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bromplicated posted:I was actually curious about why pianists sometimes cross their right hand over their left, it looks pretty stylish but is that actually necessary? This is generally necessary(ish, some players are an exception) for playing long runs up/down the keyboard smoothly. Try playing C major arpeggio up and down 4 octaves (C2, E2, G2, C3, E3, G3 ...C5, E5, G5...C2, E2, C3) with one hand, then try doing it with alternating hands. You'll probably notice that if you do it with one hand it's jerky as heck, particularly at any real speed. If you do it with two hands it's much more fluid, although if you're unpracticed you'll probably miss-hit every other note if you go with any speed. While we're on the topic, some people were asking about prog rock piano. "How do I play prog rock piano" is a messed up question, I'm afraid. Generally speaking prog rock pianists are just pretty good. Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Jordan Rudess... These guys are examples of brilliantly accomplished pianists. Generally speaking they have a very strong classical and jazz background. I could give you the sheets to ELP - Take a Pebble, ELP - Tarkus, or Muse - Space Dementia but if you're trying to get your piano skills up playing those you almost certainly would give up long before you played it proficiently... unless you're a particular kind of obsessive person I guess. I've been playing for 14 years and it still took me well over a week to learn Space Dementia (probably the easiest of the 3 I mentioned, if only 'cos it doesn't have to deal with Emerson's superhuman left hand), and quite a bit longer still to get real proficiency. You gotta walk before you can run, unfortunately. In saying that, those arpeggios I mentioned earlier are a common cornerstone of that kind of music (among others), and are a good thing to practice anyway... but they come after you've learned all the requisite scales and associated chord formation, since arpeggios are just runs of a particular chord up and down the keyboard.
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Jul 25, 2008 01:34
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el Trentoro posted:I don't suppose you've played any of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in those fourteen years? I'm just saying, the first movement and Space Dementia sound awfully similar in spots... Yeah, "inspired by" is the general consensus I think. It's definitely an acknowledged thing. 
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Jul 25, 2008 07:50
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BluePepper posted:I was wonder why it is that standard three note chords and played with the 1,3,5 fingering when the index and ring fingers are the most dexterous? I understand not using 2, since you want to be able to use the thumb but to me, in my very novice state, it's easier to play with 1,3,4 than 1,3,5 Pretty much so you can hit the 2nd and 4th with your 2nd and 4th fingers. It's all about extensibility. If you learn to use your little finger now you will be capable of more later. If you always take the slightly "easier" route of using your 4th to hit the 5th you'll never develop your 5th and it'll always be useless, always limit your playing. This is not to say there is not circumstances where it totally makes sense to use your 4th for that purpose, but for now you're just going to have to trust that developing all your fingers is a good plan and playing standard chords in that formation is part of it.
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Aug 3, 2008 03:12
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Insparkle posted:Well, my husband has said that he trusts me with the decision on it, so it's down to me. We don't have room for a piano, unfortunately, as we're still in an apartment and looking to buy a house/townhouse next year. (er, not that I have to run purchases by him, but for things like this we like to discuss together) The DGX series is "lightly weighted" and the YPG is properly weighted. They're pretty drat similar in other respects, but the 505 is an older version (current equivalent is the 520 I think) so the 625 is probably the way to go. Either way they both ought to be good enough to practice on. Just don't expect to record your number 1 jams on them.
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Aug 21, 2008 05:08
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I guess I'm not sure what to ask or what to look for.
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heh, have fun Insparkle. As far as the improv. question goes, I'm not the hottest on the specifics of the theory, however for basic starter improvisation... Look at the chord progression for a particular section. Work out any and all scales that fit within the bounds of the chord progression (if you have a key signature to look at that's likely going to be one of them, possibly the only one) by which I mean every note used in every chord is available in the scale. You may find that there is NO scales that completely match the chord progression (or that you just don't know enough fruity scales, in which case check out http://www.8notes.com/resources/notefinders/piano_chords.asp), so you might want to break the progression up into 2 or more parts and find a scale that matches each part. This is common in a lot of music, but for basic beginners improv. it's usually wise to pick progressions that all sit inside the bounds of one scale, I reckon. Now, left hand plays the progression, right hand plays whatever the heck you decide you want to play inside the current correct scale. It's probably wise to keep a mind to your root, and there are gonna be common "avoid" notes, but I'll leave it to your ear to identify those. To keep it real simple, just play octaves or 5ths with your left hand, this will mean you can make whatever progression you like and it'll be completely trivial for you to keep it inside the bounds of your current scale of choice. Once you've got the hang of just letting your right hand do what seems right then you can start looking around for more advanced methods to spice it up. Baby steps and all that. I would suggest looking at the 12 bar blues (and blues scales if you haven't covered them) next. That'll introduce the idea of the passing (blue) note nicely.
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Aug 26, 2008 01:04
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Faux Crow posted:And if we're sharing videos, I'll add one of my own, recorded a few years ago: Wish I had a left hand like that.
