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DukAmok posted:Yeah, I love that kind of technical stuff. The problem is that I can only play very simplistic things at that kind of speed. I dunno, I'm not well versed in improv. But try some modes? 
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Feb 24, 2008 04:58
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Yeah there's definitely an easier way to remember and learn how to play modes than what was listed but I forget it. Basically every mode is the same just with a different start note. And also, sorry since I don't remember this well but bare with me there's only two semi tones per mode and those just shift too or something like that. Please somebody clarify the simplicity to what I'm trying to convey.
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Feb 26, 2008 04:36
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I totally second the don't be too hard on yourself thing. I'm in a school jazz band on piano and I only ever had like a month of improv lessons. I always get super worried that my improvisation is going to sound ridiculously novice. But afterwards my guitar buddy who I envy for his soloing ability told me that my solo was really well done. I think it's partly the fact that you're thinking of phrasing, bringing down a melody back to where you want it. Accenting for a great rhythmic pattern etc. etc. etc. that you kind of lose touch to your solo a bit. And thus it doesn't sound as great to you.  Rhythm more than anything though is huge huge huge. It's everything, because well you're not going to create nut blowing harmonies out of your rear end, so what do you have left?
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Mar 3, 2008 05:41
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grapecritic posted:How much different is the organ from the piano (in terms of difficulty, playing styles, etc.)? Well, I don't understand what you mean by difficulty. Any instrument can have any level of difficulty imaginable depending on what you're wanting to do with it. But, in terms of playing style the only that I can think of that has a legitimate claim at being a barrier is only from going from piano to organ and that's just that there's multiple keyboards. Really, they're the same thing. However, if you're going from organ to keyboard you're going to have a lot harder of a time developing a touch for it in comparison to vice versa. Really it's just like saying how different are acoustic and electric guitar. (I've never played the organ so if somebody actually has a standing on the two please feel free to cut up my post)
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Mar 13, 2008 06:41
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Adrenochrome posted:I came home for Spring break and after reading through this thread, I figured I might as well dust off my old lovely $100 Yamaha keyboard and . Uh, I don't think you should start thinking about composing any time soon. For the base clef just move everything down a third from the treble position. Example the C above middle C is the third space going up. It's the seconds space going up on base clef. Basically, just go to the music store and ask them for a beginners theory work book. They'll lead you in the right direction.
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Mar 20, 2008 04:13
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(Just an excuse to practice more though I guess)
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davy jones posted:Can anyone tell me where to find some good songs to play? I've gone through all the "how to play ____" videos on Youtube and I don't know a lot of songs with good piano parts. I'll be honest with you that's a kinda silly question. Considering that with a piano you can play both the melody and the accompaniment you can basically take any song and turn it into a "good piano part". Specifically however I guess you're looking for bands and artists that use piano for their riffs. So for easy stuff that everyone would know you could go with Coldplay or The Fray or The Beatles. For things a little more advanced go for Ben Folds and Elton John. Really though, if you go to a music store, you'll be able to find a poo poo load of popular and unpopular music that has created the arrangements for just about any pop song etc. Have fun. [EDIT] Guess I misread your question a bit. pianosheets.org is a good place. It's pretty difficult to just get all the sheet music you want for anything, unlike guitar. Either torrent it through pianosheets.org and if you can't find it there you're probably going to have to buy it. I'm leaving my original response in there anyway for whatever reason.
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Mar 23, 2008 22:59
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Day 29 in Search for Lost Hog posted:I'm one of those people who played for a couple years as a kid, stopped, and at age 22 am wanting to play seriously again. The piece my teacher started me out on was Clementi's Op.36 No.1 (1st movement), which was OK but took me about 3 weeks to learn...now I've been learning Bach Invention #8, and after a good month now I still have a mental block on a couple measures on the 2nd part, and playing it at proper speed can be pretty tough for me. I started learning Chopin's Op. 69 No. 2 as well a week ago which has come a lot easier to me so far than the Bach piece. I was just wondering what are the difficulty levels or grades of these pieces, I'm kind of concerned about the speed of my progression...but I am only able to practice maybe 4 days a week for a couple hours each. Is the Chopin you're learning a Waltz if so I'd say Grade 8 or Grade 9 in RCM. What kind of progression are you expecting with these pieces? And you state you can only practice maybe 4 days for a couple of hours each. That is plenty of time to practice. The ideal situation is to practice every day and play each song as long as necessary until you've improved in some way. But, not everyone (including myself) has either the discipline or schedule to allow this. But the amount you're practicing is great. As to nerves: You get nervous even when you're practicing alone? If so, it's not a question associated with music. However, if there are people around or it's your teacher that's alright. I do the same, it's just performance anxiety. It's natural to get nervous when other people hear you play. That's fine. Best way to fix or lessen it is to just play in front of as many people as possible and make it a plan that whenever people are around to play out all that much more. Also, don't be afraid to make mistakes.
