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Improving at Playing Piano

Started by braix, April 14, 2015, 06:25:53 PM

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braix

I took piano lessons but had to quit last September because I had to move. I can't continue my lessons here because they're too expensive.
So my question is, how can I practice by myself and learn how to play more advanced pieces? I'm kind of stuck right now at this level and though I want to improve, just casually playing piano doesn't seem like it'll help me much.
I'd appreciate any help :I
Quote from: MaestroUGC on August 19, 2015, 12:22:27 PM
Braixen is a wonderful [insert gender] with beautiful [corresponding gender trait] and is just the darlingest at [stereotypical activity typically associated with said gender] you ever saw.

Latios212

I don't know if I'm qualified to answer this because I have an unusual experience with piano, but it depends on what you want to do eventually - play NSM sheets or play classical music?

I spent a few years in elementary/middle school taking lessons; never learning a whole lot about classical music and music theory - just how to read mostly. I was pretty rusty back in 2013 after a few years of not taking lessons. I pulled up a bunch of sheets that ranged from I can play this, maybe...? to DID I JUST SEE WHAT I THINK I SAW???

But playing NSM sheets for the past 20 months has made me a lot better at playing NSM sheets, at the very least. Sight reading, too. I find myself more self-motivated since these are songs I grew up hearing. In my experience, just find something you want to play and learn to play it. (Bespinben's "Memories Returned" took me weeks but was sooooo worth it.)
My arrangements and YouTube channel!

Quote from: Dudeman on February 22, 2016, 10:16:37 AM
who needs education when you can have WAIFUS!!!!!

Spoiler
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turtle

mikey

yeah playing music you WANT to play is better
unmotivated

Pianist Da Sootopolis

What are you currently playing?
Essentially, the key is to keep studying by yourself, and try and get more advanced pianists to see your work, so they can offer you interpretive and technical advice.
I'm by no means an expert, but if you want, PM me and I'll offer what I can in terms of repertoire recommendations and technical advice.
And as Latios said, it's highly dependent on what you want to play in the future. NSM sheets and classical music are two very different things, though they often lend nicely to each other.
Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me!
what is shitpost

SlowPokemon

My biggest advice is practice sight reading. Even if it's just easy pieces for a while, becoming good at sight reading will make you a better pianist in ways you wouldn't even believe.
Quote from: Tobbeh99 on April 21, 2016, 02:56:11 PM
Fuck logic, that shit is boring, lame and does not always support my opinions.

Pianist Da Sootopolis

Quote from: SlowPokemon on April 14, 2015, 07:32:23 PMMy biggest advice is practice sight reading. Even if it's just easy pieces for a while, becoming good at sight reading will make you a better pianist in ways you wouldn't even believe.
This is spot on. Many pieces that are "hard" to play are actually within our technical capabilities, it's just a mental blockage with a score.
And, to practice sight reading, don't get exercise books or anything- play music! It trains you much better than exercise books.
what is shitpost

Raymondbl

I regularly practiced piano 8 - 10 hours a day until recently, when I switched focus to computer programming. At that time, I also cancelled my lessons.

So, I've had to teach myself. That's the ultimate goal of a teacher - to get you to the point where you can teach yourself. And the key to being able to teach yourself is having a set of basic principles as a lifetime guide. For example, these are some of my guiding principles in the technique department:

1. Individual fingers should use the shortest path into the key, i.e. there should be no "pulling" or perpendicular motion, but completely vertical finger motion, going downwards. (This is difficult because there are two circles working against each other - fingers naturally pivot around the knuckles away from the keys, and keys naturally pivot inside the piano away from the fingers in a circular fashion). Exceptions to this are made for repeatedly striking the same key quickly, as in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 or La Campanella.

2. The wrist should be flexible and free of tension. Any force you need will come from the weight of your arms.

3. The thumbs are not fingers, and when they need to press keys, they should not be moved very much. Instead, the wrists/arms should do most of the moving for them. This means that when playing scales, you should not "tuck" your thumb under, because that destroys form.

4. Grand piano keys have two stages, and you don't need to hit the bottom of the key for sound to come out. The speed with which we strike the keys and the weight/momentum we put into them are both variables which influence the tone: so we have fast but shallow (light tone), fast and deep, (percussive tone), slow and shallow (pale tone), and slow and deep (rich-ish tone). The first variant, fast but shallow, is the most difficult. We should pieces so we can play them without hitting key bottom.

The only guiding principle I have in the musicality department:

1. Imagine how I would phrase the music if I were speaking it instead of playing it.

That's a start.

The purpose of life is to survive.  Deal with it.

Bubbles

I've probably said this before, but quitting lessons is what made me a better player overall. I never practiced much of what I was supposed to anyway, so I wasn't getting anything out of lessons except a drop in $$$. I sight read almost everything mainly because I didn't have the patience (or experience really) to sit down and actually look at a piece. I took every piece note by note, sight reading until I had the majority of it muscle memorized. I've started lessons back up again because I have literally zero knowledge in anything theory related and that's super important. I'm terrible with fingerings too lol

Basically play what you enjoy but stay somewhat disciplined. I really wish I could go back to when I first quit lessons to tell myself to actually give half a shit about scales and other theory-like stuff. Dropping lessons is far from dropping in your playing skills!

braix

Quote from: MaestroUGC on August 19, 2015, 12:22:27 PM
Braixen is a wonderful [insert gender] with beautiful [corresponding gender trait] and is just the darlingest at [stereotypical activity typically associated with said gender] you ever saw.

Pianist Da Sootopolis

Quote from: Raymondbl on April 14, 2015, 08:06:07 PMThe only guiding principle I have in the musicality department:

1. Imagine how I would phrase the music if I were speaking it instead of playing it.
I realize that this is already mostly answered, but I would also add one thing.
In classical music, a piece (especially in romantic literature) is largely made beautiful by the using of phrasing; that is, distinguishing musical ideas. But one musical idea should also lead into or come out of another- my teacher's teacher, in London, would say "Ugh, Booring" when someone just played through two or more phrases without dynamic variance.
At the end of a phrase, you can either crescendo into the next phrase, or die away (decrescendo, or, more accurately, smorzando). Usually, dying away is used often in Chopin when approaching cadences, and such.. Then you get into different interpretations of which is appropriate, and that's a whole different ballpark, but you can use those as general guidelines.
Hope this helped!
what is shitpost

MaestroUGC

I just pretend to know what I'm doing. I actually have no great love for the piano. It seems to work.
Try to do everything; you're bound to succeed with at least one.

Raymondbl

#11
Quote from: Pianist Da Sootopolis on April 15, 2015, 05:40:17 PMI realize that this is already mostly answered, but I would also add one thing.
In classical music, a piece (especially in romantic literature) is largely made beautiful by the using of phrasing; that is, distinguishing musical ideas. But one musical idea should also lead into or come out of another- my teacher's teacher, in London, would say "Ugh, Booring" when someone just played through two or more phrases without dynamic variance.
At the end of a phrase, you can either crescendo into the next phrase, or die away (decrescendo, or, more accurately, smorzando). Usually, dying away is used often in Chopin when approaching cadences, and such.. Then you get into different interpretations of which is appropriate, and that's a whole different ballpark, but you can use those as general guidelines.
Hope this helped!
I strongly dislike point of view because it tends to be formulaic. You can't "use" a "dying away." You can't decide for yourself what is "appropriate." Instead, the music is just a message that you have to relay.

When you speak, you don't consciously decide or debate to use a certain inflection, do you? No - it comes naturally. The same can be said with music. The difference between speaking and playing an instrument, however, is that we can easily translate our feelings into our speech, but not so much into music.
Although we might feel the message of music a certain way, it's technically difficult to translate that message through your fingers and into the music.
This is because we're "practicing" speech pretty much all day, every day, but we practice music only rarely. Practice reinforces the technical relationship between our minds and the instrument so we can express ourselves more accurately.

Quote from: MaestroUGC on April 15, 2015, 05:44:46 PMI just pretend to know what I'm doing. I actually have no great love for the piano. It seems to work.
We should have a tinychat improvisation battle sometime in the summer.
The purpose of life is to survive.  Deal with it.

SlowPokemon

Quote from: Pianist Da Sootopolis on April 15, 2015, 05:40:17 PMI realize that this is already mostly answered, but I would also add one thing.
In classical music, a piece (especially in romantic literature) is largely made beautiful by the using of phrasing; that is, distinguishing musical ideas. But one musical idea should also lead into or come out of another- my teacher's teacher, in London, would say "Ugh, Booring" when someone just played through two or more phrases without dynamic variance.
At the end of a phrase, you can either crescendo into the next phrase, or die away (decrescendo, or, more accurately, smorzando). Usually, dying away is used often in Chopin when approaching cadences, and such.. Then you get into different interpretations of which is appropriate, and that's a whole different ballpark, but you can use those as general guidelines.
Hope this helped!

Don't confuse him. This is way too complicated a concept for him to think about let alone implement at this point.
Quote from: Tobbeh99 on April 21, 2016, 02:56:11 PM
Fuck logic, that shit is boring, lame and does not always support my opinions.

Xaoz

Quote from: SlowPokemon on April 16, 2015, 02:04:36 AMDon't confuse him. This is way too complicated a concept for him to think about let alone implement at this point.

I play for not even half a year and I am pretty sure Braixen has played for a longer period of time. So how on earth is the stuff Pianist Da Sootopolis said confusing, complicated or hard to implement at this point?
Braixen clearly asked about advanced pieces.

Quote from: Bespinben on February 03, 2015, 07:49:27 PM
I give the Bespin seal of approval to Xaoz's critique (^o^)=b

braix

Quote from: MaestroUGC on August 19, 2015, 12:22:27 PM
Braixen is a wonderful [insert gender] with beautiful [corresponding gender trait] and is just the darlingest at [stereotypical activity typically associated with said gender] you ever saw.