As a fellow teacher, I find it fascinating to hear what other teachers use to measure “levels.” In my opinion, I feel like there’s a big jump from the skills described from Late Beginner to Early Intermediate. I might split the Beginner levels into 3 parts as well, Early, Mid, and Late. And then I might use your description for Late Beginner as a Mid-Beginner and bridge the gap a little better to Early Intermediate. All that being said, I do agree with quite a few things mentioned here! I just wish there was more technique addressed than just balancing hands or voicing to mark levels.
Yeah, it's difficult to measure levels! I get why it's important for adults (especially those learning on their own) to have some kind of measure, but even my opinion on levels changes from week to week. I agree with you about splitting the Beginner level up - great thought!
@@PianoRoadmap I actually believe further splitting the Beginner level adds no value whatsoever. The whole Beginner phase is about acquiring a set of fundamentals to open the door to the next Intermediate level. I would prefer listing the knowledge and set of technical skills one is supposed to have at the end of the Beginner level to make clear when the transition to Intermediate starts taking place. Splitting the levels (especially the Beginner level) only introduces an artificial skill acquisition roadmap that will not reflect reality. So, I would stick to Complete Beginner -> Beginner -> Early | Middle | Late Intermediate -> Advanced. And you could add a "Professional" or similar level at the end. Keep on the good work!
Susan, thank you so much for making the levels clear. I’m working through your Piano Roadmap, and it’s so helpful to me, since I’m doing this on my own. I’m at the beginning level. 🥰
get well soon Susan, I always look forward to your post, it's very true that it's difficult to find what level your at, for me i went to the abrsm books and then used that to find the right composer, so far it has worked fairly well. At the moment i use the grade 4 pieces which to take me around a couple of days to learn and then a couple more days to nail, practicing around 2 hours a day. I am shortly going to step it up to grade 5 pieces 🤞🤞
Thank you for this "know thyself" video😢. I studied (struggled with reading the music) piano when I was 9 and havnt played at all for 50 years. Been re learning for about 6 month now and today aftee watching your "late beginer" 'tests" I know my level ..😢😢😢😢 😅. Your video is very helpful. Thank you!❤
Self-taught here, and I’m working through your Major/Minor scale challenges right now. I really appreciate this breakdown, even if it sets me back around late-beginner, early-intermediate. 😂 Hope your health improves quickly! Thanks so much for your teaching, I really appreciate this channel. ❤
I am early intermediate with some intermediate skills (2 years in). I practice about 2 hours a day. My goal is not necessarily to become an advanced player but just to be able to enjoy playing pieces that make me feel happy. I am in my 50s and retired early and decided to learn piano as my new “job”. Really like your teaching style.
I love watching piano vids on RU-vid, but few people actually know something about music. And you are damn sure one of them!! First off: you know that Etude/Prelude in G wasn’t written by JS Bach but by Petzold, and you knew that Für Elise and Moonlight Sonate (movement I) aren’t pieces for beginners. You earned a sub, keep up the good work!!!
@@andersnielsen6044 I agree. L. Van Beethoven wrote it with the intention for it to fit together. The movements can be Played as a standalone though. And evens if it’s not the complete sonate, it’s still a good way to start.
Thank you so much I’ve been wondering what level I am any have been searching it up but all it comes up is that there is no levels so you having this video has really helped me Also I am between early intermediate and intermediate
I have my first lesson with a teacher in a week and I'm trying to find out my current level after my self study for ~6 months. With this video I'd probably place myself around late beginner. But I'll see then %) Thank you very much for the informative video, it was very helpful.
Late beginner for me. I have a few of the skills in early intermediate, but have gaps in skills that my teachers never told me to practice, like scales lol. But I am good at sight reading easy beginner pieces and lead sheets. I wish I had access to online resources like this channel when my teachers were not very thorough and didn't tell me what to practice aside from repertoire (which was usually above my level). Thank you!
😮😢 oh my, not very encouraging, this being my third week, but I am enjoying just my simple exercises, enjoying the journey rather than an end goal at my age:86
I'm older too, just make challenging yourself fun! Hang in there. Progress is always slow at all levels. Once you can sight read even simple pieces your fun will increase I promise!
You don’t need to take this long. Learn chords not notes and you’ll be able to play songs much more quickly. The classical approach outlined in this video is designed to take years and even decades to progress through. It doesn’t have to take anywhere near this long to learn. If you focus on chords you can learn to play thousands of songs in just a few months.
