I built this tool that you might find useful. It uses chrome midi api to let you play piano into your browser: https://sightreading.training/
It's not going to teach you how to play piano, but it's good for drilling reading notes.
Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
31–39 of 39 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#32Alright here's "hacks" and unfortunately there's no software or books to help you here, you simply cannot substitute the sheer number of hours needed to get to a point where you can comfortably sight read almost any music. I used to skip several Royal Conservatory of Music grades using these "hacks". But you are gonna be disappointed because it requires serious commitment, used to practice like 12 hours a day when I…
Do you have advice on learning rhythm for the piano? (Aside from "use a metronome", I do do that.) Are there exercises? I also have trouble recognizing how long a note is "in the wild" without a metronome or having a good idea what the tempo is for a song I like, so I suppose there's a listening component to this as well. Making sure to hit the notes at the right times if you haven't memorized the song just from look…
S L O W D O W N.
As much as you possibly can. If a song is in 4/4 and you're having trouble with it, pretend it's 8/8 and count by eighth notes. Still tough, go 16/16. Once you have it down, then increase speed S L O W L Y.
(much easier said than done, let me tell you, but it is effective)
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#33I took piano lessons in childhood. I hated it. After college, I decided to pick it up, again. I bought a Yamaha 61key keyboard from Walmart when I was about 23. I also bought a Jazz Piano book. I taught myself "The Girl from Ipanema". I love that song. The keyboard costs about $120.00. The rest is time to practice. And you have to really LOVE music.
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#34Take Piano lessons by a professional teacher.
Software Playing the Piano can recommend Simply Piano by Joytunes on the Ipad, Android tablets. For Ipad you need an Apple camera connection kit to connect the USB from a usb midi keyboard towards the Ipad. Tip get the Camera connection kit with build in charge so that you can charge the ipad while playing, the screen is always on so it drains battery from the Ipad.
Also can highly recommend Superscore by Timewarp tech which allows play along midi tunes. There is a built in store for buying scores. Superscore follow along and pauses on the different notes and fills in accompaniment to make your playing sound richer. https://timewarptech.com/shop/music-software-apps/software/s...
Flashnote Derby which is an Ipad game which teaches Note reading its mostly focused towards kids but are good for adults too.
Get a 88 key piano with weighted keys in that way you are not limited to what you can play. Piano review site with detailed review azpianonews https://azpianonews.blogspot.com/2018/03/digital-pianos-unde...
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#35I disagree with some of the advise on this thread so far. Scales are boring (I agree that you need them to get proficient, but if you start there, you’ll be bored to tears and give up before you get anywhere fun). Watching YouTube videos and trying to recreate what they’re doing is hard. Learning to read music from a human teacher is frustrating.
The traditional way to learn piano takes discipline, hours of slightly frustrating study and incredibly boring and repetitive practice. Though I tried a few times in my life to learn piano the way everyone said I should, I always found it mind-numbingly boring. Why does it have to be so damn hard?
I’ve only recently found a better way, and I’ve been learning faster, staying interested, and having way more fun than I ever did before.
The better way is: http://pianowizardacademy.com
(I know this sounds like a sales pitch, I’m not at all involved with the company, I’m just a happy customer and a big fan of their method.)
Basically the method hinges around software that turns playing a piano into a game. Similar to guitar hero, but where it leads you through a progression until you’re sight-reading the paper sheet music as you play. It makes it really easy to get started playing real music from day 1, then your excitement about your progress builds faster than the difficulty, so you stay interested.
Basically it inverts the learning. Play first, and learn reading music, notes, fingering, tempo, theory, etc as you go. It makes the whole process way less frustrating and way more fun.
The software looks straight out of 1998, and the DVDs are similarly a little silly - but it all works really well.
The DVDs are geared towards parents who have never played Piano, to teach their young kids how to play, while learning themselves. Watching the videos as an adult without kids, I sometimes feel a little silly playing along with a 4 year old, but since it works, I’m not complaining.
Generally, they explain the bit of music theory after you’ve been playing it for a while (ignorant to the fact that you were doing something deeply important to music), so by the time they explain the concept, it just makes sense - there’s no struggling to wrap your head around some obtuse concept that you don’t have a mental framework for yet.
Anyway - I highly recommend it. It’s not cheap, but so far it’s the best money I’ve spent on learning piano.
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#361.) If you can count to 7, you can play the piano.
I really wish someone would have told me how easy it really is. I played guitar for years before I found this video. ( learn to play the piano in 5 minutes. )
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnMDpBQ_bDQ
Press ANY key on a piano. Count up 4 keys. Press that key too. Count up 3 more keys. Press it. Now do all 3 at the same time.
Bam. Major chord.
Start at any key. Count up 3 keys. Press it. Now count up 4 more. Press that key too.
Minor chord!
Other chords are just a variation of that basic structure.
Of course, it takes awhile to make everything sound good. And if you want to play songs note for note then...
2.)synesthesia
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#37Try SimplyPiano app for ios or android.
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have advice on learning rhythm for the piano? (Aside from "use a metronome", I do do that.) Are there exercises? I also have trouble recognizing how long a note is "in the wild" without a metronome or having a good idea what the tempo is for a song I like, so I suppose there's a listening component to this as well. Making sure to hit the notes at the right times if you haven't memorized the song just from look…
S L O W D O W N. As much as you possibly can. If a song is in 4/4 and you're having trouble with it, pretend it's 8/8 and count by eighth notes. Still tough, go 16/16. Once you have it down , then increase speed S L O W L Y. (much easier said than done, let me tell you, but it is effective)
^ this. Use a pencil to write the number of seconds. For advanced pieces you need to actually sit down and do a division and it's tricky to practice with both hands (like Fantasie Impromptu).
it's so tempting once you get the notes right to just let her rip at full speed but this was a bad habit and hard to break.
Now I try to play as slow as possible as often as possible. Only when you have it down perfect can you then start adding dynamics, expressiveness and your own take.
Re: Ask HN: How to learn to play piano? (kids and adults)
#39Alright here's "hacks" and unfortunately there's no software or books to help you here, you simply cannot substitute the sheer number of hours needed to get to a point where you can comfortably sight read almost any music. I used to skip several Royal Conservatory of Music grades using these "hacks". But you are gonna be disappointed because it requires serious commitment, used to practice like 12 hours a day when I…
Thank you for the advice. I tend to rush, I avoid the simple pieces and move on to more complex, "interesting" music to find myself quickly overwhelmed by the complexity. I will try your 'hacks' approach to see what happens.
when you get frustrated, it means you need to slow it down, simplify the immediate task needed to build up the muscle memory to be able to sync each note on the sheet.
In the beginning, especially when starting a very difficult piece, practice only one bar at a time with the right hand and then the left hand separately.
Once you got the bar down perfectly, move on to the next until you got the whole line. Finally practice both hands to sync it up.
As you do this repeatedly, you will discover it gets easier. Because your brain is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it just gets better at the task.
Once you've digested something difficult and challenging, guess what, you've made leaps and bounds vs practicing simple pieces that won't lead to new breakthroughs.
I find this principle to apply to a lot of things, like working out. It's easy to jog, but jogging uphill is what builds those fast twitch muscles. On that note, please don't try to speed through the practice sessions. Once bad habits are formed, your brain literally is hard wired to make those mistakes.
Hell, even pianists will struggle with a new challenging piece and will not be able to rip through it on the first try unless they are like autistic savants.
If you really get to a point where you can't continue, then allow yourself to listen to someone else playing it. In fact this is the best way to keep dangling that carrot in front of you while you try to master a piece.
Easier said than done tho.