Who here plays piano?

Hey,

yeah, i've been learning since i was about 7. I'm desperately trying to get to grips with Beethovens Pathetique... i love some of the things he does - when i was first taught composition at school, one of the first things our teacher said was "Dont bunch up the notes of the chord low down, because it makes it sound muddy"... good advice. 4 years later, pick up the Beethoven book, open it to the pathetique, first chord is a C minor triad written for about as low as you can possibly play on a piano :D

i also find being classically trained helps with playing in other styles as well - i know people who have taught themselves to play jazz, which i also love playing, and without sounding bigheaded, i can play at least twice as fast as they can, and so can every other classically trained pianist i know... its all in the technique, and generally you have to have someone to teach you it.

Andy
 
tedluk said:
?
What does that mean?
Ted
Click to expand...
The threads name is who here plays piano?
My answer is: "Me"
Still need me to paint the picture? :rolleyes:
Sorry couldn't resist.
Me. I play piano. Just wanted to chime in a dime.
Boy am I glad I chose the piano over the guitar; hehe.
 
I too have been trying to learn how to play the piano. I bought a Yamaha keyboard and mostly just use it for the drum patterns :o

I tried to teach myself, and I know what all the notes are now, and the natural chords and most of the minor ones, but like Michael said, without a teacher, it's slow and painful learning. I am having trouble playing with both hands. I can do it with guitar and bass without a problem, but my right hand can't/won't follow my left when I am trying to play the piano. I guess when I get settled, I'll try to find a good teacher... I know that I am going to get my daughter into it at some point. What is a good age to start? She's almost 4, and has inherited my love of music (she can sing my songs!). She is always messing with my instruments. So how old should she start? And how will I know if she is going to stick with it? She bangs on my keyboard just to hear the sound coming out of it, but she hasn't actually tried to "play" it yet like she has my guitar.
 
Emusic said:
The threads name is who here plays piano?
My answer is: "Me"
Still need me to paint the picture? :rolleyes:
Sorry couldn't resist.
Me. I play piano. Just wanted to chime in a dime.
Boy am I glad I chose the piano over the guitar; hehe.
Click to expand...

Ahhh.

I thought you were responding in some manner to my post.

Carry on! :)

Rokket- It's hard to pick up something like piano when you're older. I think most of us don't have the patience to stick with it. Don't give up!!

As for your daughter. I'd say that you should encourage her to keep plunking away, even if it's just noise. Don't let her pound or abuse, but as long as she's making sounds and having fun, then don't stop her. It's great that she's already interested in music! I probably don't have to tell anyone here how much of a positive force learning music can be in someone's life!

As for lessons, it probably depends on the person so there's not a definitive answer. I started around 5. My grandniece (is there such a thing?) started around the same time and she's already able to play several two-handed songs quite well. She's way advanced from where I was at her age, that's for sure! I think you'll know when she's ready. You just don't want to make it into a negative thing.

Ted
 
tedluk said:
You just don't want to make it into a negative thing.

Ted
Click to expand...
That was my one concern. I can't count how many times I've heard "I took piano lessons when I was younger. My mother made me do it and I hated it."

I don't want my daughter saying that. I know she loves music, and loves to sing (how many of you can say that your 3-year-old can sing in key?). She is also very curious about my guitars and keyboard when I am playing. She even took my cheap acoustic out of the closet, and I caught her in my bedroom with it on her lap strumming away. I want to encourage her, I just don't want to force her into it. I guess I will expose her to as much as I can instrument-wise and let her decide which way she wants to go. I can also play any woodwind instrument, so I may pick up a sax or a clarinet and get my chops back with those. I wouldn't make her put it down if she tried it out. I bought her a recorder, but so far she just likes to blow it loud. I am keeping an eye on her.
 
I started piano lessons when i was 9 because we were given a piano and i asked if i could start lessons. I enjoyed it all up to around 12-13 when i was in high school and people started taking the piss. all my friends were going out but i couldnt because i had 'a piano lesson'. I really started to despise it, i finally stopped when i was 15. Now im 18, Grade 8 pianist i am so happy i did piano lessons, and im happy that my parents didnt let me stop them when i used to moan all the time!

