Can learning piano make you that much greater

Learning to effectively play the piano is a good step in becoming a better producer because of all the music theoy and notation you learn. The tricky part is effectivley transfering what you learn in lesson into the production. Especially if you learn piano in a certain style such as classical, but please don't take this the wrong way there are many great producers who do not know how to play the piano formally and still put out great tracks. Simply put producing is more about creative and less about formality in most cases so learning can help but not learning won't hurt you either.
 
Definitaly adds to your production game. Once you become proficient you will be surprised at how your ideas will start to flow.
 
My young brother, "everybody gotta have a dream" (The last scene from "Hussle & Flow"). Every1 wants the bling but nobody wants 2 do the work. It takes 8yrs 2 b a Dr. Yea u can get a break, but do u want 2 b a pretender or 100 proof when it comes. The last serious student I had could out play me in 6 months. And b4 any1 ask I'm sure I've been playing longer than most of u been living. If u love it & if u want it that's no time. Put in the work, all the work not just pieces that r easy. Find u some1 who knows theory, can teach u 2 read at least chord charts & who can play their azz off. Invest in urself with ur time (6-8hrs a day, yea just like a job) & ur money. When I walk in2 a studio I'm "That Guy" Nobody ask's if I can, they ask "How much will U do this for" Know ur gear & make it do what it do. Only then will u b "That Guy"..... and the church said "Amen"
 
^^^What if you're in a rock band, champ? What if you make sample based tracks? What if you're part of a production team and you do the mixing and drum programming?

Quit making it out to be a lack of learning a particular craft being relative to ones drive. Cause most of you piano playing theory knowing folk up here aren't certified audio engineers. Alot of you don't know other acoustic instruments.

That's just as important in this field, so if you wanna act like not learning piano is an 'easy route". You gotta agree you're taking "the easy route" not learning to Record, engineer(both mixing and mastering of course), create album covers, be able to harmonize for reference tracks(even if your voice isn't good), play EVERY OTHER INSTRUMENT, write up your own legal documents, manage yourself, get yourself on Radio and TV/Distributed, and any other job surrounding your music.

Because just as easily as you can rely on someone else when it comes to keys if that isn't your specialty...you end up relying on someone to handle these things.

And still don't change the fact some folk don't need a "lesson" to be good. Apparent if in 6 months your students outplaying you and you've been playing longer than we've been living.
 
^^^What if you're in a rock band, champ? What if you make sample based tracks? What if you're part of a production team and you do the mixing and drum programming?

Quit making it out to be a lack of learning a particular craft being relative to ones drive. Cause most of you piano playing theory knowing folk up here aren't certified audio engineers. Alot of you don't know other acoustic instruments.

That's just as important in this field, so if you wanna act like not learning piano is an 'easy route". You gotta agree you're taking "the easy route" not learning to Record, engineer(both mixing and mastering of course), create album covers, be able to harmonize for reference tracks(even if your voice isn't good), play EVERY OTHER INSTRUMENT, write up your own legal documents, manage yourself, get yourself on Radio and TV/Distributed, and any other job surrounding your music.

Because just as easily as you can rely on someone else when it comes to keys if that isn't your specialty...you end up relying on someone to handle these things.

And still don't change the fact some folk don't need a "lesson" to be good. Apparent if in 6 months your students outplaying you and you've been playing longer than we've been living.


Simple question Deranged;

Do you think "learning piano" will help.

You continue to come in and argue that it is unnecessary.

You actually are contradicting yourself.

Your own words..."I can't play a lick of music besides "by ear". My craft needs no further polishing in the keyboard dept."

Therefore you did "learn" to play. Regardless of whether you taught yourself or not, you figured it out for yourself, hence you learned. You seem to confuse learning and taking lessons and keep arguing that taking lessons is unnecessary and it is based on drive. That may be true, but you are still dancing around the real question of whether acquiring the knowledge helps.

