Piano Advice

OGBama

Moderator
I'm looking to get started on piano, mainly to learn to play R&B/soul as that is my love. I have no access to credentialed teachers who solely teach adults in my city plus not everything on YouTube is a good starting point so what should I do?
 
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I'm looking to get started on piano, mainly to learn to play music in any Black music genre but my love is Jazz. My gradual goal is to incorporate the aforementioned genre, and eventually others, into instrumental Hip Hop compositions. I have no access to credentialed teachers who solely teach adults in my city plus not everything on YouTube is a good starting point so what should I do?

Listen to alot of jazz and study the songs by ear.
 
Scales and chords.
Learn to read sheet.

Then again that's all I currently know about music theory since I use a mouse in everything xD
 
I never, ever play more than 4-bars at a time of any instrument I'm recording.
Bass and guitar I record audio and treat in the same way as I would a sample from vinyl.

Piano - I start simple and overdub. Then I edit the shit out of the MIDI. So I don't really play piano parts - I build them...
 
What city are you in, OGBama? I'll bet there is _somebody_ there that can teach jazz piano and theory...

GJ
 
HearAndPlay Music was a tutorial series I followed long enough to get me started. I'm like ImNoGuru, I don't really play piano, I build my piano parts. But I got more fluid when I started doing "Piano Freestyles". The object of my piano freestyle videos is to improvise as long as I can without repeating or messing up.I usually make a beat that I can loop forever, hit record and go. Example:
 
Step 1: Learn how to read sheet, know about scales and chords.
Step 2: Play and listen to easy piano pieces. Try to make your playing sound like the recorded piece.
Step 3: Gradually increase the difficulty of the piano piece. Always use piano sheet books that have the correct fingering.
 
I am unsure where you are located. However, if there is a Jazz and/or Blues scene in your area that caters to the soulful-side of the said genres, I would visit a few events and discuss with the keyboardist whether he or she offers lessons or would be willing to teach you. If he or she does not teach, the keyboardist or other musicians may know of someone for you to contact.

Also, at least in the areas where I have lived, the Gospel music scene has a lot of keyboardists, as well, that are familiar with Jazz, Blues and other urban music genres.

Unfortunately, the instructors that will more than likely benefit you the most are not going to be found online or via the yellow pages and do not actively seek students. Going out and finding them, in their playing environment, is the best option, based on my experience.

In the meantime, learning to read music is beneficial. Also, a good book to help get you started, in small chunks of information, is 100 Jazz Lessons: Keyboard Lesson Goldmine Series.

I hope this information helps.
 
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Yea learn Chords and Scales, also learn some chord progressions in differents keys, that will help you to make tracks easier
 
I played piano for 5 years and got up to I think a grade 4 distinction. When I first started learning the basic things I was taught were the keys (C,D,E,F,G,A,B plus the sharps and flats #/ b). Melodies are usually played with your right hand, and chords are played with your left. Learn basic right hand melodies and songs before using chords with your left hand.

When you want to progress into bringing your second hand in, practice the chords with just your left hand. A good way to practice chord changes is by timing yourself and seeing how many times you can change from one chord, to another.. Time yourself to see how quickly and how many times you can change in 1 minute. You will eventually get quicker.

Once you've learnt the basic chords, or chords for the song you are learning... And you've taught yourself and become fluent using those chords, you can then progress to using right hand and left hand at the same time. This will be very, very confusing at first as the left hand is different from the right hand in most songs. If you are learning basic songs such as Mary had a little lamb, Jingle Bells, etc it will be much easier to learn both hands at once as the chords are pressed when the right hand is playing a note, so it's more in sync. Whereas songs like "Rivers flow in you" by Yiruma are much more complicated as the chords are pressed out of sync with the right hand.

YouTube tutorials can be helpful as well if you need extra help
 
Hey OG!

The single best way to get better is TIME! There is NO shortcut! You're going to need time, it's as simple as that.

