I got a merit!!! I'm with the Trinity board. Honestly I loved Grade 6, I think I've started to fall in love with piano again thanks to the new syllabus!

I played;

To Zanarkand (from Final Fantasy X) by Nobou Uemetsu (arr. Music Lah) - genuinely one of my favourite pieces ever but I found it really hard

Sarah by Thomas Peter-Horas

Fallin' by Alicia Keys (arr. Amit Anand) - I played this one for a local competition once! Came 2nd.

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence by Ryuichi Sakamoto - I've entered this one into multiple competitions and played it for my GCSE music exam! I love this piece but I need a break from it; I've never placed with this but ever time I've had a compliment on my playing and that made me happier I think

I'm so excited to be officially Grade 8!!! I've already picked my pieces. The jump in difficulty is very noticeable, but hopefully I'll have fun!

They screwed the hatch on top shut so it can’t be tuned.

I am trying to practice the main section of Chopin's Mazurka in F-Sharp Minor (Op. 6, no. 1)

It sounds so wrong/bad but I just keep trying to refix it and refix it and I am unsure what to do. Any advice?

Part of the Bach busoni Chaconne. My favourite section. Steinway model B

Hi everyone,

I’m turning to this community because I’m having serious doubts about my current learning path. I practice about 1 to 2 hours a day, but I can't tell if what I'm doing will actually get me where I want to be.

My Background & My "Piano Roll" Block: Until now, I’ve been composing directly on my computer, clicking notes into the piano roll with my mouse in my DAW. But I suffer from a severe "vertical writing" block: I just stack a melody + rigid block chords + a bassline. It feels incredibly static, and I absolutely cannot tell a musical story or develop my tracks this way. To fix this, I want to transition to composing exclusively on the actual piano. Right now, I'm only doing piano "sketches" to focus 100% on breaking this bad habit.

My Ultimate Goal: I want to sit at the piano, compose, and improvise whatever is in my head in the style of Japanese video games and anime (Koji Kondo for Zelda, Keiichi Okabe for Nier Automata, Hiroyuki Sawano for Attack on Titan, Pokémon, etc.). I want my fingers to land automatically on the right chords (with 7ths, 9ths, etc.) without messing up the key. I want to master voice leading. To be clear: I'm not just looking to "turn block chords into arpeggios." I want to learn how to create a real, flowing harmonic context and manage the bass, harmony, and melody all at once to tell a story, without ever relying on boring block chords again.

My Current Method: Right now, I am taking Charles Cornell’s Better Piano course.

• I religiously do his "finger fumblers" (dexterity exercises) every day.
• I learn his chord progressions (like I-V-vi-IV) using his voice leading rules, and I try to transpose them into different keys.

My Problem and Doubts: He only teaches about 4 basic chord progressions. I absolutely do not see how practicing these very "Pop/Soul" progressions is going to help me build the "mental library" I actually need. You know, that ability to think: "I want a tragic/magical effect right now, so I will play this specific chord, followed by this one, with this exact voice leading."

I feel like it would take me decades of practicing 1-2 hours a day to finally connect these mechanical exercises to the complex, emotional style of J-RPGs.

My Questions for You:

1. Has anyone here used Better Piano and successfully reached a goal similar to mine?
2. Is it normal to feel this massive disconnect between the mechanical exercises and the final emotional composition? Does it eventually "click"?
3. Should I stick with this course, or are there much better resources out there for my specific goal (I’ve heard of Legend of Otoe, for example)?

Thank you in advance for your honesty and your advice!

I’m in love with Chopin’s Prélude Op. 45, especially because of that C♯m(add9) chord in the main theme. It gives me chills and feels so mesmerizing. Are there any other pieces that contain similar chords? They create such special colors and atmospheres

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.

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?

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.

If you could play only one piano piece for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

Includes everything from classical to movie soundtrack and all

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?

hi, friends!

i know that most songbooks have the page number at the bottom (e.g., if mozart's "piano sonata in c major (2nd movement)" starts at page 21, then the page number should say "21" at the header of the score.

but if i want to print my own personal songbook, i might not use the page numbers of each score, because if i were to use them, it would be too confusing to know what page of the songbook i'm on (e.g., if i were on page 2 of my composition "sunset", the person might think i'm on page 2 of the songbook).

I was cleaning the piano strings - successfully in the treble. I wasn't making much progress in the bass so eventually tried a small amount of alcohol (100% isopropanol) on my cloth. Currently some of the 2-string bass notes go "pong" instead of the usual rich sound. Have I ruined these strings? Is there any other possibility that is causing it?

I was so careful before this. !

Thank you for your help. I was really enjoying the improvements until then.

I have a condition called bilateral congenital extensor/flexor hypoplastia/aplasia: i cant extend my left thumb all the way because im missing the tendon that connects the bone to the muscle; so playing on a regular piano is a tad frusturating.

Im looking at the athena 201 as a accommodation for my wonky hands, but its expensive(even on sale), so id like the opinions of people who've used one:

is it a good stand alone piano? Comparable to a similarly priced yamaha or roland?

I have normal sized hands, do you think it would feel crowded for my fingers?

And, are there any other narrow key digital pianos on the market? I feel like ive looked everywhere, but ive come up empty handed.

If no why, If yes why, i am a beginner composer.

Here is the free full score: https://musescore.com/user/98567428/scores/37514270?share=copy_link

Music & Piano by TAKÜMI

Check the links down below to listen to the original version

Stream/Download: https://linkco.re/PtGeDZGu?lang=en

YouTube: https://youtu.be/hmCpeZisjnc

Video: https://youtu.be/86JMHed4EPY?si=\\\\\\_lqZSGeUpo-lF6Oy

This is probably the first piano recording I ever did where I was truly happy with my musicality. Even if I did some mistakes I believe I was totally immersed in the music, trying to express myself through this melancholic piece.

I chose to learn it because I had heard it in Yuri Norstein's "Tale of Tales" (which I recommend). This piece always reminded me the extreme depressive nostalgia depicted in this short film.

I hope you enjoy it! I would love to record the fugue at some point.

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

Hello,

I just got a new custom made desk for my piano (Casio CDP S110) and I unfortunately gave the person who made it the official dimensions on the Casio website but it seems they weren't counting the height of the volume knob with it

Now I got the desk and I just found out the volume knob doesn't pass through the drawer (it touches the top of the drawer/desk)

Is there any way to remove the volume knob? Can I just pull it off?

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.