Calling all pianists!

[totallyyesno]

I really need your help sorting out a practice schedule. My teacher is probably not going to be teaching again until next year and, instead of getting another teacher, I want to work on my own. At the moment my practice involves a lot of faffing around and not much progress!

• I have played badly for years.
• I have Grade 7 piano but play at about grade5/6 level.
• I play mainly classical but would actually love to play other genres, especially popular music from the 30s and forties.
• I don't feel like a musician at all. I can't pick out a tune without music in front of me. I never play in front of people.
• I can't sightread unless it's incredibly basic. 😆

What do I need to do on a daily basis to actually improve? Thanks!

No-one? Does anybody have a practice schedule that works?

I don't have a practice schedule at all, I just play when the fancy takes me! For you I would suggest having Skype lessons. My child has online piano lessons and actually prefers it.

I did Grade 8 piano so I was once a decent pianist but no more, alas!

When I was doing lessons and grades, I took my practice seriously, that meant doing it every day and starting with scales, arpeggios, broken chords etc. Boring but important for finger agility and strength. Then I would practise my pieces (I guess I would have 2 or 3 on the go at any one time). I wouldn't just play from start to finish, I'd do separate hands and also practise the difficult passages (hands separately and together). Playing it properly from start to finish was my reward at the end.

Given that you're playing for pleasure and not to pass exams, my advice is to choose pieces you really enjoy playing. Maybe do one that you already know quite while alongside a new one (so it's not all a hard slog!) Listen to them first to work out what they should sound like and to choose what you'd like to learn.

quite well

I did grade 7 a few years ago and gradually fell out of practice when I stopped lessons.

Not sure how to motivate myself to start practising again but maybe doing it earlier in the day helps. I used to practise religiously for at least one uninterrupted hour a day in the morning when I was doing my grade 7 and then do 10 minutes here and there when I was cooking or waiting for a job to finish.

Thanks. The thing is I always seem to end up with lots of half-finished pieces with bits that I can't play at all!

I have a book called "Help Yourself to Sight-Reading" by Daphne Sandercock, published in the 70s (I discovered it in the library once, and eventually managed to find it on ebay).

Full disclosure: haven't actually got further than page 2 because I am Like That...

but page 1 is an exercise where without looking at the keys you play each of the pairs of black notes all the way up the keyboard. This gets you used to knowing where everything is. The next exercises work on other things, so that by the time you get to the end you know how to approach a piece at sight. (Apparently )

Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist is a really useful set of exercises - including strength and agility in the little fingers (and despite the title intended to be used from very early learning). A friend of ours also had a book called Jazz Hanon, though I've not investigated that at all.

I'm actually Really Good at sightreading (used to get 20/21 in viola exams, and sightsing better than practically everyone I know) but my piano sightreading is woeful and I think it's because I don't know the instrument properly. I suspect that improvement in this area would also make me better at playing by ear.

When you're comfortable with the instrument, it's simple enough to get hold of sheet music for different styles.

I can now play the first four bars of Maple Leaf Rag...

I think it's because I don't know the instrument properly. I suspect that improvement in this area would also make me better at playing by ear.
I do feel that I don't really know the piano or where the keys are! I actually have the Hanon book but haven't got beyond the first few pages.

I’ve used an app called Simply Piano. Needs to be on a tablet, not your phone. It’s been amazing! Think it was around £60 for the year but that includes a huge library of piano music, and loads of guided lessons.

I'd pick some songs you want to play and work through them carefully with separate hands as pp suggested.

Or have you thought about changing style? Working your way through the jazz grades?

Practice for 30-60 minutes each day, at least five days a week but aim for every day. Really get to grips with your scales. If you're bored just going up and down then you can play them with different rhythm patterns or play e.g. CDEDEFEFGFGAGABABC. One of my teachers would have be start playing C major scale then C# major then D major etc. until I had done them all... then do the minors. Use a metronome to keep the speed consistent.

