Piano Forum
Piano Board => Student's Corner => Topic started by: garish2 on July 12, 2014, 02:20:17 PM
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Hey all, i'm new here and took me around 30 minutes to figure out how to post on a forum (not even sure if this is correct so forgive me if i'm wrong lol) but i'm in desperate need of some advice.
I've been playing keyboard/piano for just over 1 year i think, by teaching myself. I don't know how to read music i just do covers of other bands, i listen to a song and figure it out from that, but i really need some new techniques as i'm basically playing the same way i did a while back lol
For example, this is a cover i did about a year ago
This is one from a couple of weeks back
So yeah, as you can see the left hand hasn't changed, same style, same everything lol
I know i'm not the greatest player, but there must be some different techniques or something that can make me progress without using a piano teacher :/
Again i'm sorry if this isn't in the right place or anything, but any help will be appreciated :)
Thank you!
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Just so you know, doing classical music can seem boring, but it really does improve your technique.
That said, try some new, more challenging stuff. Rise Against has a very similar style to everything. Try some other pop music, from a lead sheet.
Oh yeah, and before anything else, you can't really expect help on here if you can't read music.... Just saying ::)
Feel free to ignore this... But if you learn scales, arpeggios, how to glissando, playing in key signatures, chords, 7 chords (particularly useful in pop), and most of all READING MUSIC ;) It'll give you a huge hand (pun intended). Learning new technique is as simple as playing shite tons of music and seeing what different artists do. I'm not a huge fan of the pop music scene (a certain comedian I love says why, look up Bo Burnham repeat stuff), but look up some well known songs, you can get people to sing very easily ;)
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Hey, thanks for replying! :)
I'm not sure whether you would class this as classical but i've recently been learning a simple version of Requiem for a Dream, which is a little different on the left hand technique but haven't as of yet been able to incorporate anything like that it into a cover.
(scales, arpeggios ect) I'm going to look them all up and give them a shot, work on them for a while and see how it is in a few month, will be awesome not playing the same kind of rhythm for every song i try to create a cover from haha.
Do you know of any free websites/videos which talk about scales ect? I've seen some random videos on Youtube but none have been very clear.
Also, i'm not really into pop music neither lol
Thank you again!
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https://www.instructables.com/id/Beginners-Guide-To-Playing-Piano-Intro/
Email me at harrisonrichter01@gmail.com and I can give you some more 1 on 1 help with them if you want. It looks like it has an entry on scales, but if you want I can send you a musescore or noteflight pdf with all the scales. Scales are simply series' of whole steps and half steps, and arpeggios are series of the root, third, fifth played across the keys.
Major scale- WWHWWWH pattern. For example, in C major (no sharps or flats), CDEFGABC is one octave of a major scale. If you can afford it, the first two books of Hanon will give you all the scales and arpeggios with the chord progressions and proper fingering.
Minor scale- Essentially the major scale with the 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degree (note) lowered by a half step. There are actually 3 kinds of minor scales, the natural minor (the one I just described), the harmonic minor (seventh scale degree is left untouched), and melodic minor (sixth and seventh degrees are normal on the way up, lowered on the way down). But for now you just need the natural ones down, and have basic knowledge on harmonic minor, as it's used a lot for dramatic effect.
Sorry if that was too much music theory for you ::)