EPTI guess just curious what experiences with self-taught piano players are like.
Self-taught piano players?
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SkylineSC
United States564 Posts
I guess just curious what experiences with self-taught piano players are like. | ||
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hrmM
United States210 Posts
was learning fast because i really wanted to play the piano and practiced about 3 hours a dayish, the rest was spent playing bball or computer games quit after college started and don't remember that much i wasn't teaching myself how to read the lyrics, but just taught myself how to play certain songs and jus continued to play off memory from repitition if you REALLY want to do it, it can be done, jus need to keep up with it | ||
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NonFactor
Sweden698 Posts
What you need though is patience and consistency, and don't worry about becoming good, it will come naturally the more you play. A thing that pops into my mind as a bad habit is overly ambitious goalsetting, don't set it too high. There is nothing wrong about starting with simple childrens songs. You will work your way up like you would in iCCup or in SC2 beta leagues. ;O Try to practise a lot using 2 hands. I found this personally to be the one of the hardest steps, being able to use both hands. I would play with my right hand but my left hand wouldn't move. So frustrating, but it passes. Also reading notes is easy and rewarding to overall understanding, so it's great you already know something about it. | ||
Peeano
Netherlands4641 Posts
Use the right handpositioning/fingerplacement. The 'right' would be anything you're comfortable with. Even if it's going to take you 30 minutes to figure it out. Play with the most comfortable handpositioning/fingerplacement. When you have to play 5notes in a row going either up or down the scales. I suggest using all 5 fingers whenever you can (if it's not a too long stretch for your hands) and jump with your hands as little as possible. Most beginner books have decent-to-good fingerplacement noted that you could use as a good example. + Show Spoiler + Left hand: pink 5 ring 4 middle 3 index 2 thumb 1 Right hand: thumb 1 index 2 middle 3 ring 4 pink 5 | ||
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Zurles
United Kingdom1659 Posts
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
Then, you can tackle some pieces. | ||
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Peeano
Netherlands4641 Posts
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Wings
United States999 Posts
My advice is this. Find ONE moderately difficult song for you, that you absolutely love listening to. I did that with Yiruma's "River Flows In You", which is a beautiful song, somewhat technically challenging, but is still possible to learn. Then, play ONLY that song a bajillion times, listen to how the original player plays it, the speed, the feeling, the crescendos and decrescendos... then you'll become incredibly good at that one song. However, just from that, you'll really learn how to use both hands (I was a clarinet player so two simultaneous lines of music was WTF at first lol), and it will go MILES in teaching you about how to play piano. I did what I just described, and though I'm very slow at learning new pieces... every time I play a piece I learned, people think I've been playing piano my entire life. It's just that I focused so much energy and heart and spirit into only ONE piece at a time, that I master it, and THEN move on. Because no matter what, us late beginners can't catch up to the professional kids, so there's no point in trying to learn everything... just learn what you really enjoy and love. For me, I loved Yiruma's "River Flows in You" & "Maybe" & "Kiss the Rain", "Une comptine d'un autre ete" by Yann Tiersen, and some others. I suggest you find what you love. There's also a really, really cool side effect with absolutely mastering one piece. For me, that was "River Flows in You." I can now play 1000x different improvised variations of that song, because I have innately learned the chords so well, that I can freestyle on the spot with no problem. I'm no musical genius, I just played that song so many times. You'll be able to use those chords to compose your own songs, and be completely creative... it's a great feeling. So many of my hardcore-piano friends can't do ANY of that (and they're extremely insane at piano, national-level), because they've been so hardwired into learning other people's pieces. Enjoy yourself and you'll realize you might be doing something that no one else can do. I wrote so much, but that's cuz I absolutely love piano now. I picked it up so late, like when I was 18 yrs old or so... and it took like 3/4 months for me to finally master just that one song, lol. But it was definitely worth it for me. | ||
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
there are just so much better things to play improvisation is something you can learn later when you have the basics down | ||
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Wings
United States999 Posts
On May 12 2010 07:56 phosphorylation wrote: please refrain from concentrating on so much lightweight (and that's being nice) stuff like yiruma there are just so much better things to play improvisation is something you can learn later when you have the basics down ... that was the first piece I ever played, cut me some slack lol. You think I'd pick up the 1812 overture from the beginning? | ||
