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opus111 posted:The nicest digital pianos are crap compared to an average acoustic imo. You can do so much more with them. It sucks that, living in a city on an average wage, ill probably never be able to own one On the other hand...every time I visit my mom's sadly unmaintained upright I am so glad that there is basically nothing I can do to my electronic piano to make it create physically painful sounds.
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Apr 25, 2015 23:59
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Pinky Artichoke posted:On the other hand...every time I visit my mom's sadly unmaintained upright I am so glad that there is basically nothing I can do to my electronic piano to make it create physically painful sounds. My older sister inherited the piano I grew up playing and she doesn't maintain it at all. It makes me sad when I play it, that piano was my primary interface with the world when I was an angsty teenager. I would frickin' love to have that piano, it has such a dark and mellow sound for an upright. I'm a poo poo pianist but I do enjoy it, she doesn't really play at all. 
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Apr 26, 2015 00:27
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opus111 posted:The nicest digital pianos are crap compared to an average acoustic imo. You can do so much more with them. It sucks that, living in a city on an average wage, ill probably never be able to own one
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Apr 26, 2015 04:59
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i like nice words
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i practice between 05:30 - 06:00 and 20:00 - 21:00.
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Apr 26, 2015 08:36
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opus111 posted:i practice between 05:30 - 06:00 and 20:00 - 21:00. I frequently will come across an urge to play between 01:00 and 04:00 if I'm still awake (tonight for example). Moments like this are when I'm quite happy to have the digital piano. I would obviously rather have a Steinway or something awesome, but I have no complaints with my Kawai ES100 in either touch or sound.
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Apr 26, 2015 09:37
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ChubbyThePhat posted:I frequently will come across an urge to play between 01:00 and 04:00 if I'm still awake (tonight for example). Moments like this are when I'm quite happy to have the digital piano. I would obviously rather have a Steinway or something awesome, but I have no complaints with my Kawai ES100 in either touch or sound. I think those Kawai digitals have a really good action compared to the Yamaha that I have. Mine just go straight down without any of the natural "catch" you'd get in a regular piano.
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Apr 26, 2015 15:11
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Could anybody help me with the keyboard question? The girlfriend used to have a piano she played on and she'd love to pick it up again, though we can't afford a piano (or even a fancy keyboard). The budget is probably a few hundred euros max and because of the thin walls in this tiny apartment we'd really rather something that can output sound to headphones - I'm assuming that's a standard feature on all keyboards. I've had a bit of a look around and tried to do some research as best I understand the keyboard vs midi synthesizer debate. I keep seeing the M-Audio KEYSTATION 88 come up for just shy of 200 euros - 88 keys, semi-weighted, not too expensive. Does anybody have this? Is this the best I'll be able to get for my budget? There's also the M-Audio KEYSTATION 88 ES and I can't figure out what the difference is according to their product pages. I know that semi-weighted won't feel the same as a real piano but will it be similar enough for her to practice on (and for me to learn on) and then upgrade in a couple years once we have more income, if we decide it's something we want to pursue further? Essentially if anybody has any recommendations within 2-300 Euros (Less is better because we'll need a stand etc too, also it can't be too esoteric either, have to get it in Rome) or a review I'd love your help. The main thing is the feel, the full 88 keys, and being able to output to headphones. I personally would love to be able to output to a computer as well in case we want to record it at some point, but I understand that's more the domain of the Synthesizers...? Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Apr 28, 2015 |
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Apr 28, 2015 13:48
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Semi-weighted is marketingspeak for not weighted at all, in most cases, so it really won't be similar at all to a piano. Most stuff comes with an USB port and a MIDI driver, or has a headphone out that can double as a line out, which you can record on the PC. So that won't be an issue if you're OK with basic quality.
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Apr 28, 2015 14:20
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Those are midi controllers, not pianos. Outputting to a computer wouldn't be a problem because that's the only thing it does I think, it won't make any sounds of its own. I was going to recommend a Yamaha P-95 or something similar but that's a quite a lot more expensive. I don't know if there are any digital pianos that are cheaper unfortunately. Regardless of any other recommendations you get, you absolutely, really really have to go play the piano you plan to get yourself. If budgets are tight, spending money on something you're not happy with would be a bad idea. Better save up for something better in that case.
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Apr 28, 2015 14:22
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Someone's selling a 1990s Yamaha P-95 in Bologna (few hours by train) for 300 Euros, I think if I find a decent model that's stable and well-made I'd definitely check out the second hand market and consider traveling a bit - go check it out, make sure there's no issues other than some scuffs, and bring it back. But you're definitely right, we should go to a music store and take a look at what they offer and try a few models, both proper digital pianos and midi controllers. I'm already finding a few deals that look okay and are getting good reviews, like the Casio CDP-120, but it all comes down to what we can test in-store.