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Sep 20, 2008 04:47
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Bloke posted:No chance with an upright at the moment, but I can compromise and assume I'm on the right track with the yamaha clavinova and the casio privia. Well yeah, right track... but they wont be a massive improvement at that level. The most Piano like digital pianos are probably the upper end Rolands (RD series i.e. RD-700, very expensive), Kawais (MP series I prefer i.e. MP8II, although some of their digital home pianos are pretty nice too, just bigger) and then probably the Yamahas... P85s are great for the price but there's not much to them. I got a Kawai MP5 and it feels, plays and sounds better than most Pianos I've played under about $6000AUD, certainly a million times better than for anything I've played that costs an equivalent amount. The MP8 feels even better, but weighs and costs more of course. An important thing here is getting a good amplifier, the speakers that come with most digital pianos are terrible which is part of the reason I preferred to get a stage piano (no speakers) and just buy a decent keyboard amp. People generally recommend the Roland KC series for keyboard amps, such as the KC-350. What you're looking for in a digital piano is a fully weighted keys, and proper graded hammer action. If the keys just strike a switch then it's probably a lot cheaper, but won't feel quite right. If they have a hammer that swings and THEN strikes a switch they'll feel much more authentic. I don't know what prices are like over in EU, my MP5 was $2000AUD, in the US they're about $1200USD. I then paid another $500AUD for my amp, bringing it up to $2500AUD for a playable package. A good amp in USD is about $350, taking it up to ~$1550USD. All of them will handle MIDI ok, but if you spend a little more on a stage piano you'll generally get better MIDI support, including sliders/knobs and multiple channels. I use my MP5 as a Piano, B3 style organ and Rhodes style electric piano... and as a MIDI controller for all sorts of things. It's great, can switch it from internal to MIDI and various combinations thereof (with different zones as well) at the touch of a button.
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Oct 5, 2008 03:27
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I would imagine so. P85 is a great, cheap entry level practice piano for kids that're learning but it's got no growth potential. It's also about as lame as a MIDI controller can get. It doesn't even have a mod wheel or pitch bend, let alone any knobs/sliders or assignable zones. With musical instruments, if you take it at all seriously, it's very often worth saving extra to get the better item because it will last you longer. Also, very importantly it will have a hugely better re-sale value. In 5 years time I would guess MP5s would still get a good price, whereas the P85 will be worth very little. Don't forget the extra keyboard amp expense though... although if you have a decent home sound system/computer sound system you can plug into that in the interim. It'll sound fine, just not as good as it should, and will not be able to get near as loud of course. Also, if you have a local Kawai dealer go and talk to them and ask them what kind of price they can manage for you. With expensive items like this there's often a bit of leeway in the actual price. I got mine cheaper locally than I could find them anywhere online, and I searched for a couple of weeks... and they've got a 5 year warranty so if you need to use that it's much easier to take it into the shop and let THEM deal with the shipping etc. than trying to pack and send it yourself. Japan's in a bit of a recession at the moment, so they may be inspired to reduce their export prices anyway.
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Oct 6, 2008 00:31
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heh, in my contrary opinion a good digital piano with a good keyboard amp can sound great... far far far far better than a cheap old upright. You just have to spend $1400USD or more on the piano and >$300 USD on the amp (Roland KC-350 will do you). I think you'll find the Kawai's and the Roland TD series are heavier, but the cheap Yamahas are heavier (and probably better) than equivalent cheap ones. As with all things, you spend the money you get the quality. I've played a few uprights in the past year since I've had my Kawai MP5 and I would safely say that my MP5 is much nicer to play and has a far superior sound quality... and it never goes out of tune. One thing to keep in mind is those digital pianos with built in speakers are almost guaranteed to have lovely speakers that just aren't up to the task of reproducing such a full and versatile sound as a piano can make. For this reason I prefer a digital stage piano and a good quality keyboard amp any day.
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Oct 26, 2008 07:14
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For me I find the visceral feel of playing a real piano far more engaging. The increased depth of touch and dynamics helps, but largely it's the way the whole thing resonates with you. One day when I'm wealthy and have a big house instead of a small apartment I'll get a proper grand, maybe. You're right of course, they'll notice some contrast between the digital and the acoustic when playing side by side, but if they spend the money they'll get by. A bit impractical and expensive to have two large pianos in the same room. I tend to think some people get bad opinions of DPs because the market is saturated with cheapies with low quality samples and even lower quality speakers/amplifiers is all
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Oct 26, 2008 08:36
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Alizee posted:Pieces I hesitate to suggest them, having not played them myself and being unsure of their actual complexity, but some of Rachmaninoff's preludes would probably fit your bill.
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Oct 27, 2008 06:20
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AntiFistamine posted:Any recommendations for songs that an absolute beginner should be learning? I've seen a few resources online that look OK and had a quick flick through the thread and they all look rather solid, any other recommendations for online free resources/lessons? Ode to Joy. The intro to New Born (Muse). Other than that, just a book of grade 1 prep pieces. The important thing for you right now is to learn how to read music at the basic level. The hardest bit of that is probably just understanding key signatures, so most people get around that problem by just playing songs in C major to start with... I reckon this is an absolute cop out for adults that are coming to music, because adults are capable of understanding more than a 5 year old in the short term. So supplement your learning pieces with reading beginner theory, make sure you understand every piece of information that is on the sheet you are trying to play, or else you'll be playing it wrong.
