Sort of inspired by Stephen Fry's letter to his 16-year old self...

Now I've been playing a couple of years, I'm already kicking myself for not listening to perfectly good advice that I was given by my first teacher. I'll kick off with a few snippets of advice to "Grade 1 me" and maybe others will have something to add:

- For the love of God, keep playing your scales and arpeggios. In a few years, you'll find that the pieces you want to play have an unholy amount of scale passages in them, and the fact that you avoided playing scales like the plague will then frustrate you immensely. Yes, they seem boring at first but you're being asked to learn them for a reason.

- Carry on doing focused practice and don't get into the habit of playing pieces through while muddling through the tricky bits.

- Keep studying music theory, because once you lose interest and momentum, you might find it a chore to pick up again.

- If you stay out of the pub you'll progress much quicker...

I'll add a variation on the first one: scales and arpeggios, once learned thoroughly are quite fun to play.

All sounds good advice here i think.
I do like the scales, sorry!
I also, have to admit to liking music theory - sorry again!
I do not really like pubs - sorry again!

so that is 3 sorry's in one post! A record i think.

I really like playing scales. They are so relaxing, and it nice to feel yourself getting dextrous.



Good advice. I should pin it to the music stand.

It is tempting to want to play whole pieces. After all, I like music. But practice is not playing whole pieces. That is performing.

Seriously, I'm only just starting to realise how important this is.

If I start feeling anxious as I approach a particular passage, and then have to muddle through it (thinking "that'll do"), then it's obvious that it's time to stop, completely deconstruct it and piece it back together bit by bit. It really does take a lot of willpower for me, because the overwhelming temptation and desire is to just carry on, pretending that nothing went wrong...

I hate scales and arpeggios, but I agree with you thoroughly



I only was able to do this easily when I accepted that it was just going to take weeks or months to learn some pieces, and that I had to measure progress in much smaller bites- sometimes things like, "I can play this one bar this week that I couldn't last week". Sometimes it's "I can play this one bar this MONTH that I couldn't last month"

In addition to Solari's advice:

- Rome was not built in a day. It will take time before you sound half decent and could play "real" music. Grade 1 pieces ARE boring (for an adult at least) but learn to walk before you run.

Solari's advice is pertinent to me even now, some 30 years on from my pianistic beginnings.

I would also advise my 10-year-old self not to spend too much time worrying about exams. Why on earth I bothered to do every grade from 1 to 8 on the piano and 3 to 8 on the horn (they didn't have grades 1 and 2 horn in those days) is a mystery to me. But maybe my teachers thought I needed to do them to keep me on my toes, or I was just carried on by momentum or peer pressure. Must have cost my parents a few bob too.

Jon

There was a whole post about "focused practise" some where on the string forum - think, was quite good i think.

We've got this one which is not on the string forum - http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47352 in which more contributions would be most welcome!

Sorry! another one, thats 4 today so far.
I'm counting them today, i think.
I knew it was some where though.




I'm struggling on grade 3 at moment.
I enjoyed my grade i pieces and scales, as far as i can remember.
Not sure what i could add really to what has already been said, other than enjoy your piano. A lovely instrument.

Do you practice much sight reading as well?
Only i found this to be so difficult and is much harder as i failed to do any for the first 2 grades.

I've got a couple of suggestions for my own Grade 1 self, thinking about it

- Look for sources of inspiration anywhere. What are the pieces that catch your ear? You might be able to play them someday - I am actually doing this now with some Chopin and Rachmaninoff that were amongst the first ever piano music I heard when my age was single digits.

