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Allow me to introduce myself. I'm krazypaul, and i have been playing the piano for 8 - 9 years now. When i was young, I grew up in a poor family. I remember myself listening to classical music and reading about the artists, curiously wondering how they became such a great pianist. I wish i could play like them. I had no piano availible to me back then. Closest thing i could get was a small electronic keyboard.But considering my financial position, I never asked my parents to let me have paid private lessons. Here they are, working hard trying to pay the rent and other bills. So i decided to take up piano on my own. First, i saved up money to buy those beginners for keyboard books. After a few years, like 3 or 4 years, i bought another electric piano, which had arranged classical music instead of those music with chord indications, which i found boring. During my 3-4 years of development of learning how to play, i pretty much worked at my own pace, just playing songs i really liked. I never went through scales or any of the principles in knowing how to read sheet music. I couldn't apply tempo, those time signature things, and whatever other jargon that i didnt know back then. I did performed in front of people, mostly diletante musicians who found my playing profounding. I performed fairly well and since i couldn't associate the tempo with the flow of the music, i just spent time and sat down, listening to the song on the cd, over and over and by different artists so i could get a general feel of the tempo. At first, I got interested in Joplin, i love him , his songs, how lively his music was. After going through ragtime, I wanted to play classical, mostly people from the romantic era. I played with some of beethove songs, like fur elise, moonlight sonata, those typical common songs. around my 7 and 8 years, i wanted to play Liszt. When i first heard his music and saw his sheetmusic, i thought to myself, this is way out of my league. But one song i loved was the Hungarian Rhapsody No.2. So for the next few months or so, I did not attempt to play any of liszt's songs, rather, i listened to them daily and followed along on the sheet music. Then i finally decided...just give it a try..since i love it so much. So i tried and now i can play it, but took me about 8 months to have it acutally played through well and memorized...not perfected but played fairly well. This is a song i want to know from heart for a long time, i dont want to forget it. but whenever i try to practice other songs, i get more and more sloppy with the hungarian rhapsody No.2. As much as i hate it, it happens everytime when i learn other songs. So right now, i'm a high school student. I cant read sheet music very well, and still unfamiliar with those terms or properties used in music but not as before. One time i was in the band room practicing during lunch and a band teacher goes up to me says...."listen, everyday i am in my office and i have to listen to you play songs that are played incorrectly and i am just sick of it." So after that being said, he locked the piano, never unlocked it so that i could not play. Every since that happened, Those quotes have been in the back of my head since then but i still practice..not with much enthusiam as i used to but i try not to think about it. Guess i had it coming, i mean self training myself like that there's not much to expect of me.
Anyways, i look forward to sharing opinions and providing any help i can possible give.

Thanks for reading.

Hello Crazy Paul!
The hungarian rhapsody #2 and you cannot read music
*Jaw drops to the ground with a big thud*
That is truly amazing!
I must admit that I am truly skeptical but that is too be expected.
I don't want to sound to forward but even if you cannot afford a teacher (I know what it is like to be poor) you really really really need to learn how to read sheet music. It is a gift that you give yourself that will give back to you for the rest of you life I'm sure.
How did you manage to learn all ten minutes of the Hungarian rhapsody if you do not know how to read music?? I am very baffled... Please don't tell me that you learned it by ear, because if you did I would have to slap you for having way to much talennt.
I want to give you a chance and believe you that you learned the HR #2 considering the situation its is a challenge. Please be honest if you are not doing so at the moment, and I you are telling the truth all of the power to you!
Good luck with your piano in the future and I hope that your music teacher unlocks the piano for you to play on at lunch and stuff.

Cheers
FYOB
LTLR

lol, no, i'm not that talented to learn the song by ear. Even the thought of that amazes me. But what i meant by not being able to read sheet music was i couldnt sight read. I used "reading sheet music" and "sight reading" interchangebly and i need to stop doing that and confusing people. Sry for the mess up, but someday i wish to "sight read"...how they are able to leaf through page after page with no error..someday i wish i can do that.

Thanks for the encouragements.

