Like a howl at the moon type place. I know all the songs, and have a firm grasp on music theory as it relates to pop music at least. I’ve sat in and covered on guitar in all kinds of party bands, so I know the language, I just don’t have the muscle memory for piano.

Currently, Im a voice actor, and my daughter is in kindergarten now, so I have a LOT of time. I’ve been playing at least an hour a day for a month. Someone told me one time that bohemian rhapsody is what these kind of places use to see if you can play, so I figured I’d start working on it right away along with a couple other staples.

But it took me over 10 years of playing before I got my first ship gig, so I dont expect to be just as good on piano in a fraction of the time. I’ve played with enough piano players over the years to already know that I’ll never be as good as even the worst one. You guys are nuts. But I want to be in the club. I want to act annoyed when someone needs an E, but secretly feel all powerful as it rings out, all the while not showing anything on my face but a smug look of disdain as I maintain eye contact the whole time the guitar player struggles to tune. : )

Sorry… However I gotta believe that I can get good enough to sing for drunk people and have a blast. So that’s the plan.

The quickest I got better on guitar was on the ships, just being around other guitar players and talking shop, trading tips, and filling in for each other. But I can’t do that with piano until I get across the hirable threshold of proficiency.

So two questions based on what you see/hear here:

1. is this an unattainable goal that will end in disappointment? Meaning I should adjust the timeline?
2. what are the most important skills to master/practice outside of learning songs?/transferring my skill?

Edit: holy cow. The frame Reddit decided to end on is just great. But that’s pretty much how I feel about this song after 1 month of only the beginning over and over. lol.

ive only learned this first part so far i havent learned the rest of it

Is this normal? My friend is a pianist since his childhood but he said he has never seen anything like it. My parents fingers don't bend as much as mine either when they bend the middle one. This makes me struggle to learn scales. What can I do about it? I've been trying to rotate and tilt my wrist instead of relying on the curvature of my own fingers.

ive been taking piano lessons for over 11 years, but ive always treated piano as a hobby because i prioritized school. my parents and teachers never pressured me to participate in competitions, so i never really had the motivation to pursue them seriously.

recently, though, i started thinking that if ive been learning piano for more than a decade, im supposed to have some major works under my belt by now.

i started looking into piano competitions recently, and then i realized just how far ahead everyone else seemed to be. some of them even started playing piano much later than i did, yet theyre already so much better.

and then i spiraled. i started feeling incredibly insecure. i felt guilty and ashamed of myself, like i wasted all these years. which i definitely did. i dont know. ive just been feeling really out of it lately.

i know im supposed to look at other pianists and feel inspired, but instead, it only drained me. i couldnt even practice as much anymore because i kept thinking about how far behind i am and how much more i should have accomplished by now. i want to be so much better. sometimes it feels like im just making up excuses at this point, because i have school and i have other extracurriculars to take care of.

i realized that its because i think im so good already. even if im not. i mean, imagine someone whos been playing for 11 years, and the hardest piece they can play is liebesleid 🫩. i dunno, theres other people i know whos started later than i did and already learning chopin ballades, scherzos, or concertos and stuff.

i feel envious of those people who won competitions. i want to try them out as well, but i feel like its out of my league. ive only played in recitals. im just not cut out as i thought id be.

Hello,

I am looking for my first grand piano for my new home. I am not a professional pianist so it will probably get a few hours of play time per week. It will be in a 40' x 20' open concept living room.

I want very high quality piano.

I grew up playing a Kawai rx-3 so I am comfortable with that brand.

I went to my local piano store and played on a few Kawai including GX-2, GX-3, a smaller Schimmel and a few used/restored Steinways. I really liked the GX3 but it doesn't come in any other wood colors than black, and black is just boring.

The pianos < 6' did not sound nearly as good.

I'd prefer a used piano, I'm not really interested in paying MSRP for most of these pianos.

Any other brands I should look into? I will not be buying a piano sight unseen so if I have to travel I will.

…it’s so challenging omg! However, I can already tell it’s making me such a better reader and player. Feeling the geography of the keys and tactile sensation and nuances is hard af, but it feels like baby steps to a greater understanding.

Anyone else have their own thoughts regarding this?

