90 second lock in

Hi 👋🏻

Recently I've been practicing this part of Rach 3 and it was very rewarding; it fits under your hands better than I expected. I'd love to hear any advice to improve my performance!

Hope you enjoy it 🎹

This the most recent thing I recorded for fun (all the other recordings are years old). I just want to see comments on my technique

The piece is most likely a bit too hard for me at the moment but I can’t stop listening to it. I feel like it’s such a perfect piece and was wondering if anyone else had this love for the piece and I would like to hear what others interpretations of the piece are? The sonata’s themes have always stuck out to me to appear more as distinct characters more then any other piece I’ve ever listened to! Does anyone else agree? What characters do you think the different themes represent?

I grew up playing this piano at my home church. They are getting a new piano and reached out about giving the Baldwin a new home. It's a big instrument for the room, but we made it fit! I spent way too many hours to count practicing on this instrument and it has always been one of my favorite pianos. It's a dream come true to have it as my personal piano in my house!

Hi fellow pianists!

I am an intermediate/advanced player looking for a long term solution. However, my circumstances are a bit unusual. My new home's primary heat source is a combination of in-floor heating and a wood stove. I'm concerned that my original plan of purchasing an acoustic console/studio upright is no longer feasible due to the somewhat extreme fluctuations in humidity from summer to winter months.

My desire for an acoustic piano is mostly driven by the sound quality, since I find most digital pianos to sound a bit dull/lacking in resonance.

I would love to hear your thoughts and experience with an acoustic in a wood stove environment, or with digital/hybrid pianos that have comparable/competitive sound quality. Any and all thoughts/anecdotes are welcome!

hello im 41 and i played fur elise, can someone please give an analysis, thanks

The piece is Souvenir de Porto Rico. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to make a post asking for critique, but not today. I just play for fun, and MAN this piece is fun!

It's been about a decade since I last took piano lessons, and I feel like my playing stagnated a lot, so I was really proud of myself for learning this piece all by myself! It came up as one of many pieces we studied in music history class, and I fell in love with it when I first heard it, and thought "I could probably play this!" And then when I listened to the rest of it, I thought "alright maybe not...sounds way too hard" but it never left my head, and after a few years I decided screw it, I might as well just try it. And sure enough, this is where I am now, playing the part that made me think it was too hard! I know there's still a lot of room for improvement, but the progress I made to get to this point was huge for me. I can get so frustrated and discouraged sometimes while trying to learn a new piece, but the satisfaction of finally being able to play it is sooo worth it, and learning this piece was a good reminder of that :)

Ive been playing for almost 20 years, when I was at music school I remember learning so many pieces for various recitals/exams/comps etc. Memorisation was something I never even worked on because it came so naturally and effortlessly. Perhaps it was cause I am a lousy page turner so there was the extra incentive to memorise.. but compared to now it feels terrible. I can be working on a piece for an entire week and still need the music for the first page, I may know the first few bars but then I abruptly stop because I forgot the rest.

I find that I have to have many anchors while I’m playing to even have a chance at playing without the score. “ok this passage is in F and we transition to Cmaj then theres a dom7 followed by a scale run in G” this is the kind of thinking that goes through my head as I’m playing and I feel it kills the enjoyment because Im not really listening to myself in the moment. I don’t know if its because of my age or the fact I have largely transitioned to 100% reading music off my iPad (much easier to swipe than turning a physical page) that the need for memorisation just isn’t there anymore and I have lost the skill?? I’d love to hear anecdotes from other pianists if they have noticed something similar.

6 years ago is when I performed at my last recital. I played 40 mins worth of music completley from memory. I genuinely don’t think I would be able to do this now.

Super Mario World Athletic Theme, never gets old to mess around with. Actually recorded this one for a friend, but figured I'll post here too. Super sloppy and poor quality along with a cheap keyboard sound, but figured some may enjoy regardless. One of the best pieces of music from all of Mario, IMO. I tune this keyboard to 422hz tonic for specific reasons, just to make aware in case that confuses anyone's brain.

It's been a very long time since I've done a live performance, so reassurance (I'm rather nervous) and quick feedback would be much appreciated! Looking more for 30-minute fixes considering the timeframe, I don't have time to overhaul my entire interpretation.

Known issues:

1. I would like the opening fourths to be more legato and put together, but on stage I just know it's going to fall apart no matter how much work I put into them, so what will be will be.
2. Those damn trills.
3. Wrong notes popping up everywhere. If anyone knows how to reduce the number of slips that magically reveal themselves onstage please let me know!
4. Assorted phrasing indiscretions.

Over your lifetime as a pianist, which collection would you want to learn in its entirety? Would you even consider doing this in the first place?

For example, quite a few people learn the whole Chopin Etudes, or Beethoven sonatas. Has anyone on here done this? I'm not talking about learning only this one work in one go and nothing else, but learning it over a couple of years and keeping it as something to study over and over.

I'll go first. Collections I'm interested in (in order):

• Chopin Etudes
• Bach WTC
• Liszt Transcendental Etudes
• Debussy Preludes
• Beethoven sonatas

I'm quite drawn to Chopin Etudes for some reason. I think I just like figuring out the different techniques, and some are among my favourite Chopin pieces from a pure musical perspective (25/12, 25/5, 25/1, 10/9).

