Question about playing

[d353r7r47]

Does anyone have any advice for practicing? My problem is that, while I've been playing piano on and off for a good portion of my life, I haven't taken lessons in close to four years. I have problems with things like reading sheet music easily, but I can still work through songs enough to be able to play them. Should I try and start from the

Comments

[kamomil]

What do you mean by learning the basics?

I'd include playing scales in all the keys you know, and with as much difficulty as you have gotten up to in the past (eg. 2 octaves both hands, etc) and I recommend Hanon exercises.

I'd work through songs too. Do you mean learn new ones or play ones you already know? I think that the first one would help more with practicing reading sheet music more than the latter.

I find that after a time of not playing, what happens is both my fingers disobey my brain, and I forget how to play specific songs.

[d353r7r47]

Thanks for the advice! I was able to find the first 33 Hanon exercises online, so I'll have to try them next time I go home.

Thanks again!

[kamomil]

I think I only ever played the first 2 or 3 exercises, but I think they're great for getting your fingers moving.

[lsur]

I would do some technical exercises but then work on music you will be performing as that's what counts.

[d353r7r47]

Thanks for the advice!

[por_que_no]

Just a caveat to the Hanon suggestion--if you're not working with someone who can really supervise your technique, you do risk injury by practicing the Hanon with bad technique. That's why I'm so glad I blew off practicing those things with my first teacher (who had no idea how to teach technique)...I might have hurt myself permanently. I actually didn't get a foundation in good technique until I was 18 and nearly in college :o

[d353r7r47]

Is it possible to learn the right techniques by yourself, or are there other exercises you would suggest?
My problem is that I used to have at least some technique foundation, but I haven't had lessons in years and I just don't remember.

[calmlyrestless]

How you want to go about this depends on what kind of things you want to develop. My suggestions on what to develop

[d353r7r47]

My only problem with the third suggestion is that the piano music I often like to listen to is a lot more complicated than I can hope to play anytime soon. There is one song that I like that I learned how to play recently (Dark Night of the Soul by Philip Wesley), but it wasn't really all that complicated. One song that I adore, that I'd love to be able to play is Horowitz's version of the Danse Macabre, but that one is really out of reach.

Thanks for the help!

[calmlyrestless]

I didn't mean specific songs, just the general type/style of music. Even if you can't play Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata, you would have still learned something from listening to it, and would be able to apply that to a simpler piece like Beethoven's Op.49. No.1 for example.

Oh, and since we're on the topic of difficulty, if you're gonna go the classical music way there are lots of perfectly good music written for didactic/teaching purposes. I don't suggest Hanon and Czerny because they're not much more than finger exercises, and don't help much with developing your ear for music. Look up stuff like these pieces:

Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias
Schumann's Album for the Young.
Clementi's Op.36 Sonatinas
and probably Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, though some might be quite advanced.