KrazyPaul, it sounds that you are a very talented person with a lot of enthusiam. You should be very proud of yourself, even though things may not be perfect!

I'am concerned about your Band teacher...
does he pick on you only or is he mean to everyone? You should talk to the principal about this. He does have a right to disallow people from playing the piano but a reason like that is BULL****!! A teacher in general is supposed to *HELP* you learn, improve your skills, and increase your enthusiam for learning. This *** doesn't seem like he wants to do any of those. This 'teacher' deserves to be slapped and stripped of his teaching diploma.

This guy is practically a jerk to everyone. He cusses to certain "incompete students" and says for example..."how about you ever play that song again."
He, if the opportunity comes up, would switch to a different school to instruct the students there. I dont have him as a teacher, i just know him and he sort of knows me because everyday i come in to play piano...well..i used to.

KrazyPaul,

There is a confusion with sight reading.

I now call sight reading when you play a piece (a song is only one of the many forms of music ) which you never have played before. It is first sight reading.

The main skill, playing page after page is sight playing.

It is in my opinion the main skill in piano.
Usually, teachers and students concentrate on sight reading and then memorize the piece, without developing the gentle art of sight playing.

Personally, I hate memorizing. That is because I haven't found a pleasant way to memorize. I have to repeat hundreds of times and I have found it kills the music.

Maybe you could learn the piano in a progressive, natural way. There are plenty of books and web sites that can help you.

We all want to master the most difficult things before having the mastery of the fundamentals.

It is like wanting to play the Masters of golf or the Olympic games without really mastering the sport.

Hope this helps.

Good luck with your piano passion.

Paul, do you use a metronome much?

Krazypaul,

The ideal situation of course it to have a teacher. Since, that isn't an option for you, perhaps some people here can suggest a website that will offer some free tutorials for learning the basics of sight read music, and a course on playing scales and exercizes, and learning the terminology. Learning to sight read will open up worlds of opportunity for you to play the music you want to play! I can't help but think that where there is a will, there is a way. You certainly have the determination to learn. Just remember that when learning to sight read music, you will not be playing those pieces that you play by ear now. That will require some patience, but it will enable you to play the pieces you like soooo much better.

Since, your band teacher will not let you play the piano at school, you might talk with someone at your church or a local church if you don't have a home church. I know, were you in my community that my church would allow you to practice on one of our pianos. This might be an option for you to check out.

Good luck!

Thanks for advice. I dont use a metronone, dont know how to use it.....well i do sort of, like leaving it at a certain time signature that corresponds to the sheet music but cant use it with the music...or not technically not being able to use it... but cant understand how the metronone works.

I should check out my church. I know it requires patience and i am willing to go through and learn it from the start if i have to.

Don't be afraid of falling and getting back on your feet as many times as you'll have too.
It's a bumpy road.

Thank-you for clearing up the whole "reading music vs. sight reading thing"! I is way beyond my comprehension to think of someone playing the HR #2 by ear.
It sounds like you are doing amazingly well!
Keep at it and maybe someday I will be attending one of your concerts one day, waiting in line for hours just to meet you at shake your talented hand.
Good luck with finding a good piano to play on, I definately know how that can be hard.

Paul, I can relate to having a bad band teacher. The previous one at my school was always very rude and completely ignored the fact that I played the piano, he was arrogant and I am surely glad he left. Don't worry, there are people who will actually appreciate what you do, just tell me when you find one!

I know it requires patience and i am willing to go through and learn it from the start if i have to.

There are free metronomes you can download, although mechanical ones are best. Every minute spent with it will be another musical dollar in your pension fund.
Start with something easy and very, very slow. It will probably raise your frustration levels trying to play to the click, so aim for a minute a day until you can handle 2 minutes a day. Before you know it, you'll be enjoying 10 minutes or so a day, and your musicality will soar enough to impress even the ratty band leader.
btw, the keys that unlock pianos don't cost much.

This device is really fantastic, and if used properly, can help one polish up a piece to at an incredible rate of efficiency and speed. Using it does not lead to mechanical playing, unless of course, one's musicality already points in that direction.

lol......