I'm reading through the whole WTC bit by bit. I've finished reading through book 1, and now I'm using it for warming up for my evening practice. I tend to spend some time on specific preludes and sometimes fugues, so I'll probably learn them all eventually. Plus is fascinating.

Liszt TEs are probably my second pick after Chopin's. The problem is how hard they are. I'm not entirely sure I'll ever be able to even get the hardest ones up to 80% or 90% polish, most likely not. And I'm not a big fan of all of them (no. 1 huh). But there's something about this work that's got a legendary aura and some of these etudes are peak music (no. 11 is my favourite).

Debussy Preludes are also very very interesting to me. There's so much variety in them, and they aren't as hard technically as other collections. I'll probably read through all of them as well and maybe work on about at least half of them over time.

The last one is... tricky. So many people love all Beethoven sonatas, but I don't really see the appeal. Some of them are among my favourite pieces of all times, but some others are quite meh (I dropped Op. 10 no. 3 this year, I just didn't enjoy the first movement to put in the work). I might read through all of them slowly, but I doubt I'll ever try to properly learn them all.

There are so many other good choices. Mozart or Haydn sonatas, Scarlatti sonatas (I'm also reading through all of them, one a day, I'm at K179), Scriabin sonatas (this would be really hard plus I don't like no. 4 and no. 1), etc.

My personal pick would be Chopin Etudes. I think I could spend a lifetime on this and not get bored. I'd pick Liszt TEs second if it wasn't for its difficulty, so I suppose I'd pick the WTC (also difficult but in a different way).

What's yours? Is there any book or collection you love and have fully learnt or are planning to? Ideally around 1h or longer (aka. not something short like Brahms op. 117).

I'm secretly hoping that someone will say "all Czerny etudes" :D

I only heard seriously some Keith Jarrett albums, I know Bill Evans did one so I guess I'll check him out, but what are some others y'all recommend? Just nothing like cecil taylor lol

I’m looking to get this 1981 Kemble (pre-Yamaha era), but unfortunately the middle C# is jamming. Will a piano tuner/servicer be able to fix it, do you think?

Some people say that the best pianists practice for more than 10 hours every day, while others argue that practicing for just 2–4 hours with deep focus is sufficient.

Who is right? I’ve encountered both perspectives, but they generally boil down to two main ideas:

- "You need to put in as many hours as possible to reach a high level of proficiency".

- "You should practice for fewer hours to ensure the practice is effective; adding more hours won’t necessarily lead to improvement—and might even be counterproductive".

I’d love to hear your thoughts: how many hours do you think one should practice?

Also, a follow-up question: do you think one should practice every single day?

Some people recommend taking one day off per week—meaning without touching the piano—to let your hands rest and keep your mind fresh. Others insist on practicing every day (perhaps taking a vacation or an occasional rest day every few months). Still others suggest practicing daily, but with varying levels of intensity.

Would you recommend taking one day off from the piano each week, or should one practice every single day?

TL;DR

1. How many hours should be played in piano for best improvement? Not many like 1-2, or in the middle like 3-6 range, o even like +10? (of course thinking in terms of you having that much time)
   
2. Do you recommend playing piano everyday, or taking all weeks a day off without piano, or which type of schedule?
   
3. Do you think less hours are better for improvement that too much hours?

Im trying to play fantasie impromptu, i dont if the polyrythm is correct, need help.

Dang I wore my PJs, thinking I was gonna play Clair de Lune...

I've played the piano for pretty long now as a hobby, but sometimes I just wonder does skilled players have trouble reading notes? Not like can't read but get annoyed by reading it cuz one note takes 10 seconds to read and it might not even be correct especially for high notes. So I'm asking all of you how do you often read notes? I don't want to use MIDI all the time but actually reading it, I can still read the lower notes easily but sometimes just wondering

Also one more thing if anyone here plays Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement how long does it take for you to read all the things?

I dont know how elso to phrase this question but i went to music school for 6 years during which i played piano. That was i think 5 years ago. Not long ago i picked it up again and my problem is that learning a song takes so damn long i lose motivation. I know this is a very bad question but how the hell do i get better at learning songs? My goal isnt to be professional piano player but i want to learn a couple songs i like and i dont want it to take an eternity. Is it just repetition? Because i honestly feel like i am very bad at playing and not improving at all, while not knowing what to do about it.

I've been learning piano as a personal goal for myself since I was 16 back in 2021 and one of the things that I notice is that if you spend enough time on a piece you can play it better than you might think you might be able to. I just finished practicing a piece that I thought I would struggle and fumble through but it turned out it wasn't so bad and I thought I did ok on it. I think it's unusual because when my piano teacher wanted me to play it, I just about fumbled through it, but the practice session I just finished was the first time since then that I tried it again and it came out a lot better. I guess it could be that one of the things that they teach you are subtle, but important, but I have ended up surprising myself more than once this way. Anyone else notice that?

I was just watching the finale of Celtic Colours, a Celtic music festival. The music was great, but the electronic ‘piano’ looked to have a keyboard much shorter than normal. I’m not a musician and could be just imagining it. Could somebody fill me in, please?

I haven’t touched my piano or read any sheet music in months, and I’m trying to play just the few opening notes of Army Dreamers by Kate Bush. I have a 52 key keyboard piano and despite it being labeled, I’m still struggling to put the notes to certain spot. I’ll put the notes and what my keyboard looks like. Any help will be greatly appreciate! Please and thank you! 😋