- Anything can be a ear training exercise. Listen to stuff on the radio, telly, wafting out of people's ipods on the tube, and see if you can figure out what notes make up the tune. Can you recognise the harmony? If you do this, aural exams will be much easier, if you know what a perfect cadence ought to sound like. Even if you aren't doing exams, you'll be able to pick them out in pieces and it will help with identifying modulations (when you eventually figure out that there are such things as modulations )

- Hang out with people who love music. You will then always have support and motivation. (This is one thing I got right by accident)

- Conversely, dismiss anyone who tells you you shouldn't bother as you'll never be good enough, or a geek / loser / pathetic / whatever for loving music and wanting to spend time on it. Cut them out of your life if you can, or learn not to listen to them if you can't. (I also got this one right by accident or force of personality - being stubborn as h___). Beware: These people may be in "positions of power". They may even be your teacher. They may be people who otherwise are loved ones.

Oh, I so relate to these two points. For one thing it has shown me that I needed feel that my only audiences are my teachers or examiners. And doing the hanging out with music-lovers helps so much if you meet the nay-sayers (who are almost certainly projection their own insecurities on to you).

Thanks for starting such a great thread, Solari, I'm really enjoying reading the responses.

I find that people who try and say "bad" things usually have opposite effect, and i am even more determined to do well. But, people who love music i have found are not always very supportive. But know what you mean. I would not have thought about these things with regards to practicing. Most of my friends are not any thing to do with music as such.

A few more:

- don't get rid of "easier" music once you've finished with it (especially if there are any pieces in your books which you never played). In a few years time you'll be able to use it as additional sightreading practice material. [Or in my

- having as good a quality instrument as you can reasonably afford will make the process of learning (a) easier and (b) more enjoyable.

- either ask your teacher to write notes for you on areas for practice, or do it yourself straight after the lesson. You might think you will remember what you are supposed to be doing - but by the time you come to practise, you won't....

- even small amounts of practice - even just 5 minutes on a couple of bars - will yield more results than no practice. Seize every opportunity!

Keep the advice flooding in!

I need all advice that anybody can give.

My advice to MY Grade 1 violin self is - please, please, please don't give up... you're only going to take it back up 35 years later.

I never had a grade 1 self! That sounds really pompous, but I recall after a year and a half of piano lessons as a boy (where my teacher never really seem to teach me much, and I certainly never learnt a scale - not even one!) the teacher presented me with the grade 4 pieces for 1982. I gave up shortly after...

Fast forward to 2005 when I decided to resume lessons and I set myself a goal of doing grade 4 (since if my teacher of 1982 thought I was at that level then it seemed reasonable to pick it up from there).

so my advice to grade 4 (ish) me:

-learn your scales (they help your hand control and are GREAT for improvising)
-learn what a cadence is and where they live (I am embarassed to think how long I thought I 'understood' music without recognising a cadence)
-understanding phrasing proplery and don't ignore the phrasing slurs (they weren't put there for no reason)
-it is possible to have one hand play a different rhythm to the other
-it is possible to have one hand play louder than the other!

This is more an "advice to me through my musical journey so far" than an "advice to Grade 1 me". A lot of it is something I couldn't do anything about as I started clarinet aged 7 so didn't have the same freedom to choose as an adult learner.

- Because it isn't written in the exam syllabus doesn't mean you can't learn it! More relevent to composition, musicianship skills to me than actual repertoire.

- Get a teacher who does cover technique properly. I had fundimental technique issues with both of my instruments (clarinet and piano), taught by the same teacher, who didn't tell me much about technique, how to practise, she didn't cover supporting tests until the last minute, either. It was all about pieces, pieces, pieces for exams and not a lot else

- If you progress so quickly in the first 6 months (piano) and then don't get any better for 2 or more years, there probably is something wrong - see above!

- If you find an instrument you love (piano) but the teacher regards it as your "second instrument" and treats it as such in lessons, though you are enjoying it more than your "first instrument". You should put you foot down and ask to have more lessons for the "second instrument".

- Carry on with your theory behond Grade 5 if you like it and have a proven skill in it. No matter what the teacher says. Grade 5 in a year aged 12 and 97/100 says I probably really enjoy theory and am fairly good at it - teacher said "well you don't need to do anymore, now".