Piano

[Eco]

Been curious if anyone can play the piano? I started learning roughly 18-ish months ago, and while I can't read music, I think I'm decent at playing by ear and then copying some of my more favorite recent pieces, particularly those by Alexis Ffrench

 

[Coma+]

Personally, I think piano is the most difficult instrument to master and those that do it are gods.  The technical ability and dexterity required is unparalleled in music. 

[Eco]

1 minute ago, Coma said:

Personally, I think piano is the most difficult instrument to master and those that do it are gods.  The technical ability and dexterity required is unparalleled in music. 

Yeah. My Mom plays and I was forced into lessons as a kid, however I didn't stick with it. I had a much more difficult time with the violin when I tried to learn that, but damn give me a piano and I'll reach a level of peacefulness that is rather rare otherwise. 

Sounds odd, but there is a level I'm able to reach where I lose myself and forget everything else when I'm playing the piano, writing, or playing chess. Sadly I am not as talented naturally int he piano as my youngest sister and mother. 

[Coma+]

2 minutes ago, Eco said:

Yeah. My Mom plays and I was forced into lessons as a kid, however I didn't stick with it. I had a much more difficult time with the violin when I tried to learn that, but damn give me a piano and I'll reach a level of peacefulness that is rather rare otherwise. 

Sounds odd, but there is a level I'm able to reach where I lose myself and forget everything else when I'm playing the piano, writing, or playing chess. Sadly I am not as talented naturally int he piano as my youngest sister and mother. 

I think if you can learn to play piano you can play any instrument.  Unfortunately, I was never able to put in the time required.      

[Azeem]

Piano seems like chess, you can learn the basics quickly which might not be the case with other instruments like violin but mastering it is different game. 

[CaaC (John)+]

I love hearing a good pianist and, to me, I love listening to Sir Elton Johns songs when he is on the piano and singing.

I can remember when I was young we had a piano in our hallway and I used to sit and play what I could, I mastered Ba Ba Black Sheep and Jingle Bells and that was about it   but seriously I have always thought over the years that I wished I could have mastered the piano

One of my favourites from SEJ on the piano 

 

[Dr. Gonzo]

Piano was the first instrument I ever played. Well it was a Casio 88 key keyboard with nice weighted keys that felt like a real piano's keys. When I was a kid I wanted to make music (now that I'm an adult, I still want to make music) - I wanted a guitar but my dad said "not til you're bigger" and he got me the keyboard and taught me how to play and convinced one of our neighbors to give me lessons for cheap once he'd taught me everything he knew how to play on piano. It's still at my parents house.

I used to be a lot better at it - I used to be able to read music pretty quickly and could play music off a sheet of paper. Now I can still read music, but I can't just read it and play - I have to take time to figure it all out. Piano's the one instrument where I actually looked at sheet music.

I actually think the piano's one of the easiest instruments to learn. Unlike many instruments, most people can get pretty close to playing with the right technique with just a bit of practice and muscle memory - because playing on a keyboard doesn't really require training your hands/feet to do anything "unnatural feeling", which sometimes other instruments... that is definitely the case and you have to train your muscle memory in weirder ways.

And I think that makes it have an easier entry point than many other instruments, which is a good thing. Then there are so many different types of pieces of music, old (lol obviously) and new that are written on piano, so there's an absurd amount of songs that are out there to try and learn... and if you ever want to learn about music theory at any point in your musical journey... you will find that having knowledge of the keys on a piano will make understanding music theory significantly easier.

If you think of music as a language, piano is the lingua franca imo.

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely hard to master. But honestly, every instrument is hard to master... so that goes without saying. I don't think being good at piano necessarily makes that musician a better musician than someone who's very good at any other instrument - I'm not sure the world's best pianist would be more technically gifted or dexterous than the world's best guitarist/bassist/drummer (I think the best drummers are always the most impressive, personally - but it's all different skills really).

I think if anyone wants to be able to play piano, all they need are: 1.) hands, 2.) the willingness to learn, 3.) the patience to be able to keep practicing through being shit (you need this for every instrument lol), 4.) the ability to have access to a piano or a keyboard. Nobody should think it's too hard.

Is it too hard to be Mozart? Yeah probably, but you don't need to be Mozart... to eventually be able to play his music on piano. So @Coma don't feel like you can't learn how to play

[Mel81x+]

Don't need to add much more to what Gonzo said except this, whether you're 5 or 70 there is no time to learn an instrument its all really down to how much you want it.

If you've got friends who play regularly go play with them because more than just mastering an instrument I find that playing with others automatically ramps your skill level and plus its super fun too. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

@Eco what resources are you using to learn?

[Eco]

16 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

@Eco what resources are you using to learn?

YouTube and Mom 

[Dr. Gonzo]

5 hours ago, Eco said:

YouTube and Mom 

YouTube is really helpful for all kinds of musical instrument learning, tbh. It's harder because you don't have someone correcting technique and you sort of have to learn how to do that yourself, but it's definitely a way someone can learn to get pretty proficient.

And having a parent that can play an instrument and teach you is always nice. That's how I got started on the instruments I know how to play  

[Eco]

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

YouTube is really helpful for all kinds of musical instrument learning, tbh. It's harder because you don't have someone correcting technique and you sort of have to learn how to do that yourself, but it's definitely a way someone can learn to get pretty proficient.

And having a parent that can play an instrument and teach you is always nice. That's how I got started on the instruments I know how to play  

Yeah, I'd say it's because of my Mom that I speak Russian, play some piano, play chess, and also why I'm so fascinated with Space. All things I was ingrained with a lot as child. 

[yeriq]

Such a great thread, Nice Dr. Gonzo!

I'm not a musician but I love to listen the piano than other instruments. YouTube is the nice resource to listen but steel it's in form of video, great for learning. I prefer to listen piano tunes on other music app.

Plus I want to add this, My plants also like to listen piano tunes.

[Harry]

27 minutes ago, yeriq said:

Such a great thread, Nice Dr. Gonzo!

I'm not a musician but I love to listen the piano than other instruments. YouTube is the nice resource to listen but steel it's in form of video, great for learning. I prefer to listen piano tunes on other music app.

Plus I want to add this, My plants also like to listen piano tunes.

There's alot of great pianists on YouTube for sure!

I like the ones that do their own arrangements, and add a bit of flare to songs I already liked. This guy probably below is probably my current favourite. 

https://youtu.be/v0nzMzSeuEM 

 

https://youtu.be/nYDkd-rLjCU