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Apr 13, 2008 23:11
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davy jones posted:Yeah I don't know the right term but I mean playing different things with each hand. "Different things" doesn't narrow it down much. Here is basically what the other poster is trying to say. Are you trying to play like quarter notes in the right hand while you play straight 16th notes in the left hand. OR Are you trying to play triplets in the right hand while you play a straight rhythm in the left hand. Basically are you playing something that sort of "contradicts" it's other hand. If so, somebody else already asked this question and I explained what I think is the easiest way to do so before. Just read up a bit
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Apr 23, 2008 04:49
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Either get a friend that can play well or someone in the store that can to try out things for you if you don't know yourself. I have a Triton Extreme and although it's probably one of the more expensive ones in terms of replicating a piano touch I don't like it that much. So don't worry about the price, just worry about the touch.
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May 1, 2008 23:45
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The numbers for tabs indicate the degree of semi tones raised from the open note. So for example: If you want to do something that is on the E string that goes 0-1-0-1. That would equal E-F-E-F.
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May 13, 2008 04:17
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Fat Turkey posted:Not made much progress at all since I posted on here several months ago Seriously, it'd be for the best. Not only do you progress less without a teacher but you also can make negative progression which will take forever to fix by learning bad habits.  But good on you for trying! If you can't afford one just try to keep it up
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Jun 8, 2008 05:27
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Monocular posted:Should I try not to look at my hands/the keys while I'm practicing? No, that comes naturally. And really, unless you're sight reading or needing cues from band members/ directors why shouldn't you look at your hands. I used to always need to look at my hands. As I continued playing though that was no longer necessary. So don't worry about it. It will come.
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Jun 15, 2008 20:17
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Really though, you have to take not looking into context. If you're playing a song in which the notes move within finger reach well there's really no reason to look down once you start. But if you are playing big sweeping octave passages or sight reading something with a bass line with jumps of 10ths well then you should look down.
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Jun 17, 2008 21:58
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ldo posted:Is there any easy method of improving your touch? I recently started playing after taking about 8 years off and it honestly sounds like I'm trying to play with my elbows. Make sure that you're not pushing from the wrists, just the fingers. There are obviously cases when you want a commanding sound that requires such force but in the majority of cases everything including ff can and should be done with the fingers. When you're practicing scales practice this and make sure to role with your hands when doing arpeggios. By rolling I mean as if you were turning a doorknob back and forth. But with an open hand. And also, if you haven't played in a while, everyone loses their touch. Hell if I don't play for a week there's a great noticable difference to if I've played the day before regardless of if I'm sight reading, memory, etc. So just keep practicing and be aware of how your force to the keys is being generated.
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Jun 25, 2008 20:28
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el Trentoro posted:61 keys is minus two octaves (actually a little bit less). You'll be missing the very highest and very lowest keys that are likely never used in "traditional pop covers." If I'm not mistaken there is no major significance of C compared to other tones other than the fact that it's key signature is nothing making it the easiest and most common scale, note. You could just as easily use F as a reference point given the fact that it like C has a white key before it and a black note after. Also it could be simply because of the way standard musical notation was set up that we use C as the determining point as it's really the standard change from treble to bass. But anyways, my point is, you can't look at those notes and say that C is the last important note there so why put more, if it's possible to put more tones up or down then why should we not? Aren't each individual tone simply a mechanism to create music? So shouldn't then we have at our hands every available option to create something?
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Jun 25, 2008 20:33
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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 I think in one way it answers itself. By using 1,3,5 you further increase your ability with all of your fingers. (Even though that's not the actual reason and the actual reason is the one stated above by another poster).
