Learning the Piano

[jancivil]

Piano has no monophonic or 'real' legato, & a very high percentage of what I'd do on an electric guitar is legato slurs. I think more like a horn player, not just in terms of line but that monophonic aspect. Classical guitar, did that one for a time, quite limited in range and in the amount of volume you can produce vs a piano. There is no open string vs fretted difference as on a guitar. There is no sul pont vs sul tasto on a piano. Tone on a piano is a illusion of dynamics and how you let strings ring, touching the guitar strings with flesh vs something harder imparts different tone. There is no pinch harmonic on a piano (well there might be but who's done it).

So these are rather distinct from one another in any form I think.

[ProSeller385]

Learn your 2-5-1 progressions!! Very important

[shawshawraw]

All well said, but there's one thing not to be missed:

Practice EVERY DAY.

[Aero10]

Many awesome replies here, also perfect time for me to have found this thread.

I have a question though, does everything said here apply to learning to play keyboards/synthesizer as well?
Otherwise let me know and I open up a new thread.

[shawshawraw]

I studied keyboard for a few years before touching piano. Piano was an insurmountable challenge at first and it took me a year to get used to, starting very slow.

Proper finger training is still important with keyboard, because we eventually want more or less the same control across all five fingers (if not ten). Imagine playing a scale from pp to ff in a smooth crescendo. And because keyboard is less demanding, bad habits creep in more easily and die harder. I'm still having a small issue with my right pinky.

But beyond that, keyboard playing is more about dexterity than power.

[Stamped Records]

I studied theory without learning to play the piano all that much, but then there came a point where I decided that I might as well learn to play this theory with two hands.

The technique I used to learn is unorthodox because I didn't learn to play anybody else's music.

I at first I would find a very simple drumming pattern that anyone can do on a table with two fingers.

Then I would go to the piano with that rhythm and play it with two notes, one note in the left hand and one note in the right hand.

After a little while of that, it becomes really natural to improvise the note that one of the hands play while maintaining the same rhythm.

This is what's called a counter melody, kind of, with one note droning and one note moving.

From there, I started to get more creative, bringing in chords, dissonance, experimenting with different scales like harmonic, melodic, blues and so on, then some modulation too.

[jancivil]

I highly recommend learning an instrument by playing extant music, the skills obtained therein simply don't happen in a vacuum.

[Stamped Records]

I don't completely disregard the idea of learning from other music, I stumble upon well known musical phrases all the time and I often check sheet music to find out what's under the hood. I just don't end up "playing" the song completely.

As a self-taught producer I have only so many things I can fully commit to.

In saying that, music is a vocation and I'll keep advancing forward.

[bongymongy]

Knowing the scales might help you with the fingerings of certain passages, but I think you should just enjoy yourself and learn the stuff you want!

[confuzzled]

Hope your piano journey has been going well!

[alexf26]

What are your goals? If you are serious about the piano, get a teacher right away. There are very good online resources though - I recommend not paying for any online program - youtube has incredibly good and professional pianists that give incredible tips - if you just want to impress some friends and sing along.

[Pashkuli]

Hi All!

I'm starting to learn the piano.

Something tells me that knowing what notes all the keys are off by heart (12 notes in an octave) would be the best thing to start with, right? I can recognise C and A so far, instantly. I know ('cause I play guitar) that this technique is very useful on guitar (knowing the 6 strings and knowing how to count up an octave) then you can count up from any string and work out what note that string is on that fret. Comes in very handy.

Next, they always tell you start with a C major scale. How does learning a scale help you in the long run? does it help you memorise the notes in that scale? and how does that transfer to playing a song with chords etc eventually.

Thirdly, my hands feel stiff. I was told that your hands when playing piano should be like holding a hamster on the keys lol! anyway, will my hands loosen up over time (they're quite rigid)?

Lastly, do you think I should learn step by step with scales before I start moving on, like for instane, because I'm eager, last night I was learning The Scientist by Coldplay, just too eager to get going.

Thanks!

Standard or uniform piano? They are different. Recently (well last 10 years) there have been grid type of instruments introduced such as LinnStrument, Seaboard, Madrona... but those are more for sound design and hardware controllers, rather than music instruments.

Also, it is good to know that there are alternatives to what has been established as a status quo in Music, and piano and music notation in particular. It is your choice after all.

[jackoo]

The LinnStrument is intended for performing, not for sound design.
I believe the same can be said about the Seaboard.

As for so called 'bad habits' I got from self-studying the piano layout, that doesn't stop me from making music. Granted, I perform very differently compared to a classical trained pianist. But I do perform all my compositions. All (most) instruments in real time... most of the time.

But I somehow believe these are two very different goals:
1. Playing classical piano, and learning to play piano as an acoustic instrument; Performing a classical repertoire. Getting a pianist 'badge'.
2. Composing and performing (relatively complex) music on a keyboard that has a 'piano' layout.
Here stuff like - aftertouch, foot coordination (if using foot pedals), modwheel, pitch-wheel playing skills, moving fingers across different keyboards.... - all play a part.

[Pashkuli]

The LinnStrument is intended for performing, not for sound design.
I believe the same can be said about the Seaboard.

Every instrument is intended for performing (music\beats) on it.
LinnStrument and every grid based instrument are more suitable for sound design, considering their "3-4-5 dimensional" touch sensitivity.

[enwlowr]

hit the black and white bits till you find something you like.

that's the method for a lot of electronic/idm music

о сomon. the best of electronics are perfectly familiar with music theory.