Any pianists Here? I have questions.

[Nemra]

Can describe your journey of learning piano?

How did you learn it?

Is there one right way or is it more complicated?

What methods of learning have you discovered on the way?

I haven't gone to any school to learn piano, but I have had vocal lessons and I know little bit of music theory. And when I stopped going to the lessons, I started learning playing piano by just mimicking some pianist hands on YouTube (where and when to put my fingers). Right now, my hands are flexible enough to play it. I intuitively understand how rythm works (When I learn to play some music, I discover the rythm very fast). Recently, I have found courses, books and apps to learn about music theory.

What am I missing? What do I have to do to be professional at it. It's a hobby, but I want to have more deep understanding of it.

Thanks in Advance.

[Rigel]

If you want to get to professional level of expertise you should seek out lessons with a teacher in person. There is no limit to how much you can learn it's only a question of how far you want to take it.

Theory is very useful dont be afraid of it and your ear is more important than the specific motions of your instrument. Your hands only purpose should be to execute what's in your ear. 

 

[integral]

Practice all 3 daily.

1. Study Theory and practice that theory.
2. Practice performance: Executing a piece accurately and well. Focus on the quality of the sound.
3. Practice composition and improvisation. That includes to make a song learned your own, explore it.
4. Practice listing to music a playing it by ear. 

Try to do all 3 daily and you will rapidly improve and build a interconnected brain that feels comfortable at the piano. All 3 steps are vital. If you miss step 3 for example you'll be unable to use anything you've learned and will only be good are repeating the songs memorized. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by integral

[Nemra]

It's not that I don't feel the songs that I play. Also, whenever I learn a song, I immediately start to change it and play it other ways. As I'm starting to learn music theory, I noticed that I have been discovering things that are already discovered before. That really inspires me to learn piano.

But, thanks for the answers.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Understander

[Nemra]

On 3/22/2023 at 3:48 PM, Rigel said:

If you want to get to professional level of expertise you should seek out lessons with a teacher in person.

Can you give the pros and cons studying with a teacher vs doing it alone?

@integral

I need to work on your first and second points.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Understander

[Snader]

I started practising piano few years ago. First I learned to play individual pieces through synthesia. Then I added some improvisation on my own. Soon I wanted to start learning sheet music and understand theory, so I purchased an app. The app has been helpful on learning the basics of sheet music, chords, scales, etc. Now I'm starting to put in hours to practise harder sheets while also putting in reps on my technical skills.

I have more than enough tools and tips to improve for a long time, with only myself to slow me down. I might need help from a professional when I start moving into the territory of more advanced classical pieces, but that's still pretty long way ahead. 

These few years have been a bit bumpy and busy in my life, so haven't been able to be consistent and develop a daily habit, but am currently in a flow with building a schedule and developing consistency.

The key is consistency with clarity of your motivations. If I were you I wouldn't waste my money on lessons just yet. I'd say that at least the first 1000 hours of piano is 99% of pretty straight forward repetition and 1% of theory that is pretty easy and quick to grasp.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Snader

[Nemra]

@Snader  we have similar learning paths.

On 3/24/2023 at 2:46 PM, Snader said:

The key is consistency with clarity of your motivations.

Yeah, I need to be more consistent. I'm doing lot of things and sometimes it's hard to know how much time I need to spend on it.