Second chance student

My name is Diana and I just downloaded the monthly subscription program. I am 39 years old and started piano lessons at the age of 8. Despite a love of music and a strong desire to learn, traditional instruction never made sense to me. After struggling through years of lessons and never developing the ability to play without drilling and memorization, I gave up with considerable regret and disappointment. I am starting again as an adult with Soft Mozart in hope of learning a more intuitive approach to the instrument and developing the ability to play piano for my own enjoyment.

I would be interested in chatting with other adult students--particularly those who have had some training in music already--about their experiences navigating the SM curriculum. I'm still working on getting the keyboard and computer properly connected, but am looking forward to getting started!

I would like your advice regarding lesson plans. As I mentioned, my primary handicap is sight reading (I've never been able to get past the Every-Good-Boy-Does-Fine system). I learned to survive my lessons through memorization.

I started working with the Gentle Piano program on Wednesday, and it seems like the vertical staff will be the most useful tool for breaking bad habits. That said, the introductory-level pieces and familiar songs pose a problem in that once I recognize the tune I instinctively lose focus on the notation and go back to playing by ear!

I didn't mention it before, but it's worth noting that I spent three semesters at University as a voice major and received some excellent training in music theory. I'm quite comfortable reading a single vocal line using Solfege. The difficulty with piano is the coordination of both hands on the keyboard while following multiple staves of notation.

I will work on making a video for you this weekend, and will follow whatever course of training you recommend. Many thanks!

Diana,

I'm a "second chance" piano student too.

I took piano at about age 11, but was frustrated by it for a few reasons. Hellene has solved one, that the music notation is irrational. Another Hellene has solved is the prompt feedback, in soft piano the software waits for you to get the right key stroke. Another frustration at that time was not knowing how the music in the method books should sound.

I liked the classical music my father played on his phonograph, and could whistle or sing the themes, but that is not what was in the method books. It seemed just opposite, they wanted us to learn to play unknown music from the page, not what we heard in our heads. I didn't want to become a musician who could sight read anything, I wanted to play the music I loved, or simplified passages from it.

In an age before electronic recording, distribution and reproduction of music, there was a need for many people who could play anything sight reading. But that age has passed. People who want to play, want to play for themselves and their friends. But mostly to better appreciate the music by playing it themselves. This is what Hellene is helping us do.

So welcome. Hellene has put a lot of music in the soft piano library, so you should be able to find things that you know and like. The software will allow you to work on just the measures and hand you wish, slowed down. She added the Bach Inventions just recently, after I asked for Bach's Little Fugue in G Minor BWV 578.

Please explore the library, find things that you love to hear, that you put on to hear, or hear in your memory, and work on those. Hellene is right, as we learn how to sight read we will have that wonderful tool available so we can look up the sheet music for things we like and have that to help us learn them, but she allows us to learn to sight read working on music we care about, and that is the great thing. Thanks Hellene!

Please let me know how you are doing, and perhaps we can encourage each other.