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Apr 28, 2015 15:42
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I started out on a non-weighted Casio for a few months and then moved to a P-95 when I realized I wanted to focus more on piano than guitar. It was a huge difference. Even though the P-95 has been replaced by superior models, it will still be much better than a midi controller in terms of getting used to playing a piano. It's better to learn how to play a piano and then take that knowledge to a synth or midi controller, imo. It's a different ball game entirely when you are plugging into a computer and dealing with DAW software. You will definitely hit a wall with the P-95, but by that time you'll actually be ready for the better stuff and will be able to appreciate the differences. Good luck!
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Apr 28, 2015 16:02
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Someone's selling a 1990s Yamaha P-95 in Bologna (few hours by train) for 300 Euros, I think if I find a decent model that's stable and well-made I'd definitely check out the second hand market and consider traveling a bit - go check it out, make sure there's no issues other than some scuffs, and bring it back.
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Apr 28, 2015 16:43
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Just saw this posted in the Piano Music community on Google Plus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4JD-3-UAzM How is he achieving that dramatic change in tone in the arpeggios at 1:21? Simply fine control of dynamics?
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Apr 28, 2015 19:43
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Rastor posted:Just saw this posted in the Piano Music community on Google Plus. Probably the left pedal. I can't remember what it's called but that'll do it.
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Apr 28, 2015 19:56
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Ah, the una corda! My previous digital piano only had a sustain pedal but I just upgraded to one with three pedals, I'll have to experiment.
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Apr 28, 2015 20:03
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I grabbed a book of all of the Chopin Etudes and am using them as finger exercises pretty much. Op 10 no 2 makes my wrist  as I start to work on the weak part of my hand.
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May 7, 2015 06:33
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My first piano lesson is today. I am scared shitless because outside of knowing how to play lots of things I know nothing about what the lines and dots mean (slight exaggeration). I'm really hoping they don't start me at square one with what I'll be playing but we'll see. I guess people saying "take lessons" in this thread finally got to me, but holy poo poo I'm nervous about playing in front people. They may even want me to participate in recitals  Weird story though. I went in looking at pianos because I may be buying a home soon and wanted to see what my options were and when they asked for my contact information I gave them my business card. I'm a marketing consultant and it's on the card and the sales person was like "Holy poo poo we need marketing" so we talked about that for a bit. So today my schedule is meeting with the owner of the shop at 2 to discuss some marketing work for them, then my lesson is at 3. That will be interesting.
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May 8, 2015 15:56
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On Terra Firma posted:My first piano lesson is today. I am scared shitless because outside of knowing how to play lots of things I know nothing about what the lines and dots mean (slight exaggeration). I'm really hoping they don't start me at square one with what I'll be playing but we'll see. I guess people saying "take lessons" in this thread finally got to me, but holy poo poo I'm nervous about playing in front people. They may even want me to participate in recitals I'm sure if the teacher is at all experienced then he/she will be able to work with your existing skills. I think you will find that learning Music Theory will add to your experience, it's something I wish I had focused much more on early on. Congrats on taking this step in pursuit of your passion!
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May 8, 2015 16:37
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dont stress it, you'll be amazed at how effective decent lessons will be on your progress.
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May 9, 2015 01:50
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I was very surprised by how well it went. I played some stuff for him that I wrote and he said despite being self taught there's really nothing fundamentally wrong with my technique. He said we're going to work on some fundamental stuff that I may not have encountered as I taught myself and gave me a book of things to work on. What struck me as odd was he said that for people that play the way I do sight reading isn't something I need to do. He said theory is very helpful, but that I don't need to become someone that can sit down and sight read anything I get my hands on. I'll get there eventually, but I want to iron out some of the basics first. He was pretty baffled how I had learned everything without any lessons though, so that was pretty cool to hear.