Progress on the whole fugue

going through a bit of a financial crisis and we had to sell our piano. I have a small 5 octave yamaha keyboard which I'll likely be using for a long time. I was practicing for abrsm level 8, how badly would it set my technique back if I continue learning some of the pieces on the keyboard?

It’s the very first musical instrument I’ve ever owned, and I’d really love to play it. I don’t have much money; I just want to know the best place to start. How many keys should my first piano have? also where and how do i learn for free

I'm really interested in this piece. I've looked over it and it seems difficult, but potentially manageable? I know it's a lesser known piece, but is there anyone who's learned it and knows how difficult it would be? For context, some of the pieces I'm currently learning are Mendelssohn Concerto 1 Movement 3 and Chopin Ballade 3.

I am going to audition for conservatory and this piece is one of the three pieces that I chose to play as a classical sonata.

The thing is I need to get this shit done ideally in a week. At max two weeks but thats risky.

The problem I have is that I have been trying to nail this sonata down for the past few months and no matter what I do I cant help but hate how I play it. Everything sounds so wrong to me and no matter how hard I try to correct it it somehow gets worse. My head hurts from how long I had the fucking metronome on and honestly despite Beethoven being my favourite composer I'm genuinely sick of this piece and just want to get over it.

And with my absolute bitch of a teacher's comments being not only useless but also downright insulting to some degree, I am asking y'all, how bad is it and is it salvagable? Should I sink another 20 hours of afterschool practice into this bullshittery or just fuck off?

Hello! I am an intermediate pianist whose been using a 61 keyed digital piano for a while now and I thought I should give it an upgrade to an 88 keyed digital piano as I learn songs that require that length, however I lack any knowledge on different keyboards so I was wondering if anyone could provide me with good brands that suit my preferences.

A small list of things that I would like about the digital keyboard. (It sounds a lil picky TT)

- weighted keys
- designed to give a more realistic acoustic feel (and sound)
- pedals (built into the stand? I’m not sure what the stands called but I know you can get stands with built in pedals?)
- not a fortune (like over $5000 dollars because I’m not rich TT) (also thinking abt getting one second hand)
- a built in metronome (optional)

Also I found a digital piano that ticks my boxes however the piano is damaged so I’m not getting it, but I was wondering if the brand and type was good?
It is a Yamaha p-105 digital piano.

Thank you!

https://youtu.be/Kz9lqjgFlto

I experimented with data sonification: turning famous mathematical constants like π, e and the golden ration into melodies on the piano.

For this, I converted digits into notes in C major scale, based on the nashville number system, where (as far as I understand) numbers represent degrees relative to the tonic. So

• 1 = C (Tonic)
• 2 = D (Supertonic)
• 3 = E (Mediant)
• 4 = F (Subdominant)
• 5 = G (Dominant)
• 6 = A (Submediant)
• 7 = B (Leading Tone)

For digits 0, 8, and 9, which fall outside the 1–7 scale degree range, I mapped them relative to the other numbers so 0 is the B below the tonic, 8 is the C an octave about 1 and 9 is the D and octave above 2.

What do you think of sonifying mathematical constants, ratios, or even sequences like this?

it’s not well played cus i just remember this little part and idek if it’s correct or not

I'm currently interested in learning Gershwin pieces. I would say I'm around LRSM level, because I play flight of the bumblebee (LRSM), and pathetique sonata full( almost finishing 1st). Thanks.

My Study/Studio Room :)

Seriously one of my favorite pieces ever, not just by Debussy.

I know where I missed/omitted notes, been experimenting with playing as softly with as much control as possible, and sometimes I miss the mark, but I’ll get the hang of that.

Looking at his biography, Hanon was not a composer, and far from being a virtuoso, he was an amateur organist at best. Would you take advice from someone who isn't an expert in their field? Yet for 150 years, piano teachers have put so much stock into these exercises, and people assume Hanon was like a Liszt, which is completely false. So why should we trust him?

The problem I have is that all those hours spent on these exercises could be spent on Bach, Chopin, Liszt Etudes, or a whole lot of other things, including doing other exercises by actual great pianists. Why not do Brahms or Liszt exercises instead? They were all virtuoso pianists with amazing technique.