@@andybarker8787 It's an entirely different mindset to want to play an instrument reading only lead sheets and not music. I used the Pianote platform so I've been introduced to both and strongly dislike the lead sheet/chord route. It works for many, not me, I enjoy the challenge of sight reading, classical music, and prefer to take the slower classical route.
I restarted playing the piano after years without one. I took lessons as a child and a few years as a teenager. I never learned chords. Mostly learned from Thompson graded books. I started working on Poet and the Peasant as a teen, but never could play the last several pages. 55 years later I finally can play the whole thing! So I figure without knowing chords I'm still a beginner? But Poet and Peasant Overture is no cakewalk! I'd like to know where you think I stand. I can play 13 of 15 Scenes from Childhood by Schumann. Woo!
This is great for classical pianists. Not so great if you started out only focusing on playing blues and jazz piano. Sight reading and practicing scales up and down is not really emphasized at all. Would be really interesting to see a video like this but specifically for genre other than classical.
I learn piano for 20 weeks, practice 10 hours / week. Now i am working with Beyer opus 101, on exercise 24, Hanon exercise 3, Faber piano adventure for adult 1, page 80, also faber clasic song and popular song And my teacher said i am at prepatory level, and i need another 20 weeks to be ready to join lv 1 So can you make another illustration for pre beginner, earlier beginner, beginner, and late beginner? I believe many people are beginner Also may be there is a playlist video for each level, so i can find which video i should watch
Wonderful suggestion! Yes, the whole range of the "beginner" level is vast, and I'll try to add more detailed suggestions in the future. As far as playlists go, I do have a beginner, late-beginner, intermediate, etc playlist with repertoire suggestions. I'll keep adding to them too!
Not sure I agree that the Mozart Sonata k 545 is late intermediate. Seems more like early advanced. Interesting video! One Beethoven sonata is late intermediate for sure and that is op 49 no 2. I would add another two categories, late advanced and virtuosic. I’m sure you are very well aware of all this but thought I’d add my thoughts
Yup lol, you can't pull Mazeppa/Feux follets out just because you're an advanced player. I mean you could learn it, but.. yea there are still gaps between advanced (virtuosic) players
To me, the Beethoven Op. 49 No. 2 is more advanced than Mozart's K 545, but that might be because I find Beethoven ALWAYS more challenging! I definitely skipped advanced and virtuosic in this video, mostly because I figure that if you're at the late advanced/virtuosic stage, you already know 😆 Thanks so much for adding your thoughts!
I 10000% agree with you about Gymnopédie! I tried to learn this as one of my first pieces a few hundred hours ago, and I gave up primarily because of the leaps not sounding musical at all (hahaha). I will probably revisit this piece again soon! (I have about 450 hours total practice time right now, self taught/youtube).
Thank you Susan for the helpful video! How long should it take to learn a piece which matches the level I am currently at? Or rather, what is a good amount of time to spend on any given piece appropriate for my level?
That all depends on your current level. But for beginners to early intermediate pianists, I would say *generally* that a piece at your current level should take no more than a month to learn. If a piece is taking longer for you, it doesn't mean you shouldn't practice it, but it's just in your "challenging" zone.
Hi Susan, I'm wondering if you could comment on, or perhaps even make a short video on, the challenges of learning on a digital piano. I do, and I am somewhat aware of its shortcomings but they are about to come into sharper focus as I am going to start in person lessons in 3 or 4 weeks and like most instructors she has an acoustic piano. This will be a new challenge to add to my late beg/early int practice. And to my budget as well as I know it will make me desperately want an acoustic (i already do). Incidently I have a fair quality digital, good for its price range of about $600, a yamaha P225. I am 61, but if my R thumb joint will hold up (and all else) I plan to play for many more years. Thank you for your generous content.
@@PianoRoadmap The lessons are great, I'm so glad to be able to do it. But the digital piano is certainly an issue, as I can see that as I slowly improve I will become more and more aware of its many shortcomings. But when I do get an acoustic it will almost certainly need to be upright since my house is very small, then there are the many shortcomings compared to a grand!! I found a lot of valuble content on the Merriam Music account if you have anyone who is looking for an intro to the complex world of acoustic pianos...Thanks for your reply and as always your great videos. I'm currently working throught the practice tips playlist.