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May 9, 2015 03:50
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Everything is going great with learning jazz right now. I've moved past that chord issue and am getting a lot quicker at finding scales (I can now play faster with a metronome, not hiccup in playing and in almost all keys). My soloing has improved a lot, resolving to new scales and lots and lots of practice. My question is, does anyone prefer a small keyboard like the one cory henry uses here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC8E9HIDeck ? I love korg, but I have no idea where to start with synthesizers if I want to plug into my laptop and start playing with synths. The band I'm in has me playing guitar, but likely I'll switch to keys since the recorded songs we have actually have a piano but no one to play them live (  ). On the side however, the other guitarist and I jam with the drummer over some standards when our lead singer is gone. So I'd like to have a synth in addition to the P105 I use for practice. MAYBE have a dual 88key keyboard and a synth above it like cory in the video.I've looked at Korg, and I've used M-Audio before. M-Audio ones were super nice and lightweight. Is there any inherent disadvantage of having non weighted keys on them? I'd imagine non weighted is what I'd need. I've been obsessed with Cory Henry for a while, recently. His virtuosity is something I strive for and will achieve some day. Thank god he's playing in my town on the 15th with his new band! edit: Well I just found the synth section, looks like I have a lot of lurking to do Unreliable fucked around with this message at 09:48 on May 9, 2015 |
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May 9, 2015 09:42
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OK my first public performance is on June 16th. oh god im going to die
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May 12, 2015 20:21
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baw posted:OK my first public performance is on June 16th. oh god im going to die What are you going to play? What kind of performance is it? Just a student recital?
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May 12, 2015 21:19
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It'll be a student recital with a few dozen people in the audience, I'll be doing Metamorphosis 2 and 4. i'm really comfortable with 2 and getting there with 4 so I shouldn't be too worried but my only other time playing in public was on one of the pianos during this last week. A few people stopped to watch and two or three pulled out their cellphones and took video of it (and my wife) so i felt pretty good about it even though I missed a few notes here and there. It was really spontaneous tho so I didn't really get a chance to get myself nervous.
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May 12, 2015 22:42
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baw posted:It'll be a student recital with a few dozen people in the audience, I'll be doing Metamorphosis 2 and 4. i'm really comfortable with 2 and getting there with 4 so I shouldn't be too worried but my only other time playing in public was on one of the pianos during this last week. A few people stopped to watch and two or three pulled out their cellphones and took video of it (and my wife) so i felt pretty good about it even though I missed a few notes here and there. It was really spontaneous tho so I didn't really get a chance to get myself nervous. I've done a bunch of public performances outside of playing the piano that took A LOT of focus and coordination. The best thing to do is just have fun with it and show off what you can do. Everyone, no matter their level, will respect what you're doing and enjoy hearing you play even if you do make a mistake or two.
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May 12, 2015 22:59
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On Terra Firma posted:I've done a bunch of public performances outside of playing the piano that took A LOT of focus and coordination. The best thing to do is just have fun with it and show off what you can do. Everyone, no matter their level, will respect what you're doing and enjoy hearing you play even if you do make a mistake or two. yeah I think having fun because I know what I'm doing is the most important part. I asked my tutor if there was a way to replicate the nervousness that comes with a performance without actually performing (kind of acclimate to working through the anxiety) and she recommended recording myself while I play. When a camera is pointed at me I do feel the tension increase and just having the video rolling is distracting, but the theory is that I'll get used to it so that when I do feel that nervous tension I am still able to do what I need to do.
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May 13, 2015 09:56
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I get nervous when doing exams. I've had a few moments outside of exams where I got nervous playing too, and at those points I tried to keep that feeling (or make it worse) so I could practice playing in a nervous state. But now I'm thinking that's just stupid because I'm training myself to get even more nervous when I already am. I think that when it happens again I'll practice becoming calm instead :-) What I've found helps the absolute most is actually being able to play your piece. The better you can play it outside of a performance situation, the better you'll be able to play during a performance. Knowing what do do when you mess up somewhere is helpful too. If you just miss a note and can keep playing, great. But if you are completely lost somewhere, being able to pick up wherever the gently caress you want is invaluable. Practice starting from every place where it makes sense. (And some where it doesn't.) Also, if it's a piece with a fair amount of repeating parts, and you get lost on what to do next, it could also be possible to just insert some extra repeats. Gives you some extra time to figure out what the gently caress, and with any luck most of the audience won't notice. Finally, if you stumble on some difficult part, your most likely instinct is to try and try again and fight your way through it. But if it doesn't work, just skip it rather than retrying too many times. And yeah, I've done all those things and I'm getting fairly good marks too. 
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May 13, 2015 14:09
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baw posted:yeah I think having fun because I know what I'm doing is the most important part. I asked my tutor if there was a way to replicate the nervousness that comes with a performance without actually performing (kind of acclimate to working through the anxiety) and she recommended recording myself while I play. When a camera is pointed at me I do feel the tension increase and just having the video rolling is distracting, but the theory is that I'll get used to it so that when I do feel that nervous tension I am still able to do what I need to do. That's why I was recording stuff last year, but it wasn't because I had some scheduled performance. I just hated how nervous I got playing around another person. It helped quite a bit.