Basically all im trying to say is get your daughter starting now, maybe not private tuition, but see if you can teach her some stuff like the notes and so on. I say when shes 4-5 get her starting lessons and by the time shes 12 or so she will be amazing on the instrument! Even though i hated my parents for making me do piano lessons when i was younger, like i said, i gotta thank em for it now :)
 
tedluk said:
Michael-

I'm 47, and have been playing for 42 years although I'm hardly classically trained. I did take lessons when I was young, but since then I'm entirely self-taught. Frankly, I never had the patience or abililty to master the 'classical' repertoire though I admire and respect anyone who does.

The reason I'm posting in this thread is regarding your question about key signatures. For a very long time, I've been stuck in Eb, both major and minor. I find that working in these keys lets me go in a lot of different directions whether it be working modally, diatonically or chromatically. I found, once I got into them, that the keys fall really nicely for fingerings. I'm also a believer that different keys have, for want of a better term, "colors". Eb major just has a different sound from E major or D major. I can't explain it, but I believe it's there.

Ted
Click to expand...
Well, you did a great job at articulating why you write in those keys. I understand about how Eb major can take you in so many different directions too. I guess that's why I like writting in it so much.
And I totally understand what you mean about different colors - different keys have.
Thanks for chiming in!
 
If I can convince myself to forget that I've never had a lesson, and therfore should not be able to play a piano when I sit down to play, I can. Just don't sit sheet music in front of me, while I'm playing though, as that'll stop me dead in my tracks.

Matt
 
Tifstorey said:
I started piano lessons when i was 9 because we were given a piano and i asked if i could start lessons. I enjoyed it all up to around 12-13 when i was in high school and people started taking the piss. all my friends were going out but i couldnt because i had 'a piano lesson'. I really started to despise it, i finally stopped when i was 15. Now im 18, Grade 8 pianist i am so happy i did piano lessons, and im happy that my parents didnt let me stop them when i used to moan all the time!

Basically all im trying to say is get your daughter starting now, maybe not private tuition, but see if you can teach her some stuff like the notes and so on. I say when shes 4-5 get her starting lessons and by the time shes 12 or so she will be amazing on the instrument! Even though i hated my parents for making me do piano lessons when i was younger, like i said, i gotta thank em for it now :)
Click to expand...
I don't want to force her into it, like I said earlier. I want her to do it because she wants it. I think she is gravitating toward guitar, mostly because that's about all she sees me with, and when I have something else out, like my keyboard, she'll come over and plunk on the keys (usually when I am trying to track something). I think it's still too early to get her going on lessons. Her attention span is about one step above a gold fish...
 
Emusic said:
Me :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

<aol>Me Tool</aol>

:D

Classically trained (both solo and ensemble) from about 2nd grade through HS, then continuning in ensemble piano through college. Started writing my own sort-of soft rock/pop/whatever some time in junior high or so (which, now that I think about it, is rather odd, as I didn't really start listening to those genres until high school, but I digress...).

Began playing baritone in our concert band back in 6th grade and started playing in the high school jazz band occasionally in... 8th grade, I think, and of course, marching band from 8-12 and college. Then started playing piano in jazz band some of the time in college. (Two of us played trombone and piano, so we'd tag team stuff.)

As for making piano fun... the best way, IMHO, is to introduce your daughter to piano duets. Everything is more fun when you do it with a friend.
 
dgatwood said:
<aol>Me Tool</aol>

:D

Classically trained (both solo and ensemble) from about 2nd grade through HS, then continuning in ensemble piano through college. Started writing my own sort-of soft rock/pop/whatever some time in junior high or so (which, now that I think about it, is rather odd, as I didn't really start listening to those genres until high school, but I digress...).

Began playing baritone in our concert band back in 6th grade and started playing in the high school jazz band occasionally in... 8th grade, I think, and of course, marching band from 8-12 and college. Then started playing piano in jazz band some of the time in college. (Two of us played trombone and piano, so we'd tag team stuff.)

As for making piano fun... the best way, IMHO, is to introduce your daughter to piano duets. Everything is more fun when you do it with a friend.
Click to expand...
Be a good idea if I could play well enough to make it fun for her. I learned the notes on the piano so that could follow our piano player in church. I can't get both hands to agree to play at the same time. But that's my fault because I don't practice.
I got her on video strumming on my guitar and singing along with it. So I suppose I already know what her instrument of choice may be. But as soon as she starts school, I will start introducing different instruments to her.
 
