Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner The problem with piano playing (the elephant in the room)

The problem with playing the piano is that it's just so (too) much effort.

I hadn't played saxophone for over 20 years, and now I'm playing two (simple) pieces on it together with a friend on the piano. I DON'T NEED to practice, I just sight-read it. Imagine that on the piano.

I can play the piano reasonably well for an amateur, but the hours I / we put in are just ridiculous IMO. I think you can only play the piano if you enjoy the practicing process or if you're a natural talent. Otherwise it's not worth it.

I enjoy everything about the process. I enjoy the look of the piano, the look/feel of the keyboard. I love to play - what some people call practicing. Playing, practicing .... all the same for me.

Been like that all my life. One of my earliest memories as a toddler is being drawn to a piano keyboard. I'm 70 now! Yikes! What happened?

Piano playing is a passion for life. It needs extreme dedication but when you love something that is part of the pleasure. If you just wanted to find a new hobby and expected that you would play decently after only a few weeks, you chose the wrong hobby.

All you have to do is sit there. That's pretty easy.

There are certain pieces that are advanced we'd be spending hours learning them 1 at a time. And other pieces like Christmas songs arranged for easy piano we'd just play off the score without having to practice them first. I've seen people (students & teachers) who can read through pieces at certain levels. The more proficient the reading level, the more pieces you can read through without practicing first. There is the Lead Sheet option of playing LH chords for people who doesn't like to read the bass clef. And there are those who are good at playing by ear.

Piano is an instrument you need to play with both hands unless you're playing beginner pieces with the LH & RH alternating playing 1 note at a time like a saxophone. The way people read advance piano pieces is by intervals & chords. If you feel that you need to learn /rehearse every piece before playing it with confidence, your reading & ear training haven't reach a high level. If you like playing piano, be patient. In the beginning there will be hands coordination issues.

All instruments require tons of practice to play advanced and difficult pieces. The OPs premise is not valid.

Sight reading on a melody instrument is so easy in comparison. On a melody-instrument the difference between the level you can play and the level you can sight-read is small, on the the piano it's huge (for me anyway, and for the piano players I know as well).

I'm not a beginner on either instrument. I'm not asking for advice. It's just that there are times when I have trouble motivating myself for serious practice. Most of the time I enjoy it, but not always.

My premise is not valid? It's not a premise, it's experience. Sure, professional world-class horn players practice multiple hours a day, but on the piano you need that practice-time to get to a halfway decent amateur level.

I can hear the chant already: then practice your sight-reading. Yes, I can do that, but that takes time as well.

I think it also has to do with what we want to be able to play, how good, sound/expression, artistic level and so on. Some pieces sound very easy but are difficult to play and the opposite. It ain't easy to play John Coltrane pieces/solos either. Many hours of practice on the saxophone to reach similar level.

But, I see your point and we can't do everything and we need to prioritize what we want, think is worth spending our time on.

I totally agree with this. I’ve played clarinet, folk and classical guitar, shakuhachi (Japanese bambo flute) and taiko (Japanese drums). Only classical guitar comes close the complexity of piano. For all of the others, reading and learning a new piece, even of a more advanced level, is just plain easier than reading and learning a piece of similar level on the piano. (And I say that as a fairly confident reader at the piano).

When I first started piano, I had been playing classical guitar, and had gotten to a certain level and plateaued (no teacher). When I started playing piano I was just amazed at how easy it seemed in comparison to classical guitar. I eventually realized that that was a false impression, based only on the ease of finding the notes and getting a correct sound with them. I am now convinced that piano music, and the act of playing it, is just much more complex.

Yes, any instrument is challenging at the most advanced levels, but playing only one melody line at a time is never going to compare to what we do at the piano in terms of complexity.

I invite you to read a post in the ABF—/ ‘musings’ . IMHO, it is fitting for beginners or those that have been playing many years

https://forum.pianoworld.com//ubbthr...a-most-solitary-pursuit.html#Post3125321

I agree with the premise that you must enjoy the practicing process in order to become good at playing the piano. This is true of pretty much any non-trivial learning experience. As a computer programmer, I can tell you that if you don't enjoy the process of problem analysis, solution development, coding and testing, you will never become a proficient programmer. If you view the process as an unpleasant chore, it's very difficult to (essentially) torture yourself for a sufficiently-long period of time to get good at it.