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May 13, 2015 14:45
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Been taking 3 months of lessons at the suggestion of this thread. It's fun, no regrets. Sight reading music has been a real challenge, though. We're kinda through F-C on the bass clef, C-G on the treble. I can read music ahead of time, prepare my finger positioning mentally for where they're going to be. Find patterns between measures so I can repeat stuff. Use the direction of the notes as a reminder. It's all a crutch, though, for an inability to read with any real...accuracy, or consistent speed. I'm starting to get worried I won't be able to sight read, my head might not be accurate enough for it. I got like apps on my phone, and we do drills. But even if I can immediately respond to a bunch of questions, where she might tell me to point at a note on a scale, or identify a note she is pointing at, if she asks again in a different order or asks me the same question again I'll start going umm, ahh, or drawing blanks, but then might immediately start remembering randomly again. Saying the alphabet backwards I'll often skip letters. I also reorder words accidentally around a lot when talking or typing, like that fast is pretty car. I lunch to forgot today eat. I've busy been very, too meetings *trails off* I guess we'll see. It's not like the staff is huge. Sometimes I wish it was sideways, and you read top to bottom, so the direction you move your fingers was in the same direction as the page. Any suggestions? Can everyone sight read? Or is it something you might find out you can't do, and just have to prepare around it? I'm worried about the phone app, because sometimes I get so many wrong and it's reinforcing incorrect memories so I don't want to go crazy with it until we're through the entire staff. SSH IT ZOMBIE fucked around with this message at 06:21 on May 26, 2015 |
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May 26, 2015 06:15
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You're only 3 months in, no need to even begin worrying yet. If in another 36 months you still have the same issues then yeah be a bit concerned, but 90 days at anything on a new instrument is still well within the baby-steps range so just keep plugging away at it.
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May 26, 2015 06:48
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Sightreading on piano especially is its own special brand of pain in the rear end. It takes way more than 3 months to get used to it. Think of it more like learning a language than riding a bike.
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May 26, 2015 06:51
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SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:Been taking 3 months of lessons at the suggestion of this thread. You can certainly be "naturally" better at sight-reading, but it's a skill every pianist can and should learn. I can't really help unfortunately because I was one of the natural sight-readers ever since I first started playing, but it really sounds like you just haven't actually internalized the staves yet more than anything to do with sight-reading. Sight-reading is much more about being able to read ahead of where you're playing very quickly, and having a good enough mental map of the keyboard layout that you don't need to constantly jump your vision between the music and your hands. The mental map comes with time, and the read ahead stuff is mostly about short term memory.
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May 26, 2015 07:57
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My girlfriend told me that she is going to buy herself a digital piano and I would like to buy her a newbie book as one of her birthday gifts. She has some limited experience with the instrument from her teenage years but she's pretty much a complete beginner again now. The OP of this thread doesn't really recommend anything except for the jazz piano book and while that is certainly something that would be up her alley, it seems that the book is absolutely not for beginners. For those of you who play bass: I'm basically looking for the Bass Method of piano books  *edit: I thought about paying for a few months' worth of lessons as a gift but she hasn't bought the piano yet and I like making tangible gifts. Katana Gomai fucked around with this message at 14:40 on May 26, 2015 |
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May 26, 2015 14:37
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Katana Gomai posted:For those of you who play bass: I'm basically looking for the Bass Method of piano books This is exactly the Bass Method but for piano.
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May 26, 2015 15:02
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Jazz Marimba posted:This is exactly the Bass Method but for piano. Thank you! It probably would have been easier to go looking on amazon.com and than try to find the book on amazon.de (I'm German) than wade through amazon.de for English books.
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May 26, 2015 15:33
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David Nevue's advice for Piano Players just starting out: http://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice.htm
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May 26, 2015 19:33
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Rastor posted:David Nevue's advice for Piano Players just starting out: This sounds like a really dick thing to say, but he's not someone I would recommend taking advice from.
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May 26, 2015 20:43
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On Terra Firma posted:This sounds like a really dick thing to say, but he's not someone I would recommend taking advice from. Why?
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May 26, 2015 23:02
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Katana Gomai posted:*edit: I thought about paying for a few months' worth of lessons as a gift but she hasn't bought the piano yet and I like making tangible gifts. Get her the lessons.
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May 26, 2015 23:48
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Jazz Marimba posted:Why? His playing/composition leaves a lot to be desired. Trying to find the most tactful/neutral way of saying this.
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May 27, 2015 00:17
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