You're a self-taught pianist. You start to learn
to play this beautiful instrument but you come across some huge road blocks. Soon you realize
music theory is hard to understand reading sheet music is painful, and you wonder if your playing
habits are even correct. And you're afraid of building bad habits that you fear will be hard to
undo later on. Hey I'm Jazer, piano teacher. I've played this piano for over 20 years and today I
want to share with you "5 Common Knowledge Gaps of Self-Taught Pianists". There's pros and cons to
both formalized lessons versus self-teaching. I, myself, have done a fair share of both of these.
My intention today is to share with you as a piano instructor, what are some of the common problems
I see. So that this can help you to better plan your piano learning journey regardless of whether
you self- teaching or whether you take lessons. Knowledge Gap Number 1 is MUSIC THEORY. This
has got to be one of the bigger ones that I come across. Understanding the underlying principles of
music such as chords, and key signatures ,and time signatures chord progressions, scales, arpeggios
- knowing how all of this stuff connects together this is something that many self-taught pianists
don't currently have. I'm not going to cover any music theory principles in this video but I do
want to try to inspire you to start to take music theory seriously. Let's say really simple tune
here - Mozart K545 Sonata in C Major [Music] So, for example, just in the left hand all I see
are chords and patterns rather than individual notes. So, for example, this is a C chord,
G7 chord, C chord, F chord, C chord, G chord, C chord. I realize this is a common theme among
many self-taught pianists that I come across with, is that when they learn music they see very, very
individual notes rather than groups and patterns. The ability to see patterns and groupings is
not going to happen overnight. Here's my Golden Nugget thought for you self-taught pianists
out there who want to have this feeling of understanding what you're playing - if you want
to understand music or music theory you cannot just play three or four songs. You need to play
hundreds. So let's say if you're someone that you know just likes to play a couple of songs, have a
couple of pieces in your hand such as River Flows in You. Or you play Fur Elise
[Music] or maybe Moonlight Sonata... Now beautiful pieces, I suggest everyone to go and
learn these ones but what I'm trying to share with you in this video is that you can't just play
let's say three four five songs and possibly understand music theory you need to play and study
way more this is a reflection I've had over the past year more significantly is that one of the
greatest difference between an amateur pianist and an intermediate pianist and an advanced pianist
is not the amount of hours they played it's not the pieces they play the main differentiating
factor between these three groups is the amount of pieces they have studied and played so let's
say the beginner pianist can play let's say around 10 songs or pieces the intermediate around 50
and the advance more than 100, 100, 200, 300, maybe thousands this is something I've come
to realize even within myself so I see myself both as an instructor but also a student as well
over my years of playing I learned more more and more about music when I start learning let's say
this Mozart Sonata you know it was all about site reading and playing the notes but it wasn't until
let's say the sixth or the seventh or the eighth sonata that I S read and studied that I truly
understood some principles such as you know the chord progressions such as form so I just want
to Advocate very quickly in this video that you can't possibly understand music theory or music
in general when you only play three four or five songs you got to do way way more I'm actually
coming up with a site reading course soon so please stay tuned to that if you also want some
resources to help you get started on understanding sheet music please check the description below
for some theory books that I recommend you to get started on. Common Knowledge Gap Number 2
is " THE ABILITY TO READ SHEET MUSIC OR SIGHT READ". I find a lot of self-taught pianists
usually come to me and they're really good at one of two things they're either really good
at memorizing the music so they read the music once and they just like try to commit it to memory
straight away so they don't have to look again or they're really good at playing by ear so they read
the sheet music once they commit that to their listening or oral memory so that they don't have
to read the sheet music again now I'm completely guilty of this when I first started learning the
piano I hated s reading I always played by ear or memorized as I grew and matured in my piano
playing journey I realized how important site reading was you know the ability to just pull
out any music these days and kind of be able to make it out have a few more practice and basically
master it within a couple of days or weeks is such a gods and I wish I prioritized site reading way
earlier in my piano learning journey. So for The self-taught pianists out there here's a tip for
you that will really help with your site reading: read 10 easy versions of sheep music that
you know. the tunes of so I'm pulling this for a m score this is uh Silent Night an
easy version by Cody Vinman thank you so much If you go and read 10 20 or 30 of these easy