@@leeciap My two cents. Get a digital piano with the best keyboard action you can afford. It will *not* limit your practice for many years. You can be sure that your technique will be the limit, not the instrument. You will need to be playing quite advanced repertoire to start noticing some limitations and most will be related to the sound. Note that an upright acoustic piano also has limitations when compared to a grand piano. A high-end digital piano will actually feel closer to a grand piano than an upright. And if you live in a small place, especially with neighbours, the sound of an acoustic can easily create problems and a digital is better in such cases. Have a look the Yamaha N1X and Kawai Novus NV10 (these models use an adapted action from a grand piano). You can also consider the Casio GP 310/510 or Kawai CA901/701 as slightly more affordable options. I would get any of these digital pianos over an entry- or mid-range upright (a very good acoustic upright costs as much as a small grand piano...) In 10 years' time, consider investing on grand and keep the digital for night practicing ;-)
Definitions of levels are clear and make complete sense. Thank you. Wanted to know which levels the following pieces correspond to: 1. Chopin waltz in C# minor (op 64 no 2) 2. Sibelius Etude (op 76 no 2)
To answer, Chopin's C# minor Waltz op. 64 no.2 is grade 6 in Henle's scale (Henle Verlag publications) So, on par with Chopin's Polonaise Dramatique (op. 26 no. 1 C# minor) or the Eb Major Nocturne op.9 no. 2. Also the F minor Nocturne op. 55 no. 1 which I'm starting to work on now in hopes of playing for the Fall recital. Henle 6 is solidly late intermediate, possibly blurring a just a little bit into early advanced repertoire depending on the piece. Mozart's D minor Fantasie K.397 (which I'm performing at our recital in June) is also Henle grade 6. Oh, and looking at the Sibelius Etude, seeing the intended tempo, movement and quick interval jumps in the left hand, and how constant they are, I'd say likely Henle grade 7 which would put it in the early advanced category. Even though Sibelius isn't published by Henle. It might be a grade 6, but I'd think that would be a very "late" grade 6 piece with the speed and the motions in the right hand, so more likely a grade 7. So I'd say either very late intermediate or earlier advanced repertoire. It's not unlike Chopin's Etude f minor op. 25,2 "The Bees" which is Henle grade 7.
started my journey 4 month ago. so im between late beginner and early intermediate.would be good if you would make a video with MORE pieces for each level. Because we beginners really struggle to find good stuff to play
Few days ago i started playing stardew valley.. i was not getting any progress so i watched some yt videos..i realised many mistakes i made..so i had to start a new game to play it right.. Somehow i am getting the same feeling while watching this video
Thank you! I always feel a little pretentious if I say I play at an advanced level. Would love to know whether I’m “early advanced” or later, though it probably doesn’t matter in the end. 😊
Very informative. Thank you! Chord patterns, key signatures, understanding inversions etc. - all that technical stuff - can be discouraging and is not always necessary for one to be able to actually PLAY and enjoy music! I have learned a bunch of classical, hymns and popular songs over the years - music that I like - not by enduring the drudgery of learning traditional piano fundamentals like Hanon exercises but actually PLAYING the notes on the sheet of music. Practice, practice, practice and as with all endeavors good things - progress - happens! It helps that I played an instrument in school. For a common sense approach to this topic: (RU-vid) How Can You Determine What Level Pianist You Are? LivingPianosVideos
Hi Grace (sorry i could not find your name and thought i needed to address this to you). I think there are a lot of extra additional grades between late intermediate and advanced. According to your scale i am an expert but I considered myself late intermediate and i have been stuck at that level for more years than it took me to progress from beginner. i learned All 24 Chopin etudes, played many JS Bach Preludes and Fugues and the Italian concerto and at least 5 different Mozart piano sonatas for performance to a Jury of piano performance professors. Here is should say i am very unsatisfied with my level. I do not play with ease and it takes me considerable time to learn these pieces (months, years) and i will mess up consistently. I am taking a break away from the piano for now over 10 months. I do not consider myself an expert sometimes i even want to say intermediate, not late intermediate.
Get well Susan, thank you for very interesting and helpful video for the beginners. P.S. I hope you are well and strong at the time of posting this video.
