trying to learn more by myself

Question

I've been practicing piano for 4 years. in all those years I had a master and I've been going to a class.I decided to leave my class and practice piano on my own.are there any tips that you could give tell me ? and can I to this or I necessarily need a master?

Answer 1

You don't really need a master to learn the piano, but it is better to. I've been teaching myself to play the piano for almost 4 years now, and I've learned a lot. A keyboard with pre-downloaded songs is easier to learn with than a normal piano with weighted keys.

If you want to learn how to play the piano professionally, you can learn from a master. But if you want to play the piano as a hobby, then you can practice and learn by yourself. Some tips:

• Improvise! Always improvise on the piano. You never know what you will find. A new chord progression that sounds good, a chord that you've never played...

• Be flexible. You don't always need to follow the fingering written in sheet music, though the fingerings written might be easier for you. But it might not, so use whatever fingering is best for your fingers.

Answer 2

It's not clear from your question whether the "class" you've been taking is a group class or one-on-one lesson. Other commenters have made the cases for studying on your own and for taking individual lessons, and if you've been in a group class so far, those are great options to consider.

However, if you haven't tried taking group lessons yet, I would encourage you to do so. High-minded traditionalists may say "there's nothing like studying with a tutor," but in my teaching experience, I've noticed that students gain a lot of motivation from having classmates to play along with. In addition to learning from the teacher, you also get to learn from the mistakes of your peers and the strategies they use to overcome difficulties. It's also a great opportunity to socialize.

In the group-lesson setting, the teacher will spend a portion of the lesson moving around the room and work individually with students, which gives you a chance to practice by yourself and identify problems and difficult areas. Contrast this with the one-on-one lesson, where you often only get one "try" at the piece, and it's right in front of your teacher. This can interfere with the teacher's ability to diagnose your difficulties accurately.

Answer 3

YouTube is your friend. Search for whatever specific thing you're trying to accomplish, then watch other people doing that thing.

A good thing about having a teacher is that they can help prevent bad habits. That being said, since you've been playing with a teacher and attending a class for 4 years, that sounds like less of an issue.

It all is going to depend on you: how well do you function when left to your own devices? How easy is it for you to practice by yourself? And not just the stuff that you like to play, but the boring stuff and the hard stuff as well.

I never learned how to play by myself; that's a big part of why I stopped being a music major.

Answer 4

In my own experience, I found that playing with a group or going to jam sessions had a marked effect on my abilities as a musician. I studied in class and then took private lessons for several years, but eventually realized I wasn't growing musically, only technically. Quite by accident, I stumbled into a situation where some acquaintances were forming a band and I had an chance to join in. It required all of us to learn how to play with each other. I had to learn about what they were doing and they had to learn a little about what I was doing. Eventually, things came together and we were successfully making music together. It taught me that studying is necessary but it only takes me part way. In order to truly know about music I needed to also gain experience. I still study on my own in order to get ready for new experiences and its the combination of those two aspects of learning that have allowed me to grow and develop.