71–80 of 267 posts
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The alternative is "never starting because of high barrier to entry," not "starting with better habits."
Let's not kid ourselves, the chances of any normal person learning by themselves without a teacher to any kind of mastery is zero. Most won't have to the drive to continue even after two weeks. "Starting" doesn't mean anything, anyone can "start". It's trivial to start.
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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.
Not sure about this analogy, since linear algebra is largely orthogonal to single-variable calculus. Agreed on the musical part though.
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Sorry but I have to disagree a lot. An app is not the best way to learn piano. Piano is not just about pressing keys. Does the app correct your position (important if you don't want to get fatigue and cramps), your volume, fingerings, etc? Does it tell you how to practice the parts where you're struggling? > 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 pi…
I understand why you're frustrated to hear someone I suppose cheapen something you're really passionate about, but what is more valuable to you: less people learning piano because the barrier to entry is thousands of dollars of equipment, lessons, and books, not to mention time and space, but when they play they have good velocity management, or, tons more people enjoying the instrument, but not really playing it as…
And you're not really understanding me. I don't feel like these apps cheapen my effort. I just wish I knew the things I talk about in my comment earlier so that I could have taken the piano classes I had more seriously and I wouldn't have to suffer now the lack of technique, exercise and repertoire I have now.
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> Get something with at least 61 full sized and weighted keys. As someone who plays a musical instrument as a hobby, getting an el cheapo toy seems a good first step to me. You get to see whether you actually enjoy playing and it lets you become familiar with the practice schedule. When you start to feel limited by your tool, you advance to a proper one. Otherwise you risk buying expensive gear and letting it collect…
Some low price keyboards are so bad that they might not properly convey the fun of piano because of their limited function and make you think you don't like it. You've gotta make sure that what you buy gives you an accurate picture of what it is like to play a quality instrument because a crappy instrument is not fun. For example I bought a $200 keyboard once because I thought it would lighten my load as a gigging pi…
I got a Cassio CPS-85 over 20 years ago. It was $900 bare minimum for me at the time and I still think the weight of the keys is a bit light. Still, that was my minimum and it still is though something like that should be cheaper today.
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…
Something properly weighted. $700-1000.
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.
I'm working on something like this right now. Pieces that are accessible but not boring. Getting into jazz early can be tough, like how will you understand an extremely basic 3-6-9 voicing and how it connects to a 7-3-5 voicing in a circle of fifths progression if you haven't studied your basic triads, basic 7th chords and the circle of fifths? And not just reading about them but spending enough time to absorb them i…
I think that depends. The student may have been listening to jazz for their entire grownup life. To them, starting with "Jingle bells", etc. like some piano methods do can be very boring or off-putting.
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Let's not kid ourselves, the chances of any normal person learning by themselves without a teacher to any kind of mastery is zero. Most won't have to the drive to continue even after two weeks. "Starting" doesn't mean anything, anyone can "start". It's trivial to start.
Who taught Bach?
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I'm working on something like this right now. Pieces that are accessible but not boring. Getting into jazz early can be tough, like how will you understand an extremely basic 3-6-9 voicing and how it connects to a 7-3-5 voicing in a circle of fifths progression if you haven't studied your basic triads, basic 7th chords and the circle of fifths? And not just reading about them but spending enough time to absorb them i…
> Getting into jazz early can be tough, like how will you understand an extremely basic 3-6-9 voicing and how it connects to a 7-3-5 voicing in a circle of fifths progression if you haven't studied your basic triads, basic 7th chords and the circle of fifths? Do you really need to? Why can't you just play something that 'sounds jazzy' but is simple enough without understanding any theory behind how it was written? Ju…
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.
I like First Lessons in Bach for this reason. It's public domain by now so you can get it from archive.org or imslp.