<p>i will be mentioning interval "reading" to my teacher next sunday. your tips are not all that clear to me, but i will print this out and work on it. </p>
<p>your generosity with your time and information is something i will pass along to someone else when the opportunity arises.</p>
<p>anyone care to comment about this part of one of my other posts:</p>
<p>"another note. yes, fun is what it should be about, but as i stated, things are not too fun right now. i set high goals. i have a situation where if i become reasonably competant, it is somewhat likely i will be paid to play 3-4 hours a night, maybe 4 nights a week in a restaurant. i may have this opportunity because i live in a resort place where piano players are somewhat scarce, but even so, they do not want to continue to play here in the sticks........there is more career opportunity for them in a city. if i learn enough songs to play the 3-4 hours a night i could be in. my teacher says two hours a day (practice) is the minimum to achieve this goal in 2-4 years. does that sound reasonable to you?"</p>
<p>It is impossible for us to say how quickly or how far you will be able to go without direct personal contact. A couple of hours a day for 2-4 years will take some people a lot farther than others. Your teacher has had that personal contact, so I think you should take them at their word for now. If you are putting in two hours of honest effort a day, you should make good progress toward your goal.</p>
<p>As one teacher I know says, "Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent." Her point is that hours of practice alone are not enough. You have to practice things in the right way and in the proper sequence. If you do those things, you will advance with all due speed.</p>
<p>Boy, BassDad, I like that practice statement. How many times I had a student come to a lesson after practicing something faithfully all week - wrong! Fixing the "permanent" mistake was always a challenge.</p>
<p>I have also heard it said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." Same thing.</p>
<p>WPG - I taught a couple parent-child pairs. In one case the parent moved much more quickly because she "caught" things more quickly. In the other case, the daughter actually passed up her dad. (Fortunately, I had them in different books, so it wasn't too obvious.) The dad is highly motivated, and still playing. It just doesn't come as naturally to him. After several years, he can play some nice pieces, and has fun doing them, but he is definitely not ready for prime time.</p>
<p>But, for that matter, I have played for over 30 years, and I'm not either. :) I've played for plenty of churches, weddings, as an instrumental accompanist - but I cannot memorize music very well, so playing in a club atmosphere would be very difficult for me. (As I said before, I don't have much of an ear, and rely very much on the printed page.)</p>
<p>And I agree with both Binx and BassDad. I am a perfect example of someone who has played piano for 30+ years, and still do not play well enough to entertain anyone for 3-4 hours. I enjoy myself, and play for that reason alone, but I do not have enough God given talent, no matter how much I practice to advance beyond a certain level.</p>
<p>My son, on the other hand, does have innate talent and natural musicality (plus perfect pitch, which doesn't hurt either!), and played better after a single year of lessons than I did after four. He quickly outpaced me, when he was still a young child.</p>
<p>I can hear immediately the difference in play between people who practice a lot, out of sheer dedication, and those with "the gift". Truth is, those in the second category simply have to practice less (they will always get further on two hours of practice than the person without the gift can get with four). And practicing "right" is easier for people with good ears and sense for music anyway.</p>
<p>So, how far you can get in 2-4 years depends as much on how you practice and your initiative as it does on your own innate musical ability. Your drive says a lot!</p>
<p>Sorry that I misunderstood your original post... </p>
<p>As for the second part, other people had said a lot about how far you can go in 2-4 years. You probably don't need to learn 3-4 hours of music to play 3-4 hr a night. I'm sure you don't need to play Beethoven sonata or Chopin etude for the restaurant. In a restaurant setting, if you develope good sight reading skills and have a nice musical sense, you can play through a book of familiar melodies easily - not kidding. You just need to play the melodies in the right hand, and in the left hand usually simple chords and arpeggios can do a very nice job of acompaniment.</p>