58 yo here. Started on piano at age 12, then quickly moved to acoustic guitar, then onto bass guitar semi-professionally for decades. Eventually picked up some mandolin. Now I got myself a nice Roland synth and I'm back to learning keys. I'm a rocker so I'm working on things like Toto's Hold the Line, BOC's Joan Crawford, Zep's Trampled under Foot, Yours Is No Disgrace by Yes. I suppose I'm a mix of early through late intermediate. Music theory skills are there, I know all the chords, scales, I can read music etc.. I know how to construct something like, an Ebmaj7. It's just...making my fingers go there, and quickly is the challenge. My hand independence needs a lot of work. I guess I should focus more on finger exercises. I try to get in 20-30 min at least a day - many sessions go longer. Thank you for the breakdown. It makes me feel good that if I keep on this, I'll be getting close to advanced in another year or two.
Awesome! For someone like you who knows how to read music and has extensive theory knowledge, the best thing you can do to "catch your hands up" is to pick piano rep that is at your level or BELOW so you're going through a ton of new music. If I were you, that would be the majority of my practice for a while, with maybe 1 piece that's more challenging musically and kind of like a goal piece. Good luck!
@@PianoRoadmap , thanks for your reply. Wow, that is different advice than I expected. So I should forego the "do 2 octave scale and arpeggio" exercises to get yoiur chops up for right now and mostly focus on learning lots of "easy" music?
@@user-zt2wc3uh1l Honestly, yes. At this stage, there's no need to be able to play every single major scale. Will you eventually want to be able to do this? Yes, for sure. But right now, if you are trying to gain hand independence, I would just practice pieces. Maybe take 1 new one every week that is easy for you, and work on polishing it up as best as you can. This will develop really great practicing habits, get you a bunch of music under your belt, and begin to develop solid hand independence technique. And if you want, warm-up with a scale. But don't make that your focus.
I know this is nearly impossible, but given someone studying 1 hour a day, there would a way to estimate how long in your experience it would take to reach those levels? at least to intermediate?
Unfortunately, you're right. It is nearly impossible to estimate how long it would take a unique individual to reach an intermediate level from scratch. Even with the same amount of practice per day, some are able to practice more efficiently, retain information more easily, be more "natural" at the piano, and the list goes on. If we're talking averages with tempered expectations, to go from 0 to intermediate with an hour a day, plan on a journey of about 2-7 years. How's that for broad??? And with all skill-based activities, the more you know, the more you know you don't know 😆 But I suppose that's the fun of it. Good luck to you!
Thank you for the video. Although you talk about the broader levels, ABRSM did give me some sort of path to take to climb up in skill. As for most beginners there is plenty to learn and plenty of resources, your skill will skyrocket in the first few months. But at some point, around intermediate level, this drops significantly. There is nothing really that shows you what steps to take next. Using ABRSM's scaling gives you an idea what you need to know and able to play to get to the next grade. Ofcourse you don't have to take their exams, but I highly recommend their apps and literature. They just give an overal idea of progression you can follow.
i think im actually in the middle of late beginner and early intermmediate, but more in late beginner 😢 im a grade 9 student (and I have been playing piano for 1 year and maybe 2-3 months?) and unfortunately i do struggle managing time with school and practicing + i dont have a piano yet, not even a pedal 😭 but, I go to my teachers house for lessons sometimes and of course I make sure I use my time well there (I know how to play sonstina in c major, and of course minuet in g 😁)
It sounds like you're making amazing progress, considering that you're a busy student without a piano at home! Keep at it, because if you can set aside regular practice time and get better access to a piano, you'll probably see lots of gains!
I've used the terms rank beginner, intermediate beginner and advanced beginner. I'm intermediate beginner, A rank beginner is someone who comes in knowing nothing about music. Does that mean that a person with some background in music, be it vocal or instrumental, automatically comes in as an intermediate beginner? Well, I would say so. An advanced beginner is someone who can play some simple compositions, play scales and arpeggios well and play more advanced exercises. Three levels of intermediate also, low intermediate, just plain intermediate, and advanced intermediate. Then you get advanced. How advanced depends on what you can play and how well you can play it. That's my scheme of things. It's how I will grade myself as I move along in the keyboard world.
Although I believe myself to be a late beginner, as a self taught pianist, I feel like I'm in this weird spot where I have very huge gaps in knowledge both music theory and playing wise. For instance, I don't know how to name or play any piano chords and such technical stuff, however I'm very comfortable playing in any key signature and using the entire piano as well as quickly moving around quickly like in gnossienne no.5. I think my ability to understand the nature and feeling of a song is good enough and many people I know who are skilled in piano claimed my musical expression was great when I performed Gymnopedie no.1 (one of the first pieces I have ever learned) and Gnossiennses 1-5. So I'm just a bit confused as where I would be classified
Yes, sometimes levels overlap, especially when going the "non-traditional" route of being a self-taught pianist. If you are able to find piano music that interests you and is somewhere around your level, maybe it doesn't matter too much what level you are. If you were constantly picking music that was too easy or too difficult, then knowing your approximate level can be helpful.