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
it's impressive that's your first piece btw, good luck playing the 1812 overture on the keyboard  | ||
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ShinyGerbil
Canada519 Posts
anyways, the best thing i can say (been taking lessons for a bunch of years now, i'm good compared to bad players and bad compared to good ones.) are to keep your wrists up (gives you much more power) and to plan your practice sessions ahead of time, starting with a scales warm up every time. | ||
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CalmDown
Australia5 Posts
I stopped playing piano when I was 8 yrs old lol, so when I started trying to pick it up again about 10 years later, it was almost like a new instrument... I suppose I had innately learned some basics when I was 8, I guess, but it was unbelievably hard. My advice is this. Find ONE moderately difficult song for you, that you absolutely love listening to. I did that with Yiruma's "River Flows In You", which is a beautiful song, somewhat technically challenging, but is still possible to learn. Then, play ONLY that song a bajillion times, listen to how the original player plays it, the speed, the feeling, the crescendos and decrescendos... then you'll become incredibly good at that one song. However, just from that, you'll really learn how to use both hands (I was a clarinet player so two simultaneous lines of music was WTF at first lol), and it will go MILES in teaching you about how to play piano. I did what I just described, and though I'm very slow at learning new pieces... every time I play a piece I learned, people think I've been playing piano my entire life. It's just that I focused so much energy and heart and spirit into only ONE piece at a time, that I master it, and THEN move on. Because no matter what, us late beginners can't catch up to the professional kids, so there's no point in trying to learn everything... just learn what you really enjoy and love. For me, I loved Yiruma's "River Flows in You" & "Maybe" & "Kiss the Rain", "Une comptine d'un autre ete" by Yann Tiersen, and some others. I suggest you find what you love. There's also a really, really cool side effect with absolutely mastering one piece. For me, that was "River Flows in You." I can now play 1000x different improvised variations of that song, because I have innately learned the chords so well, that I can freestyle on the spot with no problem. I'm no musical genius, I just played that song so many times. You'll be able to use those chords to compose your own songs, and be completely creative... it's a great feeling. So many of my hardcore-piano friends can't do ANY of that (and they're extremely insane at piano, national-level), because they've been so hardwired into learning other people's pieces. Enjoy yourself and you'll realize you might be doing something that no one else can do. I wrote so much, but that's cuz I absolutely love piano now. I picked it up so late, like when I was 18 yrs old or so... and it took like 3/4 months for me to finally master just that one song, lol. But it was definitely worth it for me. Yeah, I agree with this. I'm not completely self-taught either (teacher for about 2 years, me for 8 years) since I needed a teacher to overcome my tiny hand problems (I can only JUST reach an octave T_T) I would reccommend picking a song you like to give you motivation since if its difficult enouogh, you will be practising it for a long time... For me, I chose Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu (big mistake I know >.<); 2 years later and my technique is loads better hehe I can't play it perfect yet though. If you've been playing for a bit, then "River flows in You" should be just right. Starting slow and gradually speeding up can get very tedious, but it makes you learn the notes properly, you can easily pick up the mistakes, your hands gain muscle memory, you can make sure your technique's right and you won't regret it once you play harder songs; I do this for every section of the song and join it together; I don't do it on many songs now but on the very difficult ones, its the best way since playing it straight out with mistakes everywhere. Scales, finger exercises and the like will help your technique to make the harder songs easier to play. When you get better, you can take a look at improvisation; its really rewarding since you play your own music rather than what someone else wrote. Just play more and you will get better - trust me  Oh yeah, use a metronome too! It will help you stay in time; there are so many youtube covers of songs where the guy can't play the song in time and it sounds all weird. Its very annoying to have that thing clicking away, but it will help your sense of rhythm and timiming. Sorry if I gave you a wall of text to read hehe | ||
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NonFactor
Sweden698 Posts
On May 12 2010 08:03 Wings wrote: ... that was the first piece I ever played, cut me some slack lol. You think I'd pick up the 1812 overture from the beginning? Lol. Ignore him, he's obviously stupid. Music is subjective. I too find River Flows in You a very nice piece and pleasant to listen to. I also agree it could be a good song to practise to. It's simple, no complex notes, sounds pleasant but still requires a decent amount of handspeed at certain parts. Learning to play a song that you like makes it more rewarding and fun, and it's great if this song is easy to play on the piano. It doesen't matter if it's a masterpiece by Chopin or if it's Lady Gagas Telephone. | ||
