I am 28 years old....I bought a recon piano. I took a piano class which would mean my very first piano lesson. You see, I only saw people playing piano on tv...and never experience it. So I do not know how hard it is to play piano...The first lesson is ok...the second is ok too..the third is getting a bit harder....until on the third lesson my teacher asked me to play a score that she hasn't asked me to practice...I got shocked and made a lot of mistake... She said the reason she asked me to play the score is to check whether I memorise it or not...then it suddenly dawned on me that I did memorise it...If anyone give me a score, I would have to read the notes one by one..and that irritates my teacher a lot....but at home, I will practice it daily and I managed to play it without mistake or with one or two mistake ... (that is bcos I automatically memorised it, since I practice the score 15 times a day...) I am a bit slow in accepting facts/digest it to my brains...that I know of... But to read the score with my left hand on the treble staff and right hand on my bass staff is very very difficult for me to achieve...especially if you have to shift your fingers (sometimes the same notes has to be used with different fingers)without looking at the piano... Could anyone pls help me on how to make my brains and fingers to work together..without memorising it? I did not attend my 4th piano class even though I have paid for it as I was too ashame to meet my teacher and other students who are much younger than me and can play piano with ease...

-- uji uzairi (ujiuzairi@yahoo.com), September 24, 2003

Answers

Please don't give up on playing the piano. Yes, it can be difficult but for that reason it is so rewarding. It seems that you are having trouble with note reading. One suggestion that I have is to buy yourself a notespeller workbook. I can recommend "I Can Read Music" published by Faber and Faber. This book will help you to learn to recognize notes on the staff without associating them with any particular finger. It will also help you in looking for the bigger picture, ie. the direction that the notes are moving and the intervals that they are moving in.

Trust me, no one is able to master the piano in just 3 lessons. Go easy on yourself and you will find that you will soon make good progress.

-- anon (noname_poster@yahoo.com), September 24, 2003.