Learning to play keyboard

I configured the keyboard in FL Studio as a midi device and now I play directly on the keyboard
Cool man!
I also have small midi controller (Alesis V25) for some quick sound or melody test.
I don't know if it is common, but playing via midi controller in FL (or DAW generally) has some lag from time to time. Maybe it is about USB entry or processor speed, don't know.
Anyway, playing on hardware is more satisfying to me and I prefer it, especially when jamming with a friend.
 
If you want to have a glimpse in how those master concert pianist practice, I found a nice 'vlog' of top pianist Tiffany Poon. These professionals practice hours and hours a day, until they master every detail. Tiffany says she practices 2-5 hours a day (she's also studying philosophy at a university). That may sound as much, but I've heard of pianists who practice a lot more. For instance, I remember how one of the biggest names, Lang Lang, described how he at 6 years old practiced 6 hours a day, and when he was 8 he practiced 8 hours a day, and when 10...you guessed it...10 hours a day!

Anyway, Tiffany's channel has many interesting videos for piano enthusiasts, and she has a good sense of humor.

A few examples:

 
Yes, thanks for links, it is unbelievable how much time they put together into this, but I guess they treat is as a job, or a job they like doing. :)
I use the method of 15 minutes of warm ups and scales practice, 15 minutes of fooling around while trying to be creative and 30-45 minutes for playing and learning to play a song.
Although I like hearing classical music, I do not enjoy playing or learning it, and I am more interested into rock,blues,jazz and chillout electronic music.
I am currently learning blues scales and am trying to compose some basic 12 bar blues piece. :)
 
My meanderings on keyboard have taken me away from structured music and I am instead learning how to manipulate sounds. I've used wah, tremelo, chorus/phaser and analogue/digital delay effects on conventional piano and wurlitzer sounds. I begin piano lessons later in the year when I've got more disposable income, but until then I'm happy just experimenting with how sounds can be shaped by these types of effects. I can play basic melodies but I juxtapose different types of melodic structures and then using the delay effect I can make counterpoints out of them. It's simple, basic fun, but it's surprising what can tumble out of a simple instrument with a little coaxing.
 
I have also had fun with some sound manipulation, but I do not dwell too much into it, because improving my playing is the highest priority.
But sure, when I play with a friend and we play over a song, there is a need to edit some sounds in order to properly cover the song. A whole spectrum of filter types and modulation can be done and it is fun playing around.
 
Buy this book:

How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home - by Ward Cannel​

How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons: What Music Is and How to Make It at Home: Cannel, Ward, Marx, Fred: 0073999126211: Amazon.com: Books

You will learn more about real music, and how to play it, than all other sources combined!

Music theory is great! I studied it religiously for over 30 years! If you are diligent and spend a lifetime on it, the rewards are endless! Music can communicate directly with the soul!

If, however, you like music, and want to play songs now, this book (plus ~ 6 months of practice), will turn you into a musician!

I have bought more than 40 copies of this book and given it to folks who wanted to learn how to play music. It was worth it to me...
 
My dad was a self-taught pianist, and not bad at it. I have his piano now. I also have the books he recommended to learn from. This method is like learning to read words rather than notes. It focuses on learning the appearance of many complex chords. Vincent Lopez method. It's different. I got one book from my dad and found the rest of the series (of 4) on ABE.com.

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I'm joining the club here. Bought Roland Go Piano 88 for my Mum and I must say - I'm in love. Never ever played in my life but always wanted to. And since I'm 40 I think it's now or never.
Now I'm learning basics and practising via Simply Piano app and some scripts from music school. Mother is shocked ! She never expected me to actualy do it. It gives my great joy and makes me forget all the bad things these days. And brought the two of us closer again. It is a win win situation - since she lives in other town, now she is visiting more often and feels more needed and apprechiated. Thats her thing. And for me learning is fun ! Thanks everyone for the great tips btw
 
I'm also joining the club! Dad had a band once upon a time, he played accordion and keyboards. As a child I used to spend hours trying out sounds on keyboards. After some time the band broke up and dad sold the instruments, and I still had the desire to play. The years went by and from time to time I would glance at the keyboards online, and that was the case two weeks ago as well. Finally, I told myself enough of watching, I will buy them and learn to play.

So, I bought Yamaha PSR-E473 and I love it! It's challenging and so much fun. My goal is to learn popular music and learn to play by ear, so I decided to take this course: Home - Piano For All | Learn Piano & Keyboard

So far so good!
 
I'm also joining the club! Dad had a band once upon a time, he played accordion and keyboards. As a child I used to spend hours trying out sounds on keyboards. After some time the band broke up and dad sold the instruments, and I still had the desire to play. The years went by and from time to time I would glance at the keyboards online, and that was the case two weeks ago as well. Finally, I told myself enough of watching, I will buy them and learn to play.

