Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's something most piano teachers advise AGAINST. But I am of the opinion that anything that makes you play the instrument works.
The problem is it's hard to unlearn bad technique. If you play scales wrong you can get stuck progressing and have to start over while suppressing the urge to just play like you always did.
Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
11–20 of 60 posts
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#12This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?
It's something most piano teachers advise AGAINST. But I am of the opinion that anything that makes you play the instrument works.
The other problem is that their learning technique, in which you start with fewer notes and add in all the notes over time, is not good at ALL. It masks certain things from you and even makes some things harder at lower difficulties when it's playing some scale and you don't know that so you're just playing random notes in it. Knowing that it was just a pentatonic scale or something would make it much simpler. Instead, you're taught to just play isolated notes instead of learning how to understand what that scale was, how to play it, and how to apply that to other songs. It's almost outright hostile towards a big picture music theory based approach on teaching how to play and instead focuses on memorizing the specific notes for each section of each song.
Anyway, piano scales and chords are not challenging to learn compared to most piano technique. If you don't have a teacher then buy Hanon, get a decent music theory book, and look up Youtube videos. Any of these training wheels based learning approaches seem to just assume that once you do it enough you'll pick up the theory. No. If you can't afford lessons (which I stress are very important) then you should at least make use of simple music theory books and videos on Youtube.
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#13This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#14This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?
Melodics[1] got a few gamey features, but in the larger scope such tools are pretty orthogonal to actually learning to play piano - I wouldn't say they hurt, like some teachers suggest (they'd say the same about hanon warmups) but they help you becoming a better musician the same way writing the alphabet everyday would make you a better writer. [1] https://melodics.com/
Scales and Arpeggios also bed the keys into your muscle memory which I've found it has made learning harmony a lot quicker as I can take a progression and experiment with it in the various keys and also experiment with different voice leadings by messing with the inversions.
But if the pressing concern is staying motivated and/or enjoying the instrument through playing then I agree that an excessive focus on fundamentals is going to be a slog
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#15This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#16Another open source app that I’ve been using to practice is https://github.com/sightread/sightread
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#17This is cool. I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a game like Guitar Hero (old playstation game with a custom controller), but for piano and with MIDI input support, something to practice the mechanical skills, preferably with a library of beginner-friendly charts?
It's something most piano teachers advise AGAINST. But I am of the opinion that anything that makes you play the instrument works.
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's something most piano teachers advise AGAINST. But I am of the opinion that anything that makes you play the instrument works.
The problem is it's hard to unlearn bad technique. If you play scales wrong you can get stuck progressing and have to start over while suppressing the urge to just play like you always did.
Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#19Re: Show HN: Piano Trainer – Learn piano scales, chords and more using MIDI
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is it's hard to unlearn bad technique. If you play scales wrong you can get stuck progressing and have to start over while suppressing the urge to just play like you always did.
You're right for "serious" learning. But for most people, the alternative is not learning anything at all! The best technique is the one that'll actually make you play the piano
Proper technique is also important so that playing is actually fun and not painful. Even just a few lessons on how to properly sit, how to avoid tension in your hands and so on can go a long way. There are video lessons that explain that stuff as well but you need to be very disciplined and really repeat these lessons over and over.
You can absolutely self-learn the piano. People that genuinely don't have the money for a teacher shouldn't let that stop them but it absolutely is harder. Set yourself up for success if you can.