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The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

freepianomethod.com

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Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#81

Post by dbrgn »

maille wrote: post #24
sandGorgon wrote: post #18

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…

what kind of cheap keyboard would you recommend?

I bought a weighted Yamaha Arius e-piano (YDP-163) about 3 years ago and am very happy with it! (Cost was around 1000$ I think, but there are also cheaper models.)

I had a very cheap children's keyboard with non-weighted keys before. It was totally frustrating to play on that. Weighted keys made a world of a difference!

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#82

Post by gjulianm »

komali2 wrote: post #60
c03 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must agree. op comment is the worst advice i have seen on HN on any subject, it reads like an impatient child wishing to avoid to study just to be able to perform. But then again, it comes down to what you want to achieve. If you just want to mind numbingly press buttons, knock yourself out.

I liked the advice because I always wanted to learn piano but every time I approached stage 1, people were saying similar things. "Oh, just to get STARTED, you're going to need an 88 key weighted keyboard, that'll cost you 600$ and take up an entire wall of your studio. Ok now spend 100$ on books, and now you have everything you need to spend 200$ a month and an hour every week on a teacher. And you better practice f…

If that's what you want to do, that's nice and go ahead, maybe the app is the cheapest way to get to that point. My point is that people who use them should be aware of their limitations, and compare that with what they want to achieve.

PS: the weighted keyboard thing is actually important. You can get cheap weighted keyboards for less than 200$, maybe even less in second-hand market. A non-weighted keyboard will limit your playing a lot, even early on.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#83

Post by phkahler »

joegahona wrote: post #48
phkahler wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That part of is definitely poor advice, although prices are lower these days. Get something with at least 61 full sized and weighted keys. None of those light weight organ type keys, they need to feel more like piano keys. Polyphonic - able to play at least 8 notes simultaneously. That would be the bare minimum IMHO. Getting the full 88 keys will probable ensure the rest but maybe not in some cases.

> Polyphonic - able to play at least 8 notes simultaneously. Don't you kind of have to go out of your way these days to _not_ get something polyphonic?

Yeah, but they still exist and you'd be surprised at some of the models with this deficiency.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#84

Post by duiker101 »

snvzz wrote: post #43
sandGorgon wrote: post #18

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.

who doesn't have that cash laying around just to try an hobby?

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#85

Post by verroq »

komali2 wrote: post #69
verroq wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Really? I find myself surrounded by self taught programmers, musicians, and visual artists all the time. Yes. Nobody I know will play in the London philharmonic. But we figured out enough to play a cover band in highschool, and I'm figuring out enough to learn passable music production. On that note, from what I've learned from their interviews, many of the biggest producers have never taken a music lesson. This isn'…

The point is the lessons as a standardised tool work quite well in producing results.

The variation in results is much higher if you go off the well beaten path.

Secondly, if you think learning piano is comparable to programming or art then you are completely mistaken.

Edit- added here since HN doesn’t let you comment anymore if you get downvoted too much.

With programming, the feedback is immediate and accurate. You know if your code does compile. You know if your logic is bugged or if your algorithm is too inefficient. If the code you write doesn’t work, somebody can give you their code to bring you up to speed. This allows you to immediately address your issues.

With piano, (at least in the beginning) you are not qualified to judge if your hand position is right, if your posture won’t give your RSI in the long run, if you are even playing the right notes, if your rhythm is off, if you are reading the sheet music wrong, if your pedal is timing subtly off or if your legato is correct. You can practice for hours on playing the wrong thing. A teacher can help you get this stuff to get fixed. Secondly, unless you started ear training as a child you won’t ever be able to develop absolute pitch. Your ability to discern pitch and listen to the very music you are playing is already at a disadvantage. You’re basically blind and deaf and you have no idea what progress should look like apart from superficial judgments.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#86

Post by skeeter2020 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #19
actuator wrote: post #6

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…

Finger fatigue suggests you're holding tension in your fingers and wrists. A good teacher can help you with that. You need to learn to keep your fingers and wrists as relaxed as possible - which is unbelievably hard to do when you're also trying to learn how to read music. Watch some slow piano music being played by a concert pianist, and you'll see that - except for the odd flourish - they move fingers and wrists as…

your last point is spot-on; I have a decent yamaha electric piano and the action is quite a bit heavier than my sister's Boston acuostic. It's not suprising but still notable how much more fatigued you feel after an hour of playing mine vs. hers.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#87

Post by Andrex »

bluedino wrote: post #32
Andrex wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>> Self-learning is, overall, a boondoggle. You want a teacher. “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.”

I was speaking in the context of the piano.

I'm told it's easier to self-learn the guitar, but you're working against your own interests if you're violently opposed to the idea of a teacher, no matter the instrument.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#88

Post by tonystride »

OJFord wrote: post #68
tonystride wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Absolutely, like I said, I'm working on stuff like this right now. Having said that, perhaps it's a combination of my own personal trauma from originally being taught in a very rote way and thousands of hours of helping students learn to read, but I have an aversion to not knowing what you are doing. I remember looking at stacks of chords 3-6-9 to 7-3-5, or even trying to read a basic root position C7 chord with the RH doing stuff on top and feeling really hopeless to get my LH to fall into those shapes. I've also seen this with many students. Chords are hard if you don't see them as words and try to look at every note every time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#89

Post by gjulianm »

modulo42 wrote: post #77

Started learning clarinet in my 30. The internet was full of advice against learning clarinet without a teacher. So I took lessons. It surely helped but it did not feel like a great accelerator. Most gain came from practising almost every day for about three years. After the birth of my daughter I stopped taking lessons because I did no longer have the time to practice and to drive to the teacher's home once a week.…

Right now I'm learning clarinet online via Skype due to COVID (clarinet playing doesn't seem to be the safest activity right now). It's honestly better than I expected. Try to get a decent microphone (not very expensive, I got one for around 30-40 euros, Skype does not have sound quality high enough to notice better mics) and headphones.

There are still limitations, teacher can't really test the reeds, and some things can't be heard through Skype, but it's better than nothing. You can also combine it with in-person classes once a month or once every two months so that the teacher can hear you for real and correct things every once in a while.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#90

Post by publicola1990 »

komali2 wrote: post #60
c03 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must agree. op comment is the worst advice i have seen on HN on any subject, it reads like an impatient child wishing to avoid to study just to be able to perform. But then again, it comes down to what you want to achieve. If you just want to mind numbingly press buttons, knock yourself out.

I liked the advice because I always wanted to learn piano but every time I approached stage 1, people were saying similar things. "Oh, just to get STARTED, you're going to need an 88 key weighted keyboard, that'll cost you 600$ and take up an entire wall of your studio. Ok now spend 100$ on books, and now you have everything you need to spend 200$ a month and an hour every week on a teacher. And you better practice f…

Very much agree to the view, in fact I think the gatekeeping has become stronger in recent years, in the past, playing piano was considered a more utilitarian skill, since it was more of a means to hear music in ones own house, before recorded music became popular. It was essentially a music reproduction device, like a record player/tape recorder.
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