So, I bought Yamaha PSR-E473 and I love it! It's challenging and so much fun. My goal is to learn popular music and learn to play by ear, so I decided to take this course: Home - Piano For All | Learn Piano & Keyboard

So far so good!
Hi Grini, thats really great :) well done ! I ve gotten so so much from learning to play -not only for myself but the gift of playing for others :) yes it can be challenging ! but consistency and daily practice yielded and continues to yeild so many benefits> I remember learning my first tune from reading the notes and playig oer and over (repetition) and then one day realising I had crossed the line of having to read the notes and could play the tune completely without looking at the notes ! It was a huge breakthrough and revelation for me and inspired me to carry on- these days I can pay alot of tunes by ear which is great! Keep going its so upifting and i find practice is like a healing meditation - enjoy :)

E R
 
So, I've been playing piano for couple a months (actively) and like a beginner to another beginner I want to share some things that I have discovered.
I had spent much time to collect information - books, You Tube channels with sheet music, theory and practicing chords, inversions and also some valuable tips. There's a plenty material on internet but even thought it could be interesting that one search for himself it could be, also, tiring and the result could be giving up. Please correct me if you find that I misunderstood something.

1. Many piano players on You Tube claim that is very important to know the chords.
So, here is the best collection of piano chords as far as I know.
When you learn chords it would be much easier for you read to music and improvise. Here it comes inversions. Which helps you that you play chords more easier and smoothly. Inversions you can find on the same the page like chords.

2. Scales. For me, as well as for other beginners (I suppose) playing scales could be boring but there's so much benefits from it.
  1. good way to get to know with instrument
  2. learning how to build a chords
  3. more fluent playing and
  4. you can also practicing playing with both hands.
If you find it boring, you can play with it, speed up or change the rhythm.

3. Understanding theory of music. I was always bad in understanding the theory of something by reading about it. I'm to old ;-D to change that, but I still have approach that helps me to progress. I just took one song and try to play. When I reach to the point when I can't play or don't understand the meaning of something I search. I don't think that there is something in music that couldn't be find on internet if you're really eager to find and understand.

4. Recording your progress. I think that is important because in practicing some skill many people come to the point (some more than others :rolleyes:) when one loose faith or will that he is capable of doing it. Listening recordings from before you can see the progress and that could be stimulating. Especially if you were really bad at the beginning ;-). Also, sometime helps me to force my self to continue with all this not believe in my own abilities, disappointment and lack of will till I reach to the point that I'm stuck on some part of the song and want to find out what's all about that. That gives me boost and thrill of learning.

4. Make foundation. Learning something new usually produce Productive confusion which can be good for you. My experience showed me that when I reach point in something that I understand enough to want more that's good. It takes effort but I like it since after always comes reward, learning something new.

6. Sheet music. Like I said there's a lot of material on internet and You Tube that you could get really amazing advices and learn a lot from it but also there's a lot of channels that is hard to follow and use. My favorite channels are:
Dietmar Steinhauer
Jazz Classical Music Studio - JCMS (this one because you can see the sheet and with which finger to play it.)
Learn Piano with Jazer Lee (great advices about learning piano)
Bella Ciao on PIANO (this guy looks like he really enjoying playing)

6. Goal. I think that is important that we set some goal/s regarding the piano playing or any skill that we wish to learn. Mine is reaching the point where I could play almost everything and having fun with it. I want to use this instrument to express some feelings in me and express my desire to be creative. Ultimate goal that I want to reach (in some in one of the following lives:halo:) will be making music something like this:


When you can hear and see events that author tried to present in the music. When you're connected with instrument and understand that you're just a conductor of creative energy.

I had a phase when I thought what was the point of learning to play the piano at the end of the world but then I told my self:"It's better to end with playing piano rather than despair. I guess that was good thought:

A: Yes. We do not want any of you to worry as it can change outcome.

Q: (L) Worry changes outcome?

A: Often, yes.
 
It's been nice reading this thread and finding so many who are enthusiastic newbies taking to piano. I've mainly been writing and journalling of late, but decided this month to give that a break and just noodle on my Yamaha CP. I've found this video from Welsh bassist Gaz Williams. He's a totally committed music tech kinda guy. He used to be bassist in Simply Red for a while. Anyway, in this vid below he focuses on how you can experiment with different sound modulation filters to create very proggy sounds on the CP. Phasers married with delay, washed with reverb, that's what I tend to enjoy when I mess about. As a fan of 70;s psych-prog music, this is a great little demonstration of the CP as an instrument. It cost me about £300 way back, a sound investment; I need to spend some time with it this week. To be honest my life has been pretty intense the last few months in terms of intellectual work, so I want to just have a break from all that stuff for a while and indulge creatively. As a demonstration of the value of effects units this video is very entertaining and informative.

 
Not wishing to hijack this thread, which is ostensibly about learning to actually play, but my mind is taking me to the use of effects units and sound creation in general. I've found this interview with Portishead's guitarist Adrian Utley, where he is given an Arturia MiniBrute to mess around with for a bit of a play. He manages to evoke Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Dr Who and Portishead within ten mins!:lol: He's a real old school synth enthusiast, and it's so inspiring to see him coaxing new and idiosyncratic sounds out of his new instrument straight out of the box. He's a real talent for sure.

By using an arpeggiator, sequencer and an echo/delay unit (he favours an Echoplex vintage unit), you can make extremely diverse experimental music, which is basically manna from heaven for me. It's a different way into learning about music, where I can practice chords, sequence them, then overlay lead lines over the top. I have an old drum machine too, but I haven't learned how to program it yet. My Yamaha CS can largely mimic the sound of the MiniBrute quite effectively however. The CS and CP work very well together, both keyboards were a sound investment from a few years back. They cost me about £500 all in, but they're very versatile, portable, and can be synched together with ease. Anyway, enough waffle, enjoyed this little vid.

 
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