Don't forget to SMASH the like button for the UA-cam algorithm 😀👍 It's a great way to help support the channel if you see value in the content. Happy practicing!
Wonderful food for thought. As an older person getting back into piano after brief childhood lessons, I've asked myself this question. Using Hanon to develop technical skills shows me that playing within my skill level changes as techniques improve. Let skills decide the answer, challenge oneself, but don't overdo it. Thanks for the channel.
Very good advice, my piano teacher says allways ´before you run, you have to learn to walk’. Thanks a million for these sound advices. Learning piano, requires learning to be humble and accept that you might need need time to develop skills which are the basis to produce a nice sound.
Lots of wise tips here, wish I had heard them 5 years back when I started... Just recently I started to go back once again, and enjoy the ride more rather than focusing so much on the destination.. Thanks for the video, love how you explain things :) !
Weird question since you mentioned chromatic scales: I used to be able to play them using 1-2-3 in the right hand. However, my stretch has gotten a lot bigger since I started playing (I can reach a 10th comfortably), so now I can really only use 1-3-1-2-3 as the simplest fingering (I use the 4th finger if I need more speed). Is this normal/ok? I know a lot of people use 1-2-3, but it's extremely awkward that way now. My thumb and index finger have way too much space in between them, and my thumb naturally rests near my 3rd finger.
9:08. I actually both of those items on your stand. The site reading book from Bach Scholar is PDF only. I thought that was cool to see some of the materials I've been working from. :)
Another very right on tutorial. Hard or easy? Wrong question, "Unimportant." It's about what one can gain by working the pieces chosen. Super question: Why do I want to play this piece? Piano mastery is a long game and built in sequenced steps which build on one another, no way around it. If you work on that Chopin for 3 years exclusively, you can "play" it to a degree but it doesn't develop a wide range of skills. Working scales and arps for at least some time, will give one the most essential building blocks of music, applied to piano technique. We are fortunate to live in a culture where now one can access graded arrangements of the classics and any other music. They creatively preserve the elements of say, Clair d' Lune," but with less challenge than those arps from Debussy. Realize that piano is a long gave of discipline, patience and working will. Figure out a way to make less complicated pieces more fun. That's real music too, like C's tutorials on the Copland or "Summertime." The music is all there and more accessible. So, choose music which is rewarding and satisfying but not exceedingly beyond one's level. Hard or easy is a simplistic, mostly rhetorical question which has little practical relevance; piano is all practical or it's nothing. Not discounting mental, emotional aspects. Music that is too hard becomes discouraging, mental issues, injuries, perhaps quitting or taking a 20 year sabbatical, not necessary. Each session should be a positive feedback loop which jazzes one for it's mastery and accomplishments as well as its beauty, interpretive effectiveness. Another lesson: "Music should be beautiful, not hard." Personal experience I still find entertaining after many decades. I was classically training as a vocalist with maybe at level 2-3 years of piano as distant secondary instrument, spread out over my childhood. I had heard "Autumn Leaves" on the radio, Roger Williams I think, and decided I wanted to learn it. I went to the sheet music store, rifled through the individual sheet music and picked the only arrangement of which I had heard of the arranger. I took this one, armed with enthusiasm more than rational sense and went to work on George Shearing's later advanced rendering. After not being able to play more than one bar well after a couple weeks, I let the piano go for another year or two. I find "good" online teachers less numerous but with advantages over so many in person situations with whom I was involved, all had great credentials on paper. Not saying there are not good ones, just that every area does not have good access to the best teachers. I find Craig and a few others to be very effective for what I needed.
Don't forget to SMASH the like button for the UA-cam algorithm 😀👍 It's a great way to help support the channel if you see value in the content. Happy practicing!
Hey, I just wanted to thank you for making this awesome content on a weekly basis. Your videos truly are helping out a lot of people :)
I am so glad that the content is useful! Thank you for your kind words and support!
