Q. For example, the computer plays a chord, and then I try to name all the notes in the chord. Is there a software/online program that's like this?
A. http://www.mhhe.com/et7
On this site, you can see ear training exercises and download the mp3's so that you can practice with them. Some of the earlier exercises may not be what you are looking for, but scroll through and you should find some with chords. Even if the exercise isn't meant specifically for you to name each note of the chord, there are several which play chords for you. And the chords are written out in the PDF's (that you can download) so you can check your answers.
Hope this helps you!!! :)
Piano Video - Is it good?
Q. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqsOcSPGfg&feature=channel_page
Is it?
Please add any suggestions if you have some!
Thanks!
A. First off... Take no offense, I am trained to critique others playing and pick out so many nit-picky details... I have a ton of comments, do not be discouraged, this performance was great!
***First section, Grave, the beginning to 1:30... Now first off tucomena is right, there are some wrong chords in a couple of spots, so I'd start off by making sure you're playing them right and fixing them.
Now besides that... I feel that this section should be a little more, eh, free, but still keep it regal. First off, check your rhythm. In the first line you added a couple extra beats, or semi-beats. Also, use even more dynamics! You're already using a lot, but even more! A huge boom to start it of, then swell the dynamics and taper it off a little.
This is an interpretation thing, and you might like it differently, but I like a little ritard on the end of the first 128th note tuplet. Just a little styling...
After that... This section needs huge dynamic contrasts. Starting at :37, play those left hand chords as soft as possible. Really, keep it soft! On the right hand, I'd recommend voicing out the very top of the octave. It is P, for pianissimo and project. Project the melody out and phrase it beautifully.
Now, :43 BOOM! We just had a beautiful and soft phrase, now a regal chordal passage. Really make those chords loud! Then back at 46, back to as soft as possible voicing the top of the octave, and them back to the booming chords... Got the concept? Big dynamic changes. Also throughout this section, your chords aren't quite sharp enough. Make sure you've got a sharp dotted rhythm. Sharp 32nd notes.
Now the big chromatic scale towards the end needs to be rapid. Work it up so it's just about as fast as you can play it. Anyway, remember that from 1:05 to the 1:14, you should have a dramatic surge in intensity. More agitation, more intensity so it builds up. 1:14 to 1:25 was great! Now just a faster chromatic scale.
***Second section, 1:31 to 2:05...
Excellent work! It could be a smidgen faster if you'd like... It was a hair on the slow side. Now you had a couple wrong notes, but you should be able to iron those out...
I'd love to hear more phrasing and dynamics in the right hand. Pay attention to those little "arches" over notes, and swell and back off with each of those. Then this section will be even better!
***Third section, 2:05 to 2:48...
Isn't this section just painfully difficult? I find it the hardest of the entire piece.
Now, a few things... First the left hand. It might have been the recording, but I found the left hand to be a little overpowering... Perhaps less of it? Except, more of the whole notes. Give the whole notes its entire value and keep it sustained, but as for the other notes, keep them softer.
Now as for the left hand. Good mordants! The little "~" squiggley thingys! Great! But again, it'd be nice to hear more musicality and more phrasing... Also make it like two voices asking and answering with each hand crossing...
Again, this section could be a smidgen faster...
***Fourth section, 2:46 to 3:10...
Once again, slightly slow... But great! This is another tough section! Again, I'd love to hear more voicing of the melody, and more phrasing. I was so excited that you did not take off and acceleration, good control!
I'd also suggest a little pedal. Just a little. It will make it more smooth and grand... Just don't make it muddy!!!
***Fifth section 3:11 to the end.
Eek.... Note mistakes, I'd suggest you clean that up a little, and besides that, great! Just, why did you stop!?
Anyway, in general I have 3 tips.
1) When you make mistakes and you're performing, don't go back and fix it. Plow straight through as if you hadn't made a single note error. It' more impressive and more sophisticated.
2) More musicality! Lush! Tragic! Feel the music! More phrasing. Make it beautiful! You can do it!
3) Memorize it and clean up the note errors. Yep...
