Guidance for Building Composing & Piano Foundations

[gene098]

Hey guys,

1) I would like to ask in your opinion what kind of ways do you guys think
Can help to improve ones musical “arsenal” to help with improvising, and composing(With the piano)

So far Im taking a online course for composing fundamentals from Scoreclub
But the course isn’t well explained at many points and when asking the teacher he responds once every 2 months.
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2) Also do you guys have any tips for how to learn sheet music on the piano with more speed and efficiency?

Im learning them mostly to build for muscle memory and get more chord shapes and ideas into my arsenal

But so far its going decently slow.

I go through the sheet music 1measure at a time(One whole horizontal line from left to the right of the page) and I write out all the notes like so

then i practice the left and right hand separately under a comfortable tempo, combine them under same tempo, then increase tempo overall

Heres what I mean

https://gm1.ggpht.com/FipI7JgmDr61F4ZRz9a5dkH5f-Vtg9hjx3rlKriV-iA58hqMst9Rxxt9W5wfQIqD8XmoB4sor3LoVckLu3XfJ6NpXvCsWvYHJe38G9FbaiUn8p6v37eUH8UGYdIv8u8-gxPbWBmEHH0dylZB5kiqo1zVZlyAlK1-5s5njY7xmtj8VWoiKr1M9jYjyjFJBG7C9jMA8eR2dooIJzAxZxzAIcLwvDK-Jlh8TqElhXrl5Shd0l9F3gtGScuevZ-B0I-vFyACbZi2E7vw9jBBHB2IQYBWl6JoWliM02aapaiz96sogor9JmcROF3Rb420hrjZzfd3z9arSEow4KWuZjDRAVmVSwOS4z-dB0KwQj2OLeTPj21pqbHzu_7xVItMb0uKcnsHaZQslTF2Gd3jgVCZR-9igyORf_MyrYbSHAiPVuxc2Sppt8T8EBrjY5KdjyPFhfd0rCKlHrjzToBPs3Vlc6ZFm8nx8SYnoOjtm2t7d1mcIprOHBw_0P3c7kHjkiHYPV0VLapFI7bblPU7_Ls_HJ1JjvhVoc2b7cTRxcUTspQ1U1MrbAFxq3UxSGiJBXSoqIjVqEZMiSb3MuZCBnt56g1BYBWkpNimaPNQ2R9XBx09qmb3tpKwwjRB0INNJDKFND5KeCY1ox0V1cP3Zm5cPAlj9ueMCrPMtFrhdOBLKAB22x-C9nfaEFhomINqNy6o=w1920-h942-l75-ft

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In the picture, MC) = Middle C octave
M-1 = 1 octave down from MC
M+1= 1 octave up from MC

 

[OGBama]

Ditch the online course. Where are you located? Ask around for a reputable teacher, not limited to, but can include university and/or college professors, see if professors in the aforementioned places have students who are music majors and/or minors and ask them to give you their names (if they can, contact the student or students, if they can't, move on). Be sure to do background checks (hint: not the paid kind but the common sense kind) as people are not always how they present themselves on the surface.

As you are a beginner do not concern yourself with speed as that will come with time as what matters more than anything is how well you enjoy it and that matters whether self taught or formally taught.

 

[Pumpthrust]

Ditch the online course. Where are you located? Ask around for a reputable teacher, not limited to, but can include university and/or college professors, see if professors in the aforementioned places have students who are music majors and/or minors and ask them to give you their names (if they can, contact the student or students, if they can't, move on). Be sure to do background checks (hint: not the paid kind but the common sense kind) as people are not always how they present themselves on the surface.

As you are a beginner do not concern yourself with speed as that will come with time as what matters more than anything is how well you enjoy it and that matters whether self taught or formally taught.

^^^^THIS. All of it. Get a teacher and stick with that teacher. Find an instructor who plays the style you like (jazz, worship, classical, pop), and get to it. Also, understand that you will have to put in many hours of not having fun just to get to that 1 hour of fun. Anyone who tells you learning music is supposed to be fun is either an pre-school music teacher or someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. You gotta practice.
One great way to find a teacher is to hit up your local live music venue (small restaurant, jazz club) and check who is playing. If you like the way they play, ask for lessons. I mean, the skills don't lie.

 

[gene098]

Ditch the online course. Where are you located? Ask around for a reputable teacher, not limited to, but can include university and/or college professors, see if professors in the aforementioned places have students who are music majors and/or minors and ask them to give you their names (if they can, contact the student or students, if they can't, move on). Be sure to do background checks (hint: not the paid kind but the common sense kind) as people are not always how they present themselves on the surface.

