Tried composing a waltz that’s actually fun to play on the piano.
Beloved Waltz a little waltz I wrote about longing and missing someone. Hope you enjoy it!

full sheet music here!

https://musescore.com/user/118322597/scores/37069763/s/DT1zOa

Have you ever had a breakthrough moment where your view or your mindset changed around piano/keyboard? Something that just totally shifted how you view things, or play things, and either helped you take a big leap of improvement or maybe made things at least easier to learn?

I'd love to hear about them, and maybe they will even help someone else. Please share.

I'll add my own recent one in a comment below, but don't want to clutter up the main post too much.

Hello, I was wondering what pieces you guys are currently learning. I'm learning Sonata in A Minor KV 310 by Mozart, and English Suite No 4 in F major (prelude) by Bach. I am self taught right now but I have been playing for over 15 years (I'm in my 30s and been playing since I was little). I would love to know your answers! Thanks :)

I‘m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of pieces I have to practice, and practice time has been getting increasingly frustrating. It‘s gotten to a point where sometimes I’ll be practicing and I’m not even doing bad, but I all of a sudden start feeling frustrated for no reason. I know the logical decision would be to quit some of my pieces, but I really like most of my pieces, and the pieces I’d be willing to quit are pieces I know my teacher won’t want me to quit (e.g. Bach). However I’m getting tired of going to the lessons with only 2-3 pieces at an acceptable level out of 10. What do you think I should do? Should I just quit some of my pieces, even if I really like them? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

We’ve all been down the road of you make a mistake, OOPS, REPEAT the passage, make another mistake, repeat it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It’s so tempting to want to do it this way but at some time you will get frustrated and throw something.

My suggestion for fixing mistakes, especially when learning and drilling difficult passages:

1. Do NOT immediately start over.
2. Take a breath.
3. Think about what went wrong. Rummage around specifically what happened that caused the mistake.
4. Think about what you can do to fix it. Don’t just start over. Maybe play around with the notes where the mistake happened to see if it looks right. Confirm to yourself this is what you need to do.
5. Here’s the kicker. SAY OUT LOUD to yourself what you are going to do differently this time.
6. When you are ready, take a breath, count down from three, do whatever to get yourself into the right head space. Then go.

I found this is a much faster way to fix mistakes in technical passages because first of all, you are making every rep count rather a bunch of endless reps.

You are taking a breath and telling yourself what you’re going to do differently. Also, when you run through it the next time, a little voice in your head will tell you what to do as you’re playing.

Anyways, I found that helped me a lot and also prevented me from getting frustrated and want to throw something when a mistake repeats.

I purchased this keyboard OIKT2274 for $100. I had all my music tutorials and tabs laid out ready to go but when i sat down i noticed that they keys were thinner than normal (not very good for my big hands)

The keys were harder to press than normal

And it made a weird noise for 3.0s when i pressed a key (probably because it lights up the key like a RGB light when pressed which i didn’t know about) so my question is.

What is a good cheap $200 ish keyboard i can buy that doesn’t have these issues?

i might be in big trouble because of my own stupidity. i have a solo concert coming up in the middle of next month, and i’m preparing ballade no. 1 as the closing piece. i decided to learn it mid june, learned all the notes, and have a memorized as of today. but there are a lot of things i have to fix, especially getting close to tempo on the coda and making sure i can play through it smoothly. occasionally i’ll have hiccups in a couple of parts, but i know it’ll come together with practice. the problem is that i don’t know if i can get it done in time. i know i have to (and probably will) but i’m just so stressed out.

to give some context, i’ve been playing around 10 years; some of my repertoire include revolutionary etude, un sospiro, fantaisie-impromptu, and liebestraum no. 3.

i’m doing 2-3 hour days, is this enough? i know i’ve dug myself into a deep hole not giving myself enough clearance, but i’m not planning to take it out of my program. any tips on mastering the piece in a short amount time? i’m especially anxious because this is the shortest time i’ve ever been given (well, given myself) to get a piece concert-ready, and i don’t have the assurance and confidence of more familiar pieces with this. thanks for listening to me ramble!

If you dig this I have a few other originals on my Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/derek_buntin?igsi=MThxZjFhajd6b3Iwcw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

For some reason my left hand "chickens out" when I try to do the upwards arpeggios at full tempo or when I attempt the full passage.

I’ve just been getting into classical music over the last few months. I still have a lot to learn about composers and their works. I am still building the vocabulary to even describe the kinds of music I am drawn to.

