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jesus WEP posted:i bought a yamaha p125 in july and I’ve been taking lessons and recently started working my way through some burgmuller I have the same piano and have been taking lessons for about as long. I've also seen the same comments and they're exactly the kind of thing that gets into my over-analysis-prone optimizer brain. My trick is to find much better players than me who are using P125s (or other GHS keyboards) on YouTube. Shames me out of wanting to drop $2k+ on an FP-90X or ES920 when clearly I am not using the P125 to its fullest. They're out there, even Charles Cornell was using a P1x5 of some flavor before upgrading to a Dexibell after his channel took off. I also figure 1-2 years from now I'll be able to make a better decision about what I want in a piano action than I would today. I can only speak for myself, but after a year-ish I feel like I haven't had the experience yet to develop anything more than shallow preferences, or even decide on how much focus I want to put into classical vs jazz/contemporary. I'd rather swing and miss on a $600 purchase than a future $2000 purchase! Discussion Quorum fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Feb 22, 2023 |
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Feb 22, 2023 05:01
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I'm in my third year of piano lessons and I've yet to have a single studio lesson that wasn't using an old slightly out of tune console piano with rough pedals and the worst action ever so don't worry about it too much. I actually do have an FP-90X at home and it's much easier to be expressive or subtle on than any of the lovely studio pianos I've ever used but the truth is that the instructor has no problems playing on those, so I actually reduced the sensitivity some because sounding soft and good in person requires a more precise touch than on the roland.
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Feb 23, 2023 07:14
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Haven't posted here in a while, so here's some Bach! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vT88cu_qF8 The Goldberg Variations is a masterpiece, a total peak of the literature. I never planned on learning it because it's a total bitch, but during the pandemic I casually sat down to it (again without the intention of preparing it for performance), and after a few weeks was amazed to see that I was about halfway through, so I figured that I might as well finish it. There's a long way to go with this kind of piece, but it's rewarding to study and perform.
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Feb 24, 2023 22:37
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IT BURNS posted:Haven't posted here in a while, so here's some Bach! Very nice. It's remarkable just how different a headspace Bach anything is to later composers. I picked up a minuet a while back and the ways in which it is difficult or the things I find myself exploring in it are refreshingly novel (I thought I was fine at trills until I got to that piece. nope!). I recently found this recording of myself playing Rachmaninoff Op. 23 #1. I completely forgot I learned this piece - it's interesting, though, in that despite being relatively sedate for him in terms of how hard and fast the notes come at you I found it incredibly difficult to nail the dynamics I was trying to get, especially in for example those phrase-ending descending left hand ideas. Some of that's due to the action I'm playing on, but I had a really hard time managing the competing objectives of a) diminuendo across the phrase b) don't call attention to the repeated note c) don't undervoice the repeated note, it matters d) slight ritardando across the whole phrase e) do all of the above without forgoing any of the musicality it's just dripping with. e: not sure if I mind how much I speed up in the middle or not, I mean, some is definitely appropriate tiaz fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Mar 1, 2023 |
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Mar 1, 2023 20:58
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As a teen I’ve played some keyboard and had lessons for a year or 2-3. A few decades older now, so I still know how to read sheet music but most/all other skills have deteriorated. I’ve been thinking about picking it up again for quite some time but before diving in and taking lessons I’d like to practise/get up to speed again and see if I really like it enough to invest in lessons or if it fades quickly. The OP and other online communities all mention “get a teacher”. This will surely be my next step, but for now I want to get back into the groove. A few pages back someone mentioned PianoForAll. Would this be a good way to get back into it and reactivate some muscle memory or are there some other suggestions that get recommended often which I might have missed? Didn’t read all 110+ pages of the thread, just the first/last few.
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Mar 4, 2023 10:57
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LochNessMonster posted:As a teen I’ve played some keyboard and had lessons for a year or 2-3. A few decades older now, so I still know how to read sheet music but most/all other skills have deteriorated. Never heard of PianoForAll until now. Seems neat so I am curious about it too actually.