Webster's definition of "learn"

1 a (1) : to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience <learn a trade> (2) : memorize <learn the lines of a play> b : to come to be able <learn to dance> c : to come to realize <learned that honesty paid>
 
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Did you even read the thread to see what comments have triggered what response?

It's not a contradiction, folk have made it clear what their definition of "learning" is. Read the posts that trigger my responses.

And what I've done isn't the point. You could ask "is drinking and driving bad", the muthaf**ka with the most experience drinking and driving is gonna tell you why you SHOULDN'T do that shyt.
 
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Did you even read the thread to see what comments have triggered what response?

It's not a contradiction, folk have made it clear what their definition of "learning" is. Read the posts that trigger my responses.

And what I've done isn't the point. You could ask "is drinking and driving bad", the muthaf**ka with the most experience drinking and driving is gonna tell you why you SHOULDN'T do that shyt.

Yeah, i read both comments, and you shouldn't drink and drive:carnageFP:
 
My superlative question is do you want to be a concert pianist?

It may help you be a concert pianist, nothing is granted, but it's not really going to help you bake a cake.

If you have a definitive definition of learning you have to have a derivative cause for it in order to say its going to be helpful.
 
It's an instrument, meaning you pick it up and play. By dedicating your time to playing, you create your own style.

There's more to music then following scales and rules which originated in 14th century medieval Europe, which spread and rose to popularity during the renaissance, its simply a trend. Music has no rules nor genre. All of our traditional instruments are based on it though.

My instuments are a roland mv-8000, an emu ultra and a detuned bass guitar. Teach me how to play that....
 
Sorry 4 the uproar, It wasn't a put down. I gave an example of a young man that was far more talented than I am but didn't have the knowledge. And because he had so much talent it took him very little time 2 get what he needed. The point was 2 encourage & 2 show it don't take years, not start a debate. I didn't say u needed 2 b a concert pianist. Learning theory opens up head. If u can hear it in ur head u can replicated it. Alot of times u can't do that by hunting & pecking at any piece of equipment. What I posted wasn't 4 every1, if it fit u, wear it. I c alot of young men everyday that it do fit... They want 2 do what I do, b where I am.... It's just advise 2 help some1, why would any1 can find fault with that.
 
^^^In all fairness I don't think people are reading the entire thread before responding to see the course it has taken. As a result, responses to the original post are thrown out of context by the course of the thread.

To sum it up, you should do whatever YOU need to do to perfect YOUR craft. There's a million paths to doing so, lessons is but one of those millions.
 
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^^^What if you're in a rock band, champ? What if you make sample based tracks? What if you're part of a production team and you do the mixing and drum programming?

Quit making it out to be a lack of learning a particular craft being relative to ones drive. Cause most of you piano playing theory knowing folk up here aren't certified audio engineers. Alot of you don't know other acoustic instruments.

That's just as important in this field, so if you wanna act like not learning piano is an 'easy route". You gotta agree you're taking "the easy route" not learning to Record, engineer(both mixing and mastering of course), create album covers, be able to harmonize for reference tracks(even if your voice isn't good), play EVERY OTHER INSTRUMENT, write up your own legal documents, manage yourself, get yourself on Radio and TV/Distributed, and any other job surrounding your music.

Because just as easily as you can rely on someone else when it comes to keys if that isn't your specialty...you end up relying on someone to handle these things.

And still don't change the fact some folk don't need a "lesson" to be good. Apparent if in 6 months your students outplaying you and you've been playing longer than we've been living.

I think this thread could've been ended much sooner by someone just saying YES, its best to learn everything you can, not just piano, but whatever you can learn will make you better, no matter what field your in.

I mean does this really even need to be answered?

Thats like asking if I need to learn how to pour cement to work in construction. No, you could avoid learning, and just pick up trash at the sites instead. Or, you could come with enough money and buy the company and hire someone else who knows the business to run it and you'd never need to know anything about pouring cement, but if you knew how to yourself, you'd save yourself alot of money paying someone else to manage the site.

