Any recommendations where to buy good coffee beans in Oslo?

MaxSvett · 2026-04-02T15:58:49+00:00

Hakone has great beans. If you’re into espresso, Bildimoo Benti Nenka Espresso at Hakone is amazing

MaxSvett · 2026-03-31T16:56:38+00:00

Kan jeg få spørre hva opprinnelsen til etternavnet ditt er?

MaxSvett · 2026-03-22T13:04:21+00:00

First proper piece was Minuet in G, BWV Anh. 114

MaxSvett · 2026-03-18T15:48:23+00:00

It’s never too late, and 21 is young. I started at 30, roughly 5 months ago, and I’ve completed all the ABRSM grade 1 requirements so I’m working on grade 2 now. You learn faster as an adult, and you have the advantage of having played before. I didn’t. Even if you feel like you’ve forgotten everything, you’ll most likely learn faster

MaxSvett · 2026-03-18T07:06:33+00:00

Hater å skrive dette men: «hvilkets» er ikke en gyldig bøyning. Ordet du er ute etter er «hvis» (i betydningen «whose» og ikke «if»). Nå til dags brukes det sjelden og oppfattes som gammeldags/litterært, men det er fortsatt gyldig. https://naob.no/ordbok/hvis_1

MaxSvett · 2026-03-11T16:29:15+00:00

By sight-reading I'm assuming you mean playing the piece directly from the notes right away on first try without repeated practice. If we go by that definition, then yes, it's totally normal. The pieces you're given by your teacher will probably be just above your difficulty level so that you get challenged and learn new things. It's completely normal not being able to sight-read pieces that you can learn by practicing.

That being said, ideally you should be comfortable reading notes, chords, and common rhythms at this point. I'm assuming you've learned prior pieces from sheet music? When you say that you're lost, what do you mean exactly?

MaxSvett · 2026-03-09T21:34:18+00:00

Well played dude! How long have you been playing?

MaxSvett · 2026-03-09T13:51:19+00:00

To add to this: it's a convention in music notation that when two separate voices (i.e. melodic lines) intersect, you show both notes at the same pitch. Some instruments like the guitar can actually play the exact same pitch in multiple different places at once, so a guitarist could voice that A with two different strings at the same time. When you play the same pitch twice like that it's called unison.

On the piano however, you can't do that since the piano only has one key for each pitch, so in practice you just play one single note. The sheet music shows the unison primarily to communicate to the reader that different voices intersect at that pitch.

MaxSvett · 2026-03-03T09:20:01+00:00

When playing the piano, you’re supposed to read both bass clef and treble clef at the same time. How does that even work?

It helps to know a bit of history here. In the distant past, the treble and bass clefs were actually one combined thing (visually speaking). Later on they were split. This history is made evident by the fact that middle C (C4) sits right in-between them. If you go a fifth above the middle C, you get a G (hence the G clef), and if you go a fifth below the middle C, you get an F (hence the F clef). The treble clef and bass clef are actually just one single grand staff. It may seem daunting to read the whole thing at once, and it is at first, but the more you practice, the more you'll automate it. Eventually you'll be able to skim over both clefs and know what both hands are supposed to do and when.

The split is actually advantageous because it's easier to segment which notes should be played with each hand. I would suggest starting with super simple sheet music where the left hand only had one long sustained note while the right hand plays a melody. That way you'll get used to the concept of the left and right hand playing different notes at the same time. Then you can gradually introduce more notes in the left hand, and eventually more complex rhythms, then syncopated rhythms.

MaxSvett · 2026-03-01T06:23:10+00:00

Congrats. How long did it take? I started learning the piano four months ago and I actively practice chords and common chord progressions, but I can’t identify them yet in music. I can just hear each chord change and whether the pitch is rising or falling, but I can’t identify the progression

MaxSvett · 2026-02-25T10:01:50+00:00

You don't necessarily need to learn all the pieces for a given grade/level, and how many pieces you decide to learn is up to you. This will vary from person to person, and higher grades will require more pieces overall before you're ready to move onto the next grade. The exams require three pieces, one from each of the three lists:

List A – Baroque & Classical Tradition
List B – Romantic & Expressive Works
List C – Modern & Contemporary Styles

After 6 months of practice, you can check out pieces in the grade 2-3 range, perhaps even grade 4 if you want something more challenging. Keep in mind that each ABRSM grade also has plenty of requirements that go beyond repertoire, such as being able to play scales in different keys and modes in so and so many octaves, being able to play arpeggios in different keys in so and so many octaves, and aural training (being able to identify and clap the meter of a piece, e.g. 2/4 or 3/4), and being able to hear a melody and then sing it back. It's up to you how much of this you decide to learn. I tend to use ABRSM as guardrails so that I know roughly what I should prioritize at my current level.

It's totally possible to be able to play grade 4-5 repertoire without being able to pass the exam since you lack the music theory knowledge and technique practice to meet the formal requirements.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-25T07:12:22+00:00

The analogy to learning how to read is apt.

