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| Author | Topic: late bloomers |
suzyq
Registered User
Registered:
11/18/2004 | posted: 4/4/2005 at 10:23:27 AM ET
To our newest member, welcome to the fold.
I admire your efforts to teach yourself, but please find a good teacher - it ain't easy but a good teacher will help you progress.
I only got halfway through the 2nd vol. of Mikrokosmos - and found it difficult because I had a hard time "hearing" it and if I can't hear the music it makes it harder for me to learn and I have a good ear for music. The teacher I had at the time offered no corrections or instruction of any kind, so I never knew whether I was right or wrong. He once asked what I thought of the music and I said it sounded like a bunch of misplaced notes. Have since left him and am now with a great teacher.
The best of everything in learning to play and keep us up-to-date on how things are going for you.
| Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
63.170.71.x
| posted: 4/4/2005 at 11:34:28 AM ET
Look for information on the French composer Le Petomane.
|  Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 4/5/2005 at 1:14:47 AM ET
quote:
Music is a language that many people totally share from all over the world like.
Far out..You mean, like, like they do with English..?
Wow, that is so cool...
| Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
159.134.183.x
| posted: 4/5/2005 at 8:58:27 AM ET
Thanks, SUZYQ, for your welcome. I know I should get myself a teacher, but I am used to teaching myself things and I am very aware of how much slower everything seems to be with my efforts on the piano than I remember it being with other things I have learnt. I only discovered this site yesterday and it is very helpful. I was browsing through some of the other questions and I noticed that this question about reading music seems to be a big issue so it is not just a matter of age. When I manage to play something at approximately the right speed I often wonder if it is because I am remembering that particular fragment or if my brain is indeed slowly and laboriously rewiring itself to be able to convert the marks on the page into sounds. Perhaps 'reading' music is the wrong term because it leads us to think we will be able to read the piece with as little conscious effort as reading a piece of prose. I started driving lessons last year (temporarily abandoned due to lack of car to practise in) and had the same problem with slow physical coordination. Thanks anyway.
| suzyq
Registered User
Registered:
11/18/2004 | posted: 4/5/2005 at 3:15:57 PM ET
Learning to play the piano is a slow process - sight reading, tempo, fingering and so many others things factor into the learning process and a good teacher is a Godsend at least for me. I'm not very good at teaching myself anything, so I give you credit for being able to do so.
Keep in touch.
| suzyq
Registered User
Registered:
11/18/2004 | posted: 4/7/2005 at 9:57:26 PM ET
My teacher told me once that she admired my persistence, that most adults quit after one year saying that it's too hard and here I am about 3 yrs. later still at it. I've always wanted to learn to play.
I'm trying to pull out of a "slump" if that's what it's called. Nothing seems to work it's as if I've reached a certain level and there I'll stay, which logically makes no sense. Many years ago, my dance teachers used to say that sometimes we reach a plateau and everything just seems to come to a halt, you just have to stay with it and in the end you will see improvement. Is it the same with music?
Are there any beginning adult piano students out there with suggestions. ? 
|  toonz
Registered User
From:
Winnipeg, Canada
Registered:
2/20/2005 | posted: 4/8/2005 at 12:26:20 AM ET
Hey Suzyq,
Sorry to hear you are in a "slump". And wouldn't you know it, I am on a "high" right now. The lights are going on all over the place and I can do no wrong.
I have come to visualize my music education as being a series of highs and lows. A sort of wavy line, if you will, that slants upwards. This upward slant represents the resulting improvement. Perhaps if you expect and accept that there are going to be good days and bad days (or weeks) along the way, those hard times won't be so hard to bear. I am pretty darn sure, without even having spoken to others about this, that this is normal and to be expected. Perhaps you just need to be creative in the way you deal with your slumps. Maybe go back and look at a piece from long ago that you were struggling with and thought you would NEVER get. Maybe seeing that yes, it took a while but that you DID get it will help a little.
Carry on my dear. Don't worry, the storm shall pass!
| Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 4/8/2005 at 4:30:04 AM ET
..Storm..? Huh..? A storm, ladies, is discovering the Board Of Studies (drumroll, please) Inspectors are coming the first day of next term, as we at the school I teach at discovered yesterday  ..
I think it comes back to too much form and not enough variety, Suzyq. The big trap with following a set course with a teacher is that suddenly the spark goes and the fun goes with it. Why not just go out and buy a sheet of music you really like, in a good key, not syncopated, without a lot of accidentals, and try to play it?
Better still, tell your teacher you want to improvise, for a change.
Good Heavens, the city you live in produced some of the greatest modern musicians who have ever lived, and most of them improvised a different version of a piece each time they played it..Gershwin, for example.
Toonz says: ""Maybe go back and look at a piece from long ago that you were struggling with and thought you would NEVER get."" and that is a great idea, but I still think a bit more Suzyq and a lot less Teacher imput is the secret to break out of the slump.
Good luck with it.
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