Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum How far along should I be?

Hey folks,
probably a silly question but how far along should I be after 2 months of lessons? I am an adult ( 52 )beginner and using the Alfred Adult book ( I think it is the Basic book 1 ) with a teacher who I see once a week. I think I am up to page 67...at the " Thumbs on C " part. I try to practice for an hour a day ( usually broken up into 20-30 minute segments depending on how quickly I get frustrated!! ) but personally I think my teacher is taking me through the book too quickly. I can't really play any of the pieces all that well or probably up to speed but they are recognizable. I looked the playlist up on Youtube and I can't play any of the tunes like that.
Am I where I should be or is my teacher giving me too much to do at once? She also gives me other pieces to practice that are not in the book. Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed and that I am just not progressing like I should and I also don't like to let my teacher down by being hopeless at everything!
Is this normal?? My brain sees it, thinks it is simple but I just can't get my hands to do it.
Any help or insight would be much appreciated. I don't want to throw money at this thing if I am just never gonna get it.

Thanks

David

You might want to pick one piece and tell your teacher you'd like to work on it long enough to play it beautifully.

If your teacher is qualified and experienced, just trust your teacher.

Don't compare yourself with other people - there is always someone who plays better, learns faster, has a better smile, and is thinner than you are.

Don't feel like you are disappointing other people (like your teacher). You are doing this for yourself, not for them. Teacher/student relationships are complicated, but you are paying the teacher to help you learn a difficult task. Have a conversation with the teacher and tell her what you told us.

So have fun with it. If setting goals and reaching them makes you happy, push yourself. If playing for fun makes you happy, screw the goals.

Sam

2 months is no good time span to evaluate. Try to wait another 1 or 2 years to see what you have achieved. You throw money at it, because you enjoy playing and learning piano, no? There are many people doing hobbies and giving money at it, without becoming a master. But you will sure be able to play simple tunes if you continue.

Exactly right!

I started piano lessons 2 years and 4 months ago. No musical experience of any kind prior to that. I will be 49 in July. These are the books I have studied and the order I worked with them:

Alfred's adult piano book 1
Martha Mier Jazz, Rags, and Blues book 1
Simply Classical (very simple versions of classical songs)
Alfred's adult piano book 2
Martha Mier Jazz, Rags, and Blues book 2 (only the first half of the book)
Alfred's adult piano book 3 (I have six songs remaining. I hope to be done by the end of June. I am not doing the Master Level songs).

I practice three hours a day. One hour first thing in the morning. Then one hour after dinner. Then finally one hour just before bed. Each of the sessions I practice just on new material.

Alfred's adult piano book 1 and 2 I went through at a really fast pace. I did not try to master the songs. I focused on "what is this particular song trying to teaching me". Once I got that down I then moved on. Why? I had no intention of playing any of the songs from Alfred's book 1 and 2.

However, Martha Mier and Alfred's adult piano book 3 are a different story. Those songs I want down really well. I plan on playing them at a local nursing home in another year. I figure I will have enough material I can do four or five sets of music I can perform.

It is all about your goals. I am a very motivated person. I set goals, stick with them, and then reevaluate if they are working for me. I am never afraid to change my strategy.

The above works for me. I wish you the best. Learning to play the piano is all about persistence. It is wonderful that you are learning to play.

David, did you have any experience with music before studying piano? Did you already know how to read music? Does your teacher have you practice scales and chords? Does your teacher take up half or more than half the lesson on scales? (This is not good)

2 months is smaller than a nanosecond in piano study time. Your teacher is giving you more music than you can handle to see what you are really able to do. I understand your frustration, the majority of us do also. There was a time I was screaming, hair pulling, banging on the piano frustrated!!! But I pushed on. If nothing else, the piano will test your limits. Oh, and the left and right hands like to do their own thing most of the time. Remember the brain controls everything and it's not going to just let you do what you think you should.

Persistence pays, no matter how frustrating. Learning to play the piano will be the most rewarding gift you can give yourself. Never give up. Give yourself time and you will achieve milestone after milestone.

"Are we there yet ?"

The first 2 months my brain was about to explode with so many things to learn. I've had no teacher so part of my piano learning was trying to find out what and how to learn. Of course this forum was great at helping me on that.