Back in the 80's when I learned to play the piano, we were not let anywhere near the grand piano before we have learned all notes, keys and chords.. It was simply just basic knowledge for our teachers to expect. So only theory at the music school - and all playing happened at home ;)
Did you grow up in the US? We didn't have grand pianos at my school in the 80s, just old uprights, but I think our teachers would have truly appreciated the rule your school implemented 😆 We were "Heart & Soul" playing machines...
Wait, what you are doing? Go to bed -- YT can wait -- with good book and big mug with hot tea 🙂 Thank you for the video though, the pieces examples are very useful. And seriously, take care!
Great information. This appears to describe classical music. As a beginner jazz pianist I am more interested in learning scales, inversions, chord progressions, harmonic function, and improvisation. But I remember the late great jazz pianist Kenny Kirkland who played with Sting was classically trained, as well as Billy Joel. I wonder if there are any memorization of the pieces in classical music and or reinterpretations with improvisation.
Even with your goals that are geared towards improv, spending a little time with classical music is great fuel for creativity (I think!). Music is made of patterns, so if we read these and understand them from classical music, I do believe we subconsciously use and reinterpret them.
Nice channel and the scratchy throat always seems to make a woman's voice seem lower and sexier, sort of like the Prentiss(sp?) sisters. Not sure if you will consider that a plus. Anyway, it's sad that there is so little time to soak up all the good piano channels on YT. Each seems to have something unique to offer. As it is, most of my time goes towards my in town teacher and once-a-year ~6 month on line class that draws my available energy down to about zero towards the end. I'm sort of at the early intermediate to intermediate stage and will definitely look at your piece suggestions from time to time. Thanks for being here to help.
It depends on how well you play your early advanced repertoire and what specific degree you would like. There's music performance, music education, music minors, music tech, music therapy, music composition...I think I got them all, but I'm sure there's something I missed 😆 Do you work with a private piano teacher?
Hi! I'm not familiar with this piece, but just had a quick peek at an arrangement of it. While I haven't played it, to me it looks more like early advanced.
Since you play chopin etudes and rachmaninoff preludes, I'm confident that if the chords were written out on the grand staff or the scales written in one of the etudes, you would be able to play it.
If you have a specific question, I can try to help. You can also join our free Facebook community to get answers from me and other pianists: facebook.com/groups/pianoroadmap
Congrats, that's an awesome piece to be able to play! A lot of wonderful pianists are not great music readers, but if you can play Fantaisie Impromptu (in its entirety and not a simplified version), you are almost certainly advanced.
There are *arrangements* of Für Elise that are aimed at beginners (cuts out the entire middle section, changes the time signature, simplified the notes), but the original version of it is definitely not a beginner piece.
Excellent explanation of levels. There are some relatively easy pieces to read but fairly difficult to interpret beautifully, for example some of the Album Leaves by Schumann. Thank you for breaking down a subject that many teachers leave to the side.
Thank you Susan for your effective teaching. I have learned so much just from the few videos I've watched. I appreciate that you are very frank & honest with us but yet kind at the same time. Because as beginner I was told Gymnopédie No.1 would be easy because it is such a slow piece. Good to know now. By the way your voice is comforting and easy to listen to, even when sick ;))
Very nice . Thank you … I do feel better about my progress… enjoying the journey… I do play a number of the pieces you mentioned…. Always learning and practicing but enjoying and loving the process … Chopin my favorite 🎹thank you for the explanation…. I feel better about where I am and level ..
Thank you for explaining in clear terms the different levels. One of the pieces that is not often mentioned in an early intermediate level is the Gnossienne no4 by Erik Satie. It helps to have the left hand play arpeggio like passages. Not terribly difficult to learn but difficult enough to interpret beautifully. I know because I am an adult amateur pianist. Great video, thanks again.
Much needed. Much appreciated. I particularly appreciate the notion that one's skills may span two or more levels. So true. Love the suggested repertoire. My problems include punch-outs, such as pedalling and ornaments. Sigh.
My sister, the Lord bless you for being a blessing to many. I wish you a very speedy recovery. Please, drink a lot of water, fruits, have enough sleep and rest from time to time.
