for those who can't read notes but wants to play!

[Snappy Joe]

As the topic goes: "For those who can't read notes but want to learn to play anyway!"

Hi! I've been reading this exceptionally great forum for some 3 months now and finally signed up, mainly because there has not been one question from my mind unanswered  
But the least I could do would ofcourse be to contribute, even if a tiny amount  

about my piano playing relations:

I started 4½ months ago playing, I got a keyboard for christmas, a 4 1/4 octave Hohner with all sorts of crappy sounds, (excepted is the Orgel) no pedal or weighted
keys(actually, even the piano sound isn't that great either!) But still it can play and I practise on it everyday.

I can't read notes, not very well, I can read them once at a time, or sightread a few, but it's not even close to a beginner niveau.

Ofcourse I still wanted to play, so I did! - With the help of a simple program called "VanBasco's karaoke player"
This program can play all midi files and show what keys are pressed at what time how many times, etc.

This has been a great help to me and I thought I'd like to share it with the rest of you who can't read notes well yet  

You can get it at www.vanbasco.com (free too, I should mention! -(freeware) )

Currently Im playing the Minuét Waltz and Mazurka Op 6 No.2, I practise 3 hours a day at work(I work at a gymnasium where they have a brand new  D-272 Steinway Grand , and they allowed me to play it!! )
When I get home I practise 1 hour at my mother's piano
(it's a Futura Scandinavia, VERY hard touch, but I'm getting used to it  )
and finally 1-3 hours when I get home, depending on how tired Iam.
Im self-taught, but it's fun and challenging!, but most importantly: I _Love_ piano and classical music,
I don't play to hear the crowd, I play because I cannot not play =)

Well, that's just about it... jeez, I told myself I'd just type  the website and hit enter  

[Bernardswatch]

Is this an advert?

[Snappy Joe]

I wrote this to help others who can't read notes...(they do exist, Im one of them)

So that would be a SOUNDING *no* to an advert, and besides it's freeware *doh*

[Bernardswatch]

sorry it was just the way it was written made me think maybe an advert

Good luck with your playing keep at it.

Ur a lucky person to be able to practice of a Steinway

[bernhard]

Any particular reason for not putting some 20 minutes a day towards learning how to read/sight-read?

It is not that difficult (it is far easier to learn how to read music than to read books). It just requires consistency.

By the way, I am all for training oneself to play by ear as well. I see no reason why not to get superlatively good in both.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Snappy Joe]

Well, I started to "learn" notes when I first began, but the musical scores that was given to me was of no real interest (it was mostly rhythmical practise, I had a teacher I should mention, for 1 month, once a week, 1 hour..with 3 other students at the same time, I never really learned anything there , we mostly all just sat and played for ourselves :-/ )
But I still wanted to play and my teacher gave me a cd with the aforementioned program on it(since I had told him that I couldn't read notes).
And from there I've used it for everything, even La Campanella(which I can't play yet, nevertheless fun to watch the key action ).
I should mention that you can't see if the keys are pressed hard or light, it does have limits , but that hasn't been a problem for me since I first begin to look at how it's played, after I've listened to it on a real piano(as in CD's etc, I have a lot of music by well-known and respected pianists, Arthur Rubinstein, just to name one, and a lot of music  by unknown authors-mostly on the computer, whereas many of them are actually VERY good ..some I even favor vs Rubinsteins versions...!)

So to answer your question short(albeit a bit late now)
I haven't needed it
But I will start to learn it, soon too I think, can't rely on a program forever I guess

Edit: Yes, _Iam_ very lucky to practise on a Steinway, I know  

[goalevan]

If you love piano that much and spend so much time playing you might want to consider throwing some sight reading practice in. It's frustrating at first - I'll be the first one to admit but worth it once you start making progress.