TurbanToe

I actually use to practice in the way that you mentioned, repeating a section for seven hours a day, but that wasn't very efficient. Lately I've been reading through a piece a couple times very slowly until I'm familiar enough to sightread it, and if I have any trouble spots I focus on them. However, I have noticed some tension building in my forearms sometimes when I practice scales or arpeggios. I'm trying to get rid of the tension by trying to completely relax and it is working to a certain degree but I still can feel some tension so I'll have to talk to my teacher next week about it. I'm always scared that I'm building the wrong technique, however, especially since I practice so long every day. I just don't know exactly where to go in order to become the best pianist I can be. I have to tell my teacher my goals this week because I'm not sure that she knows where I want to go with my studies. I'll also have to figure out if she is a Hanon exercise type person and work from there. I really can't wait for my next lesson. P.S. Thanks everyone for all the help so far

Another thing is that I don't know how to judge if my teacher is a good piano teacher or not. Myself, being a beginner, I can't judge her abilities but I'm sure some of you could tell me some traits that a good teacher possesses. So if you could please list some ways for me to tell if my teacher is good or not I would very much appreciate that.

I'm pretty sure that I'm progressing, it is just that I'm not progressing as fast I as want. However, keeping in mind that I have extremely high standards for myself, I have definiately progressed just not as far as I had hoped.

I don't want to become a concert pianist, I want to becom a concert-level pianist. I'm studying composition right now with someone and that is going very well, but I want to be able to play anything that I might come up with in my head. That is one of the two reasons that I want to become very good at the piano, the other is I would also like to be able to play all of the more advanced pieces by the masters.

One of my goals is to become a very capable, concert level pianist. As of right now I don't know how to plan my practice's every day to achieve this goal as soon as possible. Sadly I'm a late starter, I have only been playing for four months and I'm 16 years old. I practice for seven hours a day but I don't think I'm seeing any progress. However, this may just be because I don't get to see any other pianists practice. Anyway my question is this, am I capable of achieving my goal even though I've started so late. And how should I go about practicing in order to achieve that goal.

The thing is I definiately want to take a more formal approach with a teacher, so that I can learn every thing correctly. I plan on going to a music conservatory and if I don't know my stuff then I won't do as well as most of the other kids. P.S. I write stuff now that doesn't exactly follow the rules, because I know the rules I'm breaking. I mean you can't break the rules until you know them, right?

So I want to be a composer and a pianist. I know all the basics, intervals, part-writing, melodic writing, but I don't know where to go from here. Should I try to find a composition teacher? Should I try and take courses at a college, I'm 16 years old by the way. Right now most of my time is devoted to practicing the piano, usually eight hours a day, because I don't want to move on with theory until I can work with a teacher. Any help would be appreciated.