Same thing with Piano, or mixing, or guitar, or any aspect of making music. Few have mastered every aspect of making music themselves. So there will always be the need for help in certain areas. Maybe you can write, but can't play. Or maybe you can write and play, but cant mix. The whole point is the more you learn to do yourself, the more money you'll make, and the less ppl you need to depend on to make your music.

If you don't know how to play piano, and can afford to play someone else to play, thats great, but you still have to worj around that persons schedule, as well as pay for his services.

Learn to do it yourself and you can make music whenever/wherever you want yourself for free.

That applies to all instruments and all of the jobs in the business. You won't be able to master all of them, but pick and choose to learn the one's of most importance to your craft, and the more you learn, the better. As well as the more chance you have of finding work. The more skills you have, the more jobs there will be available to you, thus the better odds of breaking into the business.
 
One of the top touchy subjects on FP. Let's talk about MPC vs FL Studio. Or sampling vs composing. Or DAWs sound the same or not. :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

These questions always make the little devil in my head say : you really meant "ooh I fukin lazy to learn piano so convince me it isn't even worth it".
 
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I think this thread could've been ended much sooner by someone just saying YES, its best to learn everything you can, not just piano, but whatever you can learn will make you better, no matter what field your in.

I mean does this really even need to be answered?

Thats like asking if I need to learn how to pour cement to work in construction. No, you could avoid learning, and just pick up trash at the sites instead. Or, you could come with enough money and buy the company and hire someone else who knows the business to run it and you'd never need to know anything about pouring cement, but if you knew how to yourself, you'd save yourself alot of money paying someone else to manage the site.

Same thing with Piano, or mixing, or guitar, or any aspect of making music. Few have mastered every aspect of making music themselves. So there will always be the need for help in certain areas. Maybe you can write, but can't play. Or maybe you can write and play, but cant mix. The whole point is the more you learn to do yourself, the more money you'll make, and the less ppl you need to depend on to make your music.

If you don't know how to play piano, and can afford to play someone else to play, thats great, but you still have to worj around that persons schedule, as well as pay for his services.

Learn to do it yourself and you can make music whenever/wherever you want yourself for free.

That applies to all instruments and all of the jobs in the business. You won't be able to master all of them, but pick and choose to learn the one's of most importance to your craft, and the more you learn, the better. As well as the more chance you have of finding work. The more skills you have, the more jobs there will be available to you, thus the better odds of breaking into the business.

One of the only intelligent posts in this whole thread imo.
 
I dont play keyboard but i can do what ever i wanna do but i still think i would b alot better than my present status if i knew how 2play a piano.
 
I think learning to play the piano can make you GREAT at making beats. If you take the time to learn it, you'll really be surprised by your improvement. I definitely was/am, I'm still learning tho too but I'm hearing my improvement.
 
Music Theory WILL help you. Chords, Scales, and Progressions are kinda of like being able to refer to a whole library of different genres and sounds. West Coast music uses alot of Minor Chords and Scales as well as Blues scales. Will music theory help you play those scales and chords? Yea. Trap music uses alot of Minor Scales (Descending), will music theory help you know where this scale is? Yea. It will give you reference, dont get me wrong, ir wont help you CREATE. The way you use these scales, these chords, this knowledge is a completely different story. Its a tool, a VERY useful tool in my opinion. Music theory was the key to my success. It enables you to be able to do more things and kinda lets you out of the box, or it did for me. Learn it, when it clicks in, youl know it. It makes things alot easier. For composers and people who sample. Finding the key a certain sample or knowing what key your will quicken your pace and make things ALOT easier. I dont know how anyone could ever argue with that. Its not necessarily learning piano as much as it is learning "Music" as a whole. Music Theory.
 
I quit caring to respond. Just started listening to folks music. No offense to no one, just a generalization(so if you think it reflects you, it probably does)but sometimes it's good to let the music speak for itself. Seems like most(not all) people leaning on "what you know" end of this discussion don't have the simple fundamentals of music creation together anyway.

Studying probably does help you guys.
 
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