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Nov 11, 2008 23:22
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Fists Up posted:Thanks for the help anyway. The key signature thing really helps I didnt realise it applies to the whole song. So i just move any notes on those lines to flat or sharp unless noted? That's the gist of it. You said you'd practiced some scales, you ought to find that in the vast majority of cases the key signature will match a known scale, although since you're new to it you probably haven't seen many scales. Basically yes, if the key signature has a sharp in an F line, you should play all Fs as F# (this would be G major) unless they are specifically denoted as being a natural (the sharp sign with the bottom left and top right lines removed). The other thing to remember is when you see a sharp or flat or natural in a bar of music, it is ASSUMED that this particular note will remain sharp/flat/natural/whatever for the remainder of that bar unless otherwise signified... although with some music you find on ye olde interweb this may or may not be the case, but often the kids writing up those sheets won't even put in a key signature when they very obviously should have, so take crappy internet hack sheet with a grain of salt.
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Nov 19, 2008 00:24
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mofmog posted:I've sort of learned to noodle around on a keyboard and I know how to do chords and the whole deal, but I feel I really need to get a lot better, and the only way to do that is to get a keyboard I can practice on at home. However, I live in a pretty cramped apartment, so I was thinking I'd have to get a digital piano. I'll have roughly ~1000 to spend on both keyboard and amp- what should I get? Obviously it has to have fully weighted keys, and different voices (mostly interested in organ and epiano) would be nice. I've suggested the Kawai MP5 twice already in this thread. http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.com/product/Kawai-MP5-Professional-Stage-Piano?sku=702817 It's a little bit more expensive than your limit (you may be able to find it on special, or find a Kawai dealer who'll give you a deal) and that's without an amp, but it's the perfect match for your requirements. I have one of these in the tiny second bedroom of my apartment, along with 2 guitars, 2 computers, a laptop, various recording gear a clothes horse and a bookshelf and it fits fine, even with the ginormous 300W amp. I have it on a stand like this http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/OnStage-Stands-Pro-Platform-Keyboard-Stand?sku=450384 because flimsy X-stands suck, but the stand is a little high for normal piano so you'll need a reasonably high or adjustable chair or you'll do damage to the tendons in your hand from not getting enough blood supply while playing. You could always play it through headphones for a few months while you save for an amp. http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.com/product/Roland-KC150-Keyboard-Mixing-Amp?sku=480193 this Roland KC-150 would do you unless you're going to be playing fairly large gigs.
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Dec 2, 2008 01:29
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Fists Up posted:Is anybody able to help me with what the left hand would be playing in this? Mainly just those repeating few bars at the start. It's just 1-3-5 triplets in a simple repeating pattern. F# A# C#, C# F G#, D# F# A#, B D# F#. aka F# major, C# major, D# minor, B major. Rinse repeat. Looks like an F# major key to me, so that would make it a I, V, vi, IV progression (in F# major). Which is a fairly common progression. Fun exercise to enhance your understanding of music theory - try shifting the song to a different major key after you've learned it. e.g. shift the song over into C major or A major or whatever you like.
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Dec 4, 2008 13:37
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FateFree posted:I went out and bought a Yamaha s90 es, and I'd like to set it up on a desk in addition to a few computer monitors as a little workstation. I'm just wondering about the height of the desk and chair, neither I have bought yet. Yes and yes. You either need a very low desk or a high chair, as you want the Piano keys to be around about stomach height while you play. If it is much higher than this you will not have as good circulation to your hands and are much more likely to get sore tendons, which is a problem you really want to avoid. If you have reasonably long legs a high chair should be fine, as long as you can reach the pedals comfortably while playing.
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Dec 5, 2008 00:31
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"Knowing what a piece sounds like by looking at the sheet music" is done by being able to identify the intervals. Don't expect to be able to do this until you've learned a lot of pieces from sheet. And even then, only a very rough approximation probably. You don't REALLY need to "practice" scales, you just need to know them. Same with chords. It's not really about sitting there and playing your scales 100 times repeatedly, it's just about knowing them and being able to identify them, so it doesn't have to be anything like as mind numbing as you think. Fact is you'll never be a good pianist/musician/songwriter/songreader unless you know your scales, and can identify key signatures, because knowing this information reduces the problem space of everything in music so much that it becomes massively easier to do/write/learn. You do NOT need to hear a song to play it. If you need to do that you have not learned how to read sheet sufficiently. Every piece of information you need to reproduce that song should be on the sheet. The tempo, the key signature, the notes and their durations, the way you should attack the keys. Everything. It would be a very good idea if you got a book of beginners piano pieces and learned them without ever hearing them, this will probably force you to fill in some gaps in your understanding. I suggest just hitting eBay and looking for a book of grade 1/2 pieces. There's heaps out there, and they're all good enough to get the job done you just may like the songs more in one than another.
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Dec 7, 2008 08:38
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The couple of posters above you pretty much have you sorted there. P85 can be had for <$500, and will be good to learn on. If you wanna be even tighter you can go the Casio, but the thing to remember with music gear is it tends to hold its value better if people have a good opinion of it. So you say you don't want to waste money, presumably because you're worried you won't get into it and will quit... in that case, make sure you buy something that has some re-sale value. Most modern Casios do not, thanks to poor build quality.