Then a friend gave me two Premier method books and I bought a Level 1 book (all different authors). I've been playing them in whatever fashion I felt like: some days a bit from each, some days I advanced more with one in particular. But I always went back to the beginning or at least several lessons back and played them again. I never learnt them by heart so I simply enjoyed being able to play them easily as opposed to the first times I learnt them. You might enjoy doing this yourself as well.

One year has passed and I am finishing that level 1 book, finishing another level 1 book, and that's mostly all. Some young students here in forum get to play close to level 6 in a year, but my nervous system wouldn't have been able to tolerate that intensity of learning. I enjoy watching them from afar, imagining the huge amount of practice they've put behind, and seeing the possibilities when one has the energy and mood for committed study.

Edit: I've also been playing level 1 pieces I downloaded from the web. And joined a choir so have advanced a lot in sight singing, which might help me some day with piano.

All in all I am satisfied with my learning. I think, as adults, we can try to find our "favorite style of learning".

Yes, it's normal. You're asking your fingers to achieve a level of independence that they've never had. The eye / brain / finger pathways take time to develop.

And as you get better, the music gets harder, just so you don't get cocky.

I agree with a previous comment -- if you want to really master something, tell your teacher that you want to work on it a bit longer.

IMHO pieces that are learned should be played without mistakes before going to the next piece. Especially in the beginning.
If it takes to long to be able to play it without mistakes, put it on the shelf and pick it back up later with extra attention to the trouble spots.

Going through the book to fast will produce bad habits.

I don't know what you are talking about. There is NOBODY who has a better smile or is thinner than me

To the OP: Does your teacher have recitals? If so, it would be good for you to participate. This way you will have at least one piece per semester polished for performance, and the rest of the tunes are more for practicing sight reading, technique, notation, etc. etc. That's what my teacher does with my kids.

You may be thinner, but I am in the running for the best smile

Kidding aside Sam is right - you can make yourself crazy comparing yourself to others.

Just wait a few weeks and there will be someone here that you will find yourself ahead of....you can enjoy the moment until someone else moves ahead.

Just relax and take the time you need, it makes the journey more fun.

I'm 8 months in myself and it seems to me that you're doing great. I'm just starting to feel like I know my way around the keyboard, but still have to stop fairly often and look for the right place to put the next finger until I have a song almost memorized. It's a long process.

Talk with your teacher about your concerns and dial back anything that you both feel is too much too soon. I have the opposite problem, my teacher constantly frets that he's giving me too much, which I don't think is the case. But I do feel like it takes me way too long to learn a piece well enough to play confidently and without mistakes. Adults are way too critical of themselves.

David, if you feel inclined to slow down, just speak up. I learned from that book not that long ago and recall my sense of accomplishment from pieces in that section. You are entitled to some joy for all that hard work!

You are right in that it pays off to learn to play even these simple pieces better, faster, with fewer mistakes and better dynamics... and that is asking A LOT already after only two months. The reason was pointed out by someone on a thread here recently about practicing effectively. If you leave the keyboard satisfied with your progress at the end of every practice session, next time your brain chemistry and performance are better.

Small world, casinitaly! I've seen that smile somewhere before!

Not even close, but we can stop at all the rest stops and roadside attractions along the way.
Remember that making good time isn't measured in time, it's measured in good times.

Typically younger younger students want to go too fast, and mature students want go too slow. Teachers job is to make sure you go at the best pace for you. By all means communicate your feelings, but a good teaching relationship relies on you trusting them to guide you.

My teacher explained that at the very beginning, you are developing physical and mental coordination. This takes months and even years to improve, so there is not a lot of value to spending a large amount of time on the early method book material just to make it sound good. If you go back and play it a year later or two years later, it will sound much better, but who would want to. The purpose of music in the method books is to teach specific ideas and techniques, once you get what a particular piece is trying to teach, you loose little by moving on. I have no idea if this is a generally accepted idea among all teachers, or a quirk of my particular teacher, but I do think she was right in my case at least.

You'll see improvement over time, 2 months is too short to gauge very much in the way of improvement. I've been back playing for 16 months and only 2 days ago realized, after starting a particular piece, that I knew more than I thought I did. It was a real ah-ha experience. You'll get that too, a little here and a little there.

Everyone wants to play well quickly, but the reality is that playing an instrument takes time and patience. REAL PATIENCE! Just keep going, you WILL start to see that you actually know things and can put that knowledge into action.