Background of messing around with a guitar back in the days. Use those tutorials on youtube and am picking it up songs on the piano relatively alright. Considering learning it properly. Think it's possible using the net and a few 'how to play' books or does one do better getting a teacher?

Cheers guys

It's not black and white

Practice is the key

How do you know you are practicing the right things if it is you teaching you and you dont know what is right

Take a look at musiah.com, an Aussie setup.

My wife just passed her level 7 ( 2 below Mozart or some dude).... I haven't heard the difference between the last 3 levels.... Good luck with self teaching......

I reached grade 9 as a young teenager many many many moons ago

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Toph said...
My wife just passed her level 7 ( 2 below Mozart or some dude).... I haven't heard the difference between the last 3 levels.... Good luck with self teaching......

Ha, that made me chuckle, kinda like what the general public thinks about kiting. They wouldn't know the difference between a back roll kite loop or a 720 s bend with 3 handle passes.

I had 'organ' lessons as a kid and did ok. I recently bought a good quality digital piano and finding it difficult to master again so thinking about taking piano lessons to refine some skills. The biggest advantage is that I can still read music.

Cheers for that lads, yeah it's just watching what others are playing on youtube and picking off that and tutorials. I don't see myself wanting to be a mozart but just playing the odd modern song really although reading music would be something I would love. Guess it's time I network and see whom I know is a music teacher and willing to swap lessons for something!

Cheers Cambodge, will look at musiah

Had a good laugh myself Underoath too, the missus must be very good Toph!

You'll always do much better with a teacher. I started saxophone (with a teacher) in my mid 40's, and 3 years later have just completed 4th grade.

I have a teacher, and the fact that I am paying out $30/week for my lesson gives me an incentive to practice, when otherwise the busyness of kids, family, work, etc would probably stop me from ever getting around to it.

You can achieve a certain amount on your own, although I would now say that I regret being too tight to pay for a guitar teacher when I was younger. I do okay in a garage band, but I could have been kickass by the end of uni, instead of getting stuck in a rut after a couple of years of self tuition from books and stuff. My mate who started same time as me, but had a good teacher, started to leave me behind after a couple of years and became a guitar god.

I know a couple of damn good professional guitar players who still pay for occasional lessons.

It's not about practice, practice......it's about good practice, good practice.

If you are really on a budget, I would suggest finding a teacher who is willing to let you do fortnightly lessons, or maybe doing a stint of 3 months of weekly lessons twice a year. I do find weekly lessons are probably a waste for me, as I do not practice enough to make that much progress each week. I'd probably be better off with fortnightly, but then, I can't ask my teacher to give a up a time slot that someone else would be willing to take weekly.

Looks easy as mate !

Arguably nobody every teaches you anything. You teach yourself. The teacher spurs you along and critiques what you do. You have your half hour or hour lesson, but then the real learning happens at home when you practice and works stuff out.

I find the formal learning process frustrating. They're either constantly saying "You're doing it wrong." or saying "That's good enough, on to the next piece." I was either being deflated because I was happy with something, or pissed off because I had not mastered what I was doing.

Similarly, it's really hard to find a teacher you can relate to. The vast majority of teachers are either young kids who are monster players, but know stuff all about teaching and possibly stuff all about what you want to learn." Or really old and possibly old school and just want you to play scales and hold your fingers in precisely the correct angle.

I think if you can find a teacher that gets what you want to do and can relate to you, and you to the teacher, it can be good. I had one teacher and she understood what I was after to an extent and it was pretty good.

Gorgo makes an excellent point. You really want to find the right teacher. My sax teacher is a professional teacher, not a uni kid or out of work pro trying to make some extra bucks on the side.

Most important if you decide to get a teacher is to get one who is willing to teach you what you want....to help you achieve YOUR goals.

Having said that, my teacher is so passionate about what he does, that he has begun to instill an appreciation of classical music in me, so that I now enjoy my classical pieces as much as the contemporary ones.

Lastly, you must have goals. Without them, you wallow around and make poor progress. I know it's a cliche, but I think it applies to learning an instrument perfectly...."You'll never hit your target if you don't have one".

Funny. My parents made us take organ lessons too. Cant remember much now but I do remember it wasnt to hard. Tried to learn guitar once, that was hard. Id take a few piano lessons though to atleast get on right track.

Good on you for taking the time to learn an intsrument to make music.

I was taught guitar at school for a few years, never followed it through, but was good fun for the kids growing up to sing along to a few old favourites.

Piano was never something that struck a chord with me in terms of playing, but to watch a guru play is entirely inspirational, and the classical pieces are the most enjoyable for me to watch/hear.

If you had chosen bagpipes, however, my response would have been based on my several years experience living over the road from an amatuer, not exactly awesome!

There was a guy that went out towards Point Peron in Rockingham, WA, and practiced out where nobody could hear (except for me over the hill kayaking). I admired him for his decency.

I would always encourage any musical enterprise, there is something about it that is fulfilling in some indescribable way.