I would be interested in a video that breaks down the advanced phases more. There is obviously very great differences in the pieces beyond the later intermediate levels. I'm doing Bach Inventions right now now but still consider myself at that middle intermediate level.
Is there something in particular you would like to know, or are you interested in piano repertoire suggestions at early advanced, advanced, & pro levels?
I don't teach private online lessons anymore because all my focus is spent on RU-vid and my teaching through the Piano Roadmap Membership (www.PianoRoadmap.com).
@@PianoRoadmap Thank you for your reply, I have watched all of your videos many times. I am a struggling piano player for the passed 15 years, i have had many teachers and i practise a lot most days. Thats why i asked about on line lessons. Keep the great videos coming.
Very helpful. Thank you. It actually is very much comparable with my teacher’s curriculum, as far as the levels of playing is concerned. On the other hand, The Wild Horseman is RCM (Royal Conservatory of Music) Level 4 (Intermediate)
Hope you’re feeling better Susan! This was very informative. Thanks! BTW, I really like the “fuzzy slippers” pedaling! Does that make the sustain softer? 🙄
This was somewhat discouraging. I am only partially an late beginner, but I think I have some of the content/skills/understandings of higher levels. Fortunately, I am not learning piano to survive or pay bills, but for the joy of it. That said, I also don’t want to waste what little time I have on the planet. The truth is the truth, though, so I just need to go into my closet now and cry myself to sleep. 😭
You're not alone! I think RU-vid makes it seem like an adult should be able to learn the piano at a higher level ("like a pro") in a matter of months, but it's just not the case. As an adult learner, you have the ability to be a mentally advanced pianist, meaning you understand theory, musical concepts, etc, but there are no shortcuts when it comes to the technical aspect of playing.
Very good - puts it in perspective, I'm way ahead in technique and knowledge and way way behind in playing capability - difficult to be honest with oneself in the self teach world.
Very much enjoy your videos and your soothing voice (:. I do have a teacher and also a couple beginner students and am learning from you as well. Thank you specifically for this video - I appreciate the recommendation to play pieces at several levels and am attempting to prevent burnout. Thank you again!
Thanks for this description.. very helpful delineation of skills. One question, is reading music correlated to abilities on these levels? It does seem there are non-traditional learning journies, where people learn techniques far ahead of their ability to read. Many of the techniques seem correlated from a development standpoint in the different level, but I am curious as to whether reading level should be distinguished from playing level?
Really great observation! As adults, we often tend to be more advanced with theory, musicality, and other intellectual skills. It can take a minute for our technique to catch up. But it also works the other way for people. Some have a very natural ability to "just play", without a thorough knowledge of what they're really doing.
I hope you are feeling better! Thank you. I have been playing my scales with a metronome for the past two months. I had some metronome trauma as a young violinist, but with a digital metronome I can keep the volume low, and that helps. And so does doing scales with a metronome!! What I would like a video on, is a way to get competent at playing the melody hand louder than the accompaniment. Most of the exercises I’ve seen keep one in a five-finger position, playing a single note at a time. That hasn’t translated for me to actual music.
Where do you put ear training and improvisation to be able to break the over reliance on scores? A large number of students want to learn to play popular pieces not just classical scores. Where do they get taught to transpose, arrange and express themselves through music they love? People learn a classical style then get stuck with terrible publications of scores for none classical repertoire which makes it hard for them to be creative.
No harm in setting a challenging goal, especially if you know it's ambitious! Worst case scenario, you don't reach your goal, but you still improve a ton. Good luck!
always wondered about my level....self-taught, retired and at 68yrs old....been playing piano on/off since my teen years....this is my second coming year of constants playing with close to three hours a day practicing....now i'm starting to play Chopin Aeolian Harp and besides others....i think the one that really help me is Czerny op 740....i tackled that constantly....its like a marathon on steroids for your fingers....if i can play three Chopin Etudes or Liszt Un Sospiro before the year is over, i'll be very happy.....i don't know any thing about scales, don't use metronome and don't know anything about sight-reading....i don't follow the dynamics but i do my own interpretation....my only obstacle now is memorize a score...i just don't have that talent...also have small hands....can't extend to the10th keys....i don't have the right speed yet...i figure that it'll eventually come within two more years....they say it'll normally takes 8yrs to be proficient in playing a piano....i think i can do it in 5yrs....thank you for the summarization on skill levels....i have ONE question though: can you call yourself a pianist if self-taught?
