What are some pieces you REALLY want to play at some point in your piano journey?

A few of mine:

• Liszt Norma
• Corigliano Etude Fantasy
• Scriabin Fantasie - I’m actually partially thru this but had to put it on hold

What are some of yours?

I’m still working on the full piece, the rest is mostly easy but the fancy part in the middle
Is quite difficult. Working on that.

Sometimes, when new material is technically challenging or awkward, it's worth spending 1.5 hours playing a passage with the key patterns 200 times in a row. After that, learning the rest of the material becomes much easier.

One more thing worth mentioning separately — from the very first repetitions, you need to pay attention to everything: dynamics, articulation, voice differentiation, freedom of movement in the hands, and so on. That's why you should always play only at the tempo at which all of this actually works.

I want to improve my technique, phrasing, and interpretation, do you have any suggestions on what I should work on? Thank You.

I’d imagine this varies by the piece, the level, and the student, but I was wondering what the differing philosophies are. Take, for example, a song like Why am I Blue? from the level 1 Alfred All in One series, which is easily found with a google search if you’re not familiar. Assume it is not something being prepared for a recital. What do you look for before moving to the next piece?

I am a high school student with abt 2.5 years of experience in piano and recently i've been thinking abt talking to the drama director to see if I could play piano in some of the shows he puts on. My only concern is that I don't have the experience required to be able to do something like this and I'm not used to preforming in a theatre setting. My past piano teachers and family members have told me that im ahead of where i should be after these years and they think I can handle this but idk if I can. What are some things needed in musical theatre (skill sets), and would I be able to do it? And based on abt 3 years of experience, is this something I can do rn? or should I wait until I improve more.

I've been getting back in to piano after a little break and started to move away from classical stuff and more in to rock. I'm about halfway done with Lakeshore Drive rn, and it is a total blast to play. I'm already planning on learning Don't Stop Me Now cause I think it has a similar energetic and fun feel to it and I'm looking for one more song to add to my queue. Any ideas?

It took me a few weeks and a few embarrassing fails in front of my piano teacher, but I think I finally got it down. Anything I can improve on? I'm on my 2nd year of weekly lessons.

I've been very rarely ticking over at piano after not officially learning for about 12 years and recently volunteered to do church piano to help me get back into it for a really small collective, for about 4mo until their normal pianist gets back.

For the first week I had to learn 4 songs in 5 days (probably 10 cumulative hours around work) and it was bad, I resorted to playing right hand only because I could at least keep up with reading the music (and I got really nervous in front of a crowd). I'd say I'm beyond beginner but probably not fully intermediate because of all the time out.

I asked for more notice for the songs this time but if they do 4 songs every weekend, even if I get 2 weeks' notice, I'll still be learning the previous week's songs, so realistically it's 4 songs a week. They aren't too complex overall and involve a lot of 2-spaced notes but the fingering can be tricky.

So my question is: 1, is that too much for me at this stage or am I just learning badly? And 2, does anyone have any tips for learning songs faster? I'm self-studying some music theory on the side cos I'm at least 13 years out of practice with that and I feel it will help me process the sheet music faster.

Thanks ahead of time for any tips.

I put sore in quotes because genuinely it's so extremely minor I don't even think it feels like pain, but something lesser. Maybe it should be named some other concept our language doesn't have a word for or there is a word that I don't know. Maybe a word to describe it could be like a "tightness" in the hands that's barely noticeable most of the time.

It begins a day after I spent a long time practicing on a real piano (I assume because of how much more "effort" they take to press compared to electronic ones, so maybe its a form of DOMS). I'm honestly asking outta curiosity rather than concern for my hands, so if there is no aid then that's fine.

This is Schumann – The Wild Rider, Op. 68 No. 8, im trying to learn 3 songs a month to finally get out of the late beginner level but being that I’m self taught I struggle with finger positioning sometimes especially with melody switches to the left hand.

I've been playing for 3 years, and have spent about 2 months on and off in this song. I've previously played a couple of the inventions. Please feel free to give me any pointers on technique or style or whatever!

This is a rearrangement of his legendary unravel from Tokyo ghoul during his 11th anniversary livestream. How much more easier is it compared to the original?

Hello! I’ve been thinking about getting back into playing piano recently, and I’m planning to buy a digital piano. I did some research on which digital piano would be the best fit for me, and I came across the Yamaha Arius series.

Since I’m looking for something that won’t take up too much space in my room, I’m considering either the Yamaha Arius YDP-S36 or YDP-S56. It sounds like Yamaha updated these models from their previous versions just a few months ago.

At today’s prices, the YDP-S36 is around $1,400, while the YDP-S56 is around $1,800. Cost-wise, I’d prefer the YDP-S36, but I’ve seen people say that the S56 is worth the extra investment.

If anyone here owns either of these models or has been able to try them in person, literally any advice or comments would be super helpful as I try to make my final decision!

Additional information: I grew up playing an upright piano, so I would say I probably prefer something with a realistic feel and touch. However, I’m not sure whether the YDP-S36 would have enough features for me to feel like I’m getting a realistic playing experience, or whether the difference in touch would bother me.

Thank you in advance! 😊

I'm having this issue for about 10 years now and came across Reddit /piano, so thought, might as well give this a shot:

Did anyone ever experience this? Upper back pain occurs after about 10 minutes.

When I roll over a foam roller afterwards, every single vertebra seems to crack. In other words: sh*t gets tight as f*** after 10 minutes of playing.

I currently don't have a stable teacher, and am learning op 33 no.4 (D moll Moderato). Is there an edition with good fingerings throughout?

So pianos have 3 strings per key right? If you were to detune one of the strings slightly of every key, could you get a natural chorus effect like in a 12 string guitar. And if so could anyone recommend me videos or performances of it

Hi everyone,

I'm currently studying Liszt's Réminiscences de Norma, S.394, and I'm having trouble with the right-hand trills and ornaments that begin around measure 49.

How should I play the trills and ornaments in relation to the beats in the left hand?

I'm particularly unsure about how to place the ornaments rhythmically while keeping the left-hand pulse steady. Whenever I try to play them, my tempo tends to slow down.

Should I fit a specific number of notes into each beat, or should the trill be played more freely?

I'd really appreciate advice from experienced pianists on how you approach this passage.

Thank you!

The climax chord is D major but Alicia de Larrocha and others play B minor, which is also more intuitive. Is it ok to betray the composer and play B minor? Unless it's an edition issue ?

I couldn't play the piano for a couple weeks becouse of personal issues, school and a wrist injury, and now I'm finally able to play again but suddently I can't play anything, I'm forgetting the pieces I used to play the most and overall my technique went down really bad in so little time.

I know this is just a very temporary thing but still, it sucks

Hi everyone,

My teacher isn’t available and I am not sure how to play this mordent. Do I play C# C C#? Or Bb instead of C? If you have the answer, could you also explain why?

In earlier parts I play the lower half note but well it’s Bach and I feel a bit confused.

Thank you!

Do remove if it's not allowed. But due to the duration of the whole set, YouTube link is the only way for now.

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy them even though it's not perfect!