Regards,

Get a few lessons to get you going with the right technique......much harder to correct later. Once you get the hang of it motivation is the key. Scales seem boring - but repetition of hand placements n movements is the key to mastering an instrument. You may well master the easy stuff without lessons but your progress later will be impacted. Bad habits are hard to correct once you get going. Maybe explore the Suzuki method - based on learning from ear - which it sounds like you are doing already. But knowing where n when to move your hands is vital - it comes with repetition of movement as a general rule. Some people are naturals but most of us need to work hard to achieve these movements. Good luck with your endeavour. I leant to play the violin n panio at age 5 in the classical manner for a long time then moved on to wind instruments. Wish I had put the same effort into the guitar - recently brought one and are presently doing just that.

what was the first song you picked up, Glassssy ?
I bet it was "easy"

Consensus rules! Will save up enough to get a decent term from a music teacher on piano and go from there. Most definately I sound like a few of you whom were roped into music lessons as a child. I unfortunately took it for granted and never pursued it more than I should of. First song I taught myself? A more modern one in 'Talk is cheap' by Chet Faker. Have got most of it down pack besides the little variations he plays so working on that!

Hope you all have a good rest of your weekend and bring out the instruments your mums forced you to play as a kid and give your mum a good day to remember!!

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Glasssssy said..Most definately I sound like a few of you whom were roped into music lessons as a child. I unfortunately took it for granted and never pursued it more than I should of.

Yeah, wish I'd spent Thursday lunch times training with the school band instead of playing handball. It's hard work catching up mid-life.

School band is cool these days! My daughters' high school has no fewer than EIGHTEEN bands, including jazz bands, big bands, rock bands, plus the full range of classical ensembles and concert bands. In our area, it is now the exception to not be in school band.

You let your daughter go to band camp ?

You do know what happens at band camp don't you ?

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Carantoc said..
You let your daughter go to band camp ?

You do know what happens at band camp don't you ?

It's okay, neither of them play flute.

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Glasssssy said..
Background of messing around with a guitar back in the days. Use those tutorials on youtube and am picking it up songs on the piano relatively alright. Considering learning it properly. Think it's possible using the net and a few 'how to play' books or does one do better getting a teacher?

Cheers guys

Just as an aside, if you can play the guitar you can play the piano. Chords with the right hand. Bass line with the left. Throw in a few inversions and twiddle a few fingers to get the melody and away you go.

The spelling of the chords is the same and the persistence of shapes works in a similar way.

Three note chords are good. Two note chords sound good and you can run them up and down the scale. I like sixths. There's lots of four note chords that sound nice and jazzy or funky.

Bass lines are usually the root of the chord. Octaves make theme sound a bit heavier and more resonant. The can do a little left hand arpeggio of root, 5th and octave to make it sound a bit more musical.

If you want to sound really different, do a three note chord on the right hand and move the bass around to make lots of different chords and progressions..

i think you can get a fair way with youtube and dvd lessons if you have a basic understanding of what a chord and a scale are. start with an hour per day, once you get the basics down the lessons will help more. i picked up the guitar over the last few years from youtube and dvd's, but i had about 5 or 6 years of piano when i was younger. looking back at the piano lessons they did help with the theory, reading music and technique.

heres a good rhythm youtube link if you ever play with guys who like reggae. in the past, before youtube and software that slowed the song down, i tried to get this down but took me ages. this explains it so easily. classical piano lessons never shows you these sorts of things.

My 8 year old does this program, a different approach, she's been doing it for about 12 weeks, (previously tried traditional method and she was bored stiff) she can play at least 10 songs, she can jam along on a basic blues scale, she sings along, its a different approach to piano, very basic works on core skills but very progressive.

BUT you have to be motivated and practice every day the teacher has high expectations and expects the kids to practice.

Pretty sure it was started by an Australian guy in Melbourne.

simplymusic.com/

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arancini said..
My 8 year old does this program, a different approach, she's been doing it for about 12 weeks, (previously tried traditional method and she was bored stiff) she can play at least 10 songs, she can jam along on a basic blues scale, she sings along, its a different approach to piano, very basic works on core skills but very progressive.

BUT you have to be motivated and practice every day the teacher has high expectations and expects the kids to practice.

Pretty sure it was started by an Australian guy in Melbourne.

simplymusic.com/

My wife learnt this way about 15 years ago, started teaching this method within a year, was singing and playing piano for a job a couple of years after learning. Yep the creator Neil Moore now lives in the states. I've witnessed this method work quickly and successfully. My wife doesnt teach any more.

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arancini said...
My 8 year old does this program, a different approach, she's been doing it for about 12 weeks, (previously tried traditional method and she was bored stiff) she can play at least 10 songs, she can jam along on a basic blues scale, she sings along, its a different approach to piano, very basic works on core skills but very progressive.

BUT you have to be motivated and practice every day the teacher has high expectations and expects the kids to practice.

Pretty sure it was started by an Australian guy in Melbourne.

simplymusic.com/

Thanks arancini - that website looks like it has some very good learning options. I might have a closer look at it for refining my piano (lack of) skills.