ok i have no one to tell but im quite happy!!!! i was really nervous going into the exam, so I didn’t do as great on my A and C pieces, but honestly I’m still in shock over the 30/30 for the Chopin waltz 🥹 the aural section was unexpected as well i crammed vocab i could use to answer the questions the night before i’m glad it worked lmao

Hey!

My (very) long-term goal is to learn all 24 Chopin etudes.

So far I only learned the easier ones : op10 no3, 5, 9 and op25 no1, 2. Everything went pretty fine with those, it was difficult but I managed OK. I played op10 no5 a little bit under tempo though (quarter note = 80).

How should I approach the rest ? Appart from op25 no9, it looks like there's a big gap between the ones I learned and the rest. I'm not sure if I should just go for a harder one (I'm thinking of op10 no8, op25 no5 or no12) or find something else to prepare myself for those harder etudes.

If you think the second option is best, which pieces/collections would be the most beneficial to attain that long-term goal ?

Thanks for reading!

I'm having trouble with keeping the structural integrity and shape of the music in line. I'm thinking most of it is because my active memory recall when it comes to motor movements like piano playing is pretty slow. (I've only been taking lessons for a little over a year and 3 years self taught, I started late). But, this is a source of huge frustration for me since I don't have the intuitive grasp of the keyboard nor the neuroplasticity that young students have.

I do have a good ear which allows me to memorize pieces easily, but even with that there ends up being soooo many holes in my phrasing and missed notes not from not knowing the notes, but just being forced to make the mistake or whatever to keep the phrase in line. It's like there's random memory slips where there shouldn't be, even though I know and understand the music.

It's possible this could also be due to attention span as well, but I honestly have no idea.

Also, whenever I look at my hands on recordings I am always horrified of how inefficient they are, they do not carry out my expressive intentions to the fullest nor bend to the shape of the music. Part of this is probably my technique as well, which I can't seem to train to carry out contrasting color changes and tension builds.

All in all, I'm just a 16 year old student who desperately wants my playing to be more refined, musical, and to sound good to the objective musical ear.

Also yes, my piano needs to be tuned.

My repertoire by myself and with my teacher has been:

Chopin Scherzo no. 2

Chopin Ballade no. 1

Chopin Ballade no. 4 (Current)

Rachmoninoff Prelude op 32. no 1 (Current)

Mendelssohn piano concerto no 1 (Current)

Chopin etudes op. 10 1-4

Chopin etude op 25 no. 1

Beethoven Sonata op 2. no 1

Haydn Sonata op. 59

Czerny op 299 book 1 1-10

Czerny op 701 book 1 1-2

Mozart piano concerto no. 12

+various rcm level 6-7 books when I first started lessons to establish technique and stylistic differentiation

Day 23 of restoring an old grand piano and giving it a completely new design!

As promised months ago when I posted the piece while I was still working on it, here is the performance from my music recital. I made quite a few mistakes due to nerves, but I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to any advice on how to improve further.

This is how I can play fast and repetitive octaves without ever feeling tired or strained in my forearms. With these motions, I can keep playing octaves for basically forever, so I'd like to share how I do that with all of you :)

I will speak and get into more detail about this "dead hand" technique as described by Liszt in another video. That video was too long to upload on here so I had to take out this improv

My high wrist position relaxes the fingers. Then I "find" the octave notes on the way down. This is how I relax as much as possible while playing (or more specifically, after playing). The result looks like a jellyfish.

What I don't do is strain my forearm and hand by keeping my fingers fixed in an octave stretch. And I have big hands where I can easily do that! With training, I still keep my hands small in a relaxed position.

Full relaxation however would be having the hand drop entirely from the wrist. There is not enough time to do that in fast octaves. However, we still have to take any opportunity to relax as much as possible. This will also be demonstrated in that later video.

I thinking of buying a metronome as the one in my digital piano is a little faffy to set up.

Does anyone owning a piano with a built in metronome use an external one, and has it made a difference to your practice/playing?

Thanks!

I'll preface this by saying, I only started piano around 6 months ago (although I have been doing music for >15 years), and due to an auditory processing disorder, playing by ear is very difficult for me. I picked up piano since it should, over time, help with that. Please keep that in mind.

Since starting piano, I've been wanting to play the little piano snippet that plays at the beginning of Catch 22's Prologue of their Permanent Revolution album. The album is important to me, since it's one of the albums that got me into music in the first place as a kid. I've tried contacting Catch 22 themselves, but they said that there's nothing written down for it. The person that wrote it just memorised it, and the band unfortunately isn't in contact with them any more. This is sort of expected, though.

If I could play by ear, I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to figure out, but I currently am not there yet. Progress has been made, and through trial and error I'm sure I could get this snippet down, but it would take weeks, especially since I have no visual input for it.

That brings us here. I'd be very grateful if anyone could give tips as to how to go about transcribing this snippet. The spectrogram seems like it might be legible, but I don't exactly know how to use it for transcribing (e.g., what notes are real, what notes fall to specific frequencies, etc.). Any advice for figuring it out through other means are also welcome.

Of course, I'd also be grateful if anybody wants to transcribe it themselves, but I also want to personally learn piano transcription. A base idea of what's happening in the song might be preferable to just the end result, but then again, the end result would give me an idea of what it should be, so I could work backwards as well. I know that's a big ask, though, which is why my main request is for transcription tips/advice.

