# In need of advice : starting to work on Crammer etudes!



## TzarIvan

Hi guys 

So, finally after nearly three months of not having any chance of playing any keyboard instrument, I'm thinking to start 'reshaping' my piano skills from somewhat more basic level to ensure a flawless and smooth progress. Well, I've been playing the piano for nearly 14 years, but never achieved any decent level of playing on it. I just play whatever the piece I like and work all the way on it without taking emphasize on pedagogical stuffs, good ways of playing etc, and as the result I now realize that I lack lots of all the basic necessary skills such as balancing the finger, playing evenly, not rising the 4th and 5th finger, and I feel like I tend to get tensed a lot during playing. Thus, I feel like during my last 2 years I get in the level in which I can't make any progress, can't achieve any increase in finger dexterity nor agility, yet it's a bit too advanced to fix the seemingly trivial yet fundamental skills I'm lacking in. I worked on Chopin etudes, tried to speed up the tempo bit by bit, but got stuck at half the indicated tempo. 

I really regret that during my early years of learning the piano I never sticked to Hanon and Czerny etudes as suggested by my teacher. I was also always tend to be careless and tried to start learning a piece in hasty manner (e.g. sight read it with both hands on and in the fastest tempo I could), instead of doing it right step by step, and as a result I made lots of mistakes and flaws in my progress and carry it all the way from time to time.

Now I'm thinking of doing the Crammer etudes from the beginning (my teacher never gave Crammer to me before) and start working on it patiently, doing it slowly but perfectly, hoping that I could fix the areas where I'm weak at, but I'm really sure whether I'm doing it the right way or could I really fix all the problem I have. Playing it slowly, separate hand, ensuring perfect balance on every single note.

I hope any of you could give me any advice on how to do the etude in the right way so that I'm not investing my time and energy for vain (as I'm doing this without any teacher supervision), motivating words, or share me your experience on working on this etude.

Best Regard,
Ivan


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