Learning to play piano
Posted by: mikeeschman on 05 August 2009
I made a fundamental decision to upgrade my musical awareness about three months ago.
I am a trumpet player, and have always had trouble reading bass clef in "real time". To fix this problem, I have been following the bass line in Beethoven string quartets on a regular basis. This seems to have done the trick. I now follow bass lines with ease.
My pitch sense has always been somewhat uncertain. To fix this, I am being tutored in fixed do sight singing. We have been at it for about a month. My pitch awareness is much improved compared to a month ago. I think we will continue with this until the end of summer.
Now I am considering what to do next. I have discussed this with friends in the local orchestra. They all say the next thing to do is to learn to play piano.
My goal is to be able to reduce orchestral scores to chord progressions, then play the chord progressions on the piano in rhythm.
I am uncertain about how to begin. My wife is a pianist and is helping me, so I have a teacher available. We have discussed working towards being able to play 2 voice chorale melodies from the Bach Riemenschneider text.
Any ideas about how to proceed?
I am a trumpet player, and have always had trouble reading bass clef in "real time". To fix this problem, I have been following the bass line in Beethoven string quartets on a regular basis. This seems to have done the trick. I now follow bass lines with ease.
My pitch sense has always been somewhat uncertain. To fix this, I am being tutored in fixed do sight singing. We have been at it for about a month. My pitch awareness is much improved compared to a month ago. I think we will continue with this until the end of summer.
Now I am considering what to do next. I have discussed this with friends in the local orchestra. They all say the next thing to do is to learn to play piano.
My goal is to be able to reduce orchestral scores to chord progressions, then play the chord progressions on the piano in rhythm.
I am uncertain about how to begin. My wife is a pianist and is helping me, so I have a teacher available. We have discussed working towards being able to play 2 voice chorale melodies from the Bach Riemenschneider text.
Any ideas about how to proceed?
Mike,
I'm glad to hear this ! Being able to play the piano (or any instrument) is a fine thing and very satisfying but then again I have an obvious bias here
.
I want to encourage you but I also think it is important to offer some perspective into this discussion that might reel in some unrealistic expectations, if you have them. This isn't meant to take the wind out of your sails but to suggest that determination and patience will be in order for success.
Obviously, I do not know where you are at today and how your knowledge of trumpet playing will transfer over to learning a new instrument. I'm a pianist who has been trying to learn the cello and this is hard for me at my age. I would imagine that some of the musical understanding and theory will come through for you but now you have to learn how to sit and develop different muscles and learn different motor skills in your arms etc.
Fred gave some wonderful suggestions above but in my opinion, even if you were disciplined to practice everyday, that you wouldn't really be ready to tackle most of the suggestions for a few years. Bits here and there but most of those composers take 4-6 years maybe to be ready for.
For now, my advice is to get acquainted with the piano - knowledge of and for physical coordination. That means learning the keys, learning the scales, playing chords and arpeggios etc. Many people wrongly view scale practice as a mindless, boring, useless activity but I would beg to differ. It is your golden opportunity to experiment and learn how to use the piano to produce a touch and tone that you need for any given moment. You have to practice this in order to develop those skills.
So always start with hands separately and be aware of how you are playing/producing the sound and your body position. I know this is hard but don't rush. Learn these things and practice them VERY slowly and perfectly before increasing the speed. Also very important is to vary how you learn/play a scale. For instance, learn how to play it in any number of ways: legato, staccato, cantabile, agitato, softly, loudly, soft to loud and vice versa, use different rhythms and on and on...just use your imagination. You can do all these variations with the Hanon as well. Again, don't move on to #2 until you have #1 mastered. Play a scale silently - press the key so slowly that you feel where the action begins its throw. (If you have a grand piano you are very lucky as gravity works naturally with the return of the hammer - unrights need a mechanism to do this). Do this for about 1/4 of your practice time (10-15 minutes per hour). Use a metronome if you have to eventually also to make sure you are learning your rhythm well and how to count, too. I'd also suggest to learn only one key at a time and combine it with a piece you are learning. That is, if you are learning a piece in c+, practice all the different scales and technique in c+. If you are right handed, spend slightly more time working your left hand.
For pieces, my advice is the same. Hands separate and very slowly, to start. Try not to practice something beginning to end from the start. Work only on one bar or one phrase etc. until you have it. Then repeat the same in the following days until you have it mastered. This way the muscle memory starts to set. Eventually learn hands together. Do not work on the same small bit for more than 5 or 10 minutes. I don't believe one can learn anything more on that part after so many minutes. By doing the same little bit day after day though your mind has time in between to think about what you are doing.
