Piano Players (Chords, and Notes)
Hi all, I started piano when I was 14 and did about 2 years of it (every sunday), and got up to book level 4, but I didn't really feel any progress as all I felt I was doing was, just memorizing the song and simply playing back what I memorized. I thought the point of learning from these books were to improve your note reading skills. Anyways, after a tragic incident, I stopped playing, period. I am 20 now, I regret stopping, because I major in bio-chem and music in school (vocal), and most of my friends, can also play the piano very well.
This has given me the motivation to start again with music, but this time I'm going to take the chord approach. I've started to self teach my self to play the piano by chords, because I hear it's the best way to get started. They offer a piano class in school too, 2 days a week 3 hours per day, and it starts May 2nd, and ends July 29th. So every term I am looking to take piano (note reading) in school, while I self teach myself chords at home.
At this point in time, if someone says to me play C, or D#, I can go to it fairly quickly, I know that there are C5, and D6s, but I don't know those yet. My cousin, never once played the piano in his life, and the next year when I went to visit him, he had a scholarship to a university for piano playing (he taught himself). So if he can do it, I can do it too, because I really want it badly.
Anyways, to get to the point, are there any tips you guys want to share to help me with my chord based approach. Also with sight reading, because that would help me with my singing alot too.
5 Comments • Newest first
@ZapDoom: Now I admire him for it, none of us expected it at all. And there was no indication that he wanted to do music at all, because when I saw him (before he learned), I could play better than him, and I don't know how to play lmao. But the next year I came back, it was like complete transformation. I was just using him as an example that anything you want you can get it, if you really want it.
It's not that I understimated him, it's just that it wasn't expected from him, because no one knew that's what he really wanted to do, until he blew everyone's minds. Because I have this other cousin, and she has been playing piano since she was young, and she was the one everyone said was the musically gifted (piano wise), and she really is, she's 18 now, but back when she was 15, she could beat out many of the people I see playing in my university now, and they're really good, but the thing with my cousin is that, within a year, he got better than her. That's what blew my mind. I thought to learn piano it would take years and years, but he proved it wrong, and it's given me the resolve to take it up again.
@Cordate
Someone told me that, if you learn from the reading notes in the book, you usually don't know how chords are made, so by that do you mean, I should listen to the chords more than, trying to memorize the letter notes?
[quote=Mike4281]I envy Piano players :[[/quote]
You should start, if you really want it, you'll get it, my cousin did it within a year, and now universities asks him to play for them, and he never had an ear for music, you can do anything once you really want it.
I envy Piano players :[
[quote=HailTheCrowing]I see where you're going here. I've only learned through reading notes and playing back also. I know all the major chords, but the G6s and diminished 7ths and such I have to actually pause and think about.
Learning through chords feels kinda formulaic at first, but that sort of makes it easy when you realize that all chords do the same thing when you turn them minor or 7th or augmented or whatever.
I'm glad you're starting to play piano again, you should do videos.[/quote]
I would like to do videos, but how often would I upload, because I don't want to upload where it seems as if I'm not improving. Right now, I have 2 full weeks before school starts again for me, and I want to spend most of that time on the keyboard, just experimenting and stuff. I heard that one of the best ways to learn, is to, play songs you know the tune of, and use trial and error so that you can get more familiar with what keys make what sound, and how far to jump on the keys when the sound jumps there. LOL it's exciting me just thinking about it.
[quote=ItzNarutosse]..? What is this.. I don't eve-
Anyways learning by chords is really hard. You should learn the notes through-out the piano keys. I'm pretty sure there are guides online.[/quote]
when I say learning by notes, I mean learning by reading the notes in the book, and then playing it back, I think by chords helps me to learn the notes by ear, so if you tell me G i should be able to (if i master chords) produce that with my voice or with the piano.