I've been playing (at the) piano for 25+ years now. But I can't read, have a lousy left hand, and don't qualify as a "real" piano player.

But it's good enough for the pop/rock that I write.
 
Supercreep said:
I've been playing (at the) piano for 25+ years now. But I can't read, have a lousy left hand, and don't qualify as a "real" piano player.

But it's good enough for the pop/rock that I write.
Click to expand...

You should give yourself more credit, than that, even if you don't read a lick of music. I don't read music, myself, but I'm capable of eliciting beautiful music from guitars, pianos and organs. I used to not think of myself as a guitar player, having been entirely self-taught and only use Barre chords, until I was talking about guitar playing with a local store owner, and he tells me "if you use standard tuning, and play Barre chords, you've pretty much got most of it licked." For me, the epiphany there was, "wow, so after all these years of noodling, I AM a guitar player!"

At an old music store in Indianapolis, one day about 13 years ago, I was fiddling around with a used Wurlitzer console organ that was on the sales floor. I played with some voicing rocker switches, and registration settings until my mind said "this sounds good," then proceeded to allow my conscious mind to "take 5." At some point during my improvisational playing, I got that "somebody's hovering over my right shoulder" feeling, so I stopped and looked, and there was one of the organ salesmen enjoying my playing. He asks "how long have you been playing," to which I replied "well, including this time, this is only the second time in my life (I was 23 at the time) that I've sat down at an organ with the intent to play it." I just wish I could've gotten a picture of him picking his lower jaw up off the floor, as that was quite a priceless moment.

Another time, several years ago at the CompUSA in Indy, I walk up to a MIDI keyboard they had setup by one of the roof supports, and proceeded to start playing the middle section of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" as if I'd had years of practice under my belt. I'll admit that I kinda scared myself, on that one. Otherwise, I'm likely to walk up to a keyboard/piano/organ, and be like "plink plink plink, plunk, maybe find a good chord, maybe hit a sour chord," but that don't stop me from calling myself a player. And, I'm not ashamed to admit my shortcomings, on guitars or keyboards. Simply, I tell people "I can play, but I could do much better, if I took the time to learn more."

Now, as far as drums are concerned, I really do suck at that. In that, "drum kit" is noticeably absent from my "instruments to buy" list. That's where I'll be glad for software drums, whenever I'm able to start recording my original music, and a few covers that I've managed to learn by way of lots of noodling to pick 'em out.

Matt
 
I play piano.

I have some classical training, and a fair bit of jazz training. I am also a trumpet/flugelhorn player, and have been classically trained on trumpet, but was mostly a jazzer in college.

Just a minor quibble wrt to a statement made about hard bop: IMHO the dominant 7th chord was not its innovation, the use of the flat 5th (#11) and the II-V-I progression I think would be stronger characterizations.

I believe keys do indeed have colour - the more sharps in a key signature, the "brighter", the more flats, the "darker".

FWIW, I favour the darker key signatures when writing.
 
I am a pianist ... went through the Grading system (dunno if that translates to America) but I did it to the top of that and did a year of it at university too. Now I'm just a pop player and would really like to get back into the classical stuff.

The last piece I really got into was the Beethoven Pathétique sonata in C Minor ... not hard to play but sounds great if you get it right. Can anyone suggest me some good romantic-era music to try out? I'm a bit ignorant because I spent my formative years trying to learn the guitar instead ... which got me a job and a career but isn't anywhere as rewarding a hobby!

Nik
 
Michael Jones said:
Do you find yourself writing in one key more often than others.

I seem to be going thru this Eb Maj and its parallel minor, and F minor with Ab major sort of deal right now. I don't know why, I just seem to be writting in those mainly right now.
Click to expand...

Is that cuz the black keys are closer to your fingers than the white keys?

As a guitar/bass player I always wondered why keyboard guys liked Eb.
 
It's just nice to play in ... for classical at least. For pop, nothing beats playing in E, D and G ... a bit like the guitar! :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top