How can I become a good Pianist

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.

First off you are not a late starter for the piano. Unlike olympic sports or professional sports you do not have to have any physical requirements. You may not want to weigh 400 pounds in order to be able to see the keys, but other than that no physical requirements are necessary. So, this means that nearly anyone can play at any age. I have known adults in there 40's who decide they want to pick up the piano for fun. You are 16. You are actually ahead of the game. If you want to be an amazing pianist and go to college to get a music major and specialize in being a pianist then I think you still have time. It will be diffucult but not impossible by any means. I am a really good pianist. I am not professional and I am not going to college, but I have been playing since I was about 10 or 11 or somewhere around there. I am 19 now so that is 8 or 9 years. It does take time, but what counts even more is the quality of your practicing. You can spend 7 hours a day and have a mediocre pratice or 2 really well spent hours and come out better with the 2 hours of practice.

Now for a good practice these are some of the things to keep in mind. I think that you should begin with a teacher for a while until you are good enough on your own. After that it is still not a bad idea to have one because they can catch things and points things out to you that you will not recognize yourself. I also think that you need someone experienced with the piano to mentor you. I do not think that teaching yourself the piano is a very good idea (if you want to be a classical pianist like Horowitz or something). A very good teacher will work with you in all aspects of technique, sight reading, theory, ear training, scales and arrgeggio exercises. You will always need to run through the infamous "scales and arrpeggios" even after college. If you stay fresh with those then you will be able to spot runs and things in music and be able to play it effortlessly with the correct fingering and technique. Also, the more theory you know the better off you are. You can read chords and key signatures, time meters and modes much more efficiently with the theory. Do not strictly play by ear. It is so hard to reteach yourself rythmn and counting when you are stuck on playing by ear. Just don't do it on your own (or at least to start with). You may be able to plunk out some notes afterwards, but you will not be able to recognize your own faults and you will not grow musically. If you also start to notice that your hands tire to easily and you seem to be loosing speed then you are in trouble. This means that your hands are not relaxed while you play; i.e. your hands are full of tension while stretching for octaves and playing the scales and arrpeggios. This is bad because you can start to develope joint/muscular problems in your hands - even carpal tunnel syndrome if you continue for a long period playing with poor techinique.

The only other thing is always play classical recital pieces. You can play something "fun" in between, but you should learn to play the masters works all the time. I also think that you should mix it up. At any given time I think it is best to be playing several pieces all from different musical eras. This is where you see great examples of how things work. For example, Bach is like a fingering exercise. However I think the classical masterpieces are the most fun to play anyway. For instance, Chopin and Rachmaninoff - Beethoven and Mozart - Bach and Rachmaninoff all give you Etudes and things that are perfect studies within themselves. All you need to do is sit down with some great music and a well-educated piano teacher and give it all the effort you've got.

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 only person who should be answering this question is your piano teacher.

after 4 months, it's a little soon to be considering a career as a concert performer. and again, this is a domain where your teacher is the person best suited to telling you whether or not it is a realistic expectation.

I believe that more than a few hours a day is excessive after only 4 months of piano lessons. You would probably be using your time more wisely by studying theory and other technical aspects of music during those extra hours. At the height of my career as a concert pianist, I was practicing around 5-6 hours a day, while in my first 5 years of piano I was doing between 1 and 2 hours a day. (an accident ended any thought of continuing work as a concert pianist. thank God I was already 10 years into composition at the time).

At 16 you have a lot of catching up to do. To get to a point where you could consider yourself "concert level" you are a little late starting. However, with the right teachers and a properly coordinated work program, and the associated "hard work", there's nothing to actually stop you that isn't already stopping other people. If you are seriously considering a career as a pianist, remember that there are thousands of other people ALSO striving for the same thing. So it's a very overloaded field, with minimal openings, and extremely demanding requirements that get harder and harder to fulfill at every year that passes.

Sorry if I'm going to come off as discouraging with this, but I feel it must be mentioned now.

