Yesterday I tried to videotape myself playing the keyboard, and I noticed some really revealing things.
I may be learning more difficult pieces now, however my technique and musical "feel" are not really improving much. I noticed things like awkward looking hand movements across the keyboard. My wrist often goes down while I'm playing, as if I'm typing instead of playing.
There's something to be said in improving in smaller steps. I think learning hard pieces is all good and fine. However, when all you do is learn ever more difficult pieces, you don't improve the way you play because all your focus and energy is directed at just being able to play and manage the fingering on these difficult pieces.
I realized I needed structure in my learning process. Certain milestones and requirements I need to accomplish before going to another level. I finally found ABRSM, which is a musical organization that administers musical exams and specifies grades, usually intended for people learning for a possible professional future. Now I'm not learning for a professional future, or trying to get into some music school, but I thought their syllabus was exactly what I needed.
The piano grades go from grade 1 to grade 8, which is beginner to advanced. As far as pieces of music required for each grade, I figured I'm probably around grade 4. But, when it comes to scales, chords, arpeggios, and sight reading, I'm at grade 1. Luckily for me, I have the "The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios, & Cadences". So I decided to go through this cool syllabus starting from grade 1, and make sure I can master all the required scales and chords, and exercises in sight reading.
I'm currently learning the C, G, D and F major scales (haven't reached F yet), which are trickier than you'd think. I'm going to take a step back in new piano pieces, and learn things that are at a grade 3 level until I can completely pass the grade 3 requirements. This way I can work on my technique, mainly losing the stiffness in my hand movement, keeping my fingers in bent and not all over the place, and keeping my wrist straight. And get some style or musical feel when I play.
Here are links to the syllabus and a couple of great sites that have a *lot* of sheet music.
No comments:
Post a Comment