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Dec 17, 2008 06:46
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People posted:Casioooos Ok, the deal with Casios is they're cheap for a reason. If you want the quality option you never choose the Casio. However, due to rapid advances in technology in our generation even those poor low end Casios are pretty decent learners, with tolerable sound modules etc. but I do mean TOLERABLE. They will very rarely sound beautiful as a good instrument should, so the motivation to learn they provide is relatively low. If you are strongly self-motivated to learn piano (and perhaps you are since you're posting in this thread) you will definitely still be able to get the basics down on such a device. The obvious advantage is price and availability, so if this is really all you can afford then you are bound by those restrictions, going into debt to buy an instrument is a slippery slope that should certainly be avoided. But do keep in mind that 3 months after you buy it something like a P85 will still be worth 70% of its retail, while the Casio will be worth 50%. Really quality instruments are likely to retain up to 80-90% of their retail value for a couple of years, if they're well looked after. Sometimes it really is worth saving up for a little while longer if it's an option. What you sacrifice by getting a keyboard that does not have weighted keys is dynamics. Heavier keys are easier to press with varying levels of attack (hard, soft and a few ranges in between). Normal keyboard keys are spring loaded velocity sensitive things, but because they're so light it's much harder to get your expression right AND your learned experience of "hard" and "soft" will not transfer very well to the real deal. If the keys aren't even velocity sensitive, forget about it, it's a toy for toddlers. Further to this, you must be sure the keyboard actually has samples for those varying dynamics. Any velocity sensitive key should be able to report 128 intensity values (although good luck reliably hitting within about a range of 40 or less), but if the keyboard doesn't have different samples loaded for various ranges it's not going to make a difference to the sound. You need to be able to reliably hit about 4 different levels to actually produce ok piano music...although good acoustic piano players are hitting more like 40. As far as number of keys go, (entirely off the top of my head, made up stats) 61 is enough for 95% of songs a beginner should be reasonably wanting to play. 74 is enough for 98%. But 88 is enough for 100% of songs for anyone, regardless of level. You will find songs that you cannot quite play correctly with 74 keys eventually, and it will annoy you immensely at the time, but 74 should otherwise be ok. Edit: Cat Food posted:Rhythm. Set it to some reasonable speed, like 70bpm to start. You can change this later once you know what you're doing. Also, this is all going to be in 4/4, but once you understand 4/4 it should be easy enough to understand others... 4/4 has 4 beats to a bar, 3/4 has 3 beats to a bar yada yada. Whole notes (the big empty round ones with no stem) are "4 beats long", meaning 4 ticks of your metronome. Half notes (the empty round ones with a stem) are "2 beats long", 2 ticks of your metronome. Quarter notes (the filled in ones with a stem) are "1 beat long", 1 tick of your metronome. Eighth notes (the filled in ones with a stem with a tick) are half a beat long. 2 per every 1 tick of a metronome. Sixteenth notes (2 ticks) are a quarter of a beat long. 4 per every 1 tick of a metronome. There is also equivalents for rests, whole rest, half rest, quarter rest etc, which just mean don't play for that equivalent duration. There is also ties, which link two of the same note together and imply that the note is held for the total duration of both of them (you will see this a lot between bars). These look the same as slurs, but slurs tie together two different notes and imply that you should play smoothly from the first to the next. There is also dotted notes, which are to be held for their indicated time + half. The thing to realise is that a particular bar or measure (section between the solid black vertical lines) is meant to add up to 4 beats (or whatever is prescribed by your songs time signature). So that section could have one whole note, or 2 half notes, or a half note and 2 quarter notes, or a 8 eighth notes, or 7 eighth notes and an eighth rest etc. They add up to 4 beats. So just try to learn songs from sheet and learn them one bar at a time with a metronome set to the appropriate tempo for the song (or maybe a slower speed while you're first learning it) and count the beats making sure you GET IT RIGHT. You will quickly get a feel for it. Vanmani fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Dec 17, 2008 |
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Dec 17, 2008 23:31
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spigotthebear posted:Looks like every one has questions about Casio's! Well I have another question about the things. I am looking to start playing piano and I got a few questions. I play bass and am looking at getting the Casio Privio PX-120 does any one have any experience with one of these? Would I be able to buy that keyboard and be able to hook it up to my amp? It has a line in/out for a pa if that helps. It has midi support does that mean I would be able to connect it to my pc and use a program like say fruity loops or something like that and use the keyboard to play it? Yes, bass amps make pretty decent keyboard amps and vice versa. The important thing is that the speaker has a decent range, with a bass amp you'll miss a little on the high end frequencies probably and get a bit of unusual colour on the sound, but it's not the end of the world. Guitar amps are useless for keyboards though, they can even destroy themselves trying to reproduce the bass notes and they will colour the sound a lot. Any keyboard with MIDI out (either in a traditional sense, or via a USB cable) can send MIDI signals to programs like Fruity Loops, Reason, Ableton, Cubase etc. etc. so yes, you will be able to use the keyboard to drive synths and drums etc on fruity loops or whatever, and record it even. This is a good way to do things even, since the Casio itself has lovely sounds but software synths and samplers sometimes have very good sounds indeed. What a keyboard like that Casio will lack for software sequencing is knobs and sliders. No pitch bend, no mod wheel, no sliders, no knobs. THe P85 is the same in this regard. When software sequencing, many artists like to use these controls to adjust their sound on the fly, like you might bind some knobs to phaser rate and depth, or distortion or filter frequency... anything really. This gives you a lot of scope to sculpt your sound as you play and I find it pretty invaluable. However, you can buy MIDI controllers that don't have a keyboard and just have a bunch of knobs and sliders and stuff to supplement your keyboard at some point if you find this necessary. They're not too expensive. Personally I do almost all my instrument recording in software these days, it's awesome what's out there now.
