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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

#241

Post by xtracto »

torben-friis wrote: post #65

If any of you is fluent in Spanish and want to learn to play piano, I can't recommend Jaime altozano enough (he's on YouTube). He's the best music teacher and communicator I've seen in any language, I would compare him to what threeblueonebrown is for math. He also has some paid courses available in https://www.musihacks.com/ but just the free content is already awesome to understand modes, scales, pregressions, etc

Interesting the course looks good. Long time ago I saw the "Learn & Master" piano courses courses which are really good. As a hobbyist guitar player, learning piano is one of those things that I want to do once I retire and have time.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#242

Post by syncopatience »

rdiddly wrote: post #233
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…

I love this little sub-thread. I don't know what it is about piano in particular that brings out the nail-biting. You don't seem to get that with guitar for example. What I like is that there's a lot of concern-for-others visible, which is admirable. The place where it strays into misplaced concern though (kind of as usual in life) is where in some cases there's a disproportionate intensity of concern that seems to i…

Well put. I wonder if a lot of this comes from classical piano players (which there seem to be a lot of, proportionally?) assuming that everyone who learns piano is necessarily aspiring to play those super difficult classical pieces one day. I've started picking up the piano with jazz in mind and it's hard to tell if a lot of the advice out there is spot on and I'm worse off for ignoring it, or if it's really just not relevant to me because I don't intend to play Bach or Mozart. A lot of it _feels_ irrelevant, but I hesitate to dismiss it when it's coming from people who are clearly a lot more experienced than I am.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#243

Post by d2049 »

bananapear wrote: post #136
vixen99 wrote: post #96

Worth mentioning for anyone who happens not to know about it that there's a massive repository of out-of-copyright (either by time or decision of the composer) music scores and recordings for all instruments by a huge number of composers. Using the 'genre' section is useful for finding music of an appropriate level for performers. https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Composers https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page https://imsl…

There’s also the Mutopia project: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ They are working to typeset out of copyright works using GNU LilyPond. The scores are particularly beautifully typeset and very easy to read when printed.

Nice resource that's better than nothing, but just want to note that there are numerous engraving errors in the couple scores I looked at that would make them unsuitable for serious study.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#244

Post by simias »

powersnail wrote: post #127
simias wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's like using an app for language learning. If you think 10 minutes of Duolingo every day is going to make you fluent in Chinese you're deluding yourself, but it doesn't mean that it can't be a good entry point and a good way to build discipline and gauge your progress. I've been learning the saxophone for a few months (ask my neighbours) and have used a bunch of different methods. I find that even bad prac…

> that even bad practice is good practice May I try to persuade you otherwise? Bad habits are often linked to repetitive injuries in the long run. This is something that you don't really notice several months in, but will bite you when you start to play a lot. If you really want to self-teach, I would suggest at least take some classes in the beginning to properly form your posture.

I feel like it's overstated. Take people's postures in front of a computer: it's often terrible. Bad posture, bad keyboard usage, non ergonomic hardware etc... Yet we survive. Sure, it can create problems after years of constant abuse (RSI etc...) but generally that's true for people who spend multiple hours every day doing it wrong.

If you learn to play piano 30 minutes every day for a year you'd really have to be doing it critically wrong to manage to maim yourself.

Of course if you manage to stick with it long term and really commit a lot of time practicing, you better learn good posture sooner or later, but I don't think it's worth front-loading all stuff. It just raises the barrier for entry without huge benefits IMO.

>This is something that you don't really notice several months in, but will bite you when you start to play a lot.

Sure, I completely agree, but unlearning bad habits, while annoying, is part of getting good at anything I think. You need to pick your battles when you're starting, there's so much to learn.

For me the equivalent would be teaching a programming course, but insist that everybody must be touchtyping in Dvorak on ergonomic keyboards when they're coding. While it's not necessarily bad advice in the long run all it'll achieve is make your students think that programming is a lot harder than it really is.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#245

Post by jedimastert »

ad31mar wrote: post #195

Can it get you to Marc Rebillet's [0] level in 5 years of a few hours per day practice? He makes it look so effortless and I can't even begin to imagine the flow state he's experiencing. [0] https://youtu.be/XMFnkKWXgKw?t=203

Long-time self-taught improviser here[0]. 5 years is, I think, a reasonable time frame if you're passionate. My suggestion would be to go through a beginner's course, then as soon as you can start copying and analyzing. Find things like licks and styles and little bits here and there that you like, then try to learn them by ear.

I know the "music is a language" troupe is tired, but it really does help me explain. It's sort of like muscle memory, but with a musical vocabulary.

Look up basic Chord theory, then look around youtube for theory videos on the kind of music you like. After a while, you remove thinking from the equation, and then it gets kinda hard to explain in a comment

[0]: https://youtube.com/user/jedimastert0810

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#246

Post by megameter »

bumby wrote: post #164
verroq wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As both a crummy programmer and crummy musician, I’d like to hear more about your perspective on how they differ.