As a 16-year-old aspiring to become a concert pianist (you, not me), I would very very strongly urge you to make sure you are well-qualified to do something else as well. The reason I suggest this is because there are LOTS of professional concert pianists out there and not that many jobs for them to fill, so chances are you wouldn't find work.

While RRR here is mostly correct with his encouragement, I have to elaborate a bit on what he said about it not being too late. Like I said, he is mostly correct in that yes, it's still quite possible to become a talented pianist even if you're starting out so late (yes, this is a late starting age for concert pianists) but the problem you will face is that your competition will almost certainly be a slew of people who've been playing since they were toddlers. They will have an advantage over even the best of later-trained pianists simply because their bodies and brains have grown up and matured at the piano - a series of natural adaptations which I could explain in much more unnecessarily scientific terms, but prefer not to.

The fact of the matter is basically that you COULD still become a concert pianist but I, personally, would not give you great chances of being very successful with that as your only career simply because the odds of even the best young-trained pianists making a living out of it are slim at best.

Hence my suggestion that, especially in your situation, you'd be best off making sure that you're well-qualified for another job as well while you continue your piano studies. :)

Sorry if I'm going to come off as discouraging with this, but I feel it must be mentioned now.

As a 16-year-old aspiring to become a concert pianist (you, not me), I would very very strongly urge you to make sure you are well-qualified to do something else as well. The reason I suggest this is because there are LOTS of professional concert pianists out there and not that many jobs for them to fill, so chances are you wouldn't find work.

While RRR here is mostly correct with his encouragement, I have to elaborate a bit on what he said about it not being too late. Like I said, he is mostly correct in that yes, it's still quite possible to become a talented pianist even if you're starting out so late (yes, this is a late starting age for concert pianists) but the problem you will face is that your competition will almost certainly be a slew of people who've been playing since they were toddlers. They will have an advantage over even the best of later-trained pianists simply because their bodies and brains have grown up and matured at the piano - a series of natural adaptations which I could explain in much more unnecessarily scientific terms, but prefer not to.

The fact of the matter is basically that you COULD still become a concert pianist but I, personally, would not give you great chances of being very successful with that as your only career simply because the odds of even the best young-trained pianists making a living out of it are slim at best.

Hence my suggestion that, especially in your situation, you'd be best off making sure that you're well-qualified for another job as well while you continue your piano studies. :)

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.

Have fun then :)

You're practising too much per day; 7 hours is excessive, unecessary and counter-productive. But if you have nothing better to do with your time and school obviously isn't much of a bother, then knock yourself out.

Qccowboy suggested that you spend some of that time studying things that will help you for composition, such as theory, harmony, counterpoint and all of that. I would definately second and emphasize this suggestion.

Best way to learn to be able to play anything you want in your head is to improvise. Learning existing works can only teach you so much...you'll basically be a concert-level regurgitator; a creature which I have little respect for, that is capable of playing any piece of sheet music placed in front of it but is utterly unable to actually PRODUCE any music on the fly.

Point being, if you want to be able to play anything you come up with in your head, practise THAT. Not playing the works of others exclusively. Once you do that and master theory, you'll be able to play all the works by the "masters" anyway.

Good luck! :)

You want to become a good pianist? Practice alot and do your scales alot :)

Sitting at the piano seven hours a day is too much, unless you are preparing for a competition. However, spending time studying music in various ways for seven hours a day is just fine.

What I mean to say is this: Remember that getting better at the piano (or any instrument) is NOT a function of how many hours you sit in front of the instrument per day. Yes, you must put in at least a couple of hours to allow your body to absorb the technique of the instrument. But do not forget to study theory (NOT just traditional tonal theory), and practice your aural skills, and listen to as many pieces as you can, and go to as many concerts as you can, and sing in a decent choir if you can find one...the list goes on. All these things factor into your overall skill as a musician, and especially for the first couple of years of piano practice, they will accelerate your musical growth immensely. Technique takes time to develop, even with steady, attentive practice...and my suggestion would be not to practice too terribly much before the good habits are ingrained. After all, you don't want to ingrain the bad ones.

