There are fewer and fewer real piano students out there. The piano in every house has been replaced. Sometimes it is just a piece of furniture. Keep up the discipline when you can. Gina 5th grade is a good level. Many stop around the second grade of piano. By now you should be able to sight read hymns fluently. If not you should get a hymn book and begin sight reading every day. Spend at least 1/2 an hour on sight reading. You are ready for simple master works, by the original composer. You probably have been playing arrangements, not the actual compostition. Next level is Robert Schuman,J.S. Bach, P.I.Tschaikowsky, L.van Beethoven,and maybe a little Vladimir Rebikoff. These composers among others wrote one and two page compositions of serious music that are on a student level. You shall receive a different reward from the ear players. You will be able to look at a sheet of music and tell how it sounds, because you can read it, and hear it in your head. You will be able to compose and re-arrange music on the staff. You will be able to sight read a new song the first time you see it. If you practice sight reading. I recommend it! You will see how voice parts work together, if you learn how to do analysis. I play by ear fluently. But I read very well also. I have been where you are going. Readers are leaders. It is a cliche. But it is true. A baby learns to speak by listening to sounds. He needs education when he is old enough to comprehend. He needs to lean a system whereby he can read and write the words he knows by sound. He will learn new words in reading that he has never spoken or heard. In many ways ear players have a degree of knowledge. When you reach the level that you can perform 4-6 page master works from memory.Then you will have a skill. no ear player can match. Yet it is only a degree of knowledge. Your ear will have to be trained in order to be a complete musician. How much time will you give music? It's up to God. His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen
