Art - Music - Piano (Year 1-5)

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Table of Contents

• 1. Personal Context
• 2. Overview
• 3. Equipment
• 4. Year 1 (2013)
  • 4.1. 1 month (May 2013)
  • 4.2. 5 months (October 2013)
• 5. Year 4 (2017)

1. Personal Context

I'm not particularly fond of piano music, but I figured I ought to give it a try. Also, I needed to play notes to support singing practice.

I tried several times to teach myself, but could not get on track. So started taking lessons from Dorothy Harwood (right after voice lesson).

2. Overview

This page records my progress in learning piano, years 1-5

3. Equipment

• Yamaha P-105 Digital piano. Tried:
  1. Yamaha E433 electronic keyboard. Keys too small.

  2. Fischer upright acoustic of uncertain vintage (and untuned for decades). Keys too heavy, and out of tune.

  Then got P-105, setup so I can playing standing. After a couple of months of too high, I moved it down a few inches and got much better wrist action.

• Music stand, metronome, tuner (see Music)

• Books

  At first I tried on my own with Alfred's "Basic Adult Piano Course Book 1". Could not make progress. Then started taking lessons, and am going through a dozen or so books at a time. Once this stabilizes, I'll list them.

4. Year 1 (2013)

4.1. 1 month (May 2013)

Dorothy explained that many adult learners get stuck because they understand the theory long before their fingers can do the moves -- and get discouraged.

So she starts adults with children's books. Lots of easy-skill repetition to build up physical skills. Went through 4 of those immediately and started another set in a couple of weeks.

For me, she is specifically watching for

1. Ergonomic alignment (sitting, elbows, wrists, hand curl, etc.)
2. Ergnonmic action (arm and wrist, not just fingers. roll hand along the keyboard. etc.).
3. Finding keys without looking at keyboard
4. Building sight reading, recognizing patterns

In addition, I've had to learn the bass clef. I'm practicing scales and thumb crossovers. I'm doing practice pieces from 7 different books. I do each piece twice in a practice session, to get the sight reading going but avoid memorizing the piece.

4.2. 5 months (October 2013)

Went through preliminary books pretty quick, then bogged down in "Year 2" books. Getting the two hands to do different things is tough. Dorothy is trying various books to get the right combination of:

1. Sight readable (no brain cramp)
2. Exercizing scales and chords
3. Working from arm and wrist (not just fingers).

Also doing Hanon and scales.

5. Year 4 (2017)

We dropped Hanon, and focused on scales and sight reading. For scales currently both-hands-together -- done with sharps and starting on flats.

Sight reading level "2" and "3" workbooks, and doing easy Bach pieces. I find paino really hard -- not much progress for a couple of years practice at about 1/2 hr a day.