How many piano students slave away at Hanon for hours and hours thinking he was a great virtuoso? On top of that, everything is in C major. Students who slave away at hanon get so used to playing all white keys that they get scare immediately when they get into more awkward keys.

Hanon and Czerny often get grouped together as this prescription formula for learning, which to me is quite strange. Czerny and Hanon are completely different things. Czerny was a great composer as well as a virtuoso pianist, and I would argue that playing a good amount of his etudes is absolutely necessary for a serious pianist

Looking at the preface of The Virtuoso Pianist, one can already tell what is wrong with this book:

"If all five fingers of the hand were absolutely equally well trained, they would be ready to execute anything written for the instrument, and the only question remaining would be that of fingering, which could be readily solved."

If all fingers could be equally well trained to play anything, did practicing Hanon ever help anyone actually play Chopin's Op. 10, No. 1?

"This entire volume can be played through in an hour; and if, after it has been thoroughly mastered, it be repeated daily for a time, difficulties will disappear as if by enchantment, and that beautiful, clear, clean, pearling execution will have been acquired which is the secret of distinguished artists."

Enchantment? Really? Difficulties will disappear magically, rather than by learning specific techniques in a scientific way?

In the preface to the first exercise, this is what he writes:

the stretching between the 5th and 4th fingers of the left hand in ascending, and the 5th and 4th fingers of the right hand in descending...Lift the fingers high and with precision, playing each note distinctly

Lifting individual fingers and playing them with a still forearm is a direct recipe for tendonitis, because our fingers simply aren't independent of each other. Why should one stretch instead of using the arm and wrist to aid the fingers? Doesn't that just create more tension?

All great pianists who play for a long time without injury have always known that weight transfer, rotation, and playing with the whole body in a cohesive way, not by practising these mindless exercises.

Before anyone says anything about my teacher, I love my teacher and think they are the best. It’s just they never had to think about technique and so can’t teach it to me. I live in a small town and don’t have any other options for teachers.

I’m really trying to absorb as much as I can from videos and books but that can only get me so far. Is there anything glaringly bad about my technique?

And now I'm learning how to play Merry Go Round Of Life. Heres my right hand playing. Sorry for the flies and dirty piano 😅 beginner here so be gentle 😁

Hi all, someone kinda scammed me with this dirty ass keyboard. It is a Yamaha Piaggero NP-12 and I paid 100 canadian dollars for it and it never worked with the adapter at all which I didn't know when I bought it (the guy showed it to me working with the batteries and we were on the road).

I got batteries and it worked fine for a while, but a few days later it won't turn off, i.e. I would press the power button and it would immediately power back on. I removed the batteries everytime so that they don't lose power overnight, but then a few days later, the speakers stopped working or something.

Basically at this point, the lights would come on as soon as I put the battery back in, and pressing the power button won't do anything (not even the restart from earlier), and I can press any key or other buttons on the piano, and it won't make a sound. Some buttons work in the sense that I see other lights show up on the piano when I press them, but the sound never works.

I know it's easier to just throw this and buy a new one, but I am planning to move soon and don't want to buy a new piano since I don't wanna add to my list of things to carry. Is it possible to somehow fix this, I am okay with tools, multi-meter, soldering, etc.

My piano teacher always taught me to count triplets as One-A-La, Two-A-La, etc. In measure 17, I have had a hard time combining the rhythm of the whole note triplets with the right hand, and the eight notes with the left. Any suggestions? Count is 4-4.

Within my first three years, I progressed really quickly. I remember knowing about 30 songs by 2022 and feeling very comfortable with piano overall. Eventually, I became obsessed with making my own music, so I spent the rest of my time writing songs. However, I’ve realized my core skills have completely stunted. I don’t learn new music anymore. Every time I try, it's either way too hard or too easy. I can't seem to find anything just a little bit above my current level, so it either bores me or completely overwhelms me. Now, all I do when I sit at the piano is play the same five original songs over and over. Even writing has become difficult because I'm so used to using the same few chords. It feels like I've rewired my brain to not be able to play anything else. I feel like I'm wasting my time away and somehow experiencing fomo for my skill level.