@jazerleepiano Ive been following your channel for so long and these tips are really good but do you have a playlist for learning the piano for beginners? I love the tips but I still just don’t know where and how to start and a playlist to follow along would be really useful for us beginners
I remember in my first piano lesson I told the teacher ‘I’m gonna do anything you ask but don’t ask me to play river flows in you’, he laughed and said ‘oh that’s ok’
Hi Jazer! Have you ever thought about doing a "Tips and Tricks" style video for popular pieces (like Fur Elise, River Flows in You, Rondo Alla Turca, etc). Not a tutorial on the notes, but more along the lines of helping people smooth it all out once they already know a piece? Giving tips like, "Students often play this section too fast" or "Make sure you're playing this section legato, not staccato" or "Pay attention to the crescendo and diminuendo here!" This is the kind of help that I would love to find on youtube - not a tutorial as I can figure out the notes on my own but I would love to have some tips about making the song sound amazing once I already know it... Just a thought! Have a great day, thanks for all your videos!
I block out my time into hour-long chunks. In each hour, I may be learning a new classical work, improving an existing piece, or rehearsing for an event. I like to be learning several pieces at the same time, so I can dedicate different hours/days to different tasks. This also prevents burnout on any one piece. During my 10-minute breaks I make sure to do something- anything- entirely different. Read, play a game, chat with friends, whatever. Meanwhile, I know my subconscious is still digesting how to play whatever I was working on.
There's also another technique- not recommended: Be handed a pile of sheet music by the orchestral director and told, "First practice is next Wednesday." @@willieervinjr2764
I’m a flitter and a gambler! I flit from one piece to another and tend to get bored by repetitive practicing. I justify my mindset by saying I only play for myself anyway; not going on a recital or performance.,Your videos have helped me become more disciplined. And, yes, I’m my harshest critic too!
My first pieces were very easy but very beautiful, so I recognized, that I was ( and still am!) in love with this instrument. 4 until 5 Weeks for every one. My teacher brought me often new pieces, also very beautiful and so did I (e.g. I've heard once Rolling like a Ball by Einaudi and one week later he brought me the notes. ) Very few months later I playied it in front of publicum in our regular meeting to a small private concert with pupils of the music school- I am 53, the oldie in the group! I'm learning now for 6 years and I'm still on fire for the piano. Greetings from Germany and thank you very much for your videos, they are helpfull and motivating!
@@willieervinjr2764Careless Love, El Condor pasa, Oci ciornie, Leilas Theme Part I and II, Plaisier d'amour, Backwater blues, Down by the Riverside, The Wild Rover, Prelude C major(Bach) Divenire, Le matin (Tiersen), Ballade pour Adeline, Für Elise and Moonlight Sonata, The Danube Valse, Christmas Carols, and so on.
Choosing pieces is the hardest bit for me as an adult learner. But when I have the right piece, something that needs a little focus, things do click better. When my motivation is low (often b/c of finding appropriate pieces) I like to work on scales and I quite like doing Hanon exercises. I can feel my finger strength improving. I try to make time for my piano even if it’s 10 minutes a day to review a scale than to skip a day. And I like to do some improv playing just for fun b/c learning a piece can feel like work some days and I need that balance.
I've been on the same piece (one summer's day) for over a year lol and I'm learning so much about music all the time through all the different techniques the piece offers. I'm never bored and I don't feel like it's too difficult; it's just a lot to learn!
I took almost a year to finally play favourite piece "To Zanarkand". I do not have prior with no background took some private lessons and dropped, struggling at hand independence, work stress, common negativity etc etc. There is just one thing that kept me going, This melody resonates well in my brain leaving a lasting impression.
I played the piano daily from may to november last year. I learned 3 pieces. The first piece i chose was too hard, but i hammered it until i memorized all the notes, around august. Then i learned the two others. But after i spent so many months practicing them, and i REALLY loved them, thats why i played them so much everyday, i began to feel kinda tired, bcz i got to a point i wasnt seeing much improvement anymore. I did get a lot better, and there were days i was so inspired and was able to test out my own interpretation of them. But i felt i had to learn a fourth song already. However, its just too troublesome for me, it drains me a lot to sight read new pieces, and even though there were a few songs that had parts i liked, i didnt feel that appeal from the whole of the pieces as i did for the first three. The result: i stopped playing. I tried practicing some czerny exercises, and at days they were fun to see improvement, but after some weeks they just felt too stressful. Im just a hobbyist pianist, and i already have to study and learn so much for my work, getting into the work mindset for the piano really killed it for me. I didnt want just to get better no matter what it takes. I just really wanted to grow closer to the piano. As i kid, i had some talent, but i quit the classes bcz i didnt like the teachers, the songs i had to play, and my hands were small. Biggest regret of my life. For many years, i felt like i did not have the right to learn the piano, that i didnt really love music, bcz i had quit. But i know its not true. Everyone has the right to play the piano. The instrument wont judge you. Sorry for the long comment. Theres so much going on rn, but i really want to go back to playing just to have fun someday. Your channel is really helpful.
Everyday is a new opportunity to take the piano from zero, remember why you started piano, enjoy it more in less practice time, maybe you need only more discipline and look for a teacher who can give you some challenging advices and that 4th song you want to learn. Go, start TODAY !
I have learned enough theory that I now struggle to play exactly what’s on the page. It’s a terrible habit. I appreciate the timeline aspect. It’s now tedious to do it correctly. I give myself a few days and move on. I have a new song, pretty tough, but going to attack with patience, small bits, every day, and see what happens in 4 weeks of dedicated, deliberate practice. Thank you for the new mindset and also the book recommendation. Your videos are really thought provoking. Thank you!
Twice in my life, after decades away from the piano, I relearned to play by first sightreading multiple entire pieces, (some of them long and some very long), and after the first batch began to flow, I would add new pieces and repeat the process. It takes longer to learn individual pieces that way, but when the multiple pieces all begin to flow easily, the process accellerates, so that eventually, I can learn several pieces together faster than if I had worked on them individually one by one. This method has immensely improved my sightreading, and has made learning new pieces easier and faster. In 1999, after 20 years without practice, I began by sightreading Mozart's Vienese Sonatinas and K545, along with Brahms op. 79 no. 2. I learned the Mozart quickly. The Brahms Rhapsody needed more time. When that one started to flow, I added op. 79 no. 2, and one by one added other pieces. For sightreading practice, I sightread through sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms op. 5. After a hand injury, I went 16 yesrs without practice. I resumed practice two years ago. At present I am regularly rotating 12 sonatas (9 Mozart, 2 Beethoven, 1 Brahms); and shorter pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Bach, Schubert & Mendelssohn. By next year, I expect to again play at my 2004 level, when I was able to play well enough to perform privately; and in 1976, in public. I have discovered it is more difficult after age 70, but it can be done. The earlier level of my best, younger years is fast approaching.
Hi Jazer! Just want to thank you for the work you do. Im 42 and have recently dusted off my mothers piano from 1955. I have now tuned it and have fallen in love with how a piano works. Have gone through many of your vids and they are the best. Keep up the good work!
Wonderful content. The word @3:40 should be "pique". I first learned piano as a kid about 35 years ago. The pieces I got were too difficult because I was working from traditional resources. No disrespect at all to these sources; I actually love the music style. But it's worth saying that they were developed at a time when many learners could not afford a large amount of music and had to get the maximum out of each piece they had in their library. Those pieces had to be pretty hard. We're lucky, in this day in age, to have access to a virtually unlimited music supply to both engage us and to be at the exact right level for us to take the "perfect" amount of time to learn and grow.
I am 39 and just started learning how to play piano :) Until now, watched so many different piano teachers on youtube. I think Jazer is the best one. Good work and keep up with that!
