Looking for advice in Technique Improvement

[MikeJS78]

Hello,

I took piano lessons throughout high school and some of college (I'm now 28). I've been playing on and off since then just for fun (with not much real "practice"), but I'm at the point now where I really want to improve my technique and skill. I'm probably an intermediate player who could use much improvement on sight-reading skills, but am pretty good at memorization. To learn a new piece can take a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on level of difficulty. Looking to play both classical and more modern selections, and eventually get into improvisation (but I know that's a long way off).

For excercises I have both Hannon and Czerny books. I am looking for some advice on how I should proceed with either one, and also if there are any good books or techniques to work on sight reading. Any other advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Channi]

Two ideas:
- play a new piece so that every note is correct, tempo and rhythm don´t matter
- play a new piece with metronome, wrong notes don´t matter, but keep the tempo and try to get the rhythm

Playing "prima vista" needs very very much concentration, don´t bother with it on a bad day... wasted time.

[nickpiano]

Just follow the instructions in Hanon. Learn the first excerise. Play it with the metronome at 60. Increase gradually. And repeat... Hanon can be really boring, but just practice a little bit each day and it will help.

For sight-reading, get a book full of fairly easy sheet music. Play it all the way through ignoring mistakes. If its too hard, just get an easier book.

[Jubbliful]

I have bought the "super sight reading secrets" book by Howard Richman and he reccomends many little drills and excersizes that you should do everyday to improve. I cant say wether it is greatly helpful as i am only on the first few excersizes, but they suggest:
1/ Select two notes on the keyboard and use these to play the rhythms of the piece ONLY. Do this slowly at first, until you can play faster then the original tempo. Count the beats aloud as you do so
2/ As Channi said, play the entire piece only observing the pitch and fingering. Again, verbalize the note and fingering used.
He sugests you do this for around 5 mins everday, until it becomes easy to do on any piece.
There are a large no. of other drills in the book that look very helpful.
Good luck with improving your sightreading, i join you in this quest!!

[joeyd929]

I spend time writing out intervals in every key and then just playing through simple 2 and 3 note chords. Practicing in every key seems to help my reading ability.