the same thing about other pianists when he first started to learn. "They make it look so easy". I always tell people that the only person you should consistently try to outdo is yourself. Only compare yourself to how you were one week ago, one month ago, one year ago etc. If you consistently surpass yourself, you will be good before you know it. Someone made a reply about recording yourself, which is a great suggestion when trying to perfect your own technique and playing.

Yes! It's fun. I have the MOX6 and you can do a lot of neat things with it. Why not take some pressure off yourself and just use one of the pre-made Songs they have and improvise along with it and record what you do. It'll be your own little band.

There is a phenomenon that occurs when watching others perform seemingly difficult routines; it is different when YOU are the performer. It is observable when watching or listening to a recording of yourself in the past. Sometimes we amaze ourselves that we actually sounded ok. Our own voice, our own playing, or even the mirror can fool you. You're better than you think!

Funny enough, I have saved a few improvisations around these pieces to the hardware... although I do wish that I could learn how to use the arpeggiator and performances properly to really make something exceptional (of course using a DAW would probably be MUCH easier)

I'll give it a go, though I don't have a camera handy for visual reference yet... I'll have to get my siblings to do some cleaning up and get that custom desk built

I haven't even scratched the surface of my MOX (not literally!), and this is considered an entry-level synth! So much to learn, and I do want to learn it all, even though I,too, will be using a DAW. I think by learning how everything works I'll get a good basis for how most of these synths work, so the next one it will just be a matter of finding out how to make it do what I want, instead of not even knowing what it can do.

It does take discipline, and I had planned on making that part of my focus this summer. (sorry for the OT).