★★★★★Jazer-another home run. For me you are the best piano teacher posting on TH-cam. Thank you. I think the 4 week to 8 week sweet spot depends on the student's goal. Example: I am a self taught pianist (no lessons ever) getting back into piano after a two decade hiatus. So, I am spending a lot of time sight reading and learning "relatively" easy pieces. I just discovered the charming Sonatine by Lynes Op. 39 which are delightful. These pieces I can learn the notes in one session and reach a musical performance in a few days. In addition, I think it is good for learners to mix it up, having a few easy pieces in the queue and maybe one reach piece. Just my 2¢. ♥
I disagree in that if a student is very, very motivated to learn a piece that is difficult, they may stick to it long enough to improve and be worthy of it in time. In the meantime, they can also work on easier pieces that are learnable in a few months. It took me 4 years to learn Linus and Lucy at a mediocre level and another year to play it well. But I learned SO much in the meantime.
This an extremely useful tutorial. Thank you Jazer. I am currently learning several pieces to stop me getting bored with just one. They are various levels of difficulty too. I eventually succeed in getting there though, thanks to those clever fingers of mine!
What an excellent video, I truly needed this. I have been berating myself for not being able to learn pieces in a week or two. Now I know that I have been picking pieces that are a little above my current level and I haven't been giving myself nearly enough time to master them. I'm going to try to take these tips to heart and go easier on myself...
I am brand new to piano and this is spot on. I practice for about 2 hours a day on average and for a fairly complicated/intermediate piece it takes me about 30 days or a bit less. 2 weeks for less complicated, but still intermediate. I would say, probably stay away from anything that takes more than 30 days to at least play the notes unless it's a real passion project. I learned "Say Something" by Great Big World in 2 weeks 2 hours a day and the theme to indecent proposal by John Barry in one Month. Still working on the flow the following month though. My current practice is getting the notes in hand and decent flow then move on to next piece while working on flow of previous piece.
Really interesting. The challenge I have is I’m often learning 3 pieces at the same time. I can learn the notes in a few months but mastering the flow and dynamics takes a lot longer. Especially if I am aiming for exam level standard.
i'm beginner in piano and i found your contents helpful especially to me as a beginner who don't know anything about piano, it helps me alot especially with every pieces chords that hards to learn for me. i wanna learn more abt piano because i love music and piano it helps me everytime when im emotionally tired, even i play slowly i pick one of my fav music and learn it until i finish even a little bit progress of it. because of you and your contents, tutorial , tips etc. i learn one by one every day thanks a lot Sir Jazer!!❤❤❤✨ lovelots from PH🇵🇭🇵🇭
I’ve always felt that I take too long to learn a piece/song/tune. For example, months Your comments confirm it. However, I’m feeling confident that I can shorten the timeline by taking in your suggestions. With concentration on finger movements and internalization of small chunks being at the forefront. The other mentioned concepts, I have been doing. For example, level appropriate music, excitement of the piece, practice at speed to not make mistake, etc. I have been playing piano for about 12 years. First approx 10 years was private lessons, the last two with online courses. I practice/play about 1 hour per weekday and at least 4 hours on weekends. Excited to apply to my piano journey. Thank you Jazer Lee
This was helpful. I have trouble with the last 10% of mastering a piece, mostly getting it up to tempo. I start making mistakes where I’ve never made them before, and I get frustrated. My usual thought is that I’m trying to play music that’s too complicated and I back off on the difficulty, but I think that may be adding to the problem. Piano is my third instrument (violin when I was a kid and voice all my life- I’m 59), and I think I get musically bored because my fingers can’t keep up with my understanding of the music
I’m learning piano as a third instrument as well and I will see if this is the same for me. The first price I’m learning is very hard and my guess is I will be happy to play it at 75% speed after a year. I’m going to add scales, chord and sight reading along the way.
People need to understand that the piano is a complex and difficult instrument to master. I'm an older adult and I've played for 10+ years, and many of those years were frustrating because of not having teaching like this. It just takes longer to learn piano pieces than pieces on other instruments. I played violin as a child, forgot everything I knew over the years, but when I picked it up again just 6 mos. ago, it didn't take me that long to settle in. I also started playing viola, a brand new instrument, and it's challenging but nothing like piano. I'm only reading one staff, lol. Piano is so complex; people need to know that going in.
Watched you several times, subbed today as beginner got great recommendations from such a talented teacher as you are. I'm almost 5 month started learning how to play piano, never even learning notes, all by copying "flying strips" an slow down fingers player P.S. Soon plans to upload my piano challenge in Utube...
My first ever piece was The night king by Ramin Djawadi arr by Patrick Pietschmann, it took me over 7-8 month to learn it fully. At that time I did not have any kind of experience playing on piano, but my dedication to learn that piece kept me going and eventually I've managed to play it solidly.
Thank you for your video. Great tips! I’ve been working on first arabesque for 3 months now and I can play through the whole song but struggle keeping with the timing. The polyrhythms I’ve mastered though!
Subscribed your channel few weeks back and following your tips and methods. And my playings skills is improving day by day. Thanks alot BROTHER. Love You. God Bless You.
Usually give up before I finish learning. However, I’m currently working on a piece. This is day four. I have each hand down separately. Now I’m about to begin practicing playing hands together. Thanks for these great tips as always. Hopefully Magic happens for me on day 6 or 7 🤷🏽♂️ lol or before
I usually have 3 pieces that I am learning, one that I am re-learning after years of never really really mastering the piece (which seems easier now) and one that is in my piano skill technique and one that is just above my my skill level. As a amateur piano hobbyist this seems to work for me.
I've been practicing the first movement of the facile sonata for the last 2 weeks, I think I can finally play it reasonably, but I still have certain difficulties with left-hand scales, during these two weeks I tried to follow your recommendations, I mean, the results were amazing, really good recommendation playing slowly and precise as possible avoiding any single mistake.
Can't thank you enough! There's no way a mere mortal like me gonna know how pianists do without you sharing the videos. And I think I have to congrats myself coz it seems that it's a normal duration. Seriously I used to think that a musician can execute a piece in one or two sitting before XD and reading the tittle on the youtube suggestion made me nervous afraid of I am left so behind
Very interesting lesson, indeed. This remind me to be patient......and as you know, playing music is like rowing agains the current.....if you stop, you are pushed back and back..... Thansk for your advises
Making so much sense!! Thank you for explanation. I thought I was spending too much time, but maybe I am. Currently on week 3 practicing moonlight sonata. Was attracted to its slow tempo but got frustrated for not recognising the patterns easily since i have been out of touch with sight reading after quitting when I was a kid. Currently trying to master the 3 ascending and a decending arpeggios. Not sure why the fingers aren't picking them up naturally. Other time I just practice avoiding wrong keys in sections I'm already familiar with. Hopefully by the end of the month, i can finally play the piece somewhat smoothly. 😊 You're my teacher!
I have been trying to learn liebestraum and I am currently into my third month of playing. I mastered the flow for almost half the piece and I have not yet learned the notes. I practice 1-2hours a day and I can really see how my muscle memory improves and how then I am able to actually “play” and actually master the notes with accuracy and expression. One thing I realized is that I attempt to master the flow gradually instead of learning the whole piece then mastering the flow. Now there’s only two pages and the second cadenza left and I really can tell the improvements and the expressions I put on the notes are extremely rewarding and motivating for me to keep going on! Although my first cadenza isn’t perfect but I see my apparent progress in accuracy and speed as I slowly and gradually practice. But I do agree that this piece might be a bit too hard for me but I love the song and I see the progress I make which is keeping me motivated! Thank you jazer and I for sure will learn the notes first before mastering the flow for my next piece!
As a 35 year old beginner it’s tough because there aren’t many tutorials for songs I want to play. I started in January learning the game of thrones theme. Learned that and many other songs since so now I’m not really a full beginner but I’m also not even close to intermediate. The tutorials online don’t seem to cater to the non-beginner but also non-intermediate that can’t really read sheet music efficiently. So that makes me dread continuing because I feel like I have to spend an hour a day just doing the music theory work and sheet music reading instead of playing
I restarted my piano journey since April 2023 and it took me till now to play 'Itsumo nandemo' till the end of the song... Now it's time to play it without errors haha Wish I would've watched this tip earlier, then I would've waited to restart this piece... 😅
The 1-2 month timeframe applies in my case. However it depends a lot on the piece, how long and how difficult. You can also learn much faster if you practice more hours and if you become very good at practicing. Some professional pianists learn so fast that it feels impossible and nobody seems to know how they do it.