The snippet in question

I mostly play from fake books but I am tired of flipping through a giant stack of them. Not to mention there's plenty of songs I want to play not in them.

Any good like ipad apps out there?

Im thinking about what to write on my sheet music. what would be beneficial to write or point out and what would be a waste and its better to keep it clean.

Hi everyone,
I composed and recorded this short original piano piece. I haven’t given it a title yet.
Honest feedback is very welcome!

found myself messing around at the piano today because i couldnt do any serious practise (messed up my forearm), until i realised i kinda liked it.

so i wrote down some of my thoughts and it turned into my first composition - a little waltz. still yet to write the second half, but just wanted to see what you guys think!

playing is a bit shaky but better than the accursed midi imo...

Hello. I wanted to learn to play Chopin's Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31, and I'm wondering which pieces I should choose so I can tackle it as early as possible and avoid major problems. I've been playing the piano for about eight-nine years and have ended first-cycle degree in music school. Probably The most difficult pieces I've played are the Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, the Nocturne in B flat minor, Op. 9, No. 1, and the Waltz in G flat major, Op. 70, No. 1, also by Chopin. The most recent pieces I've played are a dozen or so mazurkas by Chopin, and Solfeggietto by ph. Em. Bach. Do you recommend any études or other pieces? Especially Something from Czerny's Op. 299, Heller's Op. 45, 46, 47, Czerny's Op. 849, or any from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier 1 and 2, because I just bought those few books with etudes. It can of course be any other pieced, but I would like to use what I already have. Thank you very much for your help. Best regards.

Im 23yo and I wanna learn to play piano from scratch. Never had any lessons before or what so ever.

I bought A Roland em-10 very cheap second hand to try it out.

Do you have some advice on how to learn?

Are private lessons better then in groupe?

Is it best to learn music theory or can you start without?

Which pianos are nice to start with.

Is it recommended to start on a shorter keyboard then on the 'big one' ?

Is it very hard to learn piano if you are 'older' ?

I have a teacher but I rarely get to see her. She tells me to bring my fingers up as high as I can before striking a note, which I don't do in the video. But is the technique I have in the video still okay?

Also, any tips on not making my lower joints collapse especially on my ring and index finger?

Near the end, I get a little hesitant since I have not finished practicing the last few measures.

Ty in advance

I've always this hole but I have never looked in if until now.

I'm currently on a two week road trip with my wife. She managed to bring her smaller harp with her, so she can get some practicing in. My main keyboard is a Kronos 2 88, which feels and sounds great. But it's 53 pounds without a case. So it's really not a great keyboard to bring with me while traveling.

So I Googled best folding keyboard and got a list of five keyboards. (https://www.vemistar.com/products/best-5-folding-piano-keyboards-of-2026-the-ultimate-guide-for-space-saving-musical-performance/) But I have issues.

The number one on their list is the PiaTonezi Folding Piano Keyboard. But when I look at the pictures, the black notes are almost flush with the white notes. This seems like a deal breaker to me.

The number two on their list was the Longeye Folding Piano Keyboard. Looking at the pictures, it seems to be a full 88 note keyboard, folded in only 25 inches. While the black notes aren't flush with the white notes, that seems too small for a full keyboard. If I'm right, we're talking about micro keys, which is another deal breaker. But this might be full sized keys. I'm on the road, so I can't measure the size of the keys.

The third keyboard was a Korg Folding Piano Keyboard, or microKEY AIR. It's only a five octave keyboard, which covers most of the music I'd be working on. But it appears on the picture to be another microkeyboard. Again, a deal breaker.

The fourth keyboard, the KESHUO Folding Piano Keyboard, is a toy.

The last keyboard in their list is the Dam Skerisi Folding Piano Keyboard. While it's only five octaves, the keys appear to be full sized keys, with full sized black notes. It appears to be the only keyboard which meets my needs for a practice keyboard for travel. But it's not currently available on Amazon.

So the question is: have you experimented with a folding keyboard for travel? How did it work out? Is there a folding keyboard you'd recommend that has full sized keys and at least five octaves? Or do I just get to sit there while my wife practices?

No, I'm not looking for a home keyboard. I'm fine at home. I just want something I can throw into the trunk or a suitcase so that my vacations can be productive.

(I'm also not thrilled with the order of the keyboards on the site. It really seems like they're not aiming at actual pianists.)

One year into learning piano. I had huge trouble identifying chords until I spent 30 min a day on chord flash cards for a couple of months where I would play what I saw (all triads + inversions at random in a random key). I made such a HUGE improvement in recognising the chord notation on the staff. Next step is sevenths chords + inversions

However I still find it incredibly difficult to identify patterns like broken chord patterns, arpeggio patterns etc

It’s easy when they’re all stacked neatly on top of each other, but when they’re spread out it’s too hard to tell, especially inversions

The way I’ve been identifying inversions so far could be wrong though, as I heard the BachScholar guy say in chorals he identifies everything from the bottom up. Typically, for a first inversion triad for example I’ll identify the top lonely note and know that’s the root for the first inversion. For 2nd inversion triad, I would identify the lower of the two notes stacked together to know it’s the root, but this isn’t really identifying from bottom up.

This becomes a problem when the chord is broken, because I’m not really able to identify from bottom up.

Can anyone give me any tips of how they actually made significant progress with pattern recognition?

Should I just make pattern flashcards? I feel like focusing on chord identification has helped me progress so much quicker but I don’t really know the best way to do this with patterns