Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Piano Goals

When I started, I thought I would like to learn to play all the songs I know (lots). So I was interested in Improvising. I realized Improvising implied a very high level of Ear Training. And then I could see that Ear Training would take very long.

At the same time, I could also see that I would need to learn to Read, and comforted myself thinking that, while learning to Read, I'd also be learning some Ear Training at the same time, just by association. Also, I wouldn't be happy with just any sound for a song but would want them to sound very good which means I'd first need to get acquainted with many examples before I could even attempt to invent one by myself.

One year and a half later, I've done two Premier books, one Level 1 book and half another Level 1, starting a Level 2. Still very far from my initial goals.

What about you?

My initial goal was to just learn to play the piano.

I purchased a method book and started in.

I then found online courses which promised the "direction" that I needed and specified what I should do "next".

Then, I found a different one which sounded "very good" and purchased it.

And and on and on with that process for 2 or 3 years.

I took some lessons for a bit. Never for more than a month or two.

Then I moved to courses about blues piano and then jazz piano.

And ... I have been going through those types of processes for about 10 years, now.

I still cannot play much on demand because I never seem motivated to bring it up to performance level. I say that I "know a lot" but I cannot "play a lot". The knowledge has not reached my fingers yet. LOL ...

I have now become more focused on playing jazz standards using lead sheets, where I decide how to fill out the music with harmony and rhythm. I like that better than just memorizing the way somebody else plays it.

I am currently taking lessons (online) with a professional jazz player and I am pleased with things so far. I think I now know more of what it takes to be successful and I am putting that knowledge toward my ultimate goal of playing solo cocktail jazz piano.

When I started, I thought I would like to learn to play all the Beethoven piano sonatas. Close to how Emil Gilels played them (my favorite Beethoven sonatas performer among 9 different recordings of the full set in my vinyl + CD collection) but not exactly. This one moment here in that sonata I would play slightly more expressively than Gilels did and to that one note in that sonata I would put a little more emphasis than Gilels managed to do.

When 40 years later I bought my first Piano (see signature) it came with a set of piano music sheets divided in several groups - for beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc. At this time I realized that even to play beginner pieces I would need to learn not only all other notes (I knew only Do of first octave) but also a huge amount of alien symbols, Italian words and phrases, B/W graphical art (you know, those single/double vertical lines, horizontal curves and arbitrary oriented dotted lines, etc.). My teacher smiled and asked me put this sheet collection to the shelf for a later time.

At the time of learning other notes on treble clef (no graphical art yet) I could also see that I would need to learn to understand and feel what is whole, half, etc. and why quarter is not always exactly 1/4. At the time of realizing that not all "Do"s are on the line and other "Do"s are on spaces, I comforted myself thinking that I'd also be learning some Ear Training and intervals at the same time, just by association.

...

After 9 months I am exactly on the half of my way to outperforming Gilels in playing Beethoven sonatas - I have 2 (TWO!!!) pieces that are considered by my teacher as passed, this is one of them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prZFaPngIYM (no that's not me playing, I am not yet ready to publish my performance, but be patient, soon I will)

My most serious goal is to one day achieve my RCM Arct. Now you are all going to laugh when I say I have just started grade one. But I am 57 now and my goal is to accomplish this grade by the time I am 72. By then I will be retired and have more time to work moe intensely on the more demanding grades, I believe I can do it, unfortunately I will be an old man by then but this my true goal.

I think we just gave ourselves a second lives.

My next goal is to sit for the AMEB diploma of performance and music theory grade 5 exams, which hopefully will be sometimes late next year. I'm so far away from beginners yet so far away from professionals. After the exam I hope to learn:

- Prokofiev Toccata in D minor
- several Beethoven sonatas
- a Chopin sonata
- Chopin Ballade No. 4
- a few Chopin Etudes and Polonaises
- Bach's Goldberg variations
- revisit Ravel's Jeux Deau
- Liszt's La Campenella

Maybe 5-6 years from now if I feel confident I may go for licentiate performance exam along with music theory grade 6. But that will be the ultimate end of my piano goal and I'll free myself from lessons but will definitely keep playing.

alans,
I sure can't laugh at your goal... I'm already 72 and I have long term goals for piano. I had 3 1/2 years of college classes in music including tonal harmony, music analysis, class piano, private piano, music composition, piano pedagogy, etc. and more. I've even taught music composition at the junior high and high school level for one year. The problem is that was so many years, and I gave up playing the piano during my entire teaching career. In the last year, however, I've made more progress than I made in the past 25 years altogether. My goal is to be able to play late intermediate classical music and to play any song, and play it well, in the gospel hymn book when I'm called on to play at church. If I can accomplish these goals, I'll be satisfied. I feel like I'm about 1/3 of the way there, so maybe these aren't impossible goals for the lifetime I have left. If I can progress at age 72, I'm sure you can do it at 57. I believe it all depends on how badly we really want to.