I am definitely playing a piece thats too difficult for me. Clair de lune.. the articulation and speed of runs are really hard. But i love learning it. Nine months in!!
Regarding the not make mistakes point. It’s not that i don’t agree, i do and i follow that as well, and also I’m not a piano player, just starting out with this instrument (learned Chopin’s prelude no 4 in e minor in about a week to the point where I can play it albeit sounding very much like a beginner while doing so), so what I’m writing here might be completely wrong. But I have been playing guitar for a few decades now and I find that when I plateau, that is i get to the point where no matter how many times I practice something slow and perfect, I can’t get it up to full speed, it helps to play it sloppy and with mistakes at 120% speed or something. It forces my brain to think fast, to realize that I don’t have time to think of the next moves, and also after that normal speed doesn’t seem that fast anymore :)
Jazer Lee! I love your videos so freaking much. I just love learning about piano in general. I video idea that could be awesome would be to talk about how many pieces do you think someone can be working on at a time. For example I am currently working on 3 pieces. Is that too much? Too little? I don’t know can you answer that for me?
I practice for an hour every single day. Within that hour, I practice scales, sightreading, and a few pieces. So how long should I be practicing my pieces specifically to get proficient? Is focusing for 10 minutes on each piece enough? Or should I devote the full hour to working on a piece? When you propose one or two months to be fluent, how long does that translate to working on a piece in daily practice?
It depends how many notes are in the piece, surely? Find a new piece that is unknown to you and learn a couple or 4 bars until you're perfect and the piece sounds beatiful, while timing yourself. Then extrapolate for longer pieces with the same complexity, and you will have an idea.
My son, eight yo, on grade 4 ABRMS, learns two pieces grade 3 or 1 piece grade 4 in two weeks. Separate hands first week. He practises 1h per day. Same preps for his first recital. Works perfectly well for him
I'm playing and learning piano VERY casually, and learning about a bar of something a week has been good for me so far. I could probably do more, but I find I get a little burned out if I do. Sunday I work out the notes and fingering and play the bar a bit. Next day I try to remember and play the bar a bit. Every day I get a little better at it. Once a week's gone by, I've usually got it down. Then I add the next bar and practice whatever bars I've learned of the song for the next week, and I just keep gradually chipping away at it like that. Learning the song takes however long it's going to take; I don't worry too much about it. After I get through the whole song I keep playing it mostly every day to refine my playing of it (and just for the enjoyment of it). So far I've learned Bach's Prelude No.1, Moonlight Sonata, the first 27 bars of Clair de Lune (still gradually chipping away at that one, but what I can play of it so far sounds really nice), and a random boogie song for fun. There are only a handful of songs I'm really interested in playing so it's not a big deal to me to take it slowly. Breaking things down into tiny chunks like this makes things very digestible for me, even for more intimidating songs.
I've definitely been playing songs that take me just a day or two to learn and a week or so to master. This video made me realize I'm not challenging myself enough and that maybe I am ready for some slightly harder songs.
Took me 12 months to learn how to play River flows in You from totally zero skill in piano. Ok I played the first few measures before I stopped and started to practice some piano basics for 6 months before coming back to Yiruma's piece.
Hi Jazer, I've been following your channel for a few months now, and I'm really pleased, and encouraged by your brilliant advice. And totally agree with your timeframes for learning a piece of music. However, I would say that it is OK to allow yourself to make mistakes when trying to master the notes, otherwise how do you learn. It's taken me best part of 6 months to get over the fear of making mistakes, and to be able to play in front of people, and the only way I've managed this is to not worry about making mistakes. Does make sense, what's your thought on this? Lee
A few times I've been ready to give up on a piece because I couldn't get it right, then just thought give it a couple more days..and hey ho it's fallen in to place! Patience is a huge part of the whole learning process.
In school we have grade levels. People are expected to complete each level in a timely manner. The majority would finish on time whether they get good marks or not. Piano learning tends to be open-ended. There is a starting date but lessons can go on indefinitely. Some people quit for a while and return as adult learners for any number of reasons. I know people who quit piano within 2 years. Don't want to come to the conclusion the pieces were too hard since beginner pieces can't get easier than "Mary Had a Little Lamb". The student may not be practicing properly or put in enough time for practice. Many students would prefer to spend time in front of a screen on social media or watching TV than practicing piano. Choosing your own pieces is easier said than done. When we're just starting we have so little exposure to music that every piece is a new piece. People wouldn't pick Mozart "Rondo Alla Turca" out of the blue without the teacher introducing it first. Probably the majority if not all the pieces would be assigned by the teacher. I met a young teen who has been play for at least 8 years. She played pieces at a family gathering and enjoys playing. Even after 8 years she is not comfortable playing pieces outside the teacher's assigned repertoire. A piano piece can be easy & repetitive when it's played as duet with another solo instrument. Even when the piano part is easy, getting both to play at sync can be a challenge.
There are pieces with big jumps, many chords, syncopated rhythm etc. that I put aside for many months before learning. I started late as an adult learner but don't feel the need to work on specific pieces for 6 months. There are 2 options for learning a hard piece: find a version for easy piano or put it aside. Most of the time I'd put a piece aside and learn the full version later. There are many easier and fun pieces I'd be learning along the way.
I have enough unlimited amount of music to work on, and I just enjoy the ride of continuing to familiarise myself with piano. I don't put any time limit on any piece of music. I just work and learn at my own pace. I'm never in a rush. I just enjoy playing the piano. After a long enough amount of time and effort and practice and learning - and combining with our own capabilities, we eventually will be able to generate very nice music - whatever we want. It can take time, and lots of it. But there will be a point where adequate experience is accumulated - and we make the piano 'sing' and shine. (ex-PW member , permanent PC member).
jazer im gonna play devils advocate and argue that even a month is a bit too long to be working a single piece all by itself. although I will admit I'm biased bc I'm not at an advanced level yet to preface this. I'm currently sitting at roughly an rcm grade 1-2 level. I'm always working on 3 pieces at any given moment: 1 piece that is at my level, 1 piece that is 1-2 grades above my level, and one piece that is significantly above my level but not to the point where I can't at least have the notes down in a month or 2 (i'll miss out on most of the musicality stuff with the super hard pieces, but at least I can get a feel for more complex repertoire for when I do get to that level) the current lvl pieces take me about a week to get to get to tempo, and then maybe a few more days to iron out the musicality. the slightly above pieces, 2-4 weeks. and the super hard pieces, 1-2 months. it's about efficiency and exposure to as much music as possible for me. 12 pieces a year just isn't very efficient IMO. example: in the time it took me to learn 4 haydn German dances (pretty much all of them are either grade 1 or 2), i also learned cpe bach's march in d major (grade 4), prelude in c major BWV 939 (grade 5), and at the highest level, i learned the notes to two-part invention no. 8 (grade 7). this all took me about a month and a half (although to be fair most of my piano experience is with baroque music, so a lot of it was familiar to me). TLDR: spending a month on pieces that are above you level is fine, but it should be supplemented with smaller wins with easier pieces that can be learned a bit quicker, not only for getting more consistent exposure to new music, but also just to maintain excitement for learning the instrument in general.
It takes me too long and I'm sure it's because I try to learn the piece too fast and not really learn the notes well. Back to the drawing er piano board!
there is a book by Karl Reisz entitled The Technique of Film Editing. you might be interested in its chapter on editing instructional films/videos and apply those techniques on your piano videos. this not to say that would bring you millions of new viewers but your videos would then more match the quality of your piano playing as editing follows some principles similarly as playing musical instruments does. good luck!
Hi jazer, I'm one of your subscribers, I do watch your videos regularly. I have a question like do you take online piano tuitions if yes I'm ready to learn from you right away.