Then eventually your practice will be some learning of a tiny chunk/phrase combined with eventually playing complete pieces through once you're that far. After a couple of months then it is OK to maybe look through some of the more challenging things that Fred suggested and just try little sections (hands separately at first); learning to sight read something new everyday should also comprise maybe 10-15 minutes of you hour too.
Admittedly, many people don't find the grunt work or the focus on details that fun. That is evidenced why so many kids quit their instrument after 4, 5 or 6 years maybe. But just set your vision on the end destination. Eventually, this discipline will pay off dividends. So much more to say but I have to run now.
It's really too bad we didn't live closer. I'd teach you piano for free if your wife would tune, voice, and regulate my piano, say, once a month : )
Cheers,
Doug
I'm glad to hear this ! Being able to play the piano (or any instrument) is a fine thing and very satisfying but then again I have an obvious bias here
.I want to encourage you but I also think it is important to offer some perspective into this discussion that might reel in some unrealistic expectations, if you have them. This isn't meant to take the wind out of your sails but to suggest that determination and patience will be in order for success.
Obviously, I do not know where you are at today and how your knowledge of trumpet playing will transfer over to learning a new instrument. I'm a pianist who has been trying to learn the cello and this is hard for me at my age. I would imagine that some of the musical understanding and theory will come through for you but now you have to learn how to sit and develop different muscles and learn different motor skills in your arms etc.
Fred gave some wonderful suggestions above but in my opinion, even if you were disciplined to practice everyday, that you wouldn't really be ready to tackle most of the suggestions for a few years. Bits here and there but most of those composers take 4-6 years maybe to be ready for.
For now, my advice is to get acquainted with the piano - knowledge of and for physical coordination. That means learning the keys, learning the scales, playing chords and arpeggios etc. Many people wrongly view scale practice as a mindless, boring, useless activity but I would beg to differ. It is your golden opportunity to experiment and learn how to use the piano to produce a touch and tone that you need for any given moment. You have to practice this in order to develop those skills.
So always start with hands separately and be aware of how you are playing/producing the sound and your body position. I know this is hard but don't rush. Learn these things and practice them VERY slowly and perfectly before increasing the speed. Also very important is to vary how you learn/play a scale. For instance, learn how to play it in any number of ways: legato, staccato, cantabile, agitato, softly, loudly, soft to loud and vice versa, use different rhythms and on and on...just use your imagination. You can do all these variations with the Hanon as well. Again, don't move on to #2 until you have #1 mastered. Play a scale silently - press the key so slowly that you feel where the action begins its throw. (If you have a grand piano you are very lucky as gravity works naturally with the return of the hammer - unrights need a mechanism to do this). Do this for about 1/4 of your practice time (10-15 minutes per hour). Use a metronome if you have to eventually also to make sure you are learning your rhythm well and how to count, too. I'd also suggest to learn only one key at a time and combine it with a piece you are learning. That is, if you are learning a piece in c+, practice all the different scales and technique in c+. If you are right handed, spend slightly more time working your left hand.
For pieces, my advice is the same. Hands separate and very slowly, to start. Try not to practice something beginning to end from the start. Work only on one bar or one phrase etc. until you have it. Then repeat the same in the following days until you have it mastered. This way the muscle memory starts to set. Eventually learn hands together. Do not work on the same small bit for more than 5 or 10 minutes. I don't believe one can learn anything more on that part after so many minutes. By doing the same little bit day after day though your mind has time in between to think about what you are doing.
Then eventually your practice will be some learning of a tiny chunk/phrase combined with eventually playing complete pieces through once you're that far. After a couple of months then it is OK to maybe look through some of the more challenging things that Fred suggested and just try little sections (hands separately at first); learning to sight read something new everyday should also comprise maybe 10-15 minutes of you hour too.
Admittedly, many people don't find the grunt work or the focus on details that fun. That is evidenced why so many kids quit their instrument after 4, 5 or 6 years maybe. But just set your vision on the end destination. Eventually, this discipline will pay off dividends. So much more to say but I have to run now.
It's really too bad we didn't live closer. I'd teach you piano for free if your wife would tune, voice, and regulate my piano, say, once a month : )
Cheers,
Doug