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Mar 6, 2023 23:43
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PianoForAll is extremely cheap. PianoForAll is extremely good. It gets you up and going on piano very quickly. It also gives you some easy ways to remember chords and songs and etc. I can not recommend it more highly. I think it’s like 39 bucks or something.
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Mar 8, 2023 22:47
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Can’t help but read that to the tune of: https://youtu.be/fXkMfyjo7PU
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Mar 8, 2023 23:13
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I tried Pianote for a bit before getting an IRL teacher and I'm not going to say I can't recommend it (there are a ton of resources and you can have teachers review your performance) but it never connected with me. Like you, I had a musical background and didn't really need notation explained to me, but they lean really heavily on "it's ok, it's just a piano, it won't bite you and we won't have any scary sheet music just yet" as the main vibe. I get that might work with people who have a ton of anxiety about reading music or from memories of their childhood piano lessons, but I just found it annoying. It also takes a chord/pop-music based approach, at least in the early lessons, which isn't exactly how my teacher started me (counterpoint, finger/hand independence, and holding me to good technique). All of this is of course subject to your own preferences and goals - but 7 months in I'm glad I went more or less straight into having a teacher and told her "pretend I don't know anything except how to read notation, and teach me to do it the right way from scratch."
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Mar 8, 2023 23:44
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Captain Apollo posted:PianoForAll is extremely cheap. Any idea if there is parity between the version they sell directly and the one on Udemy? It is cheaper on Udemy (18€) and they have those perpetual "ON SALE FOR ONLY 5 MORE MINUTES AAAAAAA" offers constantly. Same goes for their own site it seems. It has had an offer for "today only" for several days at $49. Edit: Seems like they are identical so worth a shot then perhaps. Boar It fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Mar 9, 2023 |
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Mar 9, 2023 13:12
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This is more a curiosity than anything else, but I've been thinking about the timbre of the piano you hear in some Nine Inch Nails records. For a specific example, I know the concept album wasn't generally well-received but I love Zero-Sum from Year Zero. You can really hear what I'm talking about when the chords come in at 1:44, and again in the outro when they're played much softer. I know it's lowpassed - or knowing Trent it's probably piped through some junk preamp or something, but there's definitely something going on with the timbre of the piano itself, maybe it's tuned to some unusual temperament? All I know is that having played around in my DAW, playing the same intervals with something like... the Alicia's Keys Kontakt instrument, does not sound the same. But I poked around in some other VSTs and Reason ReFills and the closest approximation I could find was titled something like 'Upright Saloon Piano' - with the velocity low it had the same kind of dissonance as in Zero-Sum. Pianos you hear in western films or whatever definitely have a distinct timbre to them, but it's hard to tell if it's the 'same kind of detuning' comparing ragtime to something decidedly as melancholy as a NIN song. In any case, seat-of-the-pants I imagine that distinctive 'saloon piano' sound comes from the kind of upright you'd find in such an establishment being a bit beat-up. Is there any truth to that, or was there always intent behind that sound?
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Mar 23, 2023 03:34
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Mister Speaker posted:In any case, seat-of-the-pants I imagine that distinctive 'saloon piano' sound comes from the kind of upright you'd find in such an establishment being a bit beat-up. Is there any truth to that, or was there always intent behind that sound? Nah it's that (e: the origin, I mean, obviously it became a deliberate aesthetic). Your average hookers-and-poker saloon c. 1910 would have bought a cheap upright and spent as little as possible (if anything) on maintaining or tuning it. Plus any recordings would have been on a wax cylinder through a horn or some equally lovely medium. That's basically the sound. That's not what I hear in this song though. Sounds like a grand, maybe with some compression and EQ? Doesn't sound specifically detuned to me although I'm not in the best position to listen closely. When I first started taking lessons on my teacher's real piano, I kept stopping because I thought I was playing the wrong notes. I wasn't actually, turns out her piano was just coming due for its next tuning tuning. My ears were used to my always-in-tune digital piano or Pianoteq. A real piano begins "detuning" itself the moment the tuner puts down their tools and can sometimes have a surprisingly different timbre than a digital despite playing the same notes/intervals.
