Learning Neo-Classical?

[sjaguar13]

I started playing piano/keyboard to play neo-classical. I have been playing guitar for 7 years, so I know about rhythm and stuff. My brother took keyboard lessons a while ago and I played around with his old books. They were really basic and stuff like Mary Had A Little Lamb.

I doubt very many of you are familar with Jens Johansson (keyboardist for Yngwie Malmsteen) or Janne Warman (keyboardist for Children of Bodom and Warman), but those are the guys I want to play like. I am having a really hard time finding a teacher or even a book on that kind of playing.

I was looking at the Hanon book, but it seems like a lot of people here don't really like it.

[Daevren]

Neo-classical is actually relatively new classical music, but not the really avant garde, atonal music but music that sounds very much like classical period music, ie Mozart, Haydn but to Beethoven.

If you want to learn keyboard/piano technique try Czerny instead of Hanon.

My suggestion would be to play rock/metal style neo-classical with guitar and learn piano reperoire in the normal way.

So first make sure you actually like (some) classical music. You just need to find a start. A good suggestion would be Chopin etudes. Thats fast stuff you probably connect with.

You might say: "Well maybe, but I don't like it that much. But I love the hard rock stuff."

To that I say: "Welcome to being a real musician."

Do you know what Jens listens to? You know he plays jazz/fusion? His musical horison is broad. Same with Yngwie, althought all the alcohol seems to have damaged his brain(if I have to believe the rumors). I don't know about Janne Warman but he probably had alot of classical piano lessons as a child. I remember seeing a video clip way back and he didn't look very 'metal'.

So being a musician is finding something nice in as many music styles as possible.

So now you can just learn classical repetoire, have fun, learn new stuff and develop paino/keyboard technique.

[sjaguar13]

Thanks for the reply. I looked up Czerny on Amazon. This is what I got:

The School of Velocity for the Piano: Complete

Thirty New Studies in Technics, Op. 849

Carl Czerny: The Little Pianist : Easy Progressive Exercises Beginning With the First Rudiments

The Piano Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering Piano (Carl Humphries)

Art of Finger Dexterity in Piano (No 1) (Pre-Release)

I am thinking I need either the Thirty New Studies or The School of Velocity. Which one is better?

I like classical. I listen to Haydn, Bach, Pagannini, Beethoven, and Mozart. One of my all time favorite songs is Flight of the Bumble Bee.

Janne Warman did have a lot of piano lessons as a kid. I read an interview with him about his side project Warman and he was excited about being able to play a grand piano on the album like he used to play when he was little. His bio says he's only been playing the keyboards for 4 years. https://www.childrenofbodom.com/janne.html

[Daevren]

Ok, first. Stop using songs when you refer to classical pieces that aren't songs(ie, don't include singing) before you offend someone.

Secondly, do you see the 'Op. 849'. That means Czerny has at least 849 works. I am not familiar with the content and focus of practice of any of Czerny's work. Although some titles speak for themselves.

Check these sites:
https://www.byronhoyt.com/ebrary/ https://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/

Both have free Czerny(and Hanon) plus actual music.

[sjaguar13]

Are those Czerny books just the sheet music to his songs? I thought Czerny and Hanon were teachers/authors (like Troy Stetina for guitar).

[Daevren]

Most of Hanon and Czernys works are pedagogical studies and methods, yes.