any piano players

[tj]

I started teaching myself and had a few teachers. Any suggestions..I rented Mark Almonds play for life which is pretty cool.


Have to say I am addicted to it. And the ladies definetly like it...

 

[Julian]

im still learning, ive had 2 lessons but i wasnt connecting with the granny who was teaching me so i stopped going.

I have a book on lessons/theory/technique. its an all in one course.

I havent touched it in like a month, i usually just play by ear but id like to learn to play much better.

 

[Baseball05]

Yeah, I have played for 6 years. Though, I just quit and picked up guitar. Piano is a lot of fun, and it's great to walk into a place and bust some Beethoven. Just play fun songs, whatever sounds good to you. So many good songs out there, great to play for women, and no piano is not a ***** instrument, some might tease you, but hey, it's their loss.

 

[backbreaker]

I grew up play ing the violin and when I was 10 my best friend introduced me to the piano and I fell in love with it.

The best thing to do, and the most beneficial thing you can do is learn ALL the chords you possibly can. Go to http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

and practice from there. It takes around 5 months to around 2 years to learn all of the possible cords instinctivly, but if you do there isn't any type of music you CAN'T PLAY.

Most teachers have a specefic type of music they teach, and each type of music uses different chords. My friend played and still plays for his church so he tought me alot of gospel music, whcih in all honestly, is around 10-15 chords for 80 percent of the songs they play.

Now 11 years later, I can set down in front of the TV and pretty much play anything I hear by ear within minutes because by listening I know which chords need to be played. Also, when I played for my church when I was younger (before I became an athiest) I could freestyle on the piano when the pastor was talking or communnion was going on. I grew up playing the violin (and still do) so I am quite found of classical music and can play most of the classics (my fav is moonlight sonota) but my favorate type of music by far is Jazz. It's to me the hardest to play because most chords usually take up all 10 fingers unlike most gospel songs or songs I hear on the radio that can pretty much be played with a three finger chord and a one finger baseline.

And even though I can play pretty much everything I can hear, to this day I can't read piano music... Well, actually I can because I grew up playing the violin, but not in a practical manner. To get a feel for it I would have to actually play it on the violin to hear it out loud, then play it on the piano.

 

[Diaoz]

Originally posted by backbreaker
I grew up play ing the violin and when I was 10 my best friend introduced me to the piano and I fell in love with it.

The best thing to do, and the most beneficial thing you can do is learn ALL the chords you possibly can. Go to http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

and practice from there. It takes around 5 months to around 2 years to learn all of the possible cords instinctivly, but if you do there isn't any type of music you CAN'T PLAY.

Most teachers have a specefic type of music they teach, and each type of music uses different chords. My friend played and still plays for his church so he tought me alot of gospel music, whcih in all honestly, is around 10-15 chords for 80 percent of the songs they play.

Now 11 years later, I can set down in front of the TV and pretty much play anything I hear by ear within minutes because by listening I know which chords need to be played. Also, when I played for my church when I was younger (before I became an athiest) I could freestyle on the piano when the pastor was talking or communnion was going on. I grew up playing the violin (and still do) so I am quite found of classical music and can play most of the classics (my fav is moonlight sonota) but my favorate type of music by far is Jazz. It's to me the hardest to play because most chords usually take up all 10 fingers unlike most gospel songs or songs I hear on the radio that can pretty much be played with a three finger chord and a one finger baseline.

And even though I can play pretty much everything I can hear, to this day I can't read piano music... Well, actually I can because I grew up playing the violin, but not in a practical manner. To get a feel for it I would have to actually play it on the violin to hear it out loud, then play it on the piano.

Hey you seem like you know your stuffs, can you help me with something?

I'm in a similar situation:
Can read notes but not on the fly and want to pick up the piano.

Should I start with a keyboard or a real piano? Which is better for getting a feel of the tone and memorizing it. Thanks

 

[Baseball05]

Definitely get a real piano. When I started I played simplified music of songs I liked. Therefore I knew how the song went and it makes it a lot easier. After a couple years, learn Moonlight Sonata, it's my favorite song. Also Tocatta in D minor is a lot of fun. :woo:

 

[tactic]

What type of fingers are good for piano?

 

[tj]

the best part of playing the piano is right after the struggle learning something new.. then you rip it off and feel the music. while you are playing it..


trully a great feeling

peace

 

[Gus]

I've played piano since I was 5. Just buy some classical music books (my favorite is Music by the Masters) or some fake books and learn some songs. Jazz is pretty hard to play, but classical isn't too bad, and sounds good too. I also recommend buying the A Dozen A Day series...EXCELLENT piano-playing exercises (make sure you do them with a metronome, too).

Can read notes but not on the fly and want to pick up the piano.

Sight-reading on the piano is VERY hard. Usually most pieces are practiced very intensely until they are perfected.

After a couple years, learn Moonlight Sonata, it's my favorite song. Also Tocatta in D minor is a lot of fun.

Another fun song is Wild Horseman My favorite piano song is Solfeggietto by Bach...it's REAL fun once you can play that fast. For non-piano classical music, my favs are Ciaccona by Bach, Adagio Sostenuto by Rachmaninov, and The Four Seasons by Vivaldi.

It takes some hard work though..I remember back when I started, I had a huge deck of flash cards that had all the Bass and Treble Clef notes that fit on the staff that I memorized. Anyway, good luck.

 

[Life-Trainee]

Learn music theory. It'll give you all the basic theoretical foundation to play most western instruments.

 

[backbreaker]

I Will never buy a piano as long as I live, electric keyboards are alot more versitile. I have a Triton Keyboard right now and it feels and sounds like a real piano, but I also like to compose some stuff and you can't save or have different sounds on a piano.

I am to the point where I think reading piano music is pointless. I can read and play the hardest peices of music on the violin but on the piano it's damn near impossible... I mean, i know what it is telling me to play but it's just not very practical.

like I said, learn your chords, all of them... There are over 1,000 different chords to learn and you will be sup rised how easy it is to pick up music when you know them.

For instance, just 2 days ago I was sitting around with 2 friends, killing time before I was going to the club, and the new Kayne West song "Diamonds are forever" came on. Now instinctivly without even paying attention, I was fingering the chords with my fingers like I was playing the piano. One of them asked me did I know to play the song (he is just as good as I am on the piano, but I am better at playing by ear). I never played it, but I know I can. By listening to it I knew the song was in B so I grabbed a keyboard from my room and by the end of the song I had it down perfectly. It's pretty easy.

I tend to play classical music on the violin, not the piano, my favorate song(s) are the Theme to Shindler's list which i can play on both the piano and the violin and Remembrances which happens to be on the same soundtrack. (if you haven't heard this sound track as of yet, buy it, even if you aren't in to classical music. I own over 500 CD's and this is heads and sholders my favorate one). I can play Remembrances on the violin, and it's actually not that hard to play on the piano but doesn't sound the same.


Believe it or not, I love to play music from Video Game soundtracks. They usually have some of the most diverse, prettiest songs on their soundtracks, espically the more popular games. I actually talked my orchestra teacher in high school to let us play play a peice from Onmishua once I found the sheet music. My Favorate video game song that I like to play is off of the Metal Gear Solid 2 Sound Track, it's a Jazz peice called "Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday", it's the song you get once you beat the game.

Back to the point, learn your chords, it will save you alot of time in the long run. once you do this, alot of the stuff you do with your fingers believe it or not becomes instinctive. I hardly ever have to actually think when I am playing the piano, it's more of a enloagted motor reflex.

 

[longwood]

i just like the way real piano's sound and feel when u play them as opposed to electric keyboards