Any of you lovely people learnt to play keys after you got your Op1? Or even recently regardless of your Op1.
Can you recommend any good books or online resources/apps you found useful? It will obviously be of great use to my music making. I don’t need or want to be a great player just be able to noodle things out in a basic fashion and not rely on arpegiators and sequencing so much. I’m reading some theory books to as it goes hand in hand but any recommendations on that front would be good to.
So far been using YouTube alot as well as music theory for computer musicians book.
I’m a drummer and brought the Op-1 to expand my musical knowledge and for something to play along to hopefully when I become familiar with all of the interface. I find Playing the best way I’ve learnt and feel pretty confident now, practice makes perfect. I sucked at the start and now feel ok with it.
Have fun
The theory lessons, as well as the piano technique stuff, should meet all your needs, as stated. You don’t have to spend too many hours mastering the songs in the books like “Aunt Rhody”, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”, “Pachebel’s Canon”, etc. to where you can play them at virtuosic speeds. Just practice them until you feel comfortable playing them with both hands.
Look up the chords to songs you like and then look up those chords on 8notes and practice basic versions of those songs . Like aeroplane over the sea stuff , you know? And check out subreddits like /r/musictheory and /r/piano or whatever . Learning is largely based in understanding language and terms and vocab communication stuff. Reading people talk about notes and chords on Reddit makes it easier to digest once you Do begin to understand more
I learn doing rather than reading. I picked some favourite piano songs, got the sheets and learned them. And then made up variations of these songs, remixes if you like, based on the same chords, etc. Playing is learning.
I’m dogshite at keys, but a lot of keyboardists are. That said, after getting OP-1, I got a lot better because of how infectious the thing is. Nothing like an expressive instrument to push you. That said:
Took some piano lessons as a kid, then took piano lessons again as an adult after a gap of many years.
The theory lessons, as well as the piano technique stuff, should meet all your needs, as stated. You don’t have to spend too many hours mastering the songs in the books like “Aunt Rhody”, “He’s got the whole world in his hands”, “Pachebel’s Canon”, etc. to where you can play them at virtuosic speeds. Just practice them until you feel comfortable playing them with both hands.
Big ups for a solid recommendation. I’ll be sure to check it out, as I’m sure others will. Due to circumstances, I ended up with the keyboard model of the synth I was going for, so I should put it to use.
I’ve been longing to play since way before I bought any instrument of any description. It’s tough to know how and where to begin. I have tried everything except for a payed course. Years and years of fiddling and curiosity and then today I did it!
I went to invest in Skoove. They have 6 months for free right now but they don’t have a PayPal option so I went with another - Piano For All. It’s decent enough by first impressions.
Although there a millions of players to learn from on YouTube it can become discombobulated. That’s why I went with just one course. This way, it’s written and presented as a course with directional goals by the same teacher.
I’ll let you know how I get on and good luck with whatever you choose!
I’ve been longing to play since way before I bought any instrument of any description. It’s tough to know how and where to begin. I have tried everything except for a payed course. Years and years of fiddling and curiosity and then today I did it!
I went to invest in Skoove. They have 6 months for free right now but they don’t have a PayPal option so I went with another - Piano For All. It’s decent enough by first impressions.
Although there a millions of players to learn from on YouTube it can become discombobulated. That’s why I went with just one course. This way, it’s written and presented as a course with directional goals by the same teacher.
I’ll let you know how I get on and good luck with whatever you choose!
Piano for all has come a few times in my research. Definitely interested in hearing back in the future to what you make of it.
I was never any good at playing the keys, but I have played other instruments (violin, viola as a child and cello currently). A few months ago, I got my son a cheap-ish casio keyboard. It’s got 5 octaves and a bunch of presets, a few of which sound something like a piano. Since it’s been in the house, I got really interested to learn how to play. So far my approach has been to just have a go at whatever pieces sound nice to my ears and don’t sound too difficult (which for me means loads of stuff happening independently on both hands at the same time). It turns out that most things I try are too difficult for me, hehe, but I’m learning stacks whenever I play and having lots of fun. One piece I’ve mostly got down now (and it’s quite good for a beginner to have a go at) is the C Major Prelude from Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier - a really beautiful piece with pretty much nothing happening independently on both hands at the same time. Another really cool thing to do is to try to play the melody of whatever tunes you hear - might be a pop song on the radio, a theme tune to a telly program, a lullaby, a Christmas song, some game music. The process of figuring out melodies is great to get the brain going and to help feel a bit more natural at the keys.
I’ve been longing to play since way before I bought any instrument of any description. It’s tough to know how and where to begin. I have tried everything except for a payed course. Years and years of fiddling and curiosity and then today I did it!
I went to invest in Skoove. They have 6 months for free right now but they don’t have a PayPal option so I went with another - Piano For All. It’s decent enough by first impressions.
Although there a millions of players to learn from on YouTube it can become discombobulated. That’s why I went with just one course. This way, it’s written and presented as a course with directional goals by the same teacher.
I’ll let you know how I get on and good luck with whatever you choose!
Piano for all has come a few times in my research. Definitely interested in hearing back in the future to what you make of it.
Will do! So far so good! I’ve been smiling as I practice and just taking it steady. I always intended on learning through feeling. I’ve reached the peak so that’s why I had to move onto the next level. This has practical exercises and gets you playing chords straight away. Chords are where a lot of emotion can be found so it’s very stimulating.
The beginning part covers the basics in a breeze. The way it should be!
I’m trying to teach myself piano since almost 3 years
I just went to the library and chosed one beginner book with rock, pop, blues stuff.
It was fun to learn to play with two hands.
In the beginning learning easier pieces is important I think.
I think it’s also important to keep your motivation, that’s why I took the rock, pop one. Don’t want to become a pianist.
At the same time I was reading about music theory as well, because I actually started learning piano to be able to compose more aware of what I’m doing. And of course to live perform.
I still look into these notes from the book. But now I’m more into copying songs that I know and finding out about the notes, Arpeggio and Chords on my own based on the knowledge of the theory. This is really an important step. So plus 1 to what @yoof mentioned. This simply keeps your motivation much better.
I just hopped on to say that I’ve reached page 47 and I know 11 chords and it’s given me much joy playing. 2 days ago I couldn’t tell you a single chord. I was sat dressed and fresh, fed and watered at 7am this morning ready for practice! It’s such a joy to hear these emotional chords. Defintately had many moments of ‘Oh! That’s sounds exactly like such and such!’ And my favourite has been ‘A Clockwork Orange’ although it isn’t mentioned in the book.
Judging by the other posts I think you should try a few different ways. Mixrasta’s seems cool. For me, I sat down with sheet music but it was difficult and I spent longer trying to work out each note than playing. This book I’m sat with right now has got me playing straight away. So yeah, try stuff! I’m looking forward to hearing your progress… and everybody else’s on this thread now!
