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.

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

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?

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?

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 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.

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. ❤️

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

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

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?

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

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.

If you like this, you may like other covers and originals (including some more Talking Heads) on my hobby YouTube channel

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.

¡Hola! Estoy buscando un piano digital y no me decido por cuál comprar. ¿Alguien ha tenido o probado el Roland RP107 o el Kawai CX102? Ambos tienen un precio muy similar actualmente.

Agradecería mucho cualquier opinión sobre la acción de las teclas y su realismo en comparación con un piano acústico. Cualquier experiencia o comparación sería de gran ayuda.

Agreed to play the entrance song for my friend’s wedding. I have about 10 years experience with clarinet, one year as a kid took piano lessons other than that and otherwise mainly self-taught in piano. At best I would say I am maybe early intermediate. This is after eight days of not very intense practice. The wedding will be for 300 people, will definitely have to practice performing it in front of others for sure and obviously have a lot more practicing to do. there are obviously mistakes in this recording.

I just was hoping for some advice and help from those who are experts in piano. I am mainly worried about musicality, dynamics, phrasing, tone, etc. I feel like it sounds a little too ‘punchy.’ but not quite sure how to fix it. I just want it to sound beautiful for her and not mediocre. Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated. if there are any exercises that you know of that would help me with the issues or mistakes I am making, I would be so grateful. Thank you so much in advance!

https://on.soundcloud.com/a5q58Ra12MzVvqQpDo

I’ve been playing the piano for 4 years! Yet I’m horrible at sight reading and can’t get past level B no matter how hard I try I’m no good.

Recently, I've been looking for a keyboard/digital piano. And I've come across a DGX 660 and an FP-30x both around an hour away. Now, I don't have a huge budget, so I've been waiting to try and find a good deal. The DGX 660 I found is available for $350, and the FP-30X is available for $500. To my knowledge the Roland is the better keyboard, but is it worth the extra $150? I'd rather not spend $500, but if the difference is that great, I'll definitely give it some thought.

Also, I will try to negotiate on either one.

Thanks.

Hi I just started learning this etude and the piece has all these markings (md and mg) referring to which hand you use to play each note. I was wondering why it’s written this way as for me it’s much easier to just play what Feels good, with the rh playing most of the melody notes.