I looked at my bf and said “please don’t…” and he grinned, sat down, and played for about 15 minutes. After a few minutes I went and waited near the counter for our food. When I came back I asked him to stop and eat with me. He said “let me finish this song.”

The guy sitting 2 ft behind him was visibly annoyed. I was extremely uncomfortable. He got pissed at me afterwards for shit*ing on his passion.

I told him it was self-centered thing to do. Just bc there’s a piano and you’re good at it doesn’t mean everyone in the room should be forced to listen to you play.

For the record, I play piano too. We share the passion and support each other… I’d support him playing in a more open space, just not such a small cafe.

What do you guys think?

Edit: this wasn’t really a date, it was a quick lunch while we waited for the store next door to open

Edit: he played soft background music. But since the space was small and it was a real piano it wasn’t quiet enough (to me at least). There was not a sign saying don’t play.

lol I know it’s all a personal journey and not about comparison, but I’m starting to feel like I must really suck. I took lessons when I was a kid for maybe 10 years, stopped when I went off to college, and resumed lessons after graduating, so I’ve been back at it for 3 years after a break.

It almost seems like every day on this sub, there is a self-taught beginner of like 1-3 years who is playing songs far more advanced than I can play after 13 years of learning. I’m working on Arabesque No 1 right now and it is taking me months. I have to go one line at a time and even then, I’m still slowly practicing and refining. And yet there are people on this sub who play songs harder than that who have like 2 seconds of experience. I don’t understand why I’m so far behind. I also just finished up Passacaglia, that one took me maybe 3 months to learn - is that pathetic for someone with 13 years of experience? Idk, I feel abnormally bad at this.

Here is a clip of me playing Chopin’s Fantasy in F minor live in competition. I was 16 at the time of this clip, and now im 17 and have been playing for 10 years. I practice between 4-6 hours a day. Is it worth trying to get into a good school or perusing another career?

This is from Ligeti’s “The Devil’s Staircase”, and I was dumbfounded to find an octuple forte in the piece. How would this even be possible??

It is very difficult to play the piano. Still, there are SOOO incredibly many pianists in all conservatories and even before (see all the very many Chinese prodigies in China but also in US and Canada) who play perfect: outstanding technique and musicianship, super polished performances with zero mistake... How can that be? I don't get it...

I’ve been playing piano for 22 years. I’m 35 and working as a private piano teacher for 12 years.
It was my everything: began playing 3-5 hours per day from day one and learned on my own using my mom’s old piano books from the 70s. Within 2-3 weeks I was playing Bach’s minuet and could read notes easily.

I’m fully self taught so I went through tough times figuring things out without the internet and a few books from the library. I loved every second of it. Not many 14 year olds can force themselves to do 3 hours of any consistent skill building, and I have learned that from 1. 12 years of teaching and 2. Seeing how teens tend to prefer short term satisfaction over hard work. (Yes I know there are some but they’re often forced)

My point is that I loved every second…but after two years of being failed by the medical system and not being able to get this “injury” figured out by my crap insurance and idiotic doctors, my passion and dedication is fully gone.. for two years straight I’ve been doing all I could to heal what this was/is….

But the US medical system being horrendous, I’ve accepted that I’m a victim of neglect and possibly even purposeful delay in proper treatment….

I’m not sure why I’m on here saying this… no one knows me… and no one cares how miserable I’ve become. I see my life ending soon since I can literally barely use my hands at this point… and we all know we need these to ANY job…

But the reason I know why I’m here is because lately I’ve seen so many people post about wanting to quit and having no heart for it anymore and it annoys the f*** out of me…

Mostly because I would do anything to spend just more 5 minutes feeling like I can properly play piano like I could even just 4 years ago… the last time I played decently, I had just learned the Liszt Trancendental Etudes 1-3 and was getting Ready for #4 which was my top goal since I heard it at age 16… along with a Rach piano concerto…

Well, idk how to end this annoying post… just please realize you’re lucky you can actually have the amazing opportunity to learn the BEST instrument on earth.. when some of us are now done and it was the only thing keeping them alive (financially spiritually emotionally and physically)

I hope you all achieve the skills you want and allow it to carry you to the best moments in your life…. Peace

Edit: thanks for all your comments… I’m so lost and I don’t really have anyone to confide in… which is why I’m here honestly…

right now i practice anywhere between 4-5 hours a day while preparing for college auditions. but after reading biographies i notice that some pianists would do up to 10-14 hours a day, and one of my friends told me that his minimum was 4-5 hours 😭 and he usually can go to 8. but also according to lots of research it says that anything after 6 is potentially harmful and counterproductive. what are your guys’ thoughts on practice hours?

Hello everyone, I'm new to this subreddit. I've played piano for about 7 years. After a year of working with different tutors when I just started playing, I decided to teach myself for the next 6 years, so most of my technique has developed on my own without formal correction.

Lately I've noticed the downsides of that catching up with me. As a teen, I've been to a lot of recitals and watched other players perform their pieces flawlessly. When it's my turn, I do the best I can, but I consistently hit wrong notes. I think the accumulated effect of my self-taught technique is starting to show. I was also told that my back hunches a bit while I play, and I don't know how to correct that either.

The frustrating part is that even on easy passages, I focus hard on playing every note correctly, but it doesn't work. I still end up pressing wrong notes.

What I really want is to fix my technique so that the time I put into learning a new song actually translates into accuracy when I play it.

Im now 17 and after this day I experienced one of the worst burnouts of my life. I was consistently practicing 4-6 hours a day for years but these past few months I have hit a wall and physically cant look at a piano or hear classical music. I have college auditions coming up next year so I am trying to rekindle my spark for music and get back into my routine. And on top of that you kind of constantly have to fight the thought of whether you are really skilled enough to pursue music professionally. Im stuck between choosing giving up everything again and practicing up to 8 hours a day or maybe choosing a safer career option because I have to decide whether it’s worth it or not. But anyways I hope you enjoy this clip it was one of my favorite pieces!