Wonderful food for thought. As an older person getting back into piano after brief childhood lessons, I've asked myself this question. Using Hanon to develop technical skills shows me that playing within my skill level changes as techniques improve. Let skills decide the answer, challenge oneself, but don't overdo it. Thanks for the channel.
You're welcome! I am glad you found it helpful!
Very good advice, my piano teacher says allways ´before you run, you have to learn to walk’. Thanks a million for these sound advices. Learning piano, requires learning to be humble and accept that you might need need time to develop skills which are the basis to produce a nice sound.
So true! I think too many beginners don't filly realize this. Thanks for the comment!
Amen
Flawless advice, simple but not easy to do.
Thanks Craig 🎉🎉
Wish I would have known this earlier in my piano career. Thank you for the info!
You are very welcome
Lots of wise tips here, wish I had heard them 5 years back when I started... Just recently I started to go back once again, and enjoy the ride more rather than focusing so much on the destination.. Thanks for the video, love how you explain things :) !
Thanks for sharing! I always love hearing from viewers!
I take enjoying the ride as the most important consideration. Pieces, styles, genres, levels, technical progress.
Thank you for the down to earth advice!!
You're welcome!
Weird question since you mentioned chromatic scales: I used to be able to play them using 1-2-3 in the right hand. However, my stretch has gotten a lot bigger since I started playing (I can reach a 10th comfortably), so now I can really only use 1-3-1-2-3 as the simplest fingering (I use the 4th finger if I need more speed). Is this normal/ok? I know a lot of people use 1-2-3, but it's extremely awkward that way now. My thumb and index finger have way too much space in between them, and my thumb naturally rests near my 3rd finger.
Good advice.
9:08. I actually both of those items on your stand. The site reading book from Bach Scholar is PDF only. I thought that was cool to see some of the materials I've been working from. :)
Another very right on tutorial. Hard or easy? Wrong question, "Unimportant." It's about what one can gain by working the pieces chosen. Super question: Why do I want to play this piece? Piano mastery is a long game and built in sequenced steps which build on one another, no way around it. If you work on that Chopin for 3 years exclusively, you can "play" it to a degree but it doesn't develop a wide range of skills. Working scales and arps for at least some time, will give one the most essential building blocks of music, applied to piano technique. We are fortunate to live in a culture where now one can access graded arrangements of the classics and any other music. They creatively preserve the elements of say, Clair d' Lune," but with less challenge than those arps from Debussy. Realize that piano is a long gave of discipline, patience and working will. Figure out a way to make less complicated pieces more fun. That's real music too, like C's tutorials on the Copland or "Summertime." The music is all there and more accessible. So, choose music which is rewarding and satisfying but not exceedingly beyond one's level. Hard or easy is a simplistic, mostly rhetorical question which has little practical relevance; piano is all practical or it's nothing. Not discounting mental, emotional aspects.
Music that is too hard becomes discouraging, mental issues, injuries, perhaps quitting or taking a 20 year sabbatical, not necessary. Each session should be a positive feedback loop which jazzes one for it's mastery and accomplishments as well as its beauty, interpretive effectiveness. Another lesson: "Music should be beautiful, not hard."
Personal experience I still find entertaining after many decades. I was classically training as a vocalist with maybe at level 2-3 years of piano as distant secondary instrument, spread out over my childhood. I had heard "Autumn Leaves" on the radio, Roger Williams I think, and decided I wanted to learn it. I went to the sheet music store, rifled through the individual sheet music and picked the only arrangement of which I had heard of the arranger. I took this one, armed with enthusiasm more than rational sense and went to work on George Shearing's later advanced rendering. After not being able to play more than one bar well after a couple weeks, I let the piano go for another year or two.
I find "good" online teachers less numerous but with advantages over so many in person situations with whom I was involved, all had great credentials on paper. Not saying there are not good ones, just that every area does not have good access to the best teachers. I find Craig and a few others to be very effective for what I needed.
What is the name of that piece played at the end of the video?
Schubert impromptu in G-flat major op. 90 👍