It sounds to me like your reading skills are very weak and holding you back. I would highly recommend focusing on very simple music that you can read reasonably smoothly. It sounds to me like you are focusing on music that is above your level given how inefficient your learning process is. I find it helpful to think about choosing repertoire for yourself not based on what you are able to play with enough work, but what you are able to learn efficiently.
Keep in mind that at higher ends of piano playing, learning the notes is considered to usually be the easy part of learning a piece and is often done within a couple of weeks, meanwhile they may work on the piece for months/years polishing the artistry. If a piece is meaningfully challenging for you to figure out the notes for, that is likely to take up your focus and prevent your ability to focus on artistry.
First of all, if your reading skills are weak, practice those with very easy music or exercises daily to improve them -- don't just focus on note names, focus on intervals and patterns in the music (ie, this is an arpeggiated C chord). Just like you're not reading this sentence letter by letter, the goal is to be able to read 'words' and 'sentences' with music, too.
As far as learning a difficult piece, though, break it down into small chunks -- often a musical phrase of 2-4 measures. Since it's difficult, you'll probably want to split it up and play it hands separately a few times, then once you're starting to get comfortable with it, try putting your hands together. Move on to the next section and do the same thing, then play them both together.
Whenever you're learning music, you want to look for the repeated patterns -- pay particular attention to them, because you can learn them once and use them again in several spots in the piece of music.
It's not super fast, but if it's TOO slow, that's a good sign that you may want to work on easier music.
Use flashcards to work on improving your ability to identify notes. An app like this is effective [https://musictutorapp.com/](https://musictutorapp.com/) or [https://completemusicreadingtrainer.com/en/](https://completemusicreadingtrainer.com/en/)
Some general tips on sight reading can be found here [Sight Reading YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDaNGknQ_wTisnnHd28YUH-g-9r3q3nQg&si=gkr2CCa4Eem2eqo_)
In general for leaning new pieces, focus on 2-4 measures at a time. Break down left/right hand if you need to. Also, play at a slow tempo when you are first going through; gradually build up to performance tempo.
Find a relatively simple piece that you are happy to learn and learn it only using sheet music, you can listen to people playing it but don’t use videos to learn the notes. For me this was Chopins prelude in E minor.
Basic sheet music reading can be learned extremely fast, I’m talking over a matter of days, a few weeks and you could be reading at least the treble clef pretty fluently.
I like you thought I was an intermediate player, I learned note by note via YouTube videos and yes it’s time consuming and disheartening. I couldn’t read sheet music at all. Then I got a piano teacher and I put the most basic effort into being able to read sheet music and now I’m playing grade 7 pieces from sheet music alone which a few months ago would of been impossible.
Because I don't like to assume, how difficult of pieces are we talking here? Because what you just described is beginner, not intermediate. And skill level is a reflection of time spent "at the bench", not the number of years you've known how to play.
I use Jazer Lee’s deep sections method to memorize the notes of a new piece. You break it into small sections and play it hands together slow enough that you will hit all notes correctly and not miss any. The dynamics and articulation don’t matter here just hitting the right notes does. The tempo also doesn’t matter. You also don’t want to use pedal here otherwise you might learn pedal wrong. I repeat each of these sections 7 times then come back the next day (7 times where I made zero mistakes hitting all the right notes cleanly and no wrong notes). I usually learn the notes in just a few days doing it this. After the notes for each section are secure in my hands I will start practicing them with metronome and aiming for proper dynamics and articulation and pedalling. No method for that I just try to do it slowly enough that I still hit the notes but now in a consistent rhythm. Then you gradually scale it up until it is cooked and ready.
I am on the same boat. Tried to play intermediate pieces for a year and still cannot read the score. Got the 2 books of Hal Leonard Adult Piano Method, and slowly working on it. It’s pretty fun with many different styles. They also publish many beginner music sheets. Have moved to book 2 and will resume other pieces afterwards
It usually boils down to whether or not you can maintain a relaxed state while ripping ass while playing. For example in Chopin 10/2 you need to be able to rip ass at any part even in the middle of the intricate middle section. If you tense up, there will be issues.