I'll chime in with some perspective of my own as someone who has had some formal training in both(private lessons and CS classes).

Music, in and of itself, is pretty simple and natural to create: clap your hands, stomp your feet, sing a little. There's a low "skill floor" on it.

Programming has a much bigger skill floor - syntax, memory management, indirection, and other conceptual forms of knowledge. But once you have the concept, it doesn't matter a great deal what exact things you type if it's implementing that concept successfully.

But music has tradition, and not just one - it's one per instrument, with subsets for different playing styles. When you get classical training(which I did) there's a lot of pedigree built-in to being a "student of so-and-so". You learn technical competence - how to not injure yourself by playing(RSI is a big one but it also occurs with posture, breath control and so forth) - but also to express the music interpretively, a translator who turns notes on the page into a dynamic performance, and this involves both repetition and attention to detail that is suited for coaching. Music can be very athletic at the world-class level!

Over time I've been able to cross over the two worlds - finding ways of programming that are a little more iterative, more like performance - and approaching music from a more theory-and-concepts perspective has helped me understand compositions beyond the surface expression. But the broad differences still remain.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#247

Post by [deleted] »

rdiddly wrote: post #233
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…

I love this little sub-thread. I don't know what it is about piano in particular that brings out the nail-biting. You don't seem to get that with guitar for example. What I like is that there's a lot of concern-for-others visible, which is admirable. The place where it strays into misplaced concern though (kind of as usual in life) is where in some cases there's a disproportionate intensity of concern that seems to i…

[deleted]

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#248

Post by jacobolus »

d2049 wrote: post #243
bananapear wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s also the Mutopia project: https://www.mutopiaproject.org/ They are working to typeset out of copyright works using GNU LilyPond. The scores are particularly beautifully typeset and very easy to read when printed.

Nice resource that's better than nothing, but just want to note that there are numerous engraving errors in the couple scores I looked at that would make them unsuitable for serious study.

Errors meaning wrong notes, stylistic tics, or something in between?

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#249

Post by tkgally »

jacquesm wrote: post #169
gjulianm wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad teachers are an issue, of course. But bad apps can be an issue too. No matter the method there's always the risk of not implementing it correctly. > their goals may not overlap with mine. That's a matter of talking with the teacher and setting down the goals. > Finally, not everybody learns in the same way and not everybody has your budget. My point is not "I did classes and I'm good now", is "I didn't do enough…

I think most people are more than mature enough to make their own decisions about what works for them and what doesn't. Good teachers are worth their weight in gold, but also, they cost money and if you are not doing this with a set goal of achieving a certain level but just enjoying yourself then that can be all the motivation that you need to keep going. I'd advocate for the occasional review by a teacher to see wh…

> I think most people are more than mature enough to make their own decisions about what works for them and what doesn't.

Nice point.

As a teenager, I took piano lessons for several years from two good teachers. Nearly fifty years later, I still enjoy playing the piano every day, so lessons obviously worked for me.

But if I were starting out to learn to play the piano now, I probably wouldn't go the teacher route at first. Rather, I would sample various apps, method books, websites, and, especially, YouTube videos and see what I could learn from each of them. I expect some would be too hard, some too easy, and some focused on styles of music I'm not interested in. But in the process of sampling various approaches, I would be able to find out what benefits and motivates me and what doesn't. I suspect that I would end up at least as satisfied with the results as I am now.

Re: The Mayron Cole Piano Method is now free

#250

Post by jacquesm »

sandGorgon wrote: post #198
jacquesm wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sorry but I have to disagree a lot. And I have to disagree a lot with you. I had a piano teacher when I was young and that person put me off piano for the next 45 years or so. A good teacher will help you, a not so good teacher may well cause you to lose interest. Right now I'm practicing on my own, when I want, without a set schedule and without the goal of getting good enough to satisfy my - nonexistent - teacher…

Would you able to mention a bit about your self learning/practice approach ? Im wondering about the next steps from Simply Piano in a couple of months. I have been told Czerny. But I'm not sure if that's the path that takes me to eventually playing Chopin. Would love to know if you figured out a "hacker way".

The 'hacker way' to me was to use my programming skills to write some software that helps me to achieve my goals. The project is steadily picking up steam and now has a small but quite dedicated following. It has helped me to build up a repertoire of pieces that I can play well enough to execute them fault less which leaves me free to concentrate on how I want to play them, good enough that the people I live with will ask me to play a certain piece because they enjoy it.

The next step is to outfit my ancient Yamaha G3 (1966), that I bought relatively cheaply with a sensor bar so the software can be used on the acoustic piano as well rather than just on the digital one. I love the sound of the acoustic.

The software will be further expanded over the next year, we have a very long list of things we want to add and make it do, hopefully without cluttering the user interface by making most of it completely automatic. Some of these features will be groundbreaking, the current iteration is more of a testbed than anything else. If you want to mess around with it or hack on it feel free: https://pianojacq.com/ the code is on gitlab as well.

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