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Aug 13, 2008 21:28
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Insparkle posted:I apologize for such beginner questions That's what this thread was made for
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Aug 21, 2008 03:26
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fantasiser posted:IMPROV Okay I don't have the best grasp of this as I only studied improv for a couple of months. But my harmony knowledge should serve good for these questions. Okay If the chord is C you can improv over that anything. However depending on their relationship to the chord it will produce different results (obviously). So if you're solo'ing over C then you might want to do something that envolves you going from Middle C up the octave in some form while maybe adding a minor third and 6th in. If you stick with 1,3,5, you're not going to have many options for creating something so you certainly need to use the other notes. But what you really need to know is what notes will sound good and why. Relative scales,modes, chromatics etc. are all stuff that is good to know when improvising. One thing you will want to do though is generally stay in the key signature. For example, I can tell you that C# will basically not be used if you're improving over C Major because you wouldn't alter the tonic like that. For the second part of your question. Yes, for melody writing, solo'ing or whatever generally you stay within the chord. For example if you could have this as your chord progression: C+: I - vii(6) - I(6) - ii - V - I so the melody you write or improvise over that could be something like c-b-(a)-c-d-g-c (The a would be a passing tone) Also a lot of what your asking can be learned purely by ear. You won't know the technical names for what you're doing but you'll be able to do what you want If any authoritative figure of harmony and improv knows better or knows I'm wrong, please feel free to correct.
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Aug 25, 2008 16:02
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I really think this thread should turn into Piano period. I made it to combat the "new to guitar thread" but I'd like to talk about something more then what a g major scale is too :p I'm all for posting recordings of ourselves. poo poo, I think I might do a progress recordings of the first piece I'm learning at university. Lizst's Liebestraum  Faux Crow, I'm quite impressed with your technique. poo poo, my hands would fall to jelly playing the bass part 0___0
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Sep 21, 2008 06:48
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Hughmoris posted:In an attempt to provoke some discussion in this thread... For the past 9 years unless the month is April - July, it's just been whatever I've been learning at the current time. How that I'm done with Royal Conservatory and value having a repetoire if a friend today would ask me to play for them I'd probably play. Chopin's Nocturne in C # - post op. Chopin's Nocturne in Bb + Op.9 Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C minor Book 1 Debussy's Girl with the Flaxen Hair Mozart's Fantasie in d minor If they're not digging that Coldplay Ben Folds Radiohead If they are lame Moonlight Sonata first movement Fur Elise If they want me to "play the hardest thing I know" Liszt's Liebestraum (in progress). Normally though, as most classical pianists are, I shy away from showing off as I constantly hold myself to a standard (in my head) of concert performance. So if I'm playing for a friend, wrong dynamics, touch or notes make me worry if they think I'm terrible when really, unless I'm playing for other Music Majors at UNI they'll probably think I'm amazing. :p
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Oct 27, 2008 04:16
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Okay here's a question to you guys. I have to pick two more pieces to study for April for university where I have to play in front of a panel of professors who evaluate my studies for the next year for my performance credit. Right now I have Liszt's Liebestraum. I AM a romantic music pianist, if I had it my way, I'd study every Chopin nocturne and ballade there is before touching other music. However, due to RCM and now these panels, I cannot do that I need to pick contrasting pieces. The pieces must be of RCM Grade 10 or ARCT. For you non canadian and british folks, that is roughly eqivilent to whatever the top grade is for your system. Any suggestions for pieces? I would love to do Clair de lune but it really isn't all that contrasting and I don't want to turn my panel into "greatest hits for the piano". So yeah, guys any suggestions? I'm a big fan of really really really sexy key changes, minor keys, lyrical melodies, and dramatic music. So lay it on me.
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Oct 27, 2008 04:24
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Vanmani posted: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. I would play a rachmaninoff prelude but the only ones I really enjoy are the really famous ones and I'm trying to stay away from "greatest hits for piano" lol. To the poster above, I am looking for composers and pieces outside of the romantic period. Impressionistic, 20th century, baroque, classical. I'm game, as long as it's awesome.
