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Piano: Learning and playing
NickTheNewbie
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Registered User regular
I want to play like Jordan Rudess, but I feel like chris redfield whenever I put my fingers on the keys. What are some good places to start honing my piano skills that don't have me playing mary had a little lamb? Explanation of music theory at the same time as the piano lessons would be a plus, too.
Edit: Oh right, discussion. Which one of you bastards can rock the keys like a hurricane?
I'm going to say this thread is good for synths with lots of dials and shit, too. Share any equipment you have, or any songs you've made or recorded.
Edit: Oh right, discussion. Which one of you bastards can rock the keys like a hurricane?
I'm going to say this thread is good for synths with lots of dials and shit, too. Share any equipment you have, or any songs you've made or recorded.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcWX_SXz3Rw
Yeah this probably wouldn't help at all realistically.
I figure a good start is to just learn how to read notes and learn the scales.
There is no substitute for starting with the basics and working from there. I played tons of scales and did lots of exercises before I actually started playing halfway interesting pieces.
There is a difference between playing Mary Had a Little Lamb precisely and playing it sloppily. Make sure you truly master fingering and hand position (keep those wrists in position!) before you try tackling more difficult pieces. It will help in the long run.
As for synth........start with technique and worry about the gear later. Theory will come along with the scale and exercise work; unless you are an excellent natural musician, I'd start with classical and then move into more harmonically complicated genres.
This site is hot shit. It goes into the theory and how to position your hands. This is basically what you'd be taught if you took a basic course on piano and music theory. Also, it's awesome. And free.
Little bit too late for that! I have an alesis qs7.1 keyboard, and a korg ms2000br synth. One i got for free, the other i got on the cheap.
Hey, if you already got it, great! There is a considerable difference between playing with unweighted keys and weighted keys. I always try to log at least 5 hours on a specific keyboard before recording with it so I can get the nuances right.
But as for learning how to play, I really think scales and exercises are the best way to go. Learning the correct hand positions and building up those muscles is invaluable. It will give you the foundation to learn how to inject nuance and emotion instead of stumbling through songs because your fingering is all wrong and your wrists are floppy.
Do you have anything recorded you can share?
If you have access to an actual piano I'd suggest maybe trying practicing on that, just because keyboards have a different feel than actual uprights (which feel different than grands but then that's way out there).
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And yes, I have a bunch of stuff recorded that I can share. I'm not sure what you're looking for, though. Are you looking for scale stuff or a song?
In any case, I've been playing piano for the past 15 years, so I have some experience with the instrument. I'll echo what you're already hearing in this thread - nothing replaces proper technique and fundamentals. Developing bad habits will severely inhibit your ability to play more difficult pieces down the road, not to mention potentially causing tendinitis and other physical ailments. Specifically, make sure you're properly lifting your fingers after striking each note while keeping your wrists arced. (Similar to how you want your wrists positioned to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome on the keyboard)
While practicing scales and flexibility exercises, pay close attention to fingering. Fingering forms the basis for mastering difficult songs when you have more experience under your belt. (I'm only harping on this point because you're aiming for Rudess-like skills. Which, of course, will take you a very long time, no bones about it.) If your fingers are always out of position when playing even the most basic songs, there's no way you'd be able to handle more complicated scores as you progress.
Stop by your local music store and see if they have any Alfred beginner course books available for purchase.
I think this thread would be cool for people to show off their keyboard skillz. Show off some solos that keith emerson could jack off to.
First of all, imagine a shelf extending from the top of the keys. When you play, imagine resting your wrists on that shelf. Basically, the very base of your hand, where your palm meets your wrist, should be on the same plane as the keys. This is the optimal position; get much higher or lower, and tendons start rubbing on your wristbone, which leads to tendonitis.
Secondly, try to make sure that your arm is aligned with whichever finger is playing at that point in time. There should be a straight line from the tip of your finger to your elbow. This again will prevent your tendons from rubbing against your wristbone. Obviously when you're playing chords, this isn't practical, but keep it in mind whenever possible.
Thirdly, get up and walk around normally. Then come back to the piano and swing your arms up and place your hands on the piano. This relaxed position is the best for your fingers. You don't want them too flat or too arched; flat makes it harder to control, arched causes joint problems later on. I've seen many books that tell you to grip an orange and that's the position your fingers should be in; that is WRONG and will end up injuring you.
Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of different viewpoints on how to teach and play piano these days. It's likely you'll get conflicting information in this thread, so do all the research you can! I would highly recommend doing research on proper technique to prevent injury, particularly if you're going to be playing piano seriously. I would also recommend learning on an actual piano, but that may not be an option financially for you, since pianos are pretty expensive. If you can't buy/rent one, see if you have a friend or family member who has one, and try to play on it every once in awhile.