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Mar 23, 2023 16:55
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Looking for an electronic keyboard (61 keys+) for composing/music production. I'll probably hook it up to my laptop for MIDI. I don't intend on playing full songs on it or even gigging but I'd like something that feels pleasant enough to play for at most $400 (which is too cheap for weighted keys). I will probably store it when not in use so something that isn't too heavy. Honestly I'm tempted by the starter digital pianos (88 keys, weighted), but those only come with a handful of piano voices and are too expensive/heavy for me right now. I don't feel like I'll need fancy auto-accompaniment features though, but they might come in useful? The shortlist: Yamaha PSR-E373 (looks like it has everything I need) Casio CT-S400 (seems to be the nicest in terms of sounds and playing experience, but has less features) Casio CTX-700 (seems like the Casio equivalent of the PSR-E373) There seem to be newer or higher-end models for the ones I listed (PSR-E473, CT-S500, CTX-800) so I'm considering those as well. I've mostly played on an old Weinstein upright as a child so I'll probably be spoiled on the real deal, but I do have the itch again to play/make music...
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Apr 17, 2023 02:38
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I recently got a PSR-E473 and it's excellent. I'm not a piano player by any means, but everything sounds good to me and it's intuitive to use. Guitar Center was really helpful for seeing/playing all of them back to back; I'm pretty sure the 473 has bigger/bettter onboard speakers than the 373 so that was the deciding factor for me.
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Apr 20, 2023 04:32
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99% of what I play is Bach. I love the music but most of all I love how it feels on my fingers. However my wife isn't always in the mood for the baroque vibe. Are there any piano composers that make intricate finger music with multiple voices like bach, but is maybe more relaxed, or more romantic, or just something that doesn't sound so "baroque"?
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May 2, 2023 16:28
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Play Bach, but give your wife headphones connected with whatever music she prefers. ALWAYS BE PLAYING BACH
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May 2, 2023 16:52
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Hey all. I'm looking to replace my Kawai ES3 - a digital piano that is almost 20 years old. At the time it was a reasonably decent feeling piano considering it's time and price point, but it makes me a bit sad these days. I'm classically trained. I've fallen off of playing Real poo poo™ for some time, but want to get back into it a bit. I care a lot more about touch and feel then sound if I had to pick, but if I can have both, that'd be awesome - or at least as much as I can have given the digital nature. I really don't want any features besides baseline piano features. What's the state of the art for keyboards these days? Is someone building something with reasonably good touch? Am I going to be pretty sad regardless? It is worth spending 5k+ or is something doing just as well with something sub 2k?
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May 17, 2023 03:06
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I went down this rabbit hole recently when I was thinking about a long-term upgrade from my beginner piano. I decided to hold off, so this is just a brain dump of what I remember and not from direct experience. If you're really down to spend $5K, you are probably going to want to look at the higher-end consoles from Kawai and Yamaha (as those actions will have the longest keystick), but below $2500 or so you get a better action for the same money by buying a stage/portable piano. Portable actions to consider would be NWX (Yamaha), RHIII (Kawai), and PHA-50 (Roland). The Kawai MP11SE is probably the top of the stage piano pyramid but it's pricey ($4K?), heavy as gently caress ("portable" means "your roadies will move it for you"), and lacks built in speakers. A special case would be the Kawai VPC-1 which gets rave reviews for its action but it is a MIDI controller only - you will need to have a piano VST like Pianoteq or Garritan, audio interface, speakers (if desired), etc.
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May 17, 2023 04:37
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Canine Blues Arooo posted:Hey all. I'm looking to replace my Kawai ES3 - a digital piano that is almost 20 years old. At the time it was a reasonably decent feeling piano considering it's time and price point, but it makes me a bit sad these days. Kawai's "Grand Feel" instruments have great touch - about as close to an acoustic piano as I've encountered on a pure electric. There's a nice breakdown here with diagrams and a slightly outdated list of models. You can definitely get a nice model for under 5k. I think I paid a fw grand for my CA97 brand new. The newer CA99 is £2,989 - probably cheaper if you're in the US. If you want to spend more it's probably worth looking at hybrid instruments, though I haven't played on many to really comment on how much closer their action is to an acoustic.