And then of course there is the question of just what constitutes good habits at the piano. For this, I pray that you have a good teacher guiding you along. For many years, I did not, but once I did...WOW. What an improvement. And you will know when you have a good teacher. A good teacher is always giving you new insights about the art of playing the piano. They will push you, but not past what you can do. They will work with you on your technical difficulties and offer you comments on the musical side of your repertoire. It's a lot to ask but it can be found, and you need to look until you're sure you've found it.

And as for not feeling like you're improving...well, we all feel that way most of the time; the majority of improvement is made in tiny steps, kind of like growing taller. You never notice your own growth, but your grandma, who last saw you six months ago, walks into the room, and the first thing she says is, "You've grown so tall!" Same thing with piano playing. Keep track of it in the long term. Think of where you were a month ago -- on November 8. And once you've been at it long enough you can think of where you were six or more months ago. And the improvement you'll notice will be staggering, especially if you're practicing (and practicing well!) as much as you say you are.

Becoming a good pianist isnt something that happens overnight of course but it sounds like you're on your way. If i had time to practice 7 hours a day, then that's what i'd be doing.

I recommend doing some of Carl Czerny's retarded etudes. They're extremely annoying, but they'll help you alot. It composition as well as other things. Also, go over your theory (e.g. scales, chords, arpeggios, etc) ALOT!!!!!

There's a simple answer: practice.

However, I don't know what you're doing but...you've been playing four months and you can actually get through 7 hours practice per day? If that's true and you're seeing no progress at all, get a new piano teacher.

I also think it might be important to discuss your expectations with your teacher at this point.

If you expect to be performing Liszt's Transcendental

I don't know. Feux Follets would be a nice one to learn finger independence with tricky legato in one hand with staccato in the other....not to mention those little arpeggii in the closing bars...they'll teach anyone to move their hands sharpish-like but with the lightness of the title!

:D

There's a simple answer: practice.

However, I don't know what you're doing but...you've been playing four months and you can actually get through 7 hours practice per day? If that's true and you're seeing no progress at all, get a new piano teacher.

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.

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.

Then it could be your practice methods, depending what you're trying to do. To fit in with your earlier description, you're presumably playing from published music. The point is, if you've only been playing for 4 months then you might be expecting too much of yourself getting into the minutiae of how to practice, though for 7 hours per day you should really be thinking about that.

If, for example, you're repeating the same passages over and over again to get them right, then there's no way you'll be able to concentrate properly over the whole 7 hours. Honestly, ten minutes of really hard concentration is worth a couple of hours of mindless repetition, let alone getting frustrated at yourself.

Then, slow practice... practice slowly until you can play it perfectly at a slow speed - if you can't play it perfectly, slowly, you'll never play it perfectly, faster...with certain exceptions (which is where youre teacher comes into the frame - analysing how to play something at the correct tempo. Like, fast arpeggios need a certain positioning of the hand/arm as you move from octave (or whatever) to octave which may not be apparent to a beginner, things like that, where simulating what should be happening would hasten your getting to a higher speed).

There are exercises away from the keyboard to promote finger independence and wrist suppleness but with the latter in particular, you need a teacher to check you aren't likely to injure yourself.

Also, as with all exercise, you have to learn to judge when you've done enough. If your hands are really cramped up at the end of practice, you're doing too much. If they ache somewhat when you next start practicing, you may be doing too much...again, you're teacher can advise... A certain amount of ache at the start may just be part of warming-up but if you still ache after, say, ten minutes of whatever you warm up on, you need either to i) ask your teacher to look at every aspect of your playing: are you sitting at the right height; the right distance from the keyboard etc, or ii) simply cut down the slog a bit. At four months, I'd suggest taking a good few breaks if you actually play for 7 hours.

So, I reckon you should think about Qccowboy's advice and talk a bit to your teacher, and certainly look at your practice techniques, duration and breaks etc.

Good luck,

M

Then it could be your practice methods, depending what you're trying to do. To fit in with your earlier description, you're presumably playing from published music. The point is, if you've only been playing for 4 months then you might be expecting too much of yourself getting into the minutiae of how to practice, though for 7 hours per day you should really be thinking about that.