It seems to take me 4 to 6 weeks to perfect my pieces. At this point in my piano journey, my pieces are still relatively short--the longest so far is 67 bars. My teacher has me working on two to three pieces at a time. One is in the polishing phase, another is in the working out phase, and the third will be one I'm just starting to look at. I don't think I could work on just a single piece and not get bored.
Hi from Lekmo. What’s a rough % of the practice time to devote to 1 piece over that 1-2 month period? At 60-90m/day I’m finding it a challenge to fit in technique,let alone applied theory,sight-reading,ear-training etc and have much time to progress with 1 piece let alone 3, especially the getting-the-notes-with-no-mistakes stage. I might be spending too much time on technique so that prompted this question. If you haven’t already done so, it would be great to see a short video commentary on structuring or balancing the many aspects of practice in a practice session. Thanks Jazer
For 8 grade level piano piece it should take you about 20 minutes a day for a year to get it to a pass standard in ABRSM or Trinity exam . It means every day x 20 minutes, not 80 minutes on weekends only. The latter is likely to make your learning process so much longer. If you have an experienced teacher once a week, they will be able to tell how often you practiced - there really is a marked difference between playing every day and only a couple of times per week.
I used to think it takes me forever to learn a new song but, after watching your video, I see I'm within the normal time frame (2-3 months). But I've found it takes me longer to get "dialed in" where I can play a difficult piece perfectly at the drop of a hat. Perhaps I'm playing it too fast and should slow down. I also noticed that I tend to quickly forget a difficult piece if I don't play it everyday. But relearning it is faster than before so my brain kind of remembers it.
Hey Jazer, I love your videos. I've learned a lot from them and I started enjoying piano more than ever. And I always wondered how is your outro song called. I'd appreciate if you could give the song's name. Thanks for all the videos!
Thanks for the video! The exact question I have been wondering these days, frustrated by my own progress. However, sometimes it might be difficult to gauge how long to master a piece as most of us (as "prescribed" by piano teacher) learn 2-3 pieces and some other technical exercises like Czerny and Hanon together at any one time. Yet I think it's very true that the motivation for a piece goes down after one month plus to two months. Do I extend the "1-2 month" time frame if I learn multiple pieces at one time? Perhaps would be helpful to specify how much time spend on a piece daily... 10 min? 20 min? 30 min? 1 hour? to put it in the 1-2 months time frame...
I started studying piano about 3,5 months, I started Burgümuller each peace I take a 2 days in the key flow and 3 days to play it slow. To play perfectly, but slow I would take more 2 weeks on each music.
I just started MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose," yesterday; I'll let you know how long it takes! (I'm still working on Satie Gymnopedie #1, and really enjoying it the process.)
First, I never practice only one piece at a time and it really depends on the level of mastery that I want. If I intend to someday present it, it might take 2-3 months. There are some pieces that I've start and stop a few time because I'm not there yet and I'm "checking out" to gauge myself.
As self learning pianist, it’s hard to find pieces that I like and suitable for my level. Many of times I spend months even a year to learn a piece I like. Any suggestion for where to look for them? Either paid or free.
Well there's Musescore, I think you gotta sign up and pay but I would definitely search for the pieces beforehand to see if there's something that you like, but they have a lot of songs. There's also TH-cam, search the song you like, find someone you like who plays it the way you like (I'm very picky) and they almost always have sheet music in the description. I forget the name but they always put their sheet music on a specific site. So you could search that site as well
Rich and useful advice. Jazer, you are a great teacher. Recently a friend of mine has introduced me to Burgmüller „25 Etudes faciles et progressives“ and Diabelli „Melodious Exercises“ (Opus 149) in order to start with classical piano. Also Hanon has been mentioned, which I already enjoy practicing. What are your thoughts on Diabelli and Burgmüller, if you happen to know their exercises?
Hi Jazer, what about longer classical pieces like Liebestraume, Fantasie Impromptu, Clair de Lune? How much time should we be spending mastering those works?
Arranger keyboard playing its much easily than playing the piano... piano music is harder to read the music there is a lot going on for the left hand than playing simpel keyboards with simpel chords an only melody... keyboard players can play more music in a short time than classic pianist, classic pianist have realy to study the pieces for a long periode ... arranger keyboards players can play many scores right away... simple chords for the left hand and play only the melody with the right hand , and they never have to jump like a stride pianist thats the differents.... I playing also piano a little jazz and classic... its cost time but he' its my greatest hobby... 😊 and yes sometimes very frustrating when its to hard or the peace is to long... I was years ago a marching band drummer thats was more easy to read and play the score becouse its only the rythm I played without much thinking. Reading scores go much faster than play melodic instruments like accordeon, gitar piano etc...
Didn't think the flow of notes would be 2/3rd of the time on a piece i thought it would be the other way around. Maybe cause i dont't master my pieces enough.
It's difficult to stick to a specific schedule about learning a classical or any written music as I often have to rehearse 20-25 songs to prepare for gigs with my 80's/90's cover band. The gigs are almost on a monthly basis. Cheers!
Very insightfull. I was wondering, 4 weeks seems about right to master a piece myself. But would you be able to sight read it and play it directly without study. Does 20 years of experience help you to reduce the time to study a piece. Of course it would depend on the difficulty of the piece but let's say a simple Bach prelude or invention for instance.
Great video. If someone is practicing for 1-2 hours per day, how long would you expect them to be practicing a piece (vs technical work)? How many pieces do your students have on the go at the same time generally?
Hi Jazzer!! If there is a piece I want to learn but is a bit difficult and can't find an easier version of the piano sheet, is there a strategy you'd recommend to learn that piece?
I’m working on the Chopin Op 10 etudes. I practice about 3-4 times a week, for maybe an hour. Based on my progress, I takes me between 6 months to years to learn - but I do eventually get there. However, I do spend a lot of practice time just playing easy pieces I already have at a reasonable level. My goal is enjoying playing, so I don’t really pressure myself.
Same - I have pieces I'm practicing that I've already spent >6months on, however they're still improving, getting ever closer to performance standard (for me). Then other pieces that I can learn in 2-4 weeks - and still other pieces of a difficulty level somewhere in between.
Very Good Video with valuable insights. Based on these I wonder if it's better to work only on one piece for a time period given (say 1 month) or on multiple in parallel? The pros and cons are obvious: Focus on the learning curve vs. not getting board. What is your experience? Which path would you recommend for practicing daily 1 - 1,5 hrs.? THANKS A LOT FOR ALL OF YOUR EFFORT:
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🕘 Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:33 Two Steps (Learning a Piece)
1:30 Suggested Timelines
3:41 Factors in Choosing Your Piece
5:25 Recommended Reading
6:08 Jazer Recommendation
6:35 3 Tips (Learning for Pieces)
@jazerleepiano Ive been following your channel for so long and these tips are really good but do you have a playlist for learning the piano for beginners? I love the tips but I still just don’t know where and how to start and a playlist to follow along would be really useful for us beginners
I remember in my first piano lesson I told the teacher ‘I’m gonna do anything you ask but don’t ask me to play river flows in you’, he laughed and said ‘oh that’s ok’
yea or this other extremely overplayed piece. Amelie something something
I think you should only be allowed to play this piece if your piano is full of water... or equipped with hammers.
😂😂😂
No. 1 in Musescore :)
@@paveldanek113not even krantz should do that
Hi Jazer! Have you ever thought about doing a "Tips and Tricks" style video for popular pieces (like Fur Elise, River Flows in You, Rondo Alla Turca, etc). Not a tutorial on the notes, but more along the lines of helping people smooth it all out once they already know a piece? Giving tips like, "Students often play this section too fast" or "Make sure you're playing this section legato, not staccato" or "Pay attention to the crescendo and diminuendo here!"
This is the kind of help that I would love to find on youtube - not a tutorial as I can figure out the notes on my own but I would love to have some tips about making the song sound amazing once I already know it...
Just a thought! Have a great day, thanks for all your videos!