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Dec 18, 2008 03:18
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The more complex you find the pieces to learn, the harder it is to play without mistake. With practice you will find that you can play pieces without error, go learn a few pieces that you now think are simple and you should find this. Other than that, it's just practice practice practice. As far as playing too fast and too loud goes, it's a similar thing. Try and play the songs the way you think they're meant to be played, definitely do some practice playing the song with a metronome if you're having trouble keeping tempo.
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Dec 18, 2008 10:08
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Arashikage posted:I have an old GEM WK2 with a lot of bells and whistles (both literally and figuratively), could I buy a basic Casio or Yamaha and just hook it up to that as a midi controller if I need more/better sounds. It's the 88 weighted keys I crave, so I can definitively live without knobs and sliders and a relatively small selection of sounds if it saves me some money and I can hook it up to the WK2 for additional sounds/effects. I don't know much about a GEM WK2 apart from the fact it's still worth a good chunk of money... but just from looking at it I can see it's got a bunch of buttons and a touch-knob and 1 volume slider. Buttons are handy, but it seems to have them in spades, and knobs/sliders are generally more handy in my opinion. It seems likely to me that you could use it as an extra MIDI controller for a software DAW (note that it will not be able to control anything relevant on the DP, since there is nothing to control), but it was designed to be a MIDI arranger so perhaps they didn't see fit to include MIDI OUT... but that would surprise me. Take a look and see. The other thing to keep in mind is that all the controls in a DAW like Reason/Ableton/Cubase etc. can be modified via the GUI. Just record the note track, then record over the top of that track using the mouse to adjust parameters and it'll record those changes... it's just nicer to use proper knobs and stuff on the fly in one take. What you should definitely be able to do is hook the Piano up to the WK2 and use the WK2's onboard sounds/effects/drum machine but playing using your DP's keys. The other option for you is to just buy a plain MIDI 88 weighted key MIDI controller like the ones M-Audio make, very cheap option and you will get knobs and sliders, but absolutely no onboard sounds. Unfortunately M-Audio do have somewhat questionable quality on those keybeds too.
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Dec 18, 2008 23:33
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Yeah, common problem with those sustain pedals. Some are on by default some are off by default. You need to get the sort that your keyboard expects or it won't work at all, but as mentioned above some keyboards can support both at the toggle of an option.
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Jan 1, 2009 01:35
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Truth is even most proficient piano teachers don't play perfectly from sight except on the very simplest of pieces, they need to "know" the song to some extent and use the sheet as a trigger to remind them how it goes. I cannot sight play with any real proficiency though, I definitely need to go over even reasonably simple pieces a few times before I can then play them "on sight", so perhaps I'll leave it to more classically disciplined posters to answer. Try the same thing with slightly harder pieces and see what happens. Good exercise for you either way.
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Jan 6, 2009 10:05
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Give Fur Elise a go.
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Jan 9, 2009 04:38
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Arashikage posted:I've been dropping by the piano place like four times now on my way home to try out a few digital pianos to see how they grow on me before I finally by one. Both quality DPs for beginners. Go with your gut feeling. Don't assume that extra heavy means extra realistic, a lot of proper pianos aren't that heavy in the keys at all, it's more to do with the feel and expressiveness of hammers and whatnot.
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Jan 10, 2009 03:35
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Sure that makes plenty of sense. The only real complication is that with Piano you often have to read 2 words at the same time. Sight reading on monophonic instruments is so amazingly easier. I really should practice my reading more, but I'm a writer not a session musician so it's rather hard to find the motivation.
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Feb 27, 2009 00:31
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I took up guitar about a year and a half ago after having played Piano for around 13 years. I had a massssssive headstart, because I already understood the finer details of music, so all I really had to learn (and still am learning I guess) is techniques specific to the guitar. Your situation should be much the same, you know how to read your sheet music, and you have experience with various rhythms and melodies. You understand what a note is, what a semitone is, what a tone is, what a chord is yada yada yada. All you need to do to learn the Piano is learn the specifics of using your fingers (and feet) to actuate piano mechanisms appropriately. So yes, you will have a good start, and will likely appear to learn substantially quicker than someone without a pre-existing music background. In your specific example probably more so than most.