As you are a beginner do not concern yourself with speed as that will come with time as what matters more than anything is how well you enjoy it and that matters whether self taught or formally taught.

Hi Im located in NY

Just to be clear, the teacher in terms of piano or composing?

Because I have seen they are two very diversified fields

The piano focusing on learning chords, muscle memory, etc from sheet music

Whereas the composing side was very technical and theory heavy to teach about voicing and ASTB, parallel movement etc
thats more for orchestrating.
________________
Its just like how Deadmous cant play the piano but he can still compose and arrange pieces.

 

[Pumpthrust]

Hi Im located in NY

Just to be clear, the teacher in terms of piano or composing?

Because I have seen they are two very diversified fields

The piano focusing on learning chords, muscle memory, etc from sheet music

Whereas the composing side was very technical and theory heavy to teach about voicing and ASTB, parallel movement etc
thats more for orchestrating.
________________
Its just like how Deadmous cant play the piano but he can still compose and arrange pieces.

Why not learn composition through learning how to play songs on the piano? The two aren't separate. Depending on what you want to accomplish exactly, you don't need to know the extreme "technical aspects of composition", what you want to learn are the basic fundamentals of musicality, which will aid you in composition. You accomplish this by learning songs.
All you need to do is get someone to teach you the basic fundamentals of playing the piano, then from there music theory and musicality (ear training) by way of learning songs. Do one or two lessons a week and practice everyday.

 

[Vightn]

I agree with taking piano lessons! I started to take piano lessons recently and i got the feeling it already pays off in my music making process after only 3 lessons. I told my teacher i want to learn about theory, harmonies, chord progressions, key changes etc. make sure to tell your teacher what you are looking for.
I guess that most music in history was composed on a Piano so its a good thing to know how to play it.
+ Learning an instrument or just play a song or jam around is also good thing to do when feeling uninspired to create something.

 

[gene098]

Why not learn composition through learning how to play songs on the piano? The two aren't separate. Depending on what you want to accomplish exactly, you don't need to know the extreme "technical aspects of composition", what you want to learn are the basic fundamentals of musicality, which will aid you in composition. You accomplish this by learning songs.
All you need to do is get someone to teach you the basic fundamentals of playing the piano, then from there music theory and musicality (ear training) by way of learning songs. Do one or two lessons a week and practice everyday.

Hi

Do you think you could explain what you mean when you say "All you need to do is get someone to teach you the basic fundamentals of playing the piano?"
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In my personal experience all my piano teacher ever taught me(When I was younger) was to hit a note on tempo and go through sheet music with me.

Basically he was just looking at me try to learn sheet music which is why I just thought, he doesnt really do anything for me, so nowadays I just learn the sheet music myself.

 

[OGBama]

Basic fundamentals is scales and chords.

 

[gene098]

Basic fundamentals is scales and chords.

Thanks, so I was doing that for a while and learned the major and minor scales
and the chords for them.

But even then when I tried to go and cover a song by ear, I wasnt making much progress...

There were many things like how to get a specific sound in a DAW and VST, beats(Esp beats were very hard for me to recreate), and even after figuring out the key and the basic chords of each scale

It was hard for me to figure out the chords in the song because they were all so unique, like the man who helped me figure out a chord by ear, he had 2 notes in the scale and then 2 notes out the scale because it "sounded right" and it did!

But then that got me thinking, all my time andpractice on the piano, it wasnt transferring over to composing and arranging well at all...

 

[marrelarre]

Thanks, so I was doing that for a while and learned the major and minor scales
and the chords for them.

But even then when I tried to go and cover a song by ear, I wasnt making much progress...

There were many things like how to get a specific sound in a DAW and VST, beats(Esp beats were very hard for me to recreate), and even after figuring out the key and the basic chords of each scale

It was hard for me to figure out the chords in the song because they were all so unique, like the man who helped me figure out a chord by ear, he had 2 notes in the scale and then 2 notes out the scale because it "sounded right" and it did!

But then that got me thinking, all my time andpractice on the piano, it wasnt transferring over to composing and arranging well at all...

Well there isnt just one thing into music, i think playing will help your composing a lot but you cant just memorize tracks, you should try to understand whats going on in them if you wanna learn the composing part. Analyze basically.

Also dont get discouraged by one failure, even tho you've learned two scales and a few chord doesnt mean there wont be music outside your understanding (i mean it would be quite a wasted life if what Chic Corea has spent a lifetime on could be learned in a months work).

Keep working!