With your pieces you can learn each hand separately then put them together really slowly. I find sight reading is much harder on the piano than on other instruments. Use a metronome and start slower than you think and then increase your speed gradually until you're playing it all at the correct tempo. If you don't use a metronome then you will slow down in the hard bits. Don't be afraid to write all over your music to remind yourself of dynamics, accidentals. I prefer to write lightly in pencil which I then rub out as I get more to grips with the piece. At your level you need to really drill down on the hard parts of each piece. Practice the tricky bits over and over in isolation. You shouldn't be playing through the whole piece lots of times. Play it once, then work on the hard parts, then play it again once or twice.

Record yourself playing and listen to it critically. Things will leap out at you that you weren't even aware of while you were playing.

Do you have a book of exercises? If you have any problem areas (e.g. I struggle with staccato chords) the you can focus on those through exercises. If you want to improve your sight reading then buy an exam board sight reading book and work your way through it.

I am not at your level and on a different instrument so hope o can chip in on i can't pick out a time without the music in front of me

I have made some progress, although not much, but it made me chuffed with myself

Learn to listen as you play and try and play tunes you know really welll without the the notes...think happy birthday or Christmas carols , and try to learn to play simple pieces without the notes , pop songs that you know , or Folk tunes are good as they often repeat each section, so play once with the notes and then the second time without

Go back to basics and focus on practical playing rather than playing for pleasure. Get back to really focusing on reading and improve your skills before you go back to composing etc. If you’re a cheaty cheaty closes your eyes or look at the ceiling etc when playing, getting a key wrong isn’t a failure, its a learning opportunity. Then when your confidence has improved learn a few pieces for pleasure.

I’m grade 8, I was meant to be doing my DipABRSM this year

I play for around an hour a day, some is serious playing to pass my qualification, some is just playing for pleasure. If you have a day when you’re not feeling it then skip a day, for some people (me included) that works better than forcing yourself to carry on.

Thanks. I definitely feel that I need to go back to basics - and then jazz piano might be a good idea actually. Has anyone here done it?

Yes I attempted jazz piano in my late teens (having learnt classical piano from a young age). It's such a different discipline that to me it felt almost like starting again. Personally I think it's better to learn with a jazz piano teacher - for guidance and motivation. But if you're very self-motivated there's no harm in giving it a go.

I’m about grade 5/6 now, having taken up the piano again (I’d only ever passed grade 2) some years ago, after more decades than I care to mention here!

So I almost had to start again from scratch and my sight reading was virtually non existent. The tuner who came to sort out my new (old) piano said the way to go was just to get lots of music and just play it (or try to) without worrying about getting it right.

I bought several cheap 2nd hand books from abebooks or amazon. One graded series (Read and Play) was specifically for s/reading, starting with very easy, short pieces.

It took a while, but my S/R eventually improved dramatically. It’s IMO a question of developing instant short-cut connections between eyes/brain/fingers, which only comes with practice.

As for practising in general, after a while of working at it on my own, I found that I was doing it all wrong, just playing pieces all through over and over, making the same mistakes over and over. I belatedly learned that what I needed to do was find the optimum fingering, write it on in pencil, stick to it religiously, and then play any tricky bits repeatedly, but slowly.
Apparently 70 repeats ought to ram it into your muscle memory!

I’ve only ever learned 2 pieces entirely by heart, both with very regular rhythms and distinct sections - both were G5 exam pieces. I dare say it’s an age thing - I never had trouble as a child - but memorising anything at all ‘wandery’ is just beyond me now.

That's true about memorizing. I can remember pieces from when I was 13, but not what I was practising this morning!

I only work part time but still can't find time to practice every day.

When I do practice I try to do a solid 45 minutes - that's probably 4 or 5 times a week.

I don't always start with scales and arpeggios as I am no good with rigid regimes and get turned off by doing the same old stuff in the same order every time.

I am working towards Grade IV so need to practice my sight reading, so I use an exercise book called Improve Your Sight Reading and try and do 2 or 3 exercises from that in each session.