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Mar 1, 2009 09:46
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Underdog posted:Another shortcut that can speed up sight reading is being able to recognize intervals. This is especially useful when multiple notes are on the same stem. You'll only have to read and recognize the bottom note, and the top note is simply a 3rd, 4th, or whatever above it. I'm not a very good sight reader, but the intervals is pretty much it for me. You know what key you're in, you read the root, and then you can very easily see from the intervals what the next note is, without implicitly reading the next note. Occasionally this falls apart when the interval is >1 octave but with a little practice it's generally sufficient... assuming you are intimately aware of the current key and can see the keyboard in those terms.
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Mar 7, 2009 04:45
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Synthogy Ivory sounds pretty amazing, it's massively hard work on your poor computer though so playing it in real time is not always an option. There's other decent sample based piano libraries that don't tax your computer so much (still need a couple of gigs of RAM though), Art Vista is ok sounding for example, Reason Pianos can sound ok. Then there's Pianoteq (as you mentioned) which is a digitally modelled piano and as near as I can tell from the demos on the website sounds great (and since it's modelled is INSANELY TWEAKABLE which excites me a lot). I haven't tried it, but I will definitely grab a copy and muck around with it one day soon. The obvious advantage to Pianoteq is that it weighs in at only 20Mb and although it probably takes a bit of CPU power it won't be anything like as bad as those multiple gigabyte sample based monstrosities. An audio interface is a good idea to enable low latency, but if you have a decent quality soundcard that supports ASIO that will be sufficient too. Anything that supports ASIO should do alright for MIDI controllers (just using any old $20 MIDI to USB cable), you don't really need to spend $200 on a half decent 2 channel audio interface just for MIDI. If you wanna pick up a microphone and start recording vocals and stuff, go for it. You do want to have decent speakers running off your computer and wired into a decent stereo position around your keyboard though. Any kind of active monitors will do a good job, or a keyboard amp is alright, but it's mono (great for gigging though, of course). Someone was pimping some studio monitors that were on special in guitar centre the other day which would probably be a better option than the Behringers. In my mind buying a digital piano with built in speakers is never a good idea for anyone who has the technical capabilities to make a more versatile (and almost inevitably better quality) stage piano/midi controller and amplified speaker setup work. The obvious advantage to playing via MIDI is that you aren't limited to Piano. You can pull up a DAW and a host of softsynths and other such wonderful goodies and go to town making whatever you want.
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Mar 8, 2009 06:13
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uXs posted:So how should I find a teacher? Any other sources of teachers besides local music shops and the internet? A good teacher at your level is someone who genuinely knows their stuff and you can get along with well. Just make sure they have a real education themselves (University level or have reached a high grade in piano). If you're concerned about getting qualifications you'll need to make sure they can teach you in line with what your local examiners want, if you're not concerned about that you pick a teacher that knows how to teach the style you want to play. At some point it's possible you'll outgrow your teacher, but at that point you'll know where to go. For 100E you're looking at a second hand Yamaha something, probably. If you're interested in PIANO you might try to find a second hand Yamaha DGX-620 or similar for a good price. It'll sound tolerable enough and give you a more or less full size "weighted" keyboard and you can figure out if you like it from there. If you do, you'll want to buy yourself a better piece of kit after a couple years, but something like that will be good for a while. You've got a fair chance with second hand at those prices, because a lot of parents buy them as toys for their children trying to encourage them to learn, but when the kids decide computer games are more fun they sell 'em off to fund the next purchase. Oh, and as far as singing goes... only singing I ever had to do in piano lessons was for exams. I presume they wanted to test whether you were just playing the music, or if you could actually hear it as well, so they asked you to reproduce notes that they played on the piano with your voice. A crude test of ear. Vanmani fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Apr 14, 2009 |
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Apr 14, 2009 00:43
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kweesatzZ posted:How does one learn to improvise? I've been playing classical piano for over ten years and can only read sheet music. If someone tells me to go play the piano all I can do is replay something that I've memorized. Just sit down, with noone around but you. Pick a key to play in, one that you generally like. Work out a progression in that key that sounds alright with your left hand, to start with just keep it simple like playing octaves or fifths. Use your right hand to play, again within the same key. Figure out some nice melodies that work over your progression. Congratulations you are well on the way to becoming an improvisational pianist. Feel free to read all the books in the world, as you will never stop learning more ways to spice it up... but mostly it all comes down to an endless amount of trial and error. Your hands will end up learning what works and what doesn't... and your brain will get used to the idea of improvisation. It's important that you just be able to go for it without faltering, losing your rhythm will ruin the flow. If you play something that sounds poo poo then take a note not to do it again in your head, but don't stop... just keep grooving.
