hey all, Im a 17yo and ive never properly learnt an instrument before, so I wanted to try learning the piano as a start after hearing some really beautiful covers of some songs. Im pretty much completely new to music and have no idea where to even start…. Im also a bit embarrassed as my peers are full of people who have been playing piano since like the age of 4, and all play at extremely high levels now. I do have an electronic piano at home which I’ll be able to use. But I was wondering if it was possible to be able to teach yourself without having to go for lessons as I geniuenly cannot afford any right now, and my family’s not well off either.

I am happy to purchase any books or use YouTube, but I just wanted to know if it was even possible to learn this way. If there was any other equipment needed regarding learning the piano I’d also love to know. I also wanted to know what does practicing piano regularly look like as a beginner— i am happy to work on this skill everyday if that is was is required.

Thanks 🥹

I like scales. I really like scales. I spend about an hour per day practicing and playing scales. It's like an wormhole for me. I watch music theory lectures, or read articles on musictheory.net, and I apply it to doing scales. This loop is a wormhole I can't get out of

The problem is I don't like practicing pieces at all, so I don't. I don't go through my piano book or anything, because I'd rather do scales 😭

Does anyone have advice on reframing this or alternative exercises? I can't imagine it's good for me to just do scales. I tried asking my friend who taught music professionally for awhile, and he said he's lost, because the problem is usually the opposite.

I feel like something is off in my play, would like to get some critique :)

When waiting for the next note, should I keep my fingers lightly resting on the keys without pressing them, or should I keep them slightly raised above the keys until it’s time to play?

What is the correct technique, especially for beginners?

Hi, as the title suggests, i’m wanting to go all in with piano and music theory. I’m pretty new to classical music, as i’m from a popular music background.

Can anybody tell me some good books to get me on the path to understanding the fundamentals of theory better?

I’m trying to get really into piano and i’ve moved off the guitar to help me reset and grow in a more classical sense. Any good recommendations for books, structure and practicing tips for piano also?

Cheers!

Im playing a melody with fingers 1 2 3 and 4 right next' to each other. Every time I play the melody I feel like the notes kinda slur into each other instead of being distinct notes. I also feel like my fingers are weak which might be contributing to it or might be the reason

So how do I go about fixing it

Tyvm :)

I'm away for 2 more months but when I return home I want to start private piano lessons.

I did piano lessons from age 8-16 and got to Grade 6, but stopped and have only intermittently taught myself stuff inbetween. I'm now 28 and have got back into playing, and I'm trying to go back through my fundamentals and fill in some skills I never had. I notice also I like to play a lot of legato songs so I'm not too bad at pedalling but I'm sure I could improve, and I'm sure my fingering and technique could also do with a refresh as I struggle to do jumps or fast notes. I've also ignored dynamics in music for a while as I only own an electric piano without touch sensitivity.

I've reminded myself of my major scales, taught myself the circle of 5ths and learned a little bit of improvisation. I've also reminded myself of note and rest names and timings, what key signatures mean and how to apply them. I remember doing transposition at Grade 5 theory but I'm nowhere near that still.

I was also god-awful at