I have two "serious" pieces on the go at any given time but I also play other pieces for fun. I make sure they are of a grade that I am able to master and play through quite quickly, so that it sounds like I'm playing a decent tune after a few weeks of practice.

I agree with the discipline of going over the tricky bits at the start of each practice session, making notes on the page where you continually make mistakes, doing hands separately etc. Then playing through all the way comes later.

I cannot memorise anything to save my life! I am reconciled with always having to have music in front of me to be able to play, which makes me a bit sad but it's just a skill I can't acquire no matter how hard I try.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER (love your username btw it speaks to me) - how long has it taken you to go from G2 to your present level after taking piano up again?

It's taken me 2 years of weekly lessons just to get back to the standard I was when I gave up at 14 .

The thing is I always seem to end up with lots of half-finished pieces with bits that I can't play at all!

This makes me think a couple of things:

A) you need a teacher to motivate you and to help you work through the difficult bits

B) if you’re determined to go it alone, take a step back and play pieces that are 100% within your capability so that you can learn to play them REALLY well and enjoy playing them. There are pieces out there on the Grade 5 syllabus that will be played very differently by someone working towards Grade 5 vs someone of a higher standard learning the piece really well and thoroughly exploring every section and every phrase and really considering HOW to play every note rather than just getting a collection of elements ‘correct’: pitch, rhythm, articulation, dynamics.

Try and learn some easier pieces and take them up a notch basically.

1. Play every day
2. Pick up a new piece every week ( good for sight reading)
3. Theory knowledge helps : work through abrsm theory grade workbooks if you havent already
4. Skype lessons great suggestion
5. Scales scales scales.... Sorry, but true!

@Chicchicchicchiclana, it must have been about 5 years, but after so long it wasn’t from G2 standards, more like Grade zero! But I was newly retired and had the time.

After about a year of working on my own (I used the Carol Barratt books) I braved a weekly group class, local adult Ed, and went for about 4 years until other things, not least first Gdcs, meant that I missed a lot of lessons and stopped going. But I did move from the intermediate to the advanced class - I use the term loosely! - we ranged from about G3 to G8 standard, and one person was working for a teaching diploma.

I used to buy a lot of 2nd hand former ABRSM exam books with CDs, so that a) I knew how they were supposed to sound, and b) whether I liked them enough to bother with. But I remember when even the G2 pieces looked daunting. Never, ever thought I’d even be able to attempt G5 or 6 pieces.

I’ve never been brave enough to try a practical exam again, have considered for theory though.
Will v likely never get around to it now. I’ve been neglecting my piano lately, doing a lot of craft-y things during lockdown instead.
Must get back to it properly - there are several pieces I love which need a lot of polishing.

All best wishes.

OP Just wanted to let you know that you are not alone. Anyone in their late teens can pass grade 8 if they've had lessons for long enough (me included; started at four), but I have never had a proper grasp of the instrument. Can play most music plonked in manuscript form in front of my face, but if anyone asked me to play something spontaneously they'd get Debussy's premiere arabesque or something fiddly from The Piano...i.e. my grade 8 exam pieces.

Jazz seems a whole different impossible discipline.

Pick a song you like- any song- and try to play it.

I think I'm about a grade 4 in natural music ability

Wish they'd taught us chords rather than spending hours on the silent keyboard in preparation for the next exam.

I don't have a piano anymore so can only play at my parents' house, and I'm nowhere near as good as I used to be. I can play pretty well by ear (play woodwind mostly), but I'm lazy and I neglect my left hand a lot because I don't know how it should sound in the same way. I just have stock chords I play with it!

Can you get books that you play along with a CD? Those can be good fun for other instruments. I don't think it really matters so much if they're below your level. On my other instrument I have Grade 8, but some of the pieces I play for fun are grade 3 or 4 level.

Back at the piano, I find that if I'm my parents' for a few days and go through the Dozen a Day books it helps my fingers to remember what they're supposed to do, so maybe some exercises like that would help?

This thread makes me want to learn to play the piano .