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May 25, 2009 07:16
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STOP MAKING SENSE posted:I'd like to get a teacher and get some good brush up lessons and exercises but my schedule just doesn't allow it at the moment. I have time enough to practice but they are odd hours of night and morning. Basically, I'm pounding out some chords by ear to random songs and practicing scales, but I think something more than that is going to be needed to get me back into shape. Any advice? If I were you I'd get two pieces which you would consider reasonably easy (but not boringly so) and give yourself a week or two to master them. Preferably songs that you've always wanted to learn but never found the time for. Maybe you like Ben Folds, or Elton John or Billy Joel or Bach or Mozart or Muse or whatever. Any songs you really quite like and feel motivated to learn. Not songs that you are being told to learn. Set yourself a strict deadline for mastering them, but one that is reasonable and you are confident you can manage if you put in the available time. That'll get your head back in the right space pretty quickly I reckon. To inspire you, I posted these in the other Piano thread. All of the endorsed sheet music for Muse. Many fun songs of varying difficulties in there. In order of difficulty it would probably range from New Born to Bliss to Sunburn to Feeling Good to Apocalypse Please to Endlessly to Space Dementia. There's a whole bunch of others that I haven't played, so I'll leave off judging their difficulties. http://www.microcuts.net/uk/tabs
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May 31, 2009 07:55
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OctaviusBeaver posted:I'm looking for a nice digital piano for my apartment. Do I need to hire a piano mover for a digital piano or can I just stick it in the back of a pickup (assuming I am careful with it)? There's some nice options around the $1000USD mark. I use the Kawai MP5 stage piano and think it is quite rad, and you can probably pick one up for .. a touch over $1000USD. But you'd need to then have some decent speakers to hook it up to unless you want to use headphones all the time, and you'd have to buy a stand or have a table to put it on... so it ends up being a bit more. If you're looking for one with built in speakers and which comes with a stand... well there's a bunch of Kawai's and Yamahas in that range which are pretty decent. What you're essentially looking for is hammer-style weighted keys and a nice on-board piano sound. I tend to think those packaged speaker/stand digital pianos are less awesome, largely because the in-built speakers just aren't up to scratch. You don't need a piano mover, it should ship in a big ol' padded cardboard box. Quite safe to put in the back of a pickup... it would have arrived at the store in the back of a van or truck. Some assembly required, but screwing the stand together is pretty simple. If you read the last three or four pages of this thread there's quite a bit of discussion on this topic. I would say if you're at all a serious musician who intends to gig, or move your piano around in general at ANY point a digital stage piano is the way to go. They typically are that bit higher quality, but have the overhead of needing to buy your own stand/amp. If you just want to have a piano in the house one of those packaged digital pianos that come with a stand and on-board speakers can do a decent job, they just don't quite have the quality or flexibility.
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Jun 12, 2009 02:11
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Beasticly posted:keyboard that's less than a meter long for less than $150 and then try and teach myself with books and online resources? You will find a 61 key keyboard (about 1m) for $150, but it'll be spectacularly average. You won't be happy with the sound or the feel or the size, but you will make do if you're motivated. Can't go too far with such a device though. Arishakage posted:Roland FP-4 Roland FP series are really good, everyone likes them. In the US they're well priced too, over here in Australia Roland stuff is well expensive, thus my fondness for the Japanese stuff. 80k posted:Studio monitors, headphones Dead right. A good digital piano sounds best through studio monitors, I love mine so much more since I got my pair of Rokit RP8G2s. A keyboard amp is fine, but they're just so MONO and aren't the most accurate reproducers of sound... definitely more enjoyable through monitors. A smaller Roland KC series keyboard amp is what most people will settle for, and will do a great job for the price. If you do happen to have PA system, just run through that, it'll sound good. A decent pair of headphones sounds pretty good too, but I hate wearing headphones for long periods. Good for late night practice though. If you have a nice home hi-fi system it will probably sound fine through that, but you may need to do a touch of EQ just to get rid of the boomy "MEGA BASS OOMPH OOMPH BOOMY" sound that most home audio systems have. Still, most decent home hi-fi systems sound better than the speakers they package with some digital pianos.
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Jun 13, 2009 02:50
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Beasticly posted:After listening to clips on youtube of the lower priced models I've decided to up my budget to ~$400 AUD (they sounded craptastic) which just allows me to get a WK110 which, from the clips I listened to on youtube, sounds decent for the price! Does anyone know if the WK stands from weighted keys? My googlefu is weak but I managed to extrapolate that it has 'semi weighted' keys. If I learn on this will the transition to a proper piano or digital keyboard be really difficult? You'll manage. They won't really feel anything like a real piano keybed, but ... unless you're planning on becoming a proper virtuoso pianist it won't really matter. If you're over the age of 10 or so that boat has already sailed. You'll get by.
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Jun 14, 2009 11:31
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Eli Cash posted:I have learned all of my scales and can play them without looking the keyboard. I'm not always sure how to apply scales (even if they do apply) in order to use proper fingering. Is there a general answer or guideline to this question? Proper fingering in terms of playing a scale for a music exam is not necessarily the same as proper fingering in the context of a piece of music. Essentially the proper fingering is relative to what the next few notes are. Whatever fingering allows you to best play the required note and the coming notes optimally is the "proper fingering". That being said there are rules which will work well. If you're playing a run up/down the keyboard you typically wrap your thumb under at the middle or fourth finger, for example. Practicing your scales will teach you this, and drill it into muscle memory so it's smooth and natural. Don't be too paranoid about it, just make sure you can play what you are intending to play smoothly, gracefully and with minimal pain and effort and preferably with maximum versatility (don't unnecessarily close down playing options... like playing a triad with your three middle fingers makes it senselessly hard to move to a sus2 or sus4). If you are doing this then your fingering is 'correct'. As you gain more and more finger dexterity and skill there will be increasing numbers of 'correct' ways to play.