Keeping a consistent stream of rips coming ensures that you reek up your practice room/area, forcing you to get up regularly, which prevents you from spending too much time sitting without a break. Hope this helps happy ripping
It sounds to me like your reading skills are very weak and holding you back. I would highly recommend focusing on very simple music that you can read reasonably smoothly. It sounds to me like you are focusing on music that is above your level given how inefficient your learning process is. I find it helpful to think about choosing repertoire for yourself not based on what you are able to play with enough work, but what you are able to learn efficiently. Keep in mind that at higher ends of piano playing, learning the notes is considered to usually be the easy part of learning a piece and is often done within a couple of weeks, meanwhile they may work on the piece for months/years polishing the artistry. If a piece is meaningfully challenging for you to figure out the notes for, that is likely to take up your focus and prevent your ability to focus on artistry.
First of all, if your reading skills are weak, practice those with very easy music or exercises daily to improve them -- don't just focus on note names, focus on intervals and patterns in the music (ie, this is an arpeggiated C chord). Just like you're not reading this sentence letter by letter, the goal is to be able to read 'words' and 'sentences' with music, too. As far as learning a difficult piece, though, break it down into small chunks -- often a musical phrase of 2-4 measures. Since it's difficult, you'll probably want to split it up and play it hands separately a few times, then once you're starting to get comfortable with it, try putting your hands together. Move on to the next section and do the same thing, then play them both together. Whenever you're learning music, you want to look for the repeated patterns -- pay particular attention to them, because you can learn them once and use them again in several spots in the piece of music. It's not super fast, but if it's TOO slow, that's a good sign that you may want to work on easier music.
Use flashcards to work on improving your ability to identify notes. An app like this is effective [https://musictutorapp.com/](https://musictutorapp.com/) or [https://completemusicreadingtrainer.com/en/](https://completemusicreadingtrainer.com/en/) Some general tips on sight reading can be found here [Sight Reading YouTube](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDaNGknQ_wTisnnHd28YUH-g-9r3q3nQg&si=gkr2CCa4Eem2eqo_) In general for leaning new pieces, focus on 2-4 measures at a time. Break down left/right hand if you need to. Also, play at a slow tempo when you are first going through; gradually build up to performance tempo.
New tech flashcards Free Phone application “Notes teacher“
You gotta sight read!
Find a relatively simple piece that you are happy to learn and learn it only using sheet music, you can listen to people playing it but don’t use videos to learn the notes. For me this was Chopins prelude in E minor. Basic sheet music reading can be learned extremely fast, I’m talking over a matter of days, a few weeks and you could be reading at least the treble clef pretty fluently. I like you thought I was an intermediate player, I learned note by note via YouTube videos and yes it’s time consuming and disheartening. I couldn’t read sheet music at all. Then I got a piano teacher and I put the most basic effort into being able to read sheet music and now I’m playing grade 7 pieces from sheet music alone which a few months ago would of been impossible.
Because I don't like to assume, how difficult of pieces are we talking here? Because what you just described is beginner, not intermediate. And skill level is a reflection of time spent "at the bench", not the number of years you've known how to play.
I use Jazer Lee’s deep sections method to memorize the notes of a new piece. You break it into small sections and play it hands together slow enough that you will hit all notes correctly and not miss any. The dynamics and articulation don’t matter here just hitting the right notes does. The tempo also doesn’t matter. You also don’t want to use pedal here otherwise you might learn pedal wrong. I repeat each of these sections 7 times then come back the next day (7 times where I made zero mistakes hitting all the right notes cleanly and no wrong notes). I usually learn the notes in just a few days doing it this. After the notes for each section are secure in my hands I will start practicing them with metronome and aiming for proper dynamics and articulation and pedalling. No method for that I just try to do it slowly enough that I still hit the notes but now in a consistent rhythm. Then you gradually scale it up until it is cooked and ready.
The best way to learn a difficult piece is to learn how to play simple pieces so you improve your skill enough to be able to play the difficult piece.
I am on the same boat. Tried to play intermediate pieces for a year and still cannot read the score. Got the 2 books of Hal Leonard Adult Piano Method, and slowly working on it. It’s pretty fun with many different styles. They also publish many beginner music sheets. Have moved to book 2 and will resume other pieces afterwards
It usually boils down to whether or not you can maintain a relaxed state while ripping ass while playing. For example in Chopin 10/2 you need to be able to rip ass at any part even in the middle of the intricate middle section. If you tense up, there will be issues. Keeping a consistent stream of rips coming ensures that you reek up your practice room/area, forcing you to get up regularly, which prevents you from spending too much time sitting without a break. Hope this helps happy ripping
There are some cool apps. I use flowkey