practice piano more

I am letting my piano teacher down.

For four and a half years, I’ve had a terrible upbringing in the art of playing piano. My teacher wouldn’t teach me any theory, scales, anything – it was simply finger exercises and getting through as many pieces as possible, not even bothering to put any real feeling into them or learn them to perfection.

In June I got a new teacher. He has a lot to teach me, and tells me that I have a lot of potential, that I am very technical and pay attention to little details, and that if my abilities had been directed properly from an early age I would be a lot better than I am now.

The problem is, I am not taking piano seriously any more. Part of the reason is that my love for classical music seems to have faded ever since I discovered the awesomeness of metal. Another is that many people in my grade are amazing piano players, and since I tend to compare myself to others, I always get the feeling that I’ll never be like them and that putting the time into practicing just isn’t worth it.

I only practice for like 15 minutes a week, which is terrible. I’ve barely made any progress with the piece I’m supposed to learn. I always give my piano teacher lame excuses like ‘I had to study for a test’, etc. whereas really I’m just on the computer the whole time surfing YouTube or playing games. How much longer can I keep up this lie?

I’ve decided to practice an hour a day, starting… today or tomorrow. If I can keep this up for several months, I’ll consider this goal to be complete.

EDIT: Yes! Played for a whole hour today. I feel better already.

EDIT #2: Been playing a lot more, my piano teacher says the piece I’m learning is almost ready to be performed. Yes! Also doing some very minor composing.

I’ve been a big slacker with my piano lately. My teacher is starting to notice! I need to pick up the pace.

because the piano left here 2 days ago and I’m pretty sure I won’t have one in Japan. It really did help having this goal here, to guilt me into practicing help me to remember that I enjoy playing. Someday, I’ll have a piano again and pick up this goal again…

I’m supposed to be practicing the cadenzas in Liebestraum no.3, but I’m so pathetically lazy that all I want to do is surf the net, listen to music, and play Mass Effect or Call of Duty 4. I wish there was some way I could retain better self control.

I don’t practice, so I suck. It’s that simple.

Yeah.
I have a keyboard.
It’s technically not mine.
‘Tis my dad’s.
But he lets me keep it in my room and play it.
I’m pretty glad my parents aren’t the kinda people who “make” you learn an instrument.
I can pretty much make my own practice schedule.
...
Haven’t practiced in a few weeks.
I already know I need to practice more.

i bought a digital piano, and have been practicing almost daily. it’s so worth it, i can hear the improvement already.

found Foothill’s crappy rec room piano; will practice at least an hour every two days

So that I have something concrete to aim for…

Work on Beethoven’s Adagio cantabile, 2nd mvmt from sonata in C minor, op. 13.
and…
Brahms’s waltz in A-flat major, op. 39, no. 15… my favorite.
Well, plus I need to play my old favorites more often because I plunked one out the other day, and I do mean plunked, and it sounded awful. Like I’d never played it before!

found Berkeley’s secret underground practice rooms; will practice at least once every two days