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May 17, 2023 16:30
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OneSizeFitsAll posted:Kawai's "Grand Feel" instruments have great touch - about as close to an acoustic piano as I've encountered on a pure electric. The Kawai Novus action indeed is amazing. In fact, I believe it is the same action as on their baby grands, including the fantastic Japanese made GX series baby grands. I have a GX-2 myself, and I love the Millenium III action and last time I touched a Novus at a store, the action felt very similar.
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May 18, 2023 01:45
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giogadi posted:99% of what I play is Bach. I love the music but most of all I love how it feels on my fingers. However my wife isn't always in the mood for the baroque vibe. I've only been playing for 2 years but same. My instructor keeps trying to steer me towards Chopin but I just can't stay away from the big B.
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May 18, 2023 17:31
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A friend is getting married in August and asked me if I could play some "lounge music" on the piano for a while during it. I like to sit and just improvise when I play but I usually do it in D major so it's usually very happy sounding. I would like to have it sound a bit more jazzy and lounge-y so that it fits the mood better. I've played around a bit with the mixolydian scale and some 7 chords inversions. Anyone have some good tricks for "instant poor man's jazz", lounge-y/jazzy chord progressions or similar and other things to think about? EDIT: Did some quick youtubing and found a nice video by Bill Hilton with a nice chord progression and the pentatonic scale to get some nice lounge-jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD3VMQpTI48 The main discussion is simpler than what I need but the chord progression was nice. Stuff like that, if anyone has stuff they like to break out when they want to play a bit more jazzy Claeaus fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Jun 19, 2023 |
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Jun 19, 2023 16:04
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hey all, gear question: i’ve been playing my friends upright piano and i really like the middle pedal function (sustains low notes, not high notes). i’m looking to buy a keyboard and i’d like to be able to do that. is this feature hard to find on digital pianos/ keyboards? is there a way to distinguish keyboards where this is possible from one’s where it isn’t?
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Jul 7, 2023 13:19
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The functionality you want (if you need something to search for) is bass sustain. I don't think I've ever seen it on a digital piano, for the ones I've looked at the middle pedal (if there is one) has always been sostenuto.
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Jul 7, 2023 14:52
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Most digital pianos are primarily intended to replicate the sound of a flagship grand. They have other sounds, of course, but the piano is designed around the sound of a particular concert grand (CFX, Shigeru Kawai, whatever). If you buy a MIDI-capable digital piano (most anything from Yamaha/Kawai/Roland would count), those 3 pedals should be available as MIDI control channels. You would then need to find a VST that has a bass sustain feature, although I am not aware of any that do. Your best bets might be Modern U (highest-effort upright VST I know of), Pianoteq U4, or Native Instruments Gentleman. They'll all cost you an extra $100-$200, though.
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Jul 7, 2023 19:27
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oh no computer posted:The functionality you want (if you need something to search for) is bass sustain. I don't think I've ever seen it on a digital piano, for the ones I've looked at the middle pedal (if there is one) has always been sostenuto. Yep, never seen Bass Sustain on a digital, which makes sense since Bass Sustain is sort of regarded as a less-expensive version of the Sostenuto (even though they are quite different), used on some uprights, which might actually be considered a more desirable feature over the mute rail, which is the most common middle pedal on uprights these days. So it just makes sense to digitally model a sostenuto pedal.
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Jul 7, 2023 19:50
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I’ve been playing for exactly one year and i’m starting to learn my first “real” piece - debussy’s girl with the flaxen hair. my teacher thinks i can get there without getting frustrated and giving up but i dunno,  my time and patience lol
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Jul 7, 2023 21:10
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Where do you get your sheet music? I'm sure most classical/well-known pieces are sold in scorebooks, but even when I was a kid I used a clearbook and my teacher would hand me out copies to put in them. Musescore seems to have a large library of them, could you just download and print those on letter bond paper?
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Jul 24, 2023 04:10
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Truthfully, I use Amazon a lot. Also Sheet Music Plus, but with shipping it rarely makes sense if I'm just buying one thing. Abebooks has occasionally come through for me as well, such as Guhl's Keyboard Proficiency (long out of print college text)
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Jul 24, 2023 05:43
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Just to add: I want to play a lot of game music, which might be expensive to get the legit way, so transcribed pieces is fine.