My goal is to play something for my teacher and have him say it was beautiful and he has nothing to add. Then I'll faint.

Theorygrl,you are an inspiration to me. From time to time people post in this forum that they are in their seventies and even once a gentleman in his eighties and it just makes me want to keep going. I meet too many people my age who say it is too late to start learning music. We should never deprive ourselves of the joy of playing music.

For the most part, I've given up on specific long term goals, and I'm trusting my teacher to coach me through short term goals. The process of learning to play piano is so full of fits and starts, that it feels almost impossible to methodically *advance* in a way I'm more familiar with. But then again, I look at material from just 6 months ago and it seems so much easier now than it did at the time.

Right now, I'm working my way through early intermediate repertoire (mostly sonatinas and Bach's Little Preludes) and planning to start my first sonatas in the next few months. Beyond that, I'm planning on playing for my family when I travel home for the holidays.

Short term goals of working piece by piece through repertoire. Medium term of playing for people. Long term I'll figure out when I get there.

joename, you said what I came to say! I used to have long term goals that I spent a lot of time thinking about and wondering if what I was doing was getting me there. Eventually I got frustrated with my practicing, learning pieces sloppily (*), and worked on improving my practicing so I learn pieces correctly from the beginning, instead of baking in problem spots. As an unexpected result of that, I find myself now simply absorbed in learning and enjoying the pieces I'm learning currently, and not thinking about the future.

Well, I'm not sure I can say my longterm goals have really gone away; it's just that I don't think about them much.

Overarching goal: learn to play classical piano music. More specifically: be able to play Beethoven sonatas and Bach fugues. Somewhat shorter term: learn all the Bach Two-Part Inventions (and then continue on to Sinfonias, etc.) (The music I want to learn isn't restricted to those, but those are where I have the most concrete goals I can name. Other than that it's: play lots of interesting piano music.)

There's another goal which has grown on me, but I'm exploring it with a feel for exploring where I am right now, and the investigations I'm doing to build skills gradually, rather than looking ahead too much to the end result. And that is to develop skills at improvising (and at comping). But I've been working to find a path that works for me, and right now I'm absorbed in exercises that absorb me in the moment, without concern for how long it might take me to get to certain skill levels, or even if I'll ever get there.

(*) Edited to add: and a contributing reason for my sloppy practicing was that I was in such a rush to progress that I wanted to finish pieces quickly and get on to the next piece. I hadn't yet learned that in piano, slow and steady wins the race.

Yes, I still have long-term goals...but I will not assign a date to them as part of the goal. It is like a goal of 'I plan to climb Mt. Everest... sometime in the future'.

Not setting a 'due by' date keeps me focused on the baby steps to get to the BIG ones and will not lead to disappointment if I don't reach them by a certain date.

I had to laugh because this is my goal as well, and it looks as if I am a loooooong way away

I m rolling with laughter...I needed that belly laughter. I so get it. I have given up on goals, so every compliment I get from my teacher, I take it as huge achievement. THE end.
AS long as I see myself progress based on relative of where I was 2 years ago, daily practice, stick to my lessons, find a piano to practice when on vacation, sight reading, learn a piece from new composer.. I am happy. I SO want to play well, that I am considering retiring way early so I can focus, but then realized I need piano lesson money 😃

It did make me laugh, more that you were so honest, and your goal inspires me...

I'm waiting for my teacher to say something that is a better compliment than 'getting there'. So far, that is the best I have heard.... and infrequently, at that.

Yeah, my teacher's best compliments are along the lines of "better", "not bad", and finally (once!) "not sure what else to tell you". Now that last one did make me faint.

My worst moment, (with a previous teacher), was when his one and only positive comment was, "Well, you got all the notes right." It felt like a stab right through my heart. Ugh.

When your teacher is honest, the real complements mean so much more, no? After I play, my teacher will always start with positive comments before he gets to the "needs improvement" ones. I sometimes think, "Oh, cut out the nice stuff and tell me honestly how awful it is." If he doesn't have a lot of negative to say, I get suspicious. When I earn that very rare complement, it really means a lot.

Originally about 7 years ago I wanted to play the pieces that were moving to me, classical romantic, and -ha ha- learn to compose!!!
Well, for me those goals are easily made but not as easily achieved.
Playing even simple melody and 4 part harmony takes a lot of time/concentration.
And composing is somewhat of an academic exercise still, rather than self expression, so I don’t know where it’ll lead.
I can’t say that I’m not satisfied where I am, because I haven’t made any specific goal to measure against.
Except maybe finishing a recital piece or practice piece.
And I’m self taught. Furthermore piano is more of a solo instrument. (I played the clarinet in h.s.)
I’ll take to the ” process outcome” i.e. -practice and random study- rather than outcome alone until I have more time for heavy material and I think it’ll work for me.
But I feel, I am pretty far from my original goals.
Yet on a positive” up- note “, piano study has led me a lot of other goals and projects that are satisfying, and that has of value to me.