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Touch Pianist

touchpianist.com

201–210 of 240 posts

Re: Touch Pianist

#201

This is a great kind of thing for getting people into music. There's a piano in my local pub and when people say they "can't play piano" I'll play a 2-5-1 in C and tell them to hit any of the white notes. People love that they can make up their own tunes having never played before.

I do this too! D dorian works great as well.

Re: Touch Pianist

#202

As my piano teacher used to say, “what did the piano do to you to make you hit it quite so hard?” This is known as the “Moonlight” sonata not the “thunder and timpani” sonata. It’s a great demo but the dynamic range of your piano robot is horrible. Oh! Can I adjust the dynamics based on where I touch? I take it back! Bad workman blames his tools etc.

"Thunder and Timpani sonata" sounds like it would be a fantastic piece especially if written by Beethoven

Re: Touch Pianist

#203
post #88
post #23

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't know how to play piano. Not quite sure how to put it into words, but it's absolutely exhilarating hearing your own fingers produce these huge sounds and intense chord progressions. Every time I managed to find the right chord I'd get such a rush. "Oh no he di…

When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.

[deleted]

Re: Touch Pianist

#204

This is a great kind of thing for getting people into music. There's a piano in my local pub and when people say they "can't play piano" I'll play a 2-5-1 in C and tell them to hit any of the white notes. People love that they can make up their own tunes having never played before.

The pedant in me is screaming - ii V I

Here I was doing barre chords on the 2nd fret, 5th fret, and 1st fret on my guitar and wondering why it didn't sound good. ;)

Re: Touch Pianist

#205
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started taking piano lesions a few years ago, one of the first rules that my teacher established was: "No Moonlight Sonata" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My guess is that it resembles in a way playing "Smoke on the water" in a guitar shop.

A lot of music teachers are like that. I personally consider it shitty. My friend's first violin teacher (when she was 10 years old) made her do empty string bowing for a year. Just pull and push bowing. Now, don't get me wrong, technique is extremely important, and a lot of teachers have "if you can't do it well, don't do it" mentality. But really these people miss music is also tons of fucking fun. For a 10 year ol…

I give the Moonlight Sonata credit for me becoming a decent pianist. It was above my level when I was a kid, but I wanted to learn it, and my teacher encouraged that. With enough practice on a piece that was so far above my current ability, I seriously leveled up as a pianist.

My teacher's ability to help me learn what I wanted to learn made me so invested in piano as a kid. Many kids don't stick with music because (IMO) they can't find a way to enjoy it or be invested in it. For me, what I enjoyed happened to be Beethoven, but at other times I just wanted to improvise various modern songs. (Which can be as simple or as complex as you want, but a lot of classically trained teachers can't/won't/don't teach improvisation.)

Technique and theory only get you so far. Being able to emotionally invest in your playing is what sets musicians apart, imo. And as you're growing as a musician (even when you're a kid), you're going to sound like shit if you just try to monotonously follow the instructions. I'm not sure enough music teachers get the importance of being personally and emotionally invested in the moment as you're playing. (One-buttock playing is a good word for this: https://youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE)

The choice of what you want to play is pretty important in keeping you invested.

Re: Touch Pianist

#207
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody should work with a pompous instructor who decides what is / isn't acceptable on an instrument. As a former guitar teacher, I would help my students learn whatever they wanted - Van Halen, Brittany Spears, Garth Brooks, whatever. All music has something of merit if you're willing to look for it.

I think it's more it's probably not a very effective piece to learn with. You can learn a few techniques from your teacher and then it's just practicing the variations and transitions, because it repeats roughly the same changes over and over. Learning the piece during your lessons is likely a waste.

I have bad news concerning pop music.

Re: Touch Pianist

#208
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's sad. a yearning musician should be able to learn and play whatever they want and whatever makes them feel a certain thing. moonlight sonata evokes something in me i can't explain (which is probably why it's a legendary piece). having strong opinions on what to play when learning feels so gatekeepy. i would have dropped that teacher quickly

Actually, teachers are human beings and they're allowed to have preferences, likes and dislikes. It's okay that not every teacher is for every student 100% of the time. Something can be a bad student/teacher fit without it being a negative value judgment ("sad", "gatekeeping", "drop").

teachers are held to a higher standard because their responsibility is a lot higher than the average citizen, so while theyre fully allowed to do whatever they want and have preferences -- i won't hold them to a standard that i do an average person. they need to above all have the highest patience and the least amount of gatekeeping, full stop.

Re: Touch Pianist

#209
post #23

Great choice of song! If you ever have access to a piano, I highly recommended trying to fumble your way through Beethoven's moonlight sonata, even if you don't know how to play piano. Not quite sure how to put it into words, but it's absolutely exhilarating hearing your own fingers produce these huge sounds and intense chord progressions. Every time I managed to find the right chord I'd get such a rush. "Oh no he di…

Moonlight Sonata is a great choice, the arpeggios makes the song quite recognizable.

(I don't play the piano but have learned the guitar version of Moonlight Sonata, and it looks very much like this version.)

Re: Touch Pianist

#210

On web, opening up the "choose differnet piece" window, then clicking a piece does nothing. Expected would close the window and load a new piece.

Open up developer tools, choose "toggle device toolbar" in the top left (or equivalent in other browsers), pick a tablet device, and set orientation to landscape. This lets you simulate touch events with your mouse.
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