Q. I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano and i have finally gotten my dad to come around to get me piano lessons (i've wanted them ever since i was 13)
I don't know how to read chords and i don't really know how to play anything at all but i do really want to learn ...... any advice?
A. In agreement with all the other responders - if you are still above ground and able to convert oxygen to carbon dioxide, then today is a perfect day to start. Call around and find the best teacher you can - not the stoner at the local music store - but a degreed, highly experienced teacher. You are the purchaser of services, so are well within your rights to ask these things - do not hold back! You should feel that at each lesson, you come away with some new knowledge, a reinforcement of what you have practiced the past week, and zeal to want to work harder and go further. Your teacher should be a positive force in your progress forward - but you can only move forward if you practice each day, the topics and amount that your teacher assigns. This does not mean hours and hours - it means playing with attention to detail, and calm fluency.
I admire you for your perseverance, and you desire to do this the right way. I hear hundreds of students every year, in my capacity as a judge, and 99 percent of the time, it is a pleasure to see and hear young people who are ion the right road - beginners, developing, advanced - but clearly satisfied and confident in what they do. A fine teacher will get you there. Please ignore anyone who says that you can teach yourself by buying some books and watching YouTube.
You can really move ahead quickly if you show up at your first lesson with some rudimentary knowledge of how to read music. For piano, you will need to know how to read both the treble and bass clefs. There are sites all over for this, as well as printed workbooks - this is easier than learning the field setup for any sport. Good luck!
What can I do to improve my Vocal Jazz Improvisation skills?
Q. I own many Vocal Jazz CD's, from the Real Group to Sinatra, Take Six to Toxic Audio. It's gotten increasingly hard to improve my scatting skills by just listening to records. Not to brag, but I already have a fairly high level of experience singing and improving, and I need something to push it to the next level. Any recommendations on exercises, or recordings to pick up, or workbooks or anything?
I'm familiar with both Instrumental and Vocal Jazz. I'm a trumpet player as well, so I listen to the Phat Band, SWR big band etc. as well as all the old masters.
A. listen to some of the old scatters, like mel torme and ella fitzgerald (the best male and female jazz vocalists ever).
then, practice at home, scatting over simple changes. either record yourself playing guitar or piano and get someone to play with you. just do simple changes like the 12 bar blues. try lots of things, even if most of them don't sound good. record yourself so that if something good comes out you can learn from it. try lots of different syllables.
leave lots of space!! don't think you have to be scatting the whole time, leave lots of empty space, use that space!!
and mess around with measure lines. don't start phrases on the 1, start them a half measure before and carry them over. unusual rhythmic things like that. keep trying and recording and you will have a toolchest of syllables and you will be able to anticipate the chord changes.
oh and you're a trumpet player, do you improv on trumpet? try to sing what you might play on the trumpet, that's a fun exercise, you can even do that silly trumpet voice to get you in the mood...
i can teach myself piano. how to start though is the problem.?
Q. To any musicians out there, because that's really the only individuals i care to hear from on this thank you, I need some advice. I can teach myself piano. I know I can. And I will. But where should I start musical wise? The posture and position, the piano, the notes. I've got all that. Just where do I go from there? Learn musical theory? Scales? Chords? I'm lost. If anyone could, please, just tell me where to start. I can, and will, take it from there.
A. I wrote a piano manual that is available at www.classicalpianolessons.com and it is also available as a Kindle download via Amazon. Major and Harmonic Minor Scales, the way I teach them, using fingering charts. by Eva Martin Hollaus. I strongly feel that everyone needs a piano playing foundation in scales, chords, and arpeggios. And the very beginning explanations on how to THINK piano, how to go about practicing is described, exactly how I walk my students through. I also have lots of important information on my blog and further links to purchasing printed manuals, all major and minor scales in fingering charts. http://howpiano.blogspot.com/ All basic chords, inversions and cadences, all arpeggios and a complete workbook manual that includes all the theory explanations I take my students through. I just started explaining my books on youtube and you can view the very first manual at my channel: playpianoinallkeys.
You will find, that if you acquire a piano playing foundation first - and as an adult with 30 - 45 minute practice 5 days a week, it should take you about 12 weeks. 1 week for each key, all keys are included with fingering charts, so you are not hanging up struggling trying to read notes while training your fingers. The charts are correctly labeled, so you are learning to first work the fingers, your ear and consciously / subconsciously your musical mind. Then when you learn to read notes, you already have your ear trained, your fingers are working for you and it's not all new for your mind.
Good luck.
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Title : Is a 17 year old too old to take piano lessons?
Description : Q. I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano and i have finally gotten my dad to come around to get me piano lessons (i've ...