Learning to play the piano is a much more pleasant process, though, than learning to play something like the violin. This is simply because striking a piano key produces a sound that is pleasant to the ear, and (at a basic level) the "striking" of the key requires no great level of manual dexterity or finger control. Compare that to the act of drawing a bow across a string on an instrument that is not fretted, where the position of your finger on the string determines whether or not the note produced matches the desired note. Learning to play an instrument like the violin is, IMHO, much more difficult than the piano, simply because, in the beginning, your ears are pleading with you to STOP MAKING THAT HORRIBLE NOISE!

Beginning students of piano have it pretty easy, in my opinion. Of course, we face different problems, like learning to coordinate two voices, each played with a different hand, but the general pleasantness of the instrument's sounds makes it much easier to stick with it, and enjoy the learning process.

I think a number of instruments are just as difficult, in different ways. Classical guitar certainly (maybe even more difficult), but also the violin, cello, alto, ..... At least to get something musical.

My experience is that many hobbies require a lot of hours of practice to master them and reach a reasonably good level. But of course there are also hobbies which you can practice and get pleasure from without being a good player or player at all. Just like you can get pleasure from piano as a beginner. It is impatience that creates frustration.

It's true, melody sight reading is way easier. Of course, you do have to have the embouchure (on the flute anyway, my other instrument). Luckily, I like practicing the piano even though my sight reading will never get to the level I have on flute. If I practiced sight reading enough to get really good at it on the piano, I'll bet my melody reading would get better also and would still be ahead.

Quite true! And if you enjoy the practicing process, like I do, and if you enjoy the rich and beautiful sounds you make also while practising, the effort is not relevant.


Quite true as well!

This made me laugh as I remembered starting playing the violin as a child and how the sound was like a cat caught with its tail in a screen door 🙀 not true of the piano. I didn’t need adult ears to know the horror of the sound I was making.

Playing a string instrument like a violin, you need to pull the bow gently and takes a lot of trial & error to get the tuning right. When your finger is off a bit, it’s out of tune. When I took up violin playing in school, we often make fun of beginner students as trying to “slaughter a chicken” with the bow.

Making the transition to a piano wasn’t a big deal since I can read the treble well and count different rhythms. In the beginning, the focus was on playing the right notes at a constant volume that dynamic variations weren’t played.

If you are satisfied with your current level, whatever it may be, just a few minutes a day playing the stuff you enjoy - even if it's just Für Elise - will keep you there.

The vast majority of students never get above a certain standard (often nowhere near the level they could have reached if they really put the work in) because they perceive that they don't enjoy the process of practicing in relation to the satisfaction they get from being able to play better, i.e. that the 'work': enjoyment ratio isn't doing it for them.

Many then switch to non-classical.......and why not? You then don't need to play what's printed in the page, because there's nothing on the page, or you can simplify/change what's on it to your heart's content, and call it improv (or improve)......

I don't have the experience of playing any other instrument, but I do think that many people enjoy every aspect of playing the piano, so it doesn't feel too arduous. I'm one of those who enjoys practicing, so I don't mind the effort playing the piano takes. I can hardly see a piano without feeling an overwhelming urge to play it. I practice every day for at least two hours and I'd certainly rather be doing that than going out with friends or watching TV or even reading a book or any number of other things other people spend their spare time on. Playing the piano well is certainly much too involved and time consuming to do if you don't enjoy it.

Anything worth doing is worth ‘the practice’. Another hobby is sourdough bread…it too requires a lot of practice, new flour, new hydration….the end results, just like freshly baked sourdough bread, your audience will love it. Life is like that, it’s all practice. We still weather through the humps. Yeah, practice is the zen.

I think it's definitely true that learning to play the piano takes more time than most instruments -- it also has a higher ceiling. At the higher levels, you acquire nearly complete finger independence in both hands (just imagine playing Chopin op 10 no 4 at a fast tempo), the ability to process 3-4 voices at once, etc. However, these skills feel amazing once acquired -- when you can successfully play or create music with multiple moving parts, and successfully control all of it at once and make meaningful decisions in real time, you almost feel superhuman!