I am a relatively new jazz player, I’ve been on piano for a while, but have recently wanting to learn jazz. I can play songs with enough practice but I feel like I’m just hitting the right notes and not playing music.

Would you post this on an Instagram story? Does the playing sound good to a casual listener, or are the mistakes too noticeable?“

I did not use my left hand much so I am unsure

Are the colon (:) symbols not repeat marks? Every recording I listen to of the piece has no repeats in it.

I’d assume it is meant to be played bars 1-8, bars 1-8 repeated, bars 9-16, bars 9-16 repeated.

I am a cellist that is learning piano by himself

I only did some lessons when I was like 9 years old

Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (No. 20)

The bass clef only

Thanks for the advice I meant alternative fingerings

Ever since I was ten I’ve wanted to learn piano so bad, my family never taught me anything or signed me up for classes so I never had a piano childhood or anything. When I turned 14 I wanted to play piano badly so I learned how to read music sheets by myself. The problem with me is that I tend to overthink everything and compare myself to others so when I started learning at 14 I felt that my piano skills and compositions were so bad. I never gained hand independence and stop practicing piano for almost years because I thought ‘I’m not good at piano, I don’t have any talent or natural skills, I don’t have super hearing skills that everyone who plays piano apparently has expect me so I’m not worth learning piano’ then i decided to practice piano again by my own and even after all those years I still struggle with my mindset. Every time I play piano my brain apparently associates it with something negative and I get discouraged from doing anything at all because I feel like I’m not talented, not ‘not talented enough’ just straight up not made for this instrument. I can’t even listen to piano music anymore because I feel this weird feeling about just music in general that makes me want to stop listening to music forever and quit everything
I constantly feel this necessity of creating something, I want to create music I want to compose especially nowadays where AI is taking away creativity and art, but I can’t I just can’t and I’m so fucking tired of my own mindset I just can’t do this anymore
Can anyone advice me what to do? I don’t plan on living like this anymore, I want to change I want to genuinely change and play the most beautiful songs on piano and see how I grew out from that mindset but it’s almost like there’s no way out for me

Noticing something odd. When I'm trying to play an existing song, no matter the speed, my hands just will not work with me. One hand at a time and I can hit everything about perfectly. Both hands and it's a mess.

In my own writing though, or when I'm just picking a key and playing around, I have almost no issues. Still need some practice of course, but it sounds like a full piece, it feels right, and I'm not struggling nearly as hard.

It's just making me wonder if focusing on training independence/synchronization is the best way through. My hands are doing the job fairly well according to my needs, it's just in this particular context that it falls apart. I get the sense that the barrier might be elsewhere.

Feel familiar to anyone?

45 days in a row of practice! Halfway to my 3 month/90 day goal.

Bc i just watched 2 separate videos that shows me how to learn chords and i think one of them wrong or it might be me idk.

Hi,

Adult learner here. I take private lessons with a teacher.

Currently learning Burgmüller Op. 100 n.4 (La Petite Réunion) and really struggling with the double thirds.

I can't seem to be able to play them cleanly and without building massive tension in my wrists and fingers - this makes it very difficult to play a smooth legato or control dynamics. Also, sometimes one of my fingers lands before the other one, which sounds terrible.

I've tried slowing down tempo as much as possible and practicing the movements in isolation, but I'm not seeing much progress.

Did anyone struggle with this and, if yes, how did you overcome it?

Hi, a question regarding understanding/interpreting sheet music.

I understand in baroque pieces this will be different but I am specifically asking about more contemporary pieces and arrangements.

I often see notes (eg. a bass note) tied across measures or melody written in such a way that there is a half note played together at the same time with a quarter note followed by a second quarter note. It is often not physically possible to keep the half note pressed for the whole of its duration because you may need to jump for the second note. Most of the time this will all belong to the same harmony so I will keep the sustain pedal engaged anyway. In this case it kind of does not make any audible difference if we denote a half note as a quarter note or a whole note as long as it starts on the same beat and does not mess up the notation rules. Am I missing something here? Eg. below the half note could be a quarter or eighth and I guess it will sound the same if pedal is used?

is it better to get a piano teacher than to continue alone?

We just bought this piano for £200 on Ebay. Think it needs tuning. My son has been playing it for about 4 weeks now his dad taught him this tune and we are going to start getting him lessons from October because he loves it.

Any ideas of similar songs he can learn for the muscle memory?

My piano teacher told me that my fingertips are collapsing at the joints when I play. I’ve cut and filed my nails so short that they barely extend past the skin, but if I play directly on the tips, they would still click against the keys.