I block out my time into hour-long chunks. In each hour, I may be learning a new classical work, improving an existing piece, or rehearsing for an event. I like to be learning several pieces at the same time, so I can dedicate different hours/days to different tasks. This also prevents burnout on any one piece. During my 10-minute breaks I make sure to do something- anything- entirely different. Read, play a game, chat with friends, whatever. Meanwhile, I know my subconscious is still digesting how to play whatever I was working on.
Great advice. I may try this.
Very close to what I do as well.
There's also another technique- not recommended: Be handed a pile of sheet music by the orchestral director and told, "First practice is next Wednesday." @@willieervinjr2764
Basically pomodoro technique, which is shown to be a pretty effective learning method
The same. I count 30 minutes blocks. But usually there are 3 in one run.
I’m a flitter and a gambler! I flit from one piece to another and tend to get bored by repetitive practicing. I justify my mindset by saying I only play for myself anyway; not going on a recital or performance.,Your videos have helped me become more disciplined. And, yes, I’m my harshest critic too!
My first pieces were very easy but very beautiful, so I recognized, that I was ( and still am!) in love with this instrument. 4 until 5 Weeks for every one. My teacher brought me often new pieces, also very beautiful and so did I (e.g. I've heard once Rolling like a Ball by Einaudi and one week later he brought me the notes. ) Very few months later I playied it in front of publicum in our regular meeting to a small private concert with pupils of the music school- I am 53, the oldie in the group! I'm learning now for 6 years and I'm still on fire for the piano. Greetings from Germany and thank you very much for your videos, they are helpfull and motivating!
Wow That’s great! Do you mind sharing what some of those very beautiful and easy pieces are?
@@willieervinjr2764Careless Love, El Condor pasa, Oci ciornie, Leilas Theme Part I and II, Plaisier d'amour, Backwater blues, Down by the Riverside, The Wild Rover, Prelude C major(Bach) Divenire, Le matin (Tiersen), Ballade pour Adeline, Für Elise and Moonlight Sonata, The Danube Valse, Christmas Carols, and so on.
Choosing pieces is the hardest bit for me as an adult learner. But when I have the right piece, something that needs a little focus, things do click better. When my motivation is low (often b/c of finding appropriate pieces) I like to work on scales and I quite like doing Hanon exercises. I can feel my finger strength improving. I try to make time for my piano even if it’s 10 minutes a day to review a scale than to skip a day. And I like to do some improv playing just for fun b/c learning a piece can feel like work some days and I need that balance.
I've been on the same piece (one summer's day) for over a year lol and I'm learning so much about music all the time through all the different techniques the piece offers. I'm never bored and I don't feel like it's too difficult; it's just a lot to learn!
I took almost a year to finally play favourite piece "To Zanarkand". I do not have prior with no background took some private lessons and dropped, struggling at hand independence, work stress, common negativity etc etc.
There is just one thing that kept me going, This melody resonates well in my brain leaving a lasting impression.
I played the piano daily from may to november last year. I learned 3 pieces. The first piece i chose was too hard, but i hammered it until i memorized all the notes, around august. Then i learned the two others. But after i spent so many months practicing them, and i REALLY loved them, thats why i played them so much everyday, i began to feel kinda tired, bcz i got to a point i wasnt seeing much improvement anymore. I did get a lot better, and there were days i was so inspired and was able to test out my own interpretation of them. But i felt i had to learn a fourth song already. However, its just too troublesome for me, it drains me a lot to sight read new pieces, and even though there were a few songs that had parts i liked, i didnt feel that appeal from the whole of the pieces as i did for the first three. The result: i stopped playing. I tried practicing some czerny exercises, and at days they were fun to see improvement, but after some weeks they just felt too stressful. Im just a hobbyist pianist, and i already have to study and learn so much for my work, getting into the work mindset for the piano really killed it for me. I didnt want just to get better no matter what it takes. I just really wanted to grow closer to the piano. As i kid, i had some talent, but i quit the classes bcz i didnt like the teachers, the songs i had to play, and my hands were small. Biggest regret of my life. For many years, i felt like i did not have the right to learn the piano, that i didnt really love music, bcz i had quit. But i know its not true. Everyone has the right to play the piano. The instrument wont judge you. Sorry for the long comment. Theres so much going on rn, but i really want to go back to playing just to have fun someday. Your channel is really helpful.
Everyday is a new opportunity to take the piano from zero, remember why you started piano, enjoy it more in less practice time, maybe you need only more discipline and look for a teacher who can give you some challenging advices and that 4th song you want to learn. Go, start TODAY !
I have learned enough theory that I now struggle to play exactly what’s on the page. It’s a terrible habit. I appreciate the timeline aspect. It’s now tedious to do it correctly. I give myself a few days and move on. I have a new song, pretty tough, but going to attack with patience, small bits, every day, and see what happens in 4 weeks of dedicated, deliberate practice. Thank you for the new mindset and also the book recommendation. Your videos are really thought provoking. Thank you!
I thought I should know a piece after max 3-4 days 😂 What a relief!
Twice in my life, after decades away from the piano, I relearned to play by first sightreading multiple entire pieces, (some of them long and some very long), and after the first batch began to flow, I would add new pieces and repeat the process. It takes longer to learn individual pieces that way, but when the multiple pieces all begin to flow easily, the process accellerates, so that eventually, I can learn several pieces together faster than if I had worked on them individually one by one. This method has immensely improved my sightreading, and has made learning new pieces easier and faster. In 1999, after 20 years without practice, I began by sightreading Mozart's Vienese Sonatinas and K545, along with Brahms op. 79 no. 2. I learned the Mozart quickly. The Brahms Rhapsody needed more time. When that one started to flow, I added op. 79 no. 2, and one by one added other pieces. For sightreading practice, I sightread through sonatas of Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms op. 5. After a hand injury, I went 16 yesrs without practice. I resumed practice two years ago. At present I am regularly rotating 12 sonatas (9 Mozart, 2 Beethoven, 1 Brahms); and shorter pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Bach, Schubert & Mendelssohn. By next year, I expect to again play at my 2004 level, when I was able to play well enough to perform privately; and in 1976, in public. I have discovered it is more difficult after age 70, but it can be done. The earlier level of my best, younger years is fast approaching.
Thanks for this timescale.
Hi Jazer! Just want to thank you for the work you do. Im 42 and have recently dusted off my mothers piano from 1955. I have now tuned it and have fallen in love with how a piano works. Have gone through many of your vids and they are the best. Keep up the good work!
Wonderful content. The word @3:40 should be "pique".
I first learned piano as a kid about 35 years ago. The pieces I got were too difficult because I was working from traditional resources. No disrespect at all to these sources; I actually love the music style. But it's worth saying that they were developed at a time when many learners could not afford a large amount of music and had to get the maximum out of each piece they had in their library. Those pieces had to be pretty hard. We're lucky, in this day in age, to have access to a virtually unlimited music supply to both engage us and to be at the exact right level for us to take the "perfect" amount of time to learn and grow.
I am 39 and just started learning how to play piano :) Until now, watched so many different piano teachers on youtube. I think Jazer is the best one. Good work and keep up with that!
★★★★★Jazer-another home run. For me you are the best piano teacher posting on TH-cam. Thank you. I think the 4 week to 8 week sweet spot depends on the student's goal. Example: I am a self taught pianist (no lessons ever) getting back into piano after a two decade hiatus. So, I am spending a lot of time sight reading and learning "relatively" easy pieces. I just discovered the charming Sonatine by Lynes Op. 39 which are delightful. These pieces I can learn the notes in one session and reach a musical performance in a few days. In addition, I think it is good for learners to mix it up, having a few easy pieces in the queue and maybe one reach piece. Just my 2¢. ♥
I disagree in that if a student is very, very motivated to learn a piece that is difficult, they may stick to it long enough to improve and be worthy of it in time. In the meantime, they can also work on easier pieces that are learnable in a few months. It took me 4 years to learn Linus and Lucy at a mediocre level and another year to play it well. But I learned SO much in the meantime.
