Learning the Piano

Nope. Going to have a metal bar put through my little finger in my left (fingering) hand so after 40 years and upto 8 hrs a day practising it's end of play.:neutral:

Trying to develop a love for guitar but I'll never be as fluent in it as I am on the violin
I would think if you can play violin you can be as good as you want to be on guitar. Be positive. I remember booking my son in for six guitar lessons when he was about 12. When the six lessons finished he told me not to book anymore cos he was gonna teach himself. He did. Amazing.
 


I cried yesterday watching a nigh on blind 7 year old knocking out bohemian rhapsody.........


Yes he makes mistakes but the little trouper keeps on keeping on bless him :cool:.
Incredible. :(

I was sitting there the other day looking at the wall of keys in front of me and it occured to me.. "how the fuck did Stevie Wonder do it!". I'll never fathom how blind people can learn the piano so well.
 
Nope. Going to have a metal bar put through my little finger in my left (fingering) hand so after 40 years and upto 8 hrs a day practising it's end of play.:neutral:

Trying to develop a love for guitar but I'll never be as fluent in it as I am on the violin
if thats the case you`ll struggle with guitar then. You still use your pinky for fretting with some weird stretches as well, unless you learn it left handed
 
I would think if you can play violin you can be as good as you want to be on guitar. Be positive. I remember booking my son in for six guitar lessons when he was about 12. When the six lessons finished he told me not to book anymore cos he was gonna teach himself. He did. Amazing.

Unfortunately the little finger will continue to be an issue with the guitar but hopefully the guitar will be more forgiving and the resultant lack of hyper extension in my wedding ring finger won't be a hindrance on guitar I'm thinking either.
I learned a song I like in about an hour. So it's looking like I have short cut some of the hard work but weirdly I've gone from being able to read 3 clefs fluently to just playing guitar from chord charts as I can't yet correlate the notes on the score with the finger positions on the guitar :lol::oops:
 
Been wanting to learn the Piano since watching Great Balls of Fire (1989) - IMDb as a kid but never had the patience or time for it. I've decided to go for it at the ripe old age of 37, any beginners tips from the wise SMB musicians?


Practice, practice and practice!

Learn and practice the boring stuff like scales, chords etc. It helps later on. I used to do them as a warm up!

Play music that you like. I had lessons and would lose interest if I didn't like the piece of music he wanted me to play.

Start playing things slowly at first then build up to playing at the proper speed. You learn it more accurately that way, especially with something like Great Balls of Fire.

It's something I'd love to get back into playing but I've just not had the time to do it.
 
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if thats the case you`ll struggle with guitar then. You still use your pinky for fretting with some weird stretches as well, unless you learn it left handed

The hand positions are completely different and function differently as well. Losing my little finger means I lose my ring finger hyperextension which is essential for violin but not guitar.
I can easily rewrite the chords around my little finger aids as I have perfect pitch and sound theory in music.
Also in a bonza bonus when I get my bionic bar (it's just a bar like) I figure it will make block chording? Or whatever it is you do with that fret bar thing, will be super easy:D
At the moment my little finger is stuck in a crook shape so I can't block a fret (?) For toffee
 
The hand positions are completely different and function differently as well. Losing my little finger means I lose my ring finger hyperextension which is essential for violin but not guitar.
I can easily rewrite the chords around my little finger aids as I have perfect pitch and sound theory in music.
Also in a bonza bonus when I get my bionic bar (it's just a bar like) I figure it will make block chording? Or whatever it is you do with that fret bar thing, will be super easy:D
At the moment my little finger is stuck in a crook shape so I can't block a fret (?) For toffee
barre chords. Could do if your little finger is flat, especially barred A`s (b flat,c,d,e,etc)
 
Practice, practice and practice!

Learn and practice the boring stuff like scales, chords etc. It helps later on. I used to do them as a warm up!

Play music that you like. I had lessons and would lose interest if I didn't like the piece of music he wanted me to play.