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Oct 28, 2008 13:57
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Slave posted:Can you play the Moonlight Sonata third movement? My enjoyment of classical music extended about as far as O Fortuna until I started playing piano, then I heard the 14th sonata and god...drat with that one gorgeous piece classical music suddenly opened up to me and I made it a veeeery long term goal to learn it and I'm wondering if you need to be Royal Conservatory standard or whatnot. At this point now, I could play it if I studied it, but I'm too busy just with getting poo poo ready for panel to start new pieces. Really the piece isn't that hard, if you have the finger dexterity for it, you can play it. It's just arpeggios lol, ez mode. The hard part of the song is proper balance and bringing out the proper voices. It's a grade 10 song and you can find out what grade pieces are in the RCM Syllabus it's like 10 bucks at your local music store. And really man, you and everyone else begins with that piece and as they progress it becomes more and more cliche lol. Eventually you don't want to play the piece every pianist in the world has played. :P Yeah the same can be said with Liszt Liebestraum that I'm working on but at least you need to be a pianist or a classics enthusiast to know it. Btw in case anyone is wondering I picked a series of Brahms Walzer's. I especially love #3
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Nov 7, 2008 04:01
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My piano professor told me something that made a lot of sense when she sight read a piece I had been working on for months and played it almost performance level and speed. Reading a score is like reading a book. When you were 4 years old, you needed to sound out words and think about it. You made mistakes. But obviously as you worked to read better it got easier and eventually you could just read very easily and quickly without too much effort. Reading and playing a score is the same thing. Instead of making the sounds with your mouth, you're doing it with your fingers. It's just most people don't practice sight reading a score as much as they did learning to read. Does that make sense to anyone else? It blew my mind when we were talking about it.
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Feb 26, 2009 18:37
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Roumba posted:How difficult might it be for me to go from playing 4 malleted keyboard instruments to a 10 fingered keyboard? I mean, I think have a good head start, I'm reading multiple notes at the same time, recognizing chords and keys, but will this really help me if I decide to try piano? Obviously any musical background helps loads when learning a new instrument. It's basically just going to help you with reading and understanding the instrument. You may have a leg up with being able to seperate what the hands do, but that's about it. You generally won't really have much additional technique that someone that hasn't touched an instrument has, I'd presume. But yeah, it definitely will help you.
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Mar 2, 2009 07:33
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Yeah what that guy said, I bought a Titon Extreme and never looked back.
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Jun 12, 2009 07:24
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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? In general fingering doesn't matter too much as long as it's somewhat logical. The major thing is figuring out a fingering and then sticking with it, if you don't figure out fingerings and just continuously play it how you feel like it each time it'll dramatically decrease your progression through it and mess up your muscle memory.
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Jun 23, 2009 11:03
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Eli Cash posted:I like this advice. I like to figure out the most logical fingering, though it is time consuming. I usually write in numbers corresponding to fingers so my time isn't wasted (like in beginner pieces). Is this common among advanced players? Also, sometimes I feel like there's no great way to finger a sequence and have to bite the bullet and just slide my hand or have an akward move. Is this common? advanced players write in fingering.
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Jun 25, 2009 23:49
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super awesome =)
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Jun 26, 2009 18:17
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I very very very much recommend the stand I have. I use it for my Korg Titon Extreme and it's awesome, it's super duper portable but the awesome thing is it's sturdy as gently caress.
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Jun 30, 2009 22:52
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To spark a discussion, what do you guys think of padding your repetoire with THE most famous pieces ever. Like this year for school I'm going to have to have 3 pieces again, last year I ended up not using Listz's Liebestraum so I'm definitely going to use that this year, I also want to play Clair de Lune by Debussy of course and then the third will probably either be a 3 movement sonata (oh god) or a 4 part fugue. Last year my piano professor frowned upon me selecting like THE piano pieces. But the way I'm looking at it, there's a reason they are the most famous and heard pieces by these composers. Because it's some of their best work. At my level, it's not like I'm saying "oh I want to play fur elise because everyone knows it" they're all Grade 10 or ARCT level pieces, and I'm not selecting them just so that I can play the pieces that everyone knows, I just am selecting my favorite music to play. Can someone maybe explain further the perspective of my piano professor, why this might be a bad idea? Maybe I'm just ignorant of the countless pieces these great composers have created that I have yet to listen to (I will admit in my day to day listening I don't listen to classical music SHAME ON ME I know). The only thing that was really a legit point that she made was that it might not look good when I go for my end of year performance which I get graded on in front of a panel of professors. But, I'm not a performance major, and I really don't care too much about getting deducted 1 mark because my musical selection appears limited. I'd rather just play the pieces I love, it makes it far more fun to practice. Thoughts?