This an extremely useful tutorial. Thank you Jazer. I am currently learning several pieces to stop me getting bored with just one. They are various levels of difficulty too. I eventually succeed in getting there though, thanks to those clever fingers of mine!
What an excellent video, I truly needed this. I have been berating myself for not being able to learn pieces in a week or two. Now I know that I have been picking pieces that are a little above my current level and I haven't been giving myself nearly enough time to master them. I'm going to try to take these tips to heart and go easier on myself...
Me, too!
I am brand new to piano and this is spot on. I practice for about 2 hours a day on average and for a fairly complicated/intermediate piece it takes me about 30 days or a bit less. 2 weeks for less complicated, but still intermediate. I would say, probably stay away from anything that takes more than 30 days to at least play the notes unless it's a real passion project. I learned "Say Something" by Great Big World in 2 weeks 2 hours a day and the theme to indecent proposal by John Barry in one Month. Still working on the flow the following month though.
My current practice is getting the notes in hand and decent flow then move on to next piece while working on flow of previous piece.
Really interesting. The challenge I have is I’m often learning 3 pieces at the same time. I can learn the notes in a few months but mastering the flow and dynamics takes a lot longer. Especially if I am aiming for exam level standard.
i'm beginner in piano and i found your contents helpful especially to me as a beginner who don't know anything about piano, it helps me alot especially with every pieces chords that hards to learn for me.
i wanna learn more abt piano because i love music and piano it helps me everytime when im emotionally tired, even i play slowly i pick one of my fav music and learn it until i finish even a little bit progress of it.
because of you and your contents, tutorial , tips etc.
i learn one by one every day
thanks a lot Sir Jazer!!❤❤❤✨
lovelots from PH🇵🇭🇵🇭
I’ve always felt that I take too long to learn a piece/song/tune. For example, months
Your comments confirm it.
However, I’m feeling confident that I can shorten the timeline by taking in your suggestions. With concentration on finger movements and internalization of small chunks being at the forefront.
The other mentioned concepts, I have been doing. For example, level appropriate music, excitement of the piece, practice at speed to not make mistake, etc.
I have been playing piano for about 12 years. First approx 10 years was private lessons, the last two with online courses.
I practice/play about 1 hour per weekday and at least 4 hours on weekends.
Excited to apply to my piano journey.
Thank you Jazer Lee
This was helpful. I have trouble with the last 10% of mastering a piece, mostly getting it up to tempo. I start making mistakes where I’ve never made them before, and I get frustrated. My usual thought is that I’m trying to play music that’s too complicated and I back off on the difficulty, but I think that may be adding to the problem. Piano is my third instrument (violin when I was a kid and voice all my life- I’m 59), and I think I get musically bored because my fingers can’t keep up with my understanding of the music
I’m learning piano as a third instrument as well and I will see if this is the same for me. The first price I’m learning is very hard and my guess is I will be happy to play it at 75% speed after a year. I’m going to add scales, chord and sight reading along the way.
I have read Carol Dweck great concepts!
People need to understand that the piano is a complex and difficult instrument to master. I'm an older adult and I've played for 10+ years, and many of those years were frustrating because of not having teaching like this. It just takes longer to learn piano pieces than pieces on other instruments. I played violin as a child, forgot everything I knew over the years, but when I picked it up again just 6 mos. ago, it didn't take me that long to settle in. I also started playing viola, a brand new instrument, and it's challenging but nothing like piano. I'm only reading one staff, lol. Piano is so complex; people need to know that going in.
An interesting perspective. Just beacuse it is popular, does it mean it is easy. Maybe because we use many fingers at once. In both hands.
Watched you several times, subbed today as beginner got great recommendations from such a talented teacher as you are.
I'm almost 5 month started learning how to play piano, never even learning notes, all by copying "flying strips" an slow down fingers player
P.S. Soon plans to upload my piano challenge in Utube...
My first ever piece was The night king by Ramin Djawadi arr by Patrick Pietschmann, it took me over 7-8 month to learn it fully. At that time I did not have any kind of experience playing on piano, but my dedication to learn that piece kept me going and eventually I've managed to play it solidly.
Thank you for your video. Great tips! I’ve been working on first arabesque for 3 months now and I can play through the whole song but struggle keeping with the timing. The polyrhythms I’ve mastered though!
Sir, you are the best piano teacher to me, thanks a Billion 🙏🏼
Subscribed your channel few weeks back and following your tips and methods. And my playings skills is improving day by day.
Thanks alot BROTHER. Love You. God Bless You.
Usually give up before I finish learning. However, I’m currently working on a piece. This is day four. I have each hand down separately. Now I’m about to begin practicing playing hands together. Thanks for these great tips as always. Hopefully Magic happens for me on day 6 or 7 🤷🏽♂️ lol or before
I usually have 3 pieces that I am learning, one that I am re-learning after years of never really really mastering the piece (which seems easier now) and one that is in my piano skill technique and one that is just above my my skill level. As a amateur piano hobbyist this seems to work for me.
This came at a great time.
4-6 weeks usually…thanks for your thoughts
Could you please make a guide on how to play/practice tremolo octaves. I’m struggling to learn this technique.
Thanks for your awesome videos!
I've been practicing the first movement of the facile sonata for the last 2 weeks, I think I can finally play it reasonably, but I still have certain difficulties with left-hand scales, during these two weeks I tried to follow your recommendations, I mean, the results were amazing, really good recommendation playing slowly and precise as possible avoiding any single mistake.
Can't thank you enough! There's no way a mere mortal like me gonna know how pianists do without you sharing the videos. And I think I have to congrats myself coz it seems that it's a normal duration. Seriously I used to think that a musician can execute a piece in one or two sitting before XD and reading the tittle on the youtube suggestion made me nervous afraid of I am left so behind
Very interesting lesson, indeed. This remind me to be patient......and as you know, playing music is like rowing agains the current.....if you stop, you are pushed back and back.....
Thansk for your advises
Making so much sense!! Thank you for explanation. I thought I was spending too much time, but maybe I am. Currently on week 3 practicing moonlight sonata. Was attracted to its slow tempo but got frustrated for not recognising the patterns easily since i have been out of touch with sight reading after quitting when I was a kid. Currently trying to master the 3 ascending and a decending arpeggios. Not sure why the fingers aren't picking them up naturally. Other time I just practice avoiding wrong keys in sections I'm already familiar with. Hopefully by the end of the month, i can finally play the piece somewhat smoothly. 😊 You're my teacher!
I have been trying to learn liebestraum and I am currently into my third month of playing. I mastered the flow for almost half the piece and I have not yet learned the notes. I practice 1-2hours a day and I can really see how my muscle memory improves and how then I am able to actually “play” and actually master the notes with accuracy and expression. One thing I realized is that I attempt to master the flow gradually instead of learning the whole piece then mastering the flow. Now there’s only two pages and the second cadenza left and I really can tell the improvements and the expressions I put on the notes are extremely rewarding and motivating for me to keep going on! Although my first cadenza isn’t perfect but I see my apparent progress in accuracy and speed as I slowly and gradually practice. But I do agree that this piece might be a bit too hard for me but I love the song and I see the progress I make which is keeping me motivated! Thank you jazer and I for sure will learn the notes first before mastering the flow for my next piece!
I significantly increase my piece learning with learning scales and what you say in this video and previous videos
As a 35 year old beginner it’s tough because there aren’t many tutorials for songs I want to play. I started in January learning the game of thrones theme. Learned that and many other songs since so now I’m not really a full beginner but I’m also not even close to intermediate. The tutorials online don’t seem to cater to the non-beginner but also non-intermediate that can’t really read sheet music efficiently.
So that makes me dread continuing because I feel like I have to spend an hour a day just doing the music theory work and sheet music reading instead of playing
Thank you for your excellent advice and motivation
Sir Jazer, thank you to your Piano motivational and tutorial video....