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Jul 24, 2023 05:46
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I've used IMSLP.org before but haven't recently for public domain stuff. I don't know if the video game sheet music places I used to use are still around but I'll see if I can dig them up tomorrow.
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Jul 24, 2023 06:15
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Imslp for absolutely everything classical, it’s amazing. For like final fantasy piano scores I’ll just search on google and there’s usually a pdf floating around somewhere
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Jul 24, 2023 13:40
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i buy sheet music from henle verlag because that’s what my teacher told me to do lol
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Jul 24, 2023 15:27
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Lily Catts posted:Where do you get your sheet music? I'm sure most classical/well-known pieces are sold in scorebooks, but even when I was a kid I used a clearbook and my teacher would hand me out copies to put in them. Lily Catts posted:which might be expensive to get the legit way, so transcribed pieces is fine. Not a great answer to your question but I have a relevant tangent: I just recently bought the Persona 4 “yasashii” (easy, it isn’t) piano solo book from suruguya. It was about $55 shipped from  . I couldn’t find it online which is why I bought it. While searching for piano versions of the songs for reference I found a channel that has synthesia, sheets and midis for 14 of 15 of the songs. They’re claiming to have wrote them themselves (granting permissions for covers in the comments) but the arrangements are identical. Still glad to have the book though because of the cool art and it’s just real nice to have a piece of paper with notes on it in front of you. Anyone use an ipad or tablet for sheet music? I assume there are apps designed for it. Would you recommend it?
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Jul 26, 2023 01:33
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So I'm trying to learn piano and the main things I want to get good at at the moment are the basic things: 1. Proper articulation and movement of the fingers on the keyboard. 2. Sightreading 3. Learning the different keys on the circle of fifths. I'm going to start taking classes in August, but I'm eager to learn now. I saw this series of videos on the Chopin Method, and while it goes into the biomechanics and proper posture, it doesn't go into detail about practice. I want to be able to smoothly "walk" my hands over a piano while playing scales and songs. Apparently learning with C Major first is a no-no. What are the best tips, beyond just practicing going up and down B or E Major and playing simple songs in those keys? The books I have all start with songs in C.
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Jul 26, 2023 02:42
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PhoenixFlaccus posted:Anyone use an ipad or tablet for sheet music? I assume there are apps designed for it. Would you recommend it? That's the first thing I considered actually because I don't have a printer at home and dislike having to scrounge for scores on the internet but also I don't have a tablet and would have to splurge for a decent one so back to clearbooks and printed scores it is I'd imagine anything less than 10" is a no-go
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Jul 26, 2023 07:47
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sorry for the double post, but what would you look for a keyboard bag/case? Due to space concerns I will need to stash mine (it's a Yamaha PSR-E373) when not in use, and it will have to be vertical, so I am looking to get something with good padding on the sides. Still concerned I might break the keyboard storing it that way, though. We don't have a lot of choices in this country but at least we have Gator cases, though they seem to be a tier above in terms of pricing. Any recommendations? I don't see myself gigging or even taking it outside (maybe once a quarter at best) so there's that.
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Jul 27, 2023 00:32
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America Inc. posted:I'm going to start taking classes in August, but I'm eager to learn now. I've been taking lessons for 2 years and my only advice is try not to look at your hands as much as possible when sight reading bc I very much did not do this and have spent literally months breaking that habit and reacquainting myself with the geography of the keyboard.
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Jul 27, 2023 17:03
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PhoenixFlaccus posted:Anyone use an ipad or tablet for sheet music? I assume there are apps designed for it. Would you recommend it? (used and/or 1st gen if you wanna save money) 12.9” ipad pro. other specs don’t matter. download forscore and import your music. enjoy
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Jul 27, 2023 19:08
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Quick question because I can't find an answer in the Faber piano books: What does this parentheses notation mean for the left hand? My guess would be play the C with 5 as feels natural with 1 on G, then exchange 5 with 3 on the note while held down in prep for the next note. Is that the idea?
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Nov 28, 2023 05:33
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