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Jul 28, 2009 13:56
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:I just remember sitting around during juries (waiting my turn) and thinking "oh this one again". Not that there's anything WRONG with that piece it's just been done to death so to speak, I guess there's a hint of trying to prove something by playing this recognizable piece? I dunno. Also the more well known something is the harder it is to put your own interpretations into it because then you're not playing it the "right" way. I'm not into giving false impressions =P The Grades I'm talking of are mainly Canada and England only I believe. It's Royal Conservatory of Music grade levels. 1-10 are the grades and the ARCT is the level required to call yourself a certified teacher with RCM. You find these grades in the Royal Conservatory of Music Syllabus. If you live in canada, you should be able to find one at your local music store. They list all the pieces NOT in the RCM grade books and gives them a grade (well most well known ones). Also, not all the pieces I list are in the Syllabus book. I just approximate their grade. It's pretty easy when you're at the highest level to say "Okay this is harder then anything I've ever played and I'm at the highest level... I wonder what grade this is". RCM makes books grade level 1-10 that you study and perform with. There are exams that you take that require you to learn pieces from the RCM Grade books and when you do festival performances for prizes (medals and scholarships) you are required to use the Grade books as well. TO SUMMARIZE: It's basically the regulation in Canada that pretty much all young canadian musicians that take private lessons study from. Every exam, university, competition recognizes these books as the standard for distinguishing level and what is appropriate to play to learn an appreciation for classical music. Hopefully that helped.
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Jul 28, 2009 18:05
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Bob Shadycharacter posted:OHH that explains it. I'm not in Canada (sadly!). I have seen lists before - specifically I remember when I was fussing about learning all the pieces in WTC book one my teacher gave me a little chart of the fugues in order of difficulty but even then I felt like it didn't really hold up (some of the ones listed as easy were hard as poo poo for ME and the opposite was true as well). Chopin's Ballde in g minor is definitely an ARCT piece (highest level).
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Jul 28, 2009 19:35
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Does anyone have a book of piano arrangements of Beatles songs to recommend? I don't know how exactly piano pieces are ranked in terms of difficulty, I guess I am looking for something in the intermediate range? For reference I am working on Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata right now, so something in that range. I would rather get something a little too hard than too easy though. I'm assuming Moonlight Sonata first movement? Can you play Fur Elise the B section with the 16th notes? Or can you just play the theme at the moment? Just go to the music store and buy your local greatest hits beatles book. Look at the music and see if it's something you can play.
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Jul 28, 2009 19:37
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Vanmani posted:If you are intending to teach you need to know the popular pieces, because you will inevitably have students want to hear them. Well I'm an education/music major and will either be teaching in high school or privately so thanks for making that point.
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Jul 29, 2009 14:49
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Okay I decided to scrap the Liszt as I don't see a reason to keep that piece at performance level for whole 2nd year. Going with Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48, No. 1. instead ^_^
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Jul 29, 2009 21:25
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Zyklon B Zombie posted:I'm learning Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 right now, and it's really fun to play. Can anyone recommend any other pieces of music where you get to pound the crap out of the piano? The obvious comes to mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtuMVBLEWJU
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Aug 6, 2009 04:24
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Zyklon B Zombie posted:Haha, that's actually the only other piano song I know how to play. Rachmaninoff kicks rear end. You only know how to play 2 piano pieces and they're both at that level? For shame.
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Aug 6, 2009 18:29
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Zyklon B Zombie posted:I took piano lessons for 10 years when I was a child but really didn't care for it back then and then didn't really play anything for about 7 years after that. I recently just picked it back up and really don't remember much of anything from back then. In my opinion, look at some stuff you can learn fairly quickly that you love. Since you only have one piece that you know there has to be hundreds of pieces that you could learn fairly quickly (or relearn) to be able to play. Obviously this doesn't benefit your progression technically or anything really but for myself, it's all about just sitting down and saying. Today I'm going to do a Chopin mini concert and then I'm going to play everything else I love and just enjoy the music. Some pianists get too caught up in constant progression, always moving onto a new piece, getting something ready or getting it to performance level. It's a lot of fun to just sit back and play play play.
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Aug 6, 2009 22:35
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 15:54 |
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Check out some Ben Folds.
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Aug 11, 2009 08:16
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