(no subject)

[primroseburrows]

Okay, two questions.

The first is for someone who's grown up in the British school system, as Harry did his first few school years: Is it possible for someone to go through school to age eleven and not learn anything about reading sheet music, including knowing what it looks like?

The second is for anyone who plays the piano: How long would it take for a very gifted (we're talking untapped prodigy, age sixteen) to learn to play the piano well enough to perform a complex piece of music?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Comments

[mark356.livejournal.com]

It depends why the piece is complex and where the person's particular musical talents are. There are some pieces that are complex because of all of the keys they go through and all of the fast notes, but because the notes are so similar, those are easy to play once you have the hang of them. There are other pieces, like Joplin's rags, that are extremely complex rhythmically, and some people could just sit down and play them, but it would probably take me years to play one of them at the same level of proficiency that I play Chopin etudes at. But if someone is particularly comfortable with the type of complex piece, and devotes a lot of energy to either reading that type of piece or one of those specifically, then he or she could probably learn it quite rapidly; if you said two months for an untapped prodigy to learn a complex piece of music he or she was practicing thoroughly every day, I would be amazed but not surprised.

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

There are other pieces, like Joplin's rags, that are extremely complex rhythmically, and some people could just sit down and play them, but it would probably take me years to play one of them at the same level of proficiency that I play Chopin etudes at.

Joplin is exactly what I'm looking for, actually. So I guess it depends on the player, right?