I've been trying to teach myself how to play and I was just wondering if there is any advice.However i'm not a complete beginer i know a few things. But again any advice will help.

you already made a few boards about this............just purchase some piano lesson books and teach yourself the music thats in them.

I would but i dont have money for that. I also wanted to see how far i could get without a book. Besides its no fun if its going to be like school staring at a book trying to figure out what it means.

I have a private teacher which I recommend because it is one-on-one lessons.

Well that sounds better then being in a classroom where there is 1 teacher for 25 students

I would highly suggest starting by ear, NOT reading sheet music or theory.

I would but i dont have money for that. I also wanted to see how far i could get without a book. Besides its no fun if its going to be like school staring at a book trying to figure out what it means.

come on,the books are less expensive then lessons,and you can learn at your own pace............would you rather pay 80-100$ a month for lessons or 20$ on books? :\

why by ear and how would i learn to do that?

Portfoolio Magnifico, what the fuck is wrong with you?


Check old threads in this section (Music Discussion). They may be quite a few pages back, but they're there -- threads filled with good tips and advice for new pianists.Check your PM, your other threads, and most importantly your first thread.

Believe me, there are awesome advice in our old threads.

If I close this, you'll just create another thread exactly like the other three or four that I closed. Then I'll just ban you.. which I should've done (and should do).

So, I'll leave this opened and see what happens.

Harsh words zer:\ . But i'm not used to forms so I don't know all the rules:heh: . :whistle: But i'll stop.

Read the rules then

Eh i guess i had it coming but no matter. Any other advice like chords or scales?

why by ear and how would i learn to do that?

To develop your aura stimuli, and be able to compose and transcribe songs with more ease. :)

Aura stimuli?In normal english what would that mean?

Your ability to make sense of what you hear.

My sister went by the Suzuki method (learning by ear)...I didn't...I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

You should definitely get an instructor, if for nothing else than to force you to learn the things you don't really like. It may be tempting to ignore fingerings, posture/hand position, and the like when you first start out, but if you don't follow them, it will take massive retraining to break those habits once they start inhibiting you.

yeah. I already have bad posture when playing. I try to correct but its hard sometimes. As for learning by ear I find it hard to identify a single note let a lone multiple notes being played.

I think that learning by ear is especially difficult for people who don't have absolute pitch. It may be best to learn visually/theoretically.

Bad posture will make you work harder than you have to to get the sound you want, and it will hurt very much years down the line :P

I was practicing the ear thing so far i can identify C.

ah, absolute pitch...that's something that certain people are born with; the rest have to work REALLY hard if they want it. However, there are people who play well even without absolute pitch, so that's sort of "icing on the cake"

could you explain "perfect pitch"? How do you have an advantage if you have one? like better memorization skills?

having a perfect pitch means you can tell if an instrument is off-key and needs to get tuning
and especially for string players, they need to have perfect pitch inorder to play, or a very good ear that can determine if the note is C or C# etc...

it gives a huge advantage in singing as well, and with a perfect pitch you can literally hear yourself sing off-key or not.

Having "perfect" (or absolute) pitch means that given a single note, you can identify what that note is. If you do not have perfect pitch, then you cannot identify a SINGLE note, BUT if you are told what 1 note is, then you can identify every other note. I'm fairly sure that perfect pitch is not necessary for any instrument. Recall that at the beginning of any concert, everyone listens to an 'A' and tunes his/her instrument accordingly. If he/she really had perfect pitch, then it would be unnecessary. But the following concert shows that a lack of perfect pitch certainly does not mean inferior music. In fact, there are times in which perfect pitch is a disadvantage. One crucial example is transposition. Someone without perfect pitch can merely have that "starting note" changed, and all will be well. Someone with perfect pitch must constantly remember the new key and not the old key.

EDIT: Perfect pitch helps loads for transcription though :P, as well as learning by ear. I'm sure it has some effect on memorization; I don't know how much though.

How are minor scales formed?

Just memorize them. There is no way to teach something like an instrument over the Interweb. You will only confuse yourself and become even worse. Buy some books, if you are really that determined. If you can afford a monthly Internet connection fee, I'm sure you can afford a few books.

By the way, in my opinion, trying to obtain perfect pitch by training yourself to hear a note is a waste of time. You should just learn how to actually play, and then learn how to "hear" the notes. Perfect pitch is not as crucial as actually learning to play.

natural minor: take the major scale, and lower the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes by a half step
harmonic minor: take the natural minor scale, and raise the 7th note by a half step (back into what it was in the major scale)
melodic minor: take the natural minor scale, and raise the 6th and 7th notes by a half step (back into what they were in the major scale) ONLY when going up; when going down, it's the same as natural minor

All u got to do is just practice, practice, practice... The notes will automatically go into your head after u played a hundred times.