I restarted my piano journey since April 2023 and it took me till now to play 'Itsumo nandemo' till the end of the song... Now it's time to play it without errors haha
Wish I would've watched this tip earlier, then I would've waited to restart this piece... 😅
The 1-2 month timeframe applies in my case. However it depends a lot on the piece, how long and how difficult. You can also learn much faster if you practice more hours and if you become very good at practicing. Some professional pianists learn so fast that it feels impossible and nobody seems to know how they do it.
I am definitely playing a piece thats too difficult for me. Clair de lune.. the articulation and speed of runs are really hard. But i love learning it. Nine months in!!
Very good advices. Thank you!
Thank you! This is very helpful.
Regarding the not make mistakes point. It’s not that i don’t agree, i do and i follow that as well, and also I’m not a piano player, just starting out with this instrument (learned Chopin’s prelude no 4 in e minor in about a week to the point where I can play it albeit sounding very much like a beginner while doing so), so what I’m writing here might be completely wrong. But I have been playing guitar for a few decades now and I find that when I plateau, that is i get to the point where no matter how many times I practice something slow and perfect, I can’t get it up to full speed, it helps to play it sloppy and with mistakes at 120% speed or something. It forces my brain to think fast, to realize that I don’t have time to think of the next moves, and also after that normal speed doesn’t seem that fast anymore :)
Excellent, as always!
Jazer Lee! I love your videos so freaking much. I just love learning about piano in general. I video idea that could be awesome would be to talk about how many pieces do you think someone can be working on at a time. For example I am currently working on 3 pieces. Is that too much? Too little? I don’t know can you answer that for me?
I practice for an hour every single day. Within that hour, I practice scales, sightreading, and a few pieces. So how long should I be practicing my pieces specifically to get proficient? Is focusing for 10 minutes on each piece enough? Or should I devote the full hour to working on a piece? When you propose one or two months to be fluent, how long does that translate to working on a piece in daily practice?
It depends how many notes are in the piece, surely? Find a new piece that is unknown to you and learn a couple or 4 bars until you're perfect and the piece sounds beatiful, while timing yourself. Then extrapolate for longer pieces with the same complexity, and you will have an idea.
My son, eight yo, on grade 4 ABRMS, learns two pieces grade 3 or 1 piece grade 4 in two weeks. Separate hands first week. He practises 1h per day. Same preps for his first recital. Works perfectly well for him
I'm playing and learning piano VERY casually, and learning about a bar of something a week has been good for me so far. I could probably do more, but I find I get a little burned out if I do. Sunday I work out the notes and fingering and play the bar a bit. Next day I try to remember and play the bar a bit. Every day I get a little better at it. Once a week's gone by, I've usually got it down. Then I add the next bar and practice whatever bars I've learned of the song for the next week, and I just keep gradually chipping away at it like that. Learning the song takes however long it's going to take; I don't worry too much about it. After I get through the whole song I keep playing it mostly every day to refine my playing of it (and just for the enjoyment of it). So far I've learned Bach's Prelude No.1, Moonlight Sonata, the first 27 bars of Clair de Lune (still gradually chipping away at that one, but what I can play of it so far sounds really nice), and a random boogie song for fun. There are only a handful of songs I'm really interested in playing so it's not a big deal to me to take it slowly. Breaking things down into tiny chunks like this makes things very digestible for me, even for more intimidating songs.
Thanks you such much!
I've definitely been playing songs that take me just a day or two to learn and a week or so to master. This video made me realize I'm not challenging myself enough and that maybe I am ready for some slightly harder songs.
Took me 12 months to learn how to play River flows in You from totally zero skill in piano. Ok I played the first few measures before I stopped and started to practice some piano basics for 6 months before coming back to Yiruma's piece.
Hi Jazer, I've been following your channel for a few months now, and I'm really pleased, and encouraged by your brilliant advice. And totally agree with your timeframes for learning a piece of music. However, I would say that it is OK to allow yourself to make mistakes when trying to master the notes, otherwise how do you learn. It's taken me best part of 6 months to get over the fear of making mistakes, and to be able to play in front of people, and the only way I've managed this is to not worry about making mistakes. Does make sense, what's your thought on this? Lee
A few times I've been ready to give up on a piece because I couldn't get it right, then just thought give it a couple more days..and hey ho it's fallen in to place! Patience is
a huge part of the whole learning process.
Cuddle monster 2.0❤❤🥶🥶🥶🔥🔥💯💯🎉💥
It takes me roughly 1 week to learn and memorise a line. A month per page. Moonlight Sonata took 6 month's of daily practice
movement 1 or 3?
In school we have grade levels. People are expected to complete each level in a timely manner. The majority would finish on time whether they get good marks or not. Piano learning tends to be open-ended. There is a starting date but lessons can go on indefinitely. Some people quit for a while and return as adult learners for any number of reasons.
I know people who quit piano within 2 years. Don't want to come to the conclusion the pieces were too hard since beginner pieces can't get easier than "Mary Had a Little Lamb". The student may not be practicing properly or put in enough time for practice. Many students would prefer to spend time in front of a screen on social media or watching TV than practicing piano.
Choosing your own pieces is easier said than done. When we're just starting we have so little exposure to music that every piece is a new piece. People wouldn't pick Mozart "Rondo Alla Turca" out of the blue without the teacher introducing it first. Probably the majority if not all the pieces would be assigned by the teacher. I met a young teen who has been play for at least 8 years. She played pieces at a family gathering and enjoys playing. Even after 8 years she is not comfortable playing pieces outside the teacher's assigned repertoire.
A piano piece can be easy & repetitive when it's played as duet with another solo instrument. Even when the piano part is easy, getting both to play at sync can be a challenge.
There are pieces with big jumps, many chords, syncopated rhythm etc. that I put aside for many months before learning. I started late as an adult learner but don't feel the need to work on specific pieces for 6 months. There are 2 options for learning a hard piece: find a version for easy piano or put it aside. Most of the time I'd put a piece aside and learn the full version later. There are many easier and fun pieces I'd be learning along the way.
I have enough unlimited amount of music to work on, and I just enjoy the ride of continuing to familiarise myself with piano. I don't put any time limit on any piece of music. I just work and learn at my own pace. I'm never in a rush. I just enjoy playing the piano. After a long enough amount of time and effort and practice and learning - and combining with our own capabilities, we eventually will be able to generate very nice music - whatever we want. It can take time, and lots of it. But there will be a point where adequate experience is accumulated - and we make the piano 'sing' and shine. (ex-PW member , permanent PC member).
My brain: we should stick to a method book and make good progress
My ego: Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement) LETS GO!!!!
My teacher say minimum one week then polish up... It works 🎉
jazer im gonna play devils advocate and argue that even a month is a bit too long to be working a single piece all by itself. although I will admit I'm biased bc I'm not at an advanced level yet to preface this.
I'm currently sitting at roughly an rcm grade 1-2 level. I'm always working on 3 pieces at any given moment: 1 piece that is at my level, 1 piece that is 1-2 grades above my level, and one piece that is significantly above my level but not to the point where I can't at least have the notes down in a month or 2 (i'll miss out on most of the musicality stuff with the super hard pieces, but at least I can get a feel for more complex repertoire for when I do get to that level) the current lvl pieces take me about a week to get to get to tempo, and then maybe a few more days to iron out the musicality. the slightly above pieces, 2-4 weeks. and the super hard pieces, 1-2 months. it's about efficiency and exposure to as much music as possible for me. 12 pieces a year just isn't very efficient IMO.
example:
in the time it took me to learn 4 haydn German dances (pretty much all of them are either grade 1 or 2), i also learned cpe bach's march in d major (grade 4), prelude in c major BWV 939 (grade 5), and at the highest level, i learned the notes to two-part invention no. 8 (grade 7). this all took me about a month and a half (although to be fair most of my piano experience is with baroque music, so a lot of it was familiar to me).
TLDR: spending a month on pieces that are above you level is fine, but it should be supplemented with smaller wins with easier pieces that can be learned a bit quicker, not only for getting more consistent exposure to new music, but also just to maintain excitement for learning the instrument in general.