Good luck! Piano is an awesome instrument, and I definitely respect your desire to learn theory in addition to technique.
Oh man, yeah. This is really important.
I have tiny hands. I'm 22 and my hands are the size of my sister's when she was 16. However, I can still hit a 10th with effort, and a 9th pretty easily, plus notes in the middle for a chord, thanks to all the stretching I did. Hitting even octave chords will be tough if you don't stretch, unless you have big hands.
I don't know. I've been playing since I was in kindergarten, but I squandered an enormous amount of that time not practicing, or not practicing seriously. I can play some decently hard stuff, like I'm working on a Chopin Scherzo, but my technique is pretty sloppy, and my sightreading skills are so bad. I've been working on this piece for about 4 years and am only a little bit more than halfway through it. And my friends who play piano so much better than me, are boggled by why I can play some of these pieces, but then stumble so much sightreading through a hymn.
Moral of this story is buckle-down and practice. Work on technique, and practice reading.
Agree'd again. I have really small hands, too (I'm a girl, though... haha) but stretching my fingers definitely helped me be able to reach large chords with a bit more ease.
It also helps if you need to jump from one space to another quickly - your fingers have less space to jump (and less margin for error for hitting the wrong key, if you're doing this fast) if you've got a long reach.
Best of luck to ya!
Please describe these finger stretches.
Bueller? Anybody?
Does anyone here recommend practicing Hanon's "The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises?"
Also, does anyone have any recommendations for moderately difficult classical music to start playing?
This part is pretty important for most musical instruments. I played for 16 years, but in my adult life, I don't have the money for a good keyboard. So, I bought a cheap casio (doesn't even have pressure sensitivity!), but then I lost the power cord.
In the last two years without the power cord, my skills have gone way down. I'm still a great sightreader, but I have trouble lining up my fingers correctly and my ability to improvise is worse than ever.
Does anybody have any recommendations on references for learning how to improv or playing by ear, that kind of thing? I can hear intervals moderately well, but trying to pin down a single note is almost impossible for me.
Heh, I did the same thing, I have a cheap casio and lost the power cord somehow.
I'm pondering picking up another keyboard, does anybody have any recommendations? I'm still in the beginner phase, so I don't need anything too expensive or fancy, just enough for me to learn on. Something that doesn't need an amp would also be nice.
I think there may be keyboard gnomes involved.
I'm saving up to get a Casio digital piano. It's $1000, but the tone quality is much richer than cheapo Kmart keyboard I have now; plus it has all three pedals.
Two weekends ago Costco was selling Yamaha pianos, up to and including grands. Unfortunately, I don't have $8000.
Unfortunately with my job I have to travel 75% of the time which means I'm back home for 1-2 weeks at a time, so lessons are kind of out of the question.
That also brings me to my second question, is there any kind of good keyboard that you would suggest that is highly portable, again for the travel side of things. The roll up keyboards are probably too unresponsive to learn on. But something that would hopefully fit in a medium sized suitcase?
I'm also thinking that my years of computer use could come into play? My fingers are surely more dextrous than most, that could be helpful, er, right? (I'm sure I'm deluding myself on that one)
Not that I've seen. I mean, I'm sure there are mini-sized keyboards out there, but they're probably not focused on quality. It wouldn't hurt to use one for practice, but a keyboard would need to lose a few octaves to fit into any suitcase I've ever owned. If you had a good one at home and a mini-keyboard for travel, that might be a good (but expensive) compromise.
Well, my years of piano helped me when I started typing, so going in reverse is probably viable too.
basically you clicked on the keys and it would play a note and you could either get the output of what you played on the keys or put midi files in to see the keys play the notes in them.
anyone know what that was?
something like virtual keyboard or something.
Two reasons:
1. It helps with knowing finger movement. The clearer you play the scales (not the faster!) the better form you will have overall.
2. The more scales you learn and become familiar with the greater your familiarity with the keyboard becomes. You will learn what keys sound like when accompanied by other keys. This is great for improvisation and overall creating a fluid sound. As you move into intermediate level music or creating your own music the scales will have laid the foundation for more advanced musical theory.
So if you had to choose Scales or Larry's Begginer Piano Songs. Choose scales.
instead of
do....re....me....fa....so....la....ti....do
you can do
do....reme....fa....sola....ti....do
And then
dore....me....faso...la....tido
And so on. It lets you work on increasing the speed and get practice being percise with your rhythm and fingering
(thumb,index,middle, thumb-under)