If, for example, you're repeating the same passages over and over again to get them right, then there's no way you'll be able to concentrate properly over the whole 7 hours. Honestly, ten minutes of really hard concentration is worth a couple of hours of mindless repetition, let alone getting frustrated at yourself.

Then, slow practice... practice slowly until you can play it perfectly at a slow speed - if you can't play it perfectly, slowly, you'll never play it perfectly, faster...with certain exceptions (which is where youre teacher comes into the frame - analysing how to play something at the correct tempo. Like, fast arpeggios need a certain positioning of the hand as you move from octave (or whatever) to octave which may not be apparent to a beginner, things like that, where simulating what should be happening would accelerate your getting to a higher speed).

There are exercises you can do away from the keyboard to promote finger independence and wrist suppleness but with the latter in particular, you need a teacher to check you aren't likely to injure yourself.

Also, as with all exercise, you have to learn to judge when you've done enough. If your hands are really cramped up at the end of practice, you're doing too much. If they ache somewhat when you next start practicing, you may be doing too much...again, you're teacher can advise... A certain amount of ache at the start may just be part of warming-up but if you still ache after, say, ten minutes of whatever you warm up on, you need either to i) ask your teacher to look at every aspect of your playing: are you sitting at the right height; are you sitting the right distance from the keyboard etc etc, or ii) simply cut down a bit.

The anatomy of piano playing is quite a subject. You virtually use your whole body... Observation of any concert pianist should convince you!

So, I reckon you should think about Qccowboy's advice and talk a bit to your teacher, and certainly look at your practice techniques, length of sessions, etc.

Good luck,

M

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

the worst is when you are on youtube and you see these seven year olds churning out almost perfect chopin. it just makes you think, ugh why bother!

Why bother? Cause you like it. Playing piano is fun. And i have never seen a seven year old playing any chopin. :P

I think your goals are quite achievable, as long as you maintain a positive attitude and are enjoying yourself every step of the way. Have you tried improvisation on the piano? It can really help you gain confidence with both playing classical pieces and writing your own music. It might take a while to get used to it, but once you do you'll be very happy you did it. The trick is to start doing it and not care how good it is right off the bat. And you're definitely not a late starter. I started around age 17. Anyway good luck.

Just out of curiosity, what particular pieces are you playing now?

What technique book are you working in? Hanon?

Have you taught yourself for some time, or have you had a teacher the whole time?

After four months of playing the piano self-taught I was playing F

I know you posted this a long time ago, but I think I'll throw in a few words if I may.

First off, your age: I started piano (music as a whole really) at 14. I am now 19, I am a sophomore in college studying music therapy with an emphasis in piano and I now have two commissions to write music professionally (one movie and one play/musical). I'm not trying to show off or anything, just emphasizing that it can be done. I started quite late, and though I am by no means "concert" level as a pianist, I have still been very successful.

Second, your skill: Being a concert pianist and a concert LEVEL pianist are two VERY different things as I'm sure you well know. Being a concert pianist takes years of hard work and practice. Being good enough to play the same songs takes as long as you need. It really wont help your composing skills that much, you will find its actually quite easy to write music you cant play once you understand theory well enough. Basically, keep it up, keep working hard, but dont stress about getting REALLY good REALLY soon. You may progress amazingly fast, it may take you a while, just dont expect to be concert level by college. It'll happen, just keep going.

And lastly, dont quit your day job. I know you've probably heard this before, and probably think it applies more towards music performance, but let me tell you right now: When you're between gigs (writing), wondering whether or not you can buy food for the week you're gonna want another job. Dont try and let music support you like you think it should. My dad always told me that I can write as much music as I want for whoever I want, but I couldnt quit my day job til I earn my first million. I always liked that. Its not a set goal or anything, but it makes a lot of sense. Good luck!

The only thing I can say is: lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.lessons and Practice.

hahahaha

I disagree :) That was about as funny as slamming one's genitals in a car door.

That was about as funny as slamming one's genitals in a car door.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! :laugh:

its true though, that is how you will get better at the piano.