It often takes me 2-3 months to work on Animenz's pieces. For pieces like rondo alla turca, only less than a month is taken.
Jazer can you please make road map for self taught beginners, it would be Great !!!!🙏🏼
It takes me too long and I'm sure it's because I try to learn the piece too fast and not really learn the notes well. Back to the drawing er piano board!
This is inciteful.
there is a book by Karl Reisz entitled The Technique of Film Editing. you might be interested in its chapter on editing instructional films/videos and apply those techniques on your piano videos. this not to say that would bring you millions of new viewers but your videos would then more match the quality of your piano playing as editing follows some principles similarly as playing musical instruments does. good luck!
Hi jazer, I'm one of your subscribers, I do watch your videos regularly. I have a question like do you take online piano tuitions if yes I'm ready to learn from you right away.
As a matter of fact, I do!
I have an online sign up sheet form here:
forms.gle/8qRjEBCxgZrEofZF7
It seems to take me 4 to 6 weeks to perfect my pieces. At this point in my piano journey, my pieces are still relatively short--the longest so far is 67 bars. My teacher has me working on two to three pieces at a time. One is in the polishing phase, another is in the working out phase, and the third will be one I'm just starting to look at. I don't think I could work on just a single piece and not get bored.
Hi from Lekmo. What’s a rough % of the practice time to devote to 1 piece over that 1-2 month period? At 60-90m/day I’m finding it a challenge to fit in technique,let alone applied theory,sight-reading,ear-training etc and have much time to progress with 1 piece let alone 3, especially the getting-the-notes-with-no-mistakes stage. I might be spending too much time on technique so that prompted this question. If you haven’t already done so, it would be great to see a short video commentary on structuring or balancing the many aspects of practice in a practice session. Thanks Jazer
For 8 grade level piano piece it should take you about 20 minutes a day for a year to get it to a pass standard in ABRSM or Trinity exam . It means every day x 20 minutes, not 80 minutes on weekends only. The latter is likely to make your learning process so much longer.
If you have an experienced teacher once a week, they will be able to tell how often you practiced - there really is a marked difference between playing every day and only a couple of times per week.
I used to think it takes me forever to learn a new song but, after watching your video, I see I'm within the normal time frame (2-3 months). But I've found it takes me longer to get "dialed in" where I can play a difficult piece perfectly at the drop of a hat. Perhaps I'm playing it too fast and should slow down.
I also noticed that I tend to quickly forget a difficult piece if I don't play it everyday.
But relearning it is faster than before so my brain kind of remembers it.
Hey Jazer, I love your videos. I've learned a lot from them and I started enjoying piano more than ever. And I always wondered how is your outro song called. I'd appreciate if you could give the song's name.
Thanks for all the videos!
Thanks for the video! The exact question I have been wondering these days, frustrated by my own progress. However, sometimes it might be difficult to gauge how long to master a piece as most of us (as "prescribed" by piano teacher) learn 2-3 pieces and some other technical exercises like Czerny and Hanon together at any one time. Yet I think it's very true that the motivation for a piece goes down after one month plus to two months. Do I extend the "1-2 month" time frame if I learn multiple pieces at one time? Perhaps would be helpful to specify how much time spend on a piece daily... 10 min? 20 min? 30 min? 1 hour? to put it in the 1-2 months time frame...
I started studying piano about 3,5 months, I started Burgümuller each peace I take a 2 days in the key flow and 3 days to play it slow.
To play perfectly, but slow I would take more 2 weeks on each music.
I just started MacDowell's "To a Wild Rose," yesterday; I'll let you know how long it takes! (I'm still working on Satie Gymnopedie #1, and really enjoying it the process.)
Took me a week
First, I never practice only one piece at a time and it really depends on the level of mastery that I want. If I intend to someday present it, it might take 2-3 months. There are some pieces that I've start and stop a few time because I'm not there yet and I'm "checking out" to gauge myself.
I'm currently working on Un Sospiro, there's no way it will be done in 8 weeks.
As self learning pianist, it’s hard to find pieces that I like and suitable for my level. Many of times I spend months even a year to learn a piece I like. Any suggestion for where to look for them? Either paid or free.
Well there's Musescore, I think you gotta sign up and pay but I would definitely search for the pieces beforehand to see if there's something that you like, but they have a lot of songs. There's also TH-cam, search the song you like, find someone you like who plays it the way you like (I'm very picky) and they almost always have sheet music in the description. I forget the name but they always put their sheet music on a specific site. So you could search that site as well
Rich and useful advice. Jazer, you are a great teacher. Recently a friend of mine has introduced me to Burgmüller „25 Etudes faciles et progressives“ and Diabelli „Melodious Exercises“ (Opus 149) in order to start with classical piano. Also Hanon has been mentioned, which I already enjoy practicing. What are your thoughts on Diabelli and Burgmüller, if you happen to know their exercises?
Diabelli Op. 151 and Op. 168 (11 sonatinas in total) are wonderful works, great musical value at the early-intermediate to intermediate levels.
Hi Jazer, what about longer classical pieces like Liebestraume, Fantasie Impromptu, Clair de Lune? How much time should we be spending mastering those works?
Arranger keyboard playing its much easily than playing the piano... piano music is harder to read the music there is a lot going on for the left hand than playing simpel keyboards with simpel chords an only melody... keyboard players can play more music in a short time than classic pianist, classic pianist have realy to study the pieces for a long periode ... arranger keyboards players can play many scores right away... simple chords for the left hand and play only the melody with the right hand , and they never have to jump like a stride pianist thats the differents.... I playing also piano a little jazz and classic... its cost time but he' its my greatest hobby... 😊 and yes sometimes very frustrating when its to hard or the peace is to long... I was years ago a marching band drummer thats was more easy to read and play the score becouse its only the rythm I played without much thinking. Reading scores go much faster than play melodic instruments like accordeon, gitar piano etc...
Didn't think the flow of notes would be 2/3rd of the time on a piece i thought it would be the other way around. Maybe cause i dont't master my pieces enough.
Nice 👍🏻
It's difficult to stick to a specific schedule about learning a classical or any written music as I often have to rehearse 20-25 songs to prepare for gigs with my 80's/90's cover band. The gigs are almost on a monthly basis. Cheers!
Very insightfull. I was wondering, 4 weeks seems about right to master a piece myself. But would you be able to sight read it and play it directly without study. Does 20 years of experience help you to reduce the time to study a piece. Of course it would depend on the difficulty of the piece but let's say a simple Bach prelude or invention for instance.
Great video. If someone is practicing for 1-2 hours per day, how long would you expect them to be practicing a piece (vs technical work)? How many pieces do your students have on the go at the same time generally?
Hi Jazzer!! If there is a piece I want to learn but is a bit difficult and can't find an easier version of the piano sheet, is there a strategy you'd recommend to learn that piece?
You didn't mention memorizing a piece.
Is this part of learning a piece?
Is this required learning a piece?
Help!OMG the 2nd Sheet is way too hard for 3 days jazer!!😂!!
I’m working on the Chopin Op 10 etudes. I practice about 3-4 times a week, for maybe an hour.
Based on my progress, I takes me between 6 months to years to learn - but I do eventually get there.
However, I do spend a lot of practice time just playing easy pieces I already have at a reasonable level.
My goal is enjoying playing, so I don’t really pressure myself.
Same - I have pieces I'm practicing that I've already spent >6months on, however they're still improving, getting ever closer to performance standard (for me). Then other pieces that I can learn in 2-4 weeks - and still other pieces of a difficulty level somewhere in between.
Very Good Video with valuable insights. Based on these I wonder if it's better to work only on one piece for a time period given (say 1 month) or on multiple in parallel? The pros and cons are obvious: Focus on the learning curve vs. not getting board. What is your experience? Which path would you recommend for practicing daily 1 - 1,5 hrs.? THANKS A LOT FOR ALL OF YOUR EFFORT:
Took me 6 months to finish 4 pieces for my grade 3