Piano help
So I enjoy anime songs and listen to them on youtube and a lot of people make videos of them playing anime songs on the piano. So I decided to attempt to play some songs on my school piano by playing along with Synthesia videos but I failed super bad. I could hardly hit the correct note at the correct time and I can't tell how far the next note is from my current position. If I try to see where is the next button, the video will play a bunch of notes by then, so finding the button by then would have been useless. My hard also feels mad weird and it got tired fast. I only attempted right hand, didn't bother with left. Any tips?
December 15, 2014
12 Comments • Newest first
People are trying to learn how to play piano on their own. That's what piano teachers are for, talk to the person who understands treble, bass, and alto clef. And also good sight reading, understanding the music sheet when first lay eyes on it.
Edit: After graduating grade 6 royal conservatory of music I might be able to help you
Man I'd love to learn piano some day
@22mchan: I just started teaching it to myself a couple of days ago, and it seems manageable. Sure it's not easy but it's not anything like NGNL. This only has arpeggios, glissandos, and chromatic scales that make it difficult. Most of the time the left hand only has to do jump bass which is pretty simple. In NGNL, the left hand usually is playing a separate, and sometimes contrasting, melody, along with arpeggios and a lot more. Pirates is relatively simple, but it'll be very hard to get it to the speed that he played it at here. I have plenty of time though (I think I'm going to play it for my recital in spring) so I should be fine.
I just finished learning [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQeTS5inyMk]this[/url]. It's a pretty fun piece.
I love The Piano Guys btw. Good luck with learning that piece
@UAPaladin: Omg THAT'S ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVOURITES. That song is by no means easier than no game no life though. The speed of his fingers are just insane. I'm trying to learn this song with my friend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUjWJSnGVB0&list=UUmKurapML4BF9Bjtj4RbvXw&spfreload=10 much simpler and achievable.
@22mchan: Yeah, I'd love to learn it but I figure that it'd take me like 6 months and I'd never be able to play it like he did here. Maybe I'll learn a little bit of a simpler version I am learning a fun song right now though ([url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=n4JD-3-UAzM]here[/url]). It's not anime-related but it's awesome regardless (and who wouldn't love to be able to sit on the piano to finish off the song).
Get the sheet music. Learn to read and play music.
Once you start to learn the song, brute force it. One chord at a time, one note at a time, force yourself to memorise the hand and finger positions and go over and over until you can do it well. Don't try to play at the right speed straight away, that comes later. Do it slowly, until you can play it perfectly, then start to speed up. Takes a lot of practise.
I think it's time that you start learning how to read music sheets. It's really the best way to learn a piece. Yes I know there are other methods now like Midi but there are music sheets for a reason. Get familiar with reading the treble (right hand) and bass (left hand) clefs. You can find many resources online that will teach you how to read these notes. Or you can search up a guide on youtube, there are plenty around. Memorize the position of the note on the clefs to the point you can tell what note it is in a glance.
After, I would start with scales. Yes those are boring as f but it's the only way your hands will remember the position of the notes. Scales are just the start though, after you are comfortable with doing that, it time to start playing chords. It's honestly a lot of work but when you memorize the places where the keys are it makes everything much simpler. A lot of people don't have the dedication to this, but it really pays off in the end. It's just like typing on a keyboard, muscle memory.
Piano takes a lot of dedication to start and also to get decent. However, the end result can be amazing. When you finally get the piece right and you are able to play all the notes, you can start make modifications. Making certain parts louder or slowing it down, its all up to you. My piano teacher hated when I did that (but who cares don't be a slave to the music score). In hindsight, im glad i learned the piano but you really need to put in the effort. I hope you start though, many people give up
@UAPaladin that is still by far my favourite piano cover! When i heard watched it again to see if I could learn it, I was like oh this is soft. And then right when i got to the 40 second mark... T.T
You're totally going about the wrong way of teaching yourself to play the piano.
First, find something simple but you like enough that you'll actually make an attempt to learn it. Find sheet music for it and play the song off of the sheet music (if you don't know how to read sheet music, use google for help). Chances are, it's going to sound nothing like what it's supposed to when you first play it, and it'll take a very long time for you to play it through the first time. Don't be discouraged. I'm learning a new song right now, and it's like 3 minutes long. The first time I played it through it took me 20-30min. It takes a lot of time and dedication to learn a piano song. I've been playing for 13 years now and more difficult pieces take me ~2 months to be able to play properly. I'd advise you to focus on just one song at a time and then work your way up to the more difficult songs (which are what you're probably trying to learn right now). It might take you a year or more until you get here. Teaching yourself off of watching other people play or synthesia is a lot harder than learning off of sheet music in my opinion. Also, you're going to need to dedicate like a minimum of 20 minutes per day towards learning the piano (preferably), so get your own piano or keyboard (if it's a keyboard, make sure that it's full sized, and, if possible, pressure sensitive).
Of course the best way would be to get a piano teacher, but this is assuming that you don't want to pay for one.
Also, which songs were you trying to teach yourself? There are some easy anime songs like [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSdHQZeQ1Qg]this[/url] that you could probably start off on, but they aren't extremely interesting, and then there are some like [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQbVNzmCK0]this[/url] which are really fun, but I don't think that I'm even capable of yet.
One does not simply learn piano.
Print out the sheet music and learn it at your own pace.
Tip: The spaces going up the treble clef (right hand) read FACE and the spaces going up the bass clef (left hand) read ACEG. Memorizing that really helped me with reading notes. Also, if you have trouble memorizing sharps and flats, then circle the notes on the score. For most people, piano is all about muscle memory. So just keep on practicing and you'll eventually be able to play it perfectly!
remember to think about how you should play right as you lay in bed.
You can actually learn to read notes and try that. Not memorize what synthaesia videos show