31–40 of 267 posts
I wish piano methods would offer me the choice of genre (jazz, latin, classical, ...) and that they would start with songs that are perhaps technically simple, but still interesting from a musical viewpoint.
Has someone here picked a musical instrument seriously for the first time in their 20s and managed to self learn? If yes, it would be helpful if you could point to resources that were helpful to you and any daily practice schedule you followed? I have tried learning piano and I found a lot of stuff irritatingly hard to get right and got bored. Like for some reason I am not able to transition to other keys well when I…
> Has someone here picked a musical instrument seriously for the first time in their 20s and managed to self learn? If yes, it would be helpful if you could point to resources that were helpful to you and any daily practice schedule you followed? Self-learning piano is, overall, a boondoggle. You want a teacher. I started learning piano in December 2018 at the age of 27. For the first couple months I stayed on my own…
“I play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision because I didn’t know how to play it, so I was a [bad] teacher. I would never have went to me.”
Has someone here picked a musical instrument seriously for the first time in their 20s and managed to self learn? If yes, it would be helpful if you could point to resources that were helpful to you and any daily practice schedule you followed? I have tried learning piano and I found a lot of stuff irritatingly hard to get right and got bored. Like for some reason I am not able to transition to other keys well when I…
I wish piano methods would offer me the choice of genre (jazz, latin, classical, ...) and that they would start with songs that are perhaps technically simple, but still interesting from a musical viewpoint.
For context, I started playing piano when I was a kid with a mix of classes and self-learn, tried to pick up guitar a few years ago and I'm now learning clarinet with a teacher. With this experience, I can say that self-learning an instrument is the most inefficient way to learn it, specially if you haven't already learned another instrument before. Don't bother comparing it to self-learning programming because it's…
I wish piano methods would offer me the choice of genre (jazz, latin, classical, ...) and that they would start with songs that are perhaps technically simple, but still interesting from a musical viewpoint.
Most method books will touch on a wide variety of genres, usually to illustrate specific topics in music theory. If you can’t reason about intervals/scales, key, and chord progressions, “learning” genres like jazz will be like trying to learn differential calculus before linear algebra.
For context, I started playing piano when I was a kid with a mix of classes and self-learn, tried to pick up guitar a few years ago and I'm now learning clarinet with a teacher. With this experience, I can say that self-learning an instrument is the most inefficient way to learn it, specially if you haven't already learned another instrument before. Don't bother comparing it to self-learning programming because it's…
I just started learning piano in the COVID lockdown. The best and cheapest way to learn is use an app: Simply Piano(android+ios), Piano Marvel(ios), etc and connect it to an el cheapo midi keyboard. this allows you to spend the next 6 months learning without anyone getting disturbed..while the app gives you realtime feedback about which keys you are pressing. you wont miss the lack of a teacher...especially during th…
> connect it to an el cheapo midi keyboard
Please don't do that. I mean, if you just want to give it a try to piano and not spend anything, yeah, go ahead, but a small keyboard with non-weighted keys will limit you a lot, even early on. The sound is terrible, you won't be able to control the volume properly, and getting a better technique to play better and faster will be far more difficult. Not to mention that at some point you will try to use the extra keys and if they're are not there you can't do anything. If you want to seriously take up piano, just buy a decent keyboard at the start, you'll end up needing it anyways.
Edit: Don't get me wrong, anything that gets more people into playing music is good. But I think it's also good if people know the advantages and limitations of the method they use to learn, and are able to choose the method that fits their expectations. If you just want to poke your nose into piano playing maybe an app is enough for you, but there are no shortcuts and no magic method.
I just started learning piano in the COVID lockdown. The best and cheapest way to learn is use an app: Simply Piano(android+ios), Piano Marvel(ios), etc and connect it to an el cheapo midi keyboard. this allows you to spend the next 6 months learning without anyone getting disturbed..while the app gives you realtime feedback about which keys you are pressing. you wont miss the lack of a teacher...especially during th…
I would add earpeggio and music tutor for iOS (not affiliated, there are other similar apps). It's basically a Duolingo-like way to get used to reading sheet music and ear training respectively, you just put in 5 min a day and in a matter of weeks you're able to read sheet music relatively well.