This is a very long post. I'm very unsatisfied with many things such as my sight reading, arpeggios, scales, chords, my past test scores, lack of knowledge in theory etc. I’ve been taking lessons since I was around 8/9 (3rd grade) on and off having 2 lessons for 45 minutes each (which isn’t much). I’m now 16 I don't know what to do with but I really want to improve. I’ve been especially discouraged because in August of 2019 I took my grade 8 RCM exam. I didn’t really practice for it seriously and got a 78% and it really bummed me out and I haven’t really been playing. I just started getting into it just this week.
How should I go about practicing and what should I practice? How should I organize my practice sessions if I’m gonna practice everyday for maybe 1-2 guys everyday?
Right now my plan is to work on a fun piece to ease into music. This is the one I am working on. https://youtu.be/nb3inmtI_dE I have a bad habit of “practicing” pieces where I just play through them over and over until it sounds good. I’m really trying to focus on the details and working on the small bits which need work (such as finger crossings, smooth and clean arpeggios, runs, dynamics in right and left, etc).
I’m also planning on redoing all my RCM scales especially the arpeggios and practicing them on a slow speed with a metronome. Then practicing them with different speeds, rhythms, dynamics, methods etc. I’m also planning to do the Hanon exercises everyday for warmup. How many should I do everyday and how long should I do them everyday and when should I move onto the next Hanon exercises and how should I approach them daily?
I also want to improve my sight reading. It’s very poor and it really slows me down when I’m learning a new piece. I cannot read notes very fast and my counting is very weak especially with dotted notes that I have to write down the rhythms on the sheet music and count it out loud. I really want to focus on improving the counting for now then move onto being able to reading chords and notes fast.
Any resources, YouTube videos, exercises and pieces I should practice especially for the things I mentioned?
Submitted October 03, 2020 at 03:21AM by crazycravat https://www.reddit.com/r/Learnmusic/comments/j4ayxp/i_have_been_playing_since_i_was_8_years_old/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Saturday, October 3, 2020