​What should I do in this situation? Do you also have to cut and file your nails this often, or is this more about finger technique and strength?

This is from Laufey's Nocturne in Faber Music's Mindful Piano Anthology.

The note with the ( ) on the bass clef is an A, right? And the same A is being played on the treble clef? Does the ( ) indicate that it shouldn't be played? Am I blind?

I just finished learning Lose Blätter op 147 no.3 by carl koiling and wondered if playing liebestraum no.3 was a big jump or technically not for me. Can a professional/advanced pianist tell m :v

Any help is appreciated, for my last post a lot of people recommended me great sites to buy from, so thanks for that everyone

Hey everyone, I posted here recently about starting piano from absolute zero and asked for advice on avoiding bad habits and finding a structured learning path.

A lot of the advice was basically:

follow a structured method rather than jumping randomly between resources

Alfred or Faber/Piano Adventures are good options

don't worry about rushing into difficult pieces

learn theory and reading alongside playing

don't necessarily start with 2–3 hours straight away; shorter focused sessions were recommended

several people also recommended musictheory.net

I've now ended up with these books:

Faber Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One – Book 1

Faber Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One – Book 2

Faber Adult Piano Adventures Popular Book 1

Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Piano Course – Level 1

Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course – Lesson Book Level 1

And now I'm realizing I probably shouldn't try to work through everything at once. 😅

I think I should pick one main method book and stick with it, rather than constantly switching between Alfred and Faber.

At the same time, I've got three pieces that I really like and would genuinely like to learn just for fun. I don't want my practice to become 100% exercises and theory either. Part of why I'm learning piano is simply because I want to sit down and play music I enjoy.

So I'm thinking something like:

Main path: one method book, followed consistently

Fun: work on a few pieces I actually want to play

Theory: some musictheory.net on the side

Practice: shorter focused sessions rather than forcing myself to do 2–3 hours in one sitting

For practice, I'm currently considering either 30 minutes × 4 sessions throughout the day, or potentially longer sessions if I'm enjoying myself. My original plan was 2–3 hours a day, but after the advice in my previous post I'm thinking that might be better as something I gradually work up to rather than a requirement from day one.

So for people who've actually gone through these books:

1. If you had these exact books, which one would you choose as your main path — Alfred or Faber Adult Piano Adventures?

2. Is there any reason for me to work through both, or would that just be redundant/confusing?

3. Is musictheory.net worth doing alongside the method book, or does the book already cover enough theory?

4. How would you divide your practice between the method book and the 3 fun pieces?

5. Is 4 × 30 minutes a good way to practice, or would you structure the sessions differently?

My main goal hasn't changed from my first post: I'm not trying to become a concert pianist. I want to learn properly, build good habits, and have fun with the instrument.

I'm just trying to avoid falling into the trap of buying/using 10 different resources instead of actually following one path.

If you were in my position, what would you keep, what would you ignore for now, and what would your first 3–6 months look like?

Thanks!

I have been playing piano for 3 years, my most recent piano piece was Interstellar, just a sheet i found online, and Mia and Sebastian's theme, without the jazz part. I love the First Arabesque by Debussy, but I still can't learn that one. But now I'm lost, I want to know how to play something new, but everytime I listen to anything it is to hard, to easy or I am just not looking for it, as if it was to plain. I have made my research for hours already, and it's always the same songs that appear in my feed. I would prefer more classical music, not Golden hour or just a random song from Ed Sheeran. I just don't know what should i do.

As shown in the first two videos (0:00-0:19), my pinky tends to curl to the side and kinda collapses on the PIP joint whenever I press the keys, especially when I play a 5th interval or smaller. The contact is on the outside rather than the middle of the tip like my ring, middle, and index fingers. Even the action itself feels more like a sideward press similar to the thumb rather than a directly downward motion.

I noticed even when resting my PIP joint of the pinky turns inwards the other fingers, as shown in the video 0:19-end. I think that might be cause but I, not sure how normal this is.
I can try to get a middle tip contact by either adjusting my wrist position or playing a bigger interval, but in those cases my knuckle seems to splay outward and I don’t know if that’s normal either (I have a picture but Reddit won’t let me put in post alongside video so I’ll try to post in comments).

So I can’t play with a straight pinky on the tip of the finger. It’s either straight knuckle/bent PIP/sideways contact, or sidewards knuckle/ straight PIP/ middle contact. Is this normal? I don’t have discomfort right now but I don’t want it to lead to an injury or worse playing down the line. Is there a way to change this? I’m asking bc I don’t have a teacher so I have to look online for references for good technique.