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Thread: What's the best way to...

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    hi unreal's Avatar
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    Question What's the best way to...

    Learn the Piano (and/or music theory & chords) on teh cheep?

    I was gonna buy one of those "Piano for Dummies" books to start... I already have a large expensive keyboard that I got a year or two back, and I have a Upright Piano, whatever they are called... I can also idenify keys but I can't read notes unfortunately lol.

    My level of determination is through the roof so I've got some willpower ^_^

    Any help is much appreciated, Tyvm all my Hexus dudes

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    Senior Member kasavien's Avatar
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    when i learnt piano i used the michael aaron books, but i had a teacher too. I've recently been relearning piano and they are very good to give a refresh too, they teach you the theory as you go along. If you do decide to use a book to learn, depending on your taste in music you may want to get a book of more modern songs to learn alongside the more classical stuff.

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    www.5lab.co.uk
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    its not quick or easy to learn it - i played for 5 years when younger and i wasnt exactly good - a strong musical background would probably go a long way to making it easier..
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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    its really not a one glove fits all thing. I learnt in a group lesson thing after primary schools on thursdays, and on sat mornings!

    i now realise just how anoying it must of been for my parents to be taking me to keyboard practice for 9am each week

    There are some 'free' videos on the net that teach theory, i think there are some good ones by "midiman" (not sure if those are free actually) and they explain syquencing.

    Music reading isn't *that* hard at all really, i'm morbidly dislexic and the notes tend to jiggle a bit, but once you know your scale concepts (pentatonic, diatonic) its really easy.
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    Senior Member Workaholic's Avatar
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    As you said you have a keyboard you can probably link it up to your computer using a MIDI to joystick or USB connection. Then using software like cubase (£60) but I'm sure there's a similar freeware software out, you can record what you play. Simply compare the onscreen results with the manuscript that you're trying to play. Also you can type in the manuscript and see what the music should sound like before you attempt it.....
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    Quote Originally Posted by kasavien
    If you do decide to use a book to learn, depending on your taste in music you may want to get a book of more modern songs to learn alongside the more classical stuff.
    I love classical music, its so cool and elegant, and I've been learning some on the keyboard (theres one called LieBest2 or something which is SO good but I don't know what the full name of it is T_T)

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus
    There are some 'free' videos on the net that teach theory, i think there are some good ones by "midiman" (not sure if those are free actually) and they explain syquencing.

    Music reading isn't *that* hard at all really, i'm morbidly dislexic and the notes tend to jiggle a bit, but once you know your scale concepts (pentatonic, diatonic) its really easy.
    That's a lot of the stuff I need to prioritize on learning more than the rest really, I can live without being a Mozart with the Piano, but I need to understand everything with scales, etc... Thanks for the video advice, I will look him up now



    Quote Originally Posted by 5lab
    its not quick or easy to learn it - i played for 5 years when younger and i wasnt exactly good - a strong musical background would probably go a long way to making it easier..
    Yeh I'm aware that its not quick, so I made very careful I never said it really! But I have good musical background, my dad used to be a drummer (not professional but you know everyone is in a band of some sort in their teens), my grandmother is fully piano literate, and my uncle is a piano master, he can listen to anything and play along with all fingers with chords immediately while listening. Theres probably a load of you lot here that can do that, but I thought it was amazing... I can barely play piano with like 4 fingers at a time...



    Quote Originally Posted by Workaholic
    As you said you have a keyboard you can probably link it up to your computer using a MIDI to joystick or USB connection. Then using software like cubase (£60) but I'm sure there's a similar freeware software out, you can record what you play. Simply compare the onscreen results with the manuscript that you're trying to play. Also you can type in the manuscript and see what the music should sound like before you attempt it.....
    I do that pretty much already with Reason (and before, Fruity Loops)... I connect a small 25-key midi keyboard to my computer and I often make music and I've become well adjusted to basic music production (concerning instrumental construction, rather than recording, engineering etc) on my computer

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Workaholic
    As you said you have a keyboard you can probably link it up to your computer using a MIDI to joystick or USB connection. Then using software like cubase (£60) but I'm sure there's a similar freeware software out, you can record what you play. Simply compare the onscreen results with the manuscript that you're trying to play. Also you can type in the manuscript and see what the music should sound like before you attempt it.....
    this REALLY won't help you in reading music, enless the software is designed to take into account pauses/loss of timing. What i mean is the manurscript your reading, probably wouldn't look like an auto-generated one even if expertly played.
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    I go to a yamaha music school, one a week, group of about 8. They're good but slower than individual lessons.

    I's recommend learning keyboard rather than piano, same principals but keyboards are funky and more interesting. You can be the whole band, record your own tracks (If you have a floppy disk drive) etc.

    I'd say start by learning the notes then get some simple sheet music and have a go

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    Ah, Mrs. Peel! mike_w's Avatar
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    Personally, I've always greatly prefered playing on the piano to on a keyboard, although that may be because I've never used particularly good keyboards (I have no idea what a good keyboard would be!).
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    I prefer a Piano too myself, but luckily I have both a piano and a keyboard (two keyboards, add two mini little kiddy ones) and its ironic because no one in the house can play them that well.

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    I have a yamaha PSR-640 which was a reasonable machine about 5 years ago. Think it cost about £650. Does almost everything you'd want. I know someone with a yamaha Tyros, think they're about £2k and TBH its not that different. More instruments/backing tracks and sattelite speakers with sub.

    Speakers are supprisingly good on mine, look like 4.5" ported bass drivers and a tweeter both sides. They'll show up most pc speakers on midi stuff. Got lots of connectors on the back for outputting to stereo etc and pedel sockets (I've got a pedal that can be used for instument changes/complexity of backing track (Add drums etc)/sustain/overall volume/backing volume.....the whole lot but you can add another pedal if needed

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