Peter's Goals for Piano

The Current State of Things

I've been studying piano for about three years, practicing about half an hour a day. I feel like I've been sort of aimlessly getting the basics down.

Here's the books and exercises I've worked through so far.

Long-Term Goals

Here are my long-term goals, in decreasing-priority order:

Pop Music

More than anything else, I'd like to learn a few pop songs on piano. If I could play "Rook", or "Cellophane" or any songs by the Beatles or the Nines, I'd be ecstatic.

I mean, every day I sing and play a few songs on my guitar, and I've never been able to do that on piano. (I've transcribed more Ben Folds songs to guitar than I'd care to count.)

Really I'd like to be able to play piano the way I play guitar -- as a primarily harmonic accompaniment for singing (with touches of instrumental melody thrown in if I'm feeling particularly clever that day).

Improvisation & Composition

I love improvising at the piano, but I've always felt really limited at it. Lately I've sort of given up on it. I also suspect this is partly why I've never gotten into writing songs at the piano, falling back on my guitar instead.

Improve My Sight-Reading

Right now I can only sight-read very simple sheet music, and that's frustrating -- I like playing through music, but I'm pretty much stuck playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or some such thing. Plus, reading the exercises in my theory book has been incredibly tough going.

Learn a repertoire of classical music.

This is my way of saying "being able to play pieces at a proper recital is the absolutely-least-important thing to me." I mean, I enjoy playing this sort of thing (especially Baroque pieces), but I enjoy all the stuff on this list. I'm just saying that developing my skills at playing classical music would have the least practical/immediate use for me.

Footnotes