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Jun 23, 2009 06:36
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Hot Dog Hotline posted:I have a question though... It doesn't seem like its TERRIBLY out of tune. It's just a little bit through some keys. I'm going to buy the adjusting tools anyway but then I noticed that the top opens up and has a little support thing to keep it open. Am I supposed to play with it open? It sounds more in tune when it is, so I'm attributing some its "out of tuneness" due to the fact that it's sitting on carpet, and next to a wall, and possibly because of the relatively cheap materials it's made out of. Not the ideal place but whatever - it's there now and too heavy to move. If some old couple gave it to you for free, you chucked it in a truck and moved it to your place I would almost guarantee it is not in tune. Pianos do not like being moved, and are theoretically meant to be tuned twice a year (with the seasons), while many people will let them sit for years and years without tuning. Playing with the lid open gives it a different tone, but has absolutely no impact on the tuning. The notes are not generated in the air space in the piano, they are entirely from the strings vibrating. The human brain plays tricks on you, it perceives "louder" = "better" with music to a point. Your piano will typically sound louder with the top ajar. All that being said, tuning a piano is horrendously more tricky than almost any other instrument. I suggest you get a decent quality digital tuner with a microphone, tune the middle octave up with that and then use your ear to tune the surrounding octaves to the appropriate reference notes in the middle, as pianos aren't usually tuned to perfection, they are tuned to themselves. If the piano is at all old, or hasn't been tuned for a while, you may have to take things very very slowly, or the strings may snap which is a moderately expensive repair. If the piano is very out of tune then you may have to tune it, then tune it again the next day after it has settled. Even a skilled tuner who is well practiced will probably take at least an hour on a piano that has been left untuned for more than a year or so, I believe... and unless you have a gifted or well practiced ear for tuning you will find it very difficult. INTJ Mastermind posted:$200-300 88 weighted key digital keyboard that sounds like a piano If you want just a decent 88 weighted key digital piano that is cheap and acceptable you can look at the higher end Casio Privia's as the absolute bottom end, but you'll probably be happier with a Yamaha P85 or similar. These devices can range from around $400-500USD if you find a good deal (last time I looked anyway) and they more or less match your requirements. They're commonly recommended to piano students who cannot afford the real thing for whatever reason.
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Jun 29, 2009 01:09
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INTJ Mastermind posted:Thanks! But what if I don't need something with weighted keys? Will that drop the price without compromising sound quality? Or are the only decent sounding digital pianos the ones with weighted keys also? In terms of having 88 keys and having a decent piano sound I can't think of any off the top of my head that aren't weighted. You can definitely get some nifty little 61 key keyboards/synths for that price range, particularly if you are willing to do some research and go second hand, but they are generally very unlikely to have a GOOD piano sound. Good piano sounds are almost universally sampled, and samples take up lots of space, so you need lots of ROM to store the samples in. Until very recently it was far too expensive to really meet this criteria, even on quite expensive keyboards. What you might try though is hitting up craigslist/ebay/whatever and seeing if you can find someone selling a Yamaha P80 or similar second hand for cheap. A lot of parents buy these things for their kids and then offload them when the kid takes no interest, so you might get lucky... now that I think about it a "wanted to buy" ad might be quite effective.
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Jun 29, 2009 05:07
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Eli Cash posted:I'm learning Yiruma's "River Flows in You." Like all of the music I play, it's above my level and I can learn it but can't perfect it. I was wondering if anybody could rate this piece's difficulty. I'm curious on how difficult it is relative to other stuff. Here's a link: It definitely doesn't look particularly challenging. At a guess I'd probably imagine it would rank maybe at about grade 3 in the AMEB, but that's unlikely to mean much to you. Essentially it has a fairly predictable low difficulty left hand which just rolls through some arpeggios, and a fairly cruisy right hand which runs around in key 99% of the time. There's no challenging chords or big stretches or even anything particularly unusual here, so it's certainly suitable for a very intermediate player, but it's got too many parts and the right hand is probably a touch too fast for absolute beginners or young children with weak, untrained fingers. Just practice each section over and over at as slow a pace as necessary to get it right until it sinks into memory. Once you've memorised the whole piece, which may take as little as a few days or up to about a month depending on your skill level/practice regime keep playing it once or twice every day for another couple of weeks with an emphasis on getting your dynamics perfect. Everyone should do this with a piece they really enjoy occasionally, as it's the best way to learn how to pump a song full of the right feeling/emotion through your dynamics. Sometimes it takes a couple of months or more to really nail even easy pieces, doesn't mean you are incapable of doing it though. All about perseverence. Edit: on closer inspection, I would imagine a lot of grade 3 players would have a lot of difficulty with some of the more awkward timings and short trills. Perhaps bump it up to 4. Also, these are all just guesses based on a quick glance at the sheet and listen on youtube. I've never played it so I don't really know for sure. Vanmani fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Jun 29, 2009 |
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Jun 29, 2009 07:58
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