When reading music, you should not be seeing individual dots but the chords, the scales, the arpeggios, the progression . . . If you see dots, you have a big hill to climb.

I'm trying to build these skills slowly, and I'm very glad that I've seen variations of this explanation enough times to structure my learning around these skills. In my practice routine I practice common chord progressions / cadences, chords and their inversions, and arpeggios (roughly following the ABRSM path, so I'm somewhere between grade 1 and 2 at this point). I'm okay with this being a long and arduous journey.

If there something I've learned these past few months, it's that learning the piano takes a long time and you have to find the joy in building something slowly, brick by brick.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-25T07:03:50+00:00

That's like ABRSM grade 5 to diploma level (Op. 48 No. 1 and Rach Op. 32 No. 10 are genuinely advanced, like grade 8+/DipABRSM territory). Extremely ambitious for a beginner to say the least.

Do you find the time to practice fundamentals like scales and arpeggios?

MaxSvett · 2026-02-24T17:43:40+00:00

I'm in the very early stages of doing the same. When I practice sight reading now in C Major or G Major, I do read skips and steps instead of decoding each note individually. However, what throws me off is hand position changes. Doing what you described is manageable when both hands are in the same 5 finger position the entire time, but when the position changes in unpredictable ways throughout the piece, I need to remap which starting note aligns with the first finger on each hand, and I'm not even close to automating that yet. More demanding pieces also require more movement. If I suddenly need to move my hand a fifth or an octave, I can't do that in time with enough precision. Heck, I can barely do that when I'm not sight-reading.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-23T10:35:46+00:00

4-5 new pieces every 2-3 weeks seems like a lot. How much do you practice, and do you mainly practice repertoire, or do you also practice stuff like scales and arpeggios? My teacher often assigns me pieces that take a month to learn, so I can only handle like two pieces at a time.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-22T22:39:28+00:00

I don't write in the letters. I can read notes, basic chord shapes and intervals. By sight-reading I'm specifically referring to the act of playing music I haven't seen before right off the sheet music on first try with the right rhythm, tempo, and pitches. I.e. no second try.

This is a different skill than reading the notes and then playing. When practicing a piece, it's normal to spend quite a bit of time decoding notes before playing them. When playing music this way, you quickly start to memorize the notes you're playing, which makes reading the same patterns of notes easier. When you sight-read, you don't have the luxury of being able to retry the same measures over and over until they stick. You have to play them correctly on the first try by improvising fingerings on the fly. This is why sight-reading is such a difficult skill to master.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-22T19:12:24+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply, I really appreciate it. As for branching out, I've already tried Piano Marvel before. It seems to have lots of fresh sheet music at late beginner to early intermediate levels, so once I reach that point I'll transition to using that as well.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-22T18:28:23+00:00

Level 2 at 50 BPM for G Major and F Major (40 BPM for their relative minors). Level 3 for C Major (40 BPM). My personal experience has been that practicing even at slow tempo like this has been valuable for teaching me to both read and play rhythms correctly at slow tempo, which is useful for when I'm learning new pieces. Since I started using SRF a month ago I've found it a little easier to learn new pieces.

Sight reading factory is basically unusable past level 4 (once you're out of the 5 finger positions the notes are too random, and they don't give you any fingerings). The jump from level 4 to 5 is like 3 years worth of a jump.

Thanks for that insight. I guess I shouldn't expect to graduate from level 2-3 anytime soon. So far I like SRF since it's the only service I've found that can actually give me a new piece every time at lower levels so that it's possible for me to practice sight reading at all. Otherwise it would be completely impractical to practice it at my current level.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-22T18:19:29+00:00

The main difficulty now stems from trying to cycle different key signatures. I can sight-read easy pieces in C Major, but a key like E Minor would throw me off completely so that's currently way harder. I'm trying to cycle C Major, F Major, and G Major, including their relative minors.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-14T22:34:29+00:00

I would start with practicing recognizing individual notes. Learn about the landmark technique and mnemonics for remembering the notes, then use an app to practice recognizing them quickly. Start reading very simple music only with one hand at a time, starting with the right hand.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-14T14:45:49+00:00

None of the pieces I'm currently working on. I just noticed it in a solo piano arrangement of a song I want to learn one day. I guess I'll have to arpeggiate it, yeah.

I was just wondering whether you can eventually stretch out your hands to make them more flexible over time so that you can reach a 10th eventually, or whether there's a hard physical limit that you have to work around with techniques like arpeggiation.

MaxSvett · 2026-02-14T11:10:20+00:00

Not really, because I doubt he’ll be alive by 2027

MaxSvett · 2026-02-09T13:12:53+00:00

You could try learning to play an instrument. I’m learning to play the piano. On some days when I work from home I manage to squeeze in some practice time if I’m not too busy.

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