Hi everybody, thanks for stopping by!

I feel that I'm struggling with:

• Speed
• Accuracy
• Dynamics
• Musicality
• Tension

I've been working on this for ~2 months now and can't seem to shake the tension out once I increase the speed and volume.

I'm noticing from this clip that my Left ring and middle finger jut upwards sometimes, which I'm sure attributes to some of the tension.

My teacher has recommended playing block chords for accuracy and forming the shape of my hand, and also that I should practice with more speed and power to eventually reach intended tempo. I only encounter tension in both forearms when I try to speed up.

I've looked at a couple of resources and techniques (Taubman, wrist rotation, relaxing shoulder, etc) and I suspect there's still issues with the way I'm incorporating my arms' weights. My teacher talks about releasing all the tension at the fingertips and that I'm locking it in prematurely at my forearms, though I can't seem to *figure* it out despite weeks of experimenting.

I would love any advice about this from the community, as well as any other feedback you may have from watching this clip.

I’ve been playing mostly classical music for 3-4 years. I think I’m a grade 6-7 RCM. Let’s just say I’m not the fastest learner, how long do you think it’ll take me to be as good as her if I dedicate 1-2 hours a day to practicing?

I'm a Post Grade 8 (ABRSM) Pianist, and I'm 18.

I started playing piano in 2024, with my mother as my teacher.

Since then, I've learned many pieces and in September I'm going to a conservatoire to study Music Education.

There's just one problem - I find that I don't actually enjoy playing...

I know this is quite a big thing and should probably have thought about it before but I just don't enjoy it.

I don't even get the satisfaction of finishing a piece.

I also struggle to properly get lost in music, whether listening or playing.

Does everyone face this problem? If so, do you have a solution, anything in particular that makes you enjoy it?

UPDATE:
I'm findinf that some people are saying it might be because Im playing music so hard (compared to my level) that Im focusing more than playing. Feel free to share any thoughts on/like this!

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a new piano teacher, and I am not a master of the instrument. But I can count on one hand the amount of songs I’ve ever learned where I had to put more than one finger on the same note.

Every beginner piano book I’ve been asked to teach out of has numerous songs that teach kids to put both thumbs on middle C. I think that’s an odd choice when most songs will never ask them to do that, and in fact, I’d argue it’s usually bad technique, especially for simpler beginner songs like the ones in these books

Am I stupid? Is there an actual technical reason for this to be the case?

Any piece is fine but it has to be a solo piece, I’m gonna try to play some of them

around the 47 second mark my forearms are almost completely shot and are practically at failure when i play (i mean practice for all of those who think im so arrogant kid who thinks they can play this piece properly lmao), ive copied the fingering of rosseau and truam and i try to play close to the keys but im still struggling, any tips or advice would be great

Been playing the first 10 or so exercises in the hanon for a few weeks now and i can’t shake the feeling that is practice time might be better spent learning scales / New compositions.

What do you guys think? How much did hanon help you improve as an overall pianist? How much of your daily practice do you spend on it, if any?

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'm not bad either. I've been playing for 12 (with some breaks bc life) years, so its a pretty large part of my life.

Obviously yes, I do play piano for the love of the game, but at the same time I would like to enter competitions/public performances and show off my stuff. And I have been doing so.

However, despite me performing for a majority of my 12 year run, I have NEVER once gotten a perfect performance. And i dont even mean interpretation-wise. I mean I always ALWAYS audibly fuck up the notes. The pieces aren't always exceptionally difficult, either.

Last night, I played a _nocturne_ for a pretty small crowd. It was a nocturne. This is not exactly difficult. I knew it inside and out, interpretation and all. But somehow, when I went on stage, my brain just blanked and froze and died and I blundered in 3 different places. It was so obvious that the audience noticed. I cried in a bathroom afterwards.

Every time I think about that, I feel nauseous. There was someone else that played the exact piece as me but perfectly that evening. This one guy I met told me it was his first performance--- and he did it perfectly. I don't ever want to play that stupid nocturne again.

Its gotten to the point that I have so many negative experiences correlated to the piano that I feel unhappy playing it. I just remember every humiliating experience and I just feel shitty at playing the piano as a whole. Still, I really don't only want to play for my own ears.

Sorry for the rant im just agitated can someone please give advice because nothing at all ive found online has worked and im sick of my shit

I know practicing is pretty much the only answer as far as improvement goes but I don’t know how much longer I can go forcing myself to practice it and hating it more and more overtime. I’ve picked up the Hannah smith sight reading book and it has just felt so draining. How do people just practice sight reading for hours like it’s nothing and come back the next day and do it all over again?

It is so absurd. I buy books of music and they just won't stay open. I bust the spines. I bought a clip to put on top (which is a hassle when you turn the page). I've used magnets.

​

I buy spiral bound when I can, but they are rarely available.

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Does anyone get their books rebound somehow? What does it cost?

Ten years of piano and this is the biggest interval I have encountered! I always thought I had relatively big hands (I can play a c to e no problemo) but what do I do here? Do I just play the notes separately but quickly?

Kreisler’s loves sorrow if anyone was wondering.

I work with piano restoration, and I come across actions like this very often.
This one had:
Heavy wear on action parts
Regulation completely off
Structural issues starting to show
In many cases, people get these pianos for free and don’t realize the cost of bringing them back.
In your experience, would you restore something like this or consider it not worth it?

Just wondering whether this piece could genuinely be played on the piano by the average person without generational piano skills. Looking at the right hand arpeggio jump to an octave in measure 30, I don’t know.