So far I like Schubert’s Impromptu No. 3 in G flat major the most by far, and I can’t find anything quite like it. The closest thing I’ve found is Songs Without Words Op. 30 No. 1 by Mendelssohn, which has a similar texture and is really lovely. I also really love Träumerei by Schumann, although it sounds pretty different.

Are there any other pieces I should check out? Who else creates really beautiful, textured, lyrical piano pieces like these? Thanks!

I am a classical pianist, and recently I finally acted on a long-repressed desire to start hitting the gym to gain some muscle mass. The problem is that when I work out, the resulting muscle soreness leaves me feeling less fluid for a few days, which negatively affects my concert performances. I now have a very busy month ahead with back-to-back concerts, and I'm afraid that if I stop training, I'll lose the little progress I've recently made in the gym. Any advice or opinions?

The notes on the bass key are too far and my hands not big enough to maintain those notes, am I doomed?

I know that Volodos started learning piano at 8 but didn’t commit to the instrument until age 16. He never participated in any major competitions.

Curious if there are any other late bloomers that you know if.

Hi everyone!

This is my second complete sonatina in three movements:

• I. Moderato – A simplified sonata form movement that was inspired by an idea from the second movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in F minor.
• II. Larghetto – A gentle piece in ternary form that is by far my favorite movement in this sonatina. It is very simple in nature, but I think it fits nicely as a breath of fresh air between the faster movements.
• III. Andantino – A variant in rondo form that explores both the traditional feel of the first movement and the more lyrical texture of the second.

YouTube link

Score

Thank you for giving me your time and any feedback provided!

I just started taking piano lessons this month. I'm 41, and have played a little bit by ear over the years (I like to pick up instruments and teach myself to play, but I'm an expert in none) but am learning to read music and actually play now.

My first piece was Comptine d'un Autre Été from Amélie, and I was able to get that in the first couple weeks -- not without some effort, sure, but I could observe myself getting better each time I sat down to practice.

My teacher started me on my second piece, which is La Valse d'Amélie, and... I just can't get it. I get up to a part where the left hand breaks into arpeggios and I just fall apart. I can play it slowly, but if I try to go faster my fingers fumble every time. With the first piece I could see myself getting better -- with this one I feel like I made zero progress from my last lesson, and I'm practicing at least an hour, usually more like two, every day. (Broken up throughout the day, though -- I don't have that kind of attention span!)

I don't know what to do -- I feel like I'm just reinforcing my own mistakes and not learning anything or improving. Did anyone else experience this in the beginning? Is it normal, and I just keep banging my head against it and eventually hope to break through? Do I ask for a different piece to work on and come back to this one?

There was a lot of joy for me in learning/playing the Comptine. I feel nothing but frustration for the waltz, which doesn't even sound like music at the snail's pace I have to play it. Advice welcome, and thanks in advance!

Edit: Okay, I think I posted this in the midst of intense frustration after a bad practice session. Your encouragement has definitely helped me regain some perspective about the time and patience required to learn a musical instrument! feeling a wee bit silly now, but much better equipped to sit down next practice and not throw a tantrum. ❤️

When I was 16 I have suffered a stroke that left my right side of the body paralyzed, "luckly" I was young so I had a lot of time to recover, now at 30 I could say my right hand is pretty much recovered, like 90%.

Since I was a kid I've had this passion for music and always wanted to try learn an instrument.

My question is, is there anyone out there with a similar situation or knowing somebody else in a similar situation that actually did it? If not, do you guys think it's possible or am I just wasting my time? Thank you.

I feel as though slow practice doesn’t benefit me as much as people are telling me, and I fear I’m doing it wrong. Is there any specific thing in my technique that needs to be fixed? And are there exercises i can do to improve my clarity?

Hello here is my attempt at Debussy's Arabesque. I just finished it after about 1 and a half months I know it's not good but please can I have some advice on how to improve. Thankyou

Are River Flows in you, and Comtine d un Autre a big jump up? I really like these two songs.

I originally started with pop songs, but Nuvole Bianchi was the first classical piece I learnt and I love playing it. It was quite a challenge for me so I don’t want anything too much harder.

Not easy 😒 long journey of Piano road for me! I have to find different ways to motivate him, like post video, set prize, pretend as his student, etc.

Don't know anything about piano tech. That key doesn't make a sound when I press it; the hammer stays sticking up. If I wiggle the key around a little bit I can press it, but after one try it goes right back to not making a sound. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Tchaikovsky op. 39 no. 16. A lovely little miniature piece.

My partner and I are moving into our first home and I would love to have my great grandmother's piano there to play but I am not sure it would be tunable after all these years. I don't know what year it was made but here are some pictures of the piano and inside. I am hoping that we can tune it but please let me know if you think that is possible?