Start playing things slowly at first then build up to playing at the proper speed. You learn it more accurately that way, especially with something like Great Balls of Fire.

It's something I'd love to get back into playing but I've just not had the time to do it.

All really good advice but that bit especially reminds me of my mother one time: I found her out in the garden burning music... we treated scores as sacred in my home so I was really shocked. She had been ill for a while and all the canulas they had put in her hands had fucked her nerves and stuff and she knew she wasn't going to be able to play deftly or eith dexterity for much longer so she took out all the music she hated and decided to burn it :lol:
Practice makes permanent, not perfect, so when you make a mistake repeat the phrase slowly at first over and over.
Don't always start at the beginning and go through to the end.

It won't always be fun, but you'll never regret it if you stick at it :D

barre chords. Could do if your little finger is flat, especially barred A`s (b flat,c,d,e,etc)

It's all new words for me. Feels like my guitar has a really fat neck but that is probably just because I'm used to a violin.
It is fun finding new songs and my pub is really supportive. Every lock in the instruments come down off the wall and everyone joins in and I get help there with difficult chords and transitions.
 
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Practice, practice and practice!

Learn and practice the boring stuff like scales, chords etc. It helps later on. I used to do them as a warm up!

Play music that you like. I had lessons and would lose interest if I didn't like the piece of music he wanted me to play.

Start playing things slowly at first then build up to playing at the proper speed. You learn it more accurately that way, especially with something like Great Balls of Fire.

It's something I'd love to get back into playing but I've just not had the time to do it.
Yup. Doing scales and arpeggio's daily, it's probably 99% of what I do. Learning chords slowly (there are so many!) but getting there. I still have trouble reading the notes on the bass clef sometimes, my brain just wants to see everything as a treble clef note. "C... bastard it's an E I forgot, start again.." etc. I'm sure with enough practice I'll get there.

Been trying to give my hands a rest this week so I've been dreaming about playing. Pretty sure I'm literally learning in my sleep. :lol:
 
Yup. Doing scales and arpeggio's daily, it's probably 99% of what I do. Learning chords slowly (there are so many!) but getting there. I still have trouble reading the notes on the bass clef sometimes, my brain just wants to see everything as a treble clef note. "C... bastard it's an E I forgot, start again.." etc. I'm sure with enough practice I'll get there.

Been trying to give my hands a rest this week so I've been dreaming about playing. Pretty sure I'm literally learning in my sleep. :lol:

The e above middle c? :lol:

For some reason f below middle c was my lynch pin in that area but failing that...

Good Boys Deserve Favour and All Cows Eat Grass
Have you tried contrapuntal? They are satisfying and really bed in your scales
Tone tone semi tone tone tone tone semi tone and my favourites tone semitone tone tone semitone tone

And to remember intervals you can learn songs but I can only remember somewhere over the rainbow is an octave and major 7th is just Pain as it sounds so awful. I had perfect pitch so didn't need so many pitching aids.
 
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I still have trouble reading the notes on the bass clef sometimes, my brain just wants to see everything as a treble clef note. "C... bastard it's an E I forgot, start again.." etc. I'm sure with enough practice I'll get there.

It takes a while but you'll get there in the end!

I'd love to be able to play like this bloke. I have visions of me being a little old biddy sitting raving on my piano :lol:

 
Nor just on the sheet, I see E on the bass clef and automatically think C. Twat learning 2 different scales. My stoner brain struggles. :lol:
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Ahhh e2.
Pick f2 or g2 as your lynch pin depending on where your little finger sits comfortably with your thumb on middle c
Don't stress about the others so much. If you bed in your little finger lynch pin the others will fall into place.
In a particular piece if you have to go sub e2 it will be rarely and you just need to practice that bit and bed that little finger jaunt in for a while until you move on to another piece.

That isn't cheating it's just how you learn. As you play more you'll become more fluent and your muscle memory will guide you better.

You'll get there if you keep putting bits in.

I found Chopin really good for learning the bass clef as he just puts chords down there
 

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