versions of tunes you already know you'll start to marry your ear with your sight what I mean is
if you already know the tune of Silent Night by reading it you will learn oh this is what it looks
like visually on sheet music notice the the steps notice the skips and notice the rhythmic patterns
so for example this first line this part is a step step up down and a skip and also even through
these first two measure I learned something rhythmic as well so bum bum so we first have
a dotted quarter note an eighth note a quarter note and then with a dotted half note [Music]
so so I'm learning steps I'm learning skips I'm also learning the rhythmic values of these
things thing is you probably already know many many melodies so go and try to sight read things
that you already know to try to bridge and learn and marry your visuals with your ear. Common
Knowledge Gap Number 3 is "HOW TO PRACTICE". One of my main messages in this YouTube channel
is effective piano practice. I think this really hits home for me because I really regret some
of my poor practicing habits in the past and I really want to help you to not practice the way I
do did before some effective practice strategies include chunking and practicing in small sections
so for example do little little parts never ever play through you want to section out small bits
and really hone them so that they're perfect before you move on you want to do it at a speed
where your brain can really comprehend what's going on and coordinate what you actually need to
coordinate you probably want to do hand separate practice as well make sure the right hand is good
make sure the left hand's good before you put them together if you want an in-depth tutorial on how I
practice piano to learn pieces Within days or even just one or two weeks rather than months please
click on this video here. Knowledge Gap number 4 is "PROPER PIANO TECHNIQUE". Without formal
instruction self-taught pianist can sometimes have incorrect technique whether that's how your
wrist are moving how your arm are moving perhaps it's tension this can lead to discomfort injury
or just technical limitations later on and it's really hard to undo these bad habits just some
really quick tips here whenever you're playing if you feel tension you need to stop okay something
is is going wrong if you ever a feel tension some things I'll recommend also is lowest also try
to keep your elbow around the same length as where the piano level is so not too high not
too low but just around like a straight line of where the piano level is and try to make
sure your pinky isn't always flying up it's staying relaxed like this rather than like this
coordination of both your hands is a very unique thing about learning to play the piano that can
cause a lot of problems if you jump ahead and play two difficult pieces at the start if you're
someone that's starting out to play the piano and you can't seem to coordinate two hands you need
to check out my Hand Coordination Boot Camp by clicking here I provide a step-by-step series
of exercises to help you coordinate your fumbly hands I'm continually going to update this course
over time make sure you get it while it's still on discount. Knowledge Gap Number 5 is "REPERTOIRE
EXPANSION". Lots of self-taught pianists I find have a narrower exposure to the music that is
out there they often stick to to very familiar genres or composers and this is not a bad thing as
long as you're happy playing the pieces you do you but I think one potential danger of not knowing
many many pieces and where to go from next is the problem of skipping too many kind of basic steps
before playing all the hard pieces so for example if someone were to take lessons with me I often
plan their program in such a way that it's very very scaffolded so whatever they play in day one
I would always give them just something a little bit harder something a little bit harder each
time and kind of like before they know it they're already playing something hard after about 2 or
3 years of just doing doing this and something that once was very very hard to them let's say 2
years ago would not have been hard at this later point because all the pieces that were given to
them were scaffolded so well a potential danger of a self-taught pianist is because I think you
don't have this ability to kind of conclusively say oh this piece is a good next step for me or
this piece is uh too difficult for me because you don't have that knowledge potentially sometimes
your you're skipping too much and you're playing pieces that are just a tat out of your reach that
for me as an instructor when I see you work on these pieces isn't quite worth your time they're
easier pieces that you should be tackling first to broaden your skills and to work on some of the
basic things before you tackle something that's a little bit harder so potentially for this reason
it is helpful to go and seek out a teacher just to get a second opinion on what your program is
like what pieces you should play next we've come to the end of this video are you a self-taught
pianist if you are let me know if you agree or disagree with these points let me know what
your other problems are in the comments below check out my course the hand coordination
boot camp if you are a piano beginner and you're having some trouble coordinating your
hands catch you in the next piano tutorial.