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Rkie
United States1278 Posts
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
i dont feel like brandishing my credentials here, but it's enough to say i have a lot of experience possibly more ignorant is the person who thought 1812 overture is a piano piece i also really despise people who consider everything that cannot be quantified as subjective oh no music is really superior to others... it's all matters of personal taste! BS while there is an element of personal preference, more important are careful judgment of artistic merit and substance now, i would really like to see you argue that shakespeare's writing cannot be judged better than that of a 6-year old the point i was trying to make was that the OP should not seek immediate gratification on the piano work up some technique and build up with solid repertoire.. so that you eventually accomplish something wortwhile and lasting | ||
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NonFactor
Sweden698 Posts
On May 12 2010 08:29 phosphorylation wrote: lol i think, at least in terms of piano knowledge, i don't consider myself stupid at all i dont feel like brandishing my credentials here, but it's enough to say i have a lot of experience possibly more ignorant is the person who thought 1812 overture is a piano piece i also really despise people who consider everything that cannot be quantified as subjective oh no music is really superior to others... it's all matters of personal taste! BS while there is an element of personal preference, more important are careful judgment of artistic merit and substance now, i would really like to see you argue that shakespeare's writing cannot be judged better than that of a 6-year old Yeah except he posted that 1 minute before I did while I was posting my post, I did not know what was in his post, it was just a coincidence that I mentioned Chopin in my post right after he mentioned it. So who's the ignorant one again? And please, why make yourself look even more dumb? Music IS especially subjective when it comes to deciding what a person likes, but your example there is showing 2 extremes. I for example enjoy a good comic book or a manga over shakespears work. Why? I just find them more enjoyable. It's my opinion. Now am I saying that these people who wrote the storyline or w/e to these comic books / mangas are better then Shakespear then writing? No. But Shakespears work just doesen't appeal to me. Now if you are about to learn a new instrument to play, wouldn't it be good to learn songs that you really like? I myself got into piano because I really liked numerous tunes and songs from different games. And that's where I started learning. (Zeldas Lost Woods was among the first ones I learned.) Was there better music to learn from? Probably. Is the person who created the tune that caught me on regonized as a mastermind of music? Probably not. But does this all matter if I'm having more fun trying to learn a song that I like? No, it absolutely doesen't. Anyways, keep being ignorant, I won't keep derailing this thread. I know I'm right. | ||
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
unless you plan to begin with beethoven's hammerklavier or something our experiences (stuff we have been exposed to) alter the way we respond to music at the initial, purely emotional level but that's probably the only subjective thing about music the rest (of someone's bad taste) can be attributed to ignorance, unwillingness to learn and absorb, or plain stupidity | ||
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maga33
United States247 Posts
I learned the piano from 4-7 but then i stopped. After around 10 years, i found out that i have perfect pitch and so i decided to pick it up again. I started to self teach piano a while ago.( aprox 2 yrs ago) and at first I had little inspiration. At first, I played normal stuff such as jingle bells and the like. Lucky for me, i still remembered how to read sheet music. I then started to play some anime ops and learned songs that I was inspired by such as Pachelbel's canon from kanon 2006. More recently, i started to play touhou songs. I first started with the old pc98 stuff such as maple dream which is very easy. Now I can play some of the more intense songs such as lunatic princess and border of life . I find that music, just like anything, requires you to be inspired for you to do well. You also cant just fiddle with the keys for a few minutes and expect a huge reward. At some point for around 1/2 a year i was putting in 4 hrs a day just practicing the same basic drills over and over again, which brings me to my next point. Drills such as scales and arpeggios are very important. If you can do them well, it is much easier to play songs later. i learned that the hard way through my friend. Good luck on your musical endeavors. | ||
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phosphorylation
United States2935 Posts
for the technical drills, i recommend that you look into hanon exercises people rag on them all the time, but it's still the best tool there is (brahms' and liszt's exercises would be too difficult) sometimes, i play through the whole book in one sitting (takes around 1-2 hours) and my technique gets a +2 upgrade | ||
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