Rusty grade 5/6-ish returning to piano Options

[quantumlolz]

Hi.

After much digging, I've managed to find my old username on here. Success! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Anyway - i'm looking at getting back into learning to play the piano, having had a massive break (apart from a few lessons when I was in my last year at uni). My scales etc. are pretty lousy, can anyone reccomend any good books to use to improve on this?

Also, I'm looking for something to learn about grade 5 level to get me back up to speed. (I did grade 5 about 10 years ago! but then I didn't really do anything besides that. I started working on grade 6 in my final year at uni and was rattling along fine with the pieces)

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get back up to speed after such a long break. I've just picked up a book full of piano music by Einaudi, which should keep me occupied for the time being.

[fsharpminor]

Try some of the older graded albums from the ABRSM, eg the Short Romantic Pieces ones, Book 3 I think is the right level for you. Classics to Moderns also for Grade 5 and 6.

[Louise H]

I would also recommend playing through some easier music as well - Grade 3-4 - which you can pick up quickly, ie not needing much time to learn the notes, and play with good dynamics/expression/phrasing etc.

[BeSharpNotFlat]

I would also re-fresh on your sightreading. Good book to use: "Improve Your Sightreading" by Paul Harris, maybe start with Grade 3. Start with some of the easier scales, for 2 octaves as well.

One style of music alot of my adult students enjoy playing is music by Einaudi, check out the Divenire book.

[VH2]

You speak of a "massive break" but you don't actually tell us how many years it is since you studied piano, nor whether it has been a complete break, or whether you still played for you own entertainment from time to time. You do tell us that you took Grade 5 ten years ago, and that you started work on Grade 6 in your last year of University, so we know that your break was of less than 10 years, but without knowing how long ago you were at University we still don't know enough to make sensible suggestions for repertoire to get you back into shape.

My general advice is: Think hard about why you want to play the piano, what sort of music you want to play, what kind of level you'd like to achieve, and how much time you can devote to the pursuit. Then find a well-regarded and effective teacher, have him/her assess your present standard, and take it from there.

From the little that you have told us you are unlikely to be much older than 30, and probably are much younger.

So you are:

Still Young
Have the advantage of having studied and reached a useful skill-level as a child and/or teenager
Have had a relatively short break (some people on this forum have re-started after breaks of 20 or 30 years!)

Which means that, like most of us, you have probably blown any chance of joining the world's elite virtuosi, but apart from that there is little limit to what you can still achieve.

[corenfa]

...
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get back up to speed after such a long break. I've just picked up a book full of piano music by Einaudi, which should keep me occupied for the time being.

Don't do what i did which is start by playing stuff I knew I used to be able to play, and then get extremely frustrated when I couldn't. (Did Grade 8 and then stopped for 15 years).

My teacher also recommended that I do not try and do all scales at once, but to learn each one separately and spend a few weeks on each one, because each different scale requires a different hand and arm position. I had mistakenly thought that it would be good to run through all 24 major and minor scales once a day or every 2 days.

[VH2]

My teacher also recommended that I do not try and do all scales at once, but to learn each one separately and spend a few weeks on each one, because each different scale requires a different hand and arm position. I had mistakenly thought that it would be good to run through all 24 major and minor scales once a day or every 2 days.

There is no contradiction there. Once you can play all the scales it is not a bad idea to run through all of them every few days (in some non-mechanical way). But that is not a good way to learn them if you cannot already play them well.

[delicato]

You speak of a "massive break" but you don't actually tell us how many years it is since you studied piano, nor whether it has been a complete break, or whether you still played for you own entertainment from time to time. You do tell us that you took Grade 5 ten years ago, and that you started work on Grade 6 in your last year of University, so we know that your break was of less than 10 years, but without knowing how long ago you were at University we still don't know enough to make sensible suggestions for repertoire to get you back into shape.

My general advice is: Think hard about why you want to play the piano, what sort of music you want to play, what kind of level you'd like to achieve, and how much time you can devote to the pursuit. Then find a well-regarded and effective teacher, have him/her assess your present standard, and take it from there.

From the little that you have told us you are unlikely to be much older than 30, and probably are much younger.

So you are:

Still Young
Have the advantage of having studied and reached a useful skill-level as a child and/or teenager
Have had a relatively short break (some people on this forum have re-started after breaks of 20 or 30 years!)

Which means that, like most of us, you have probably blown any chance of joining the world's elite virtuosi, but apart from that there is little limit to what you can still achieve.

Sounds a bit like some sort of career advice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)