You can learn a basic song no problem in one day even as a complete noob. Once you learn chords and all that and you start actually playing your own shit.... that's when it gets fun!
 
In high school, I took Piano 101 which was a good starting point for me. I learned the basics and practiced with old compositions that got me to use all my fingers instead of two of each hand before I began. Some music school do teach the basics and maybe for free as after school programs, even community colleges, just check your area and the schools.
 
1st Step: learn how to read sheet,
2nd Step: study piano exercises for completely beginners,
3nd Step: find scores of some eazy songs study them (don't learn them on youtube by ear)

As far as it concerns studying jazz songs, you have to study a lot the basics.


​If you want to know something else send me a private message.
 
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i would say spend 10 minutes a day doing scales and chords.. jazz tends to use 2-5-1 progressions so that could come in handy learning that..

a good place to learn scales and theory at the same time is Piano scales - learn how to play scales on piano ... I would then suggest learning some classical bits from people like Bach or any one else who isn't too complicated.. These are available on youtube and also there is sheet music u can use.. With me I use my kindle alot so I can see what to play while at the piano. Hope this somewhat helps. Good luck
 
Piano is a difficult but rewarding journey, but I often feel like it is made very complicated as well.

A quick Primer:

A scale is a series of notes usually 8 tones in length but sometimes less in case of penta scales and some jazz scales.

A scale can be labeled in a few various ways
1) by letter name
2)by scale degree
3) by solfeggio

So if we are in the key of C, which is easily identifiable by being the first white note in front of a group of two black notes.

The scale of C begins with C step up To D to E and etc till it reaches the starting note again, which in this case is C.
So "CDEFGABC"

This can also be expressed as scale degrees where 1 = C 2=D 3=E and so on and so forth

So CDEFGABC = 12345678 Respectively with 8 being the repeat of the first note.

CHORDS

Much of western Harmony is based on triads which is chords built on thirds. Thirds is referring to distance between letter names or scale degrees
for example: 1-3-5 or C-E-G
2-4-6 or D-E-F
3-5-7 or E-G-B
4-6-8 or F-A-C
5-7-2 or G-B-D
6-8-3 or A-C-E
7-2-4 or B-D-F
and then it repeats. This is triadic Harmony.
Now each of these chords has a quality to them some sound happy(major) or sad(minor) there is reason why that is that is beyond this post.
so now are chords are expressed as such
1-3-5 or C-E-G Major
2-4-6 or D-E-F Minor
3-5-7 or E-G-B Minor
4-6-8 or F-A-C Major
5-7-2 or G-B-D Major
6-8-3 or A-C-E Minor
7-2-4 or B-D-F Diminished

It is the mixing and matching of these chords that creates chord progressions. ( after much practice they become second nature)
They can go in any order but there are common patterns.

Now to take it the rnb world.

what makes rnb chords different from pop chords is they really usually on extended harmony. It is still triadic(based on 3rds) but the harmony builds even more so in thirds so this
1-3-5 or C-E-G
2-4-6 or D-E-F
3-5-7 or E-G-B
4-6-8 or F-A-C
5-7-2 or G-B-D
6-8-3 or A-C-E
7-2-4 or B-D-F
Becomes
1-3-5-7 or C-E-G-B
2-4-6-8 or D-E-F-C
3-5-7-2 or E-G-B-D
4-6-8-3 or F-A-C-E
5-7-2-4 or G-B-D-F
6-8-3-5 or A-C-E-G
7-2-4-6 or B-D-F-A
A common pattern that can be drawn from this is what we call the II - V - I (2-5-1) pattern
Which is are 2nd chord then are 5th chord then are first chord from the list.
or
2-4-6-8 or D-E-F-C
5-7-2-4 or G-B-D-F
1-3-5-7 or C-E-G-B

and thats a very quick over view of western harmony and keyboard ideas.
This should keep you busy for a while. I went really quick and tired to explain as if you were a complete beginner so forgive me if I covered something you already knew. Let me know if you have any questions.
 
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