Reason and The Art of Learning Piano

[peritus]

So......

I've been vowing to take piano lessons for the longest time.. And yet I never have and it doesn't appear as if I will be doing so in the forseeable future...

As an alternative, I came up with a regimen today to better myself at playing the piano...

Three ingredients:
Reason
Midi controller
and a midi file of your favorite piano song.. (or at least one that suits you)


I chose The Beatles - "Hey Jude"....

I have the midi file (which admittedly isn't a perfect transcription of the actual song)...

Here were my steps (not that it's complicated... just thought I'd share)..


1) Download midi file..
2) Create an NNXT.. I loaded my tweaked grand piano setting..
3) Import midi file into Reason (see the file menu)..
4) You should only need the main piano part, so you can delete any drum or bass (etc) tracks from the sequencer window...
5) Make a copy and paste of your nnxt and route the output to your mixer...
6) Since you'll be learning, you don't want the midi to drown you out, so turn down the output volume of the midi's nnxt..
7) Slow down the tempo to something nice to punch out some solid practice.. I'm starting at 45'ish (for a 74 bpm song)..
8) Since I want to learn the song by heart, I'm using Reason's loop points to perfect two bars at a time.. After I learn each 2 bar segment, I'll play from beginning of song to the latest segment, until I've learned the whole song..
9) Grab a Snicker's bar.. this is gonna take awhile.. It's harder than it looks.. um.. I mean, sounds...

I'm left handed so my hands get really confused..

Seems like it's working pretty well.. I just need more time in the day...

Good luck and if anyone has any kind words of advice, please let me know..

Happy New Year

 

[ammarg89]

thats a pretyy good idea

 

[jibran]

If you're left-handed, you should use some Keith Jarrett music as your reference. He probably has the best chemistry with his piano, of any person.

 

[dementedchord]

If you're left-handed, you should use some Keith Jarrett music as your reference. He probably has the best chemistry with his piano, of any person.

i'm not sure recommending jarret to someone who needs to download hey jude makes sense.... naw screw that it deffinately makes no sense... and not sure what you mean by chemistry... if ya want to learn how to play piano...

1. get a teacher....
2. learn all the scales... atleast the majors the rest can be seen a s a subset of the majors...
3. get a teacher....
4. buy an excersize book called hanon....
5. get a teacher....

playing piano even halfassed is about comfort... if you get any pain in your arms or wrists your fukin up....

while sitting down cup your hand over your knee casually.... that's the way your hand should look when onthe board.... the height of your chair relative to the keyboard is WAY important... the forearm should be essentially aparallel to the keydeck... or reaching slightly down...NEVER up...

6. get a teacher... even if you only go once a month for say six months... they can prevent alkindsa bad habits that'll take a decade to unlearn...

 

[peritus]

Thanks for the tips.. I have more than one book on piano/theory and am on my way to learning all the scales...

i'm not sure recommending jarret to someone who needs to download hey jude makes sense.... naw screw that it deffinately makes no sense... and not sure what you mean by chemistry... if ya want to learn how to play piano...

1. get a teacher....
2. learn all the scales... atleast the majors the rest can be seen a s a subset of the majors...
3. get a teacher....
4. buy an excersize book called hanon....
5. get a teacher....

playing piano even halfassed is about comfort... if you get any pain in your arms or wrists your fukin up....

while sitting down cup your hand over your knee casually.... that's the way your hand should look when onthe board.... the height of your chair relative to the keyboard is WAY important... the forearm should be essentially aparallel to the keydeck... or reaching slightly down...NEVER up...

6. get a teacher... even if you only go once a month for say six months... they can prevent alkindsa bad habits that'll take a decade to unlearn...

 

[jibran]

By chemistry, I mean how Jarrett gets so into his performances that he'll unconsciously grunt as he's playing. It's as if he's one with the piano.

I'm just saying that Peritus could listen to him to hear how the piano should be played.

 

[dementedchord]

well keiths been grunting as you say for over 40 yrs and is well aware of it... the guy's truely a virtuoso... and well worth the listen whether you want to play piano or not... but then i also listen to tyner corea hancock bill evans and a slew of others... even what many consider to be the chops champ oscar peterson...