Do these 3 things, and you'll have the piece perfect!
Keep practicing! And great work!
--Schumiszt
PIANO HELP((((: please?
Q. Hi(:
So I'm going to start piano lessons soon and I wanted to get a head start. Does anyone know a website for me too learn so notes and different terms for the piano. A specific website? Thank you so very much :D
A. Here's a question... Are you going to be classical trained? I mean, I took 5 years of classical training when I was a kid, and after that period I was just tired of it so I continued lessons with pop and rock songs. Also at that time I started playing in a diferent style: I played some chords and tried to do something with them. Of course, this last one is cool if you can sing, but not so much if you wanna play all the parts of a song in the piano. Well, I'm getting farther from the point here, so what I'm trying to say is that: lessons are really, really great, until a certain point. Probably those first 5 years I had were enought, perhaps even less. The thing is, with piano, the more you practise the more easier it gets. One thing you should start doing is playing by improvisation. I think I could teach anybody how to play that way. The only really difficult part is how to positioning your fingers and such, that's why is great to have lessons with a professor. But, coming back to the 1st point, here it is how you could learn some piano skill. Pick a song you like, doesn't matter which one... just a pop song whataver. Type in google the name of the song, plus chords (Ex: Piano Man Billy Joel chords) You'll get directioned to a web site which will give you the lyrics of the song with the chords placed above. Now the thing is, there's some chords more difficult tahn others. Try to start with a song that doesn't have many difficult chords (the easy chords are the ones with few letters: Ex: C (that's a C major), G (That's a G major) or Gm (That's a G minor)) Usually these major and minor chords are the easiest ones, and you can play a lot of songs with these. There's a website that even shows you the notes which compose the chord, it's called "Cifras". But that's a Brazilian website, the american version is called E-Chords. Well, now, don't get tired of my explanation, I'm trying to describe it as much as I can. Now that you have chords and lyrics, the first thing you and to do is strating hit those chords. You can go easy, by and by. Usually these chords I talked you about are made of 3 notes each. Just keep hitting them on the piano (you gonna see they kind of keep in harmony with the melody you know). For starters, you can hit them with the left and the right hand; it helps you to learn the location of the keys. Once you've get used to change chords, let's move on to step 2. That's filling a little bit more the hermony. How to you do that? Well, while you hit the full chord with the left hand, hit also with the right hand, but then try to play those 3 noted separately. For example if the chords as the following notes 1 2 3, play it in this sequence 1 2 3 2 1 hit the chord again 1 2 3 2 1. Can you feel it? is like trying to fill spaces beetween chords. Well, I think I'm gonna finish here, otherwise I think I will confuse you a lot and you'll think piano is too difficult. Try to do this simple exercises, it's fun and easier way to learn piano. But, you should defenetly have classes cause it helps. But probably it's gonna take a while since you're gonna be able to read fast enought for you to read full pop songs or other. And these way I'm teaching you, you can play and have fun with some songs you like until you're more advanced in piano. Give it a try, there's other tricks to learn how to play improvisation on piano, but since you're still a beginner, It didn't matter if I explained it now. Once you get used to the basic stuff and to play some chords and if you want to know more about improvisation send me an e_mail for shadesandimprov@hotmail.com . If you wan't to have an idea of what you can accomplished you can listen to one of my videos in youtube. I started just like you: lessons. But I learned the most playing by improvisation. But again, it's good to have some notions of both styles. And you defenetly should learn how to read music. Then when you get better you could just, for example, take the intro of a song from a sheet music and then doing the rest using improvisation. Here, listen to this video of mine (it's not perfect since it was an experiment, but gives you the idea). In this case I didn't learn the intro from a sheet, but from a youtube video tutorial and then the rest is just improvising with the chords the way I explained you (in a little more advanced way lol, but of course, I have years of this and, as I said there's other stuff you could learn to play improvisation): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPjpppH6XU&feature=plcp . All of this was just for you to get an idea that piano is not that hard to learn as it may seem.
Good Luck with Your lessons
Shades (that's my artistic name lol, just don't want to post my real name in these yahoo forums)
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