Question:
I am an adult (34yo) who started learning piano about 2 years ago, I have been practicing 2 hours a day for the past 6 months now, and see a teacher one hour every week.
I did a lot of progress, but still feel I am not doing something right. I think I am blocked because I can't read fast enough, so my tempo follows my reading speed, especially if I play something with a lot of chords...
otherwise I am practicing on Bach inventions, some shumann kinderseen etc.
When I practice I tend to practice the music over and over, and I think my reading progress because of that, but i am not sure about my music.
I went through the web, and see some people learn by heart scores, some repeat over and over the same bar 50 times... I understant the good in all of that, but my goal is to be able to play music from the score
I feel a bit stuck and frustrated, and starting to think i don't practice right and that all the hours i put are not done the right way..
any comment ???
Answer:
I spoke to my teacher about this, though, and she told me that this is very common with adults. We've heard great piano music all our lives. We know that there are teenagers decades younger than we who can play seemingly without effort, and we find ourselves champing at the bit that the progress is not coming quicker. We believe that we should be there already. However, she explained to me that, were I to have started at the age of 5 and progressed to where I am now by the age of 8, I and my family would probably be thrilled. Kids don't have the kind of life and listening experience that adults do, and consequently don't have the urgency that adults seem to suffer from. As to reaching the "next level," what is it really? We cannot measure this kind of progress in specific increments, like walking up the steps--now I'm on the first step, now the third. It's more or less like walking up a very gentle slope. You walk and walk and walk, seeming to make no progress at all, wondering why you ever embarked on such a stupid journey, and then you turn a corner and find yourself hundreds of feet above where you started, and you can't even remember going up. I know that in 3 years I have made a great deal of progress. No, I don't have the time to practice 2 hours a day, more like 30 minutes to an hour, but I'm not sure 2 hours would benefit me much anyway. I find that, after a while, what seemed mildly challenging at the beginning has become maddeningly frustrating at the end because I'm trying and focusing too hard, and then I go away from the piano, not satisfied with a good session, but burned out and dreading the next. Finally, where do you see yourself going? Do you want to play with an orchestra? Do you want to play solo piano in a high-end cocktail lounge or on a ship? I know that, as an adult learner, those dreams are probably forever beyond my reach. My goal (laugh if you like) is to sit at the piano with the Reader's Digest book of Christmas Carols in front of me, turn to any page, and play the piece well enough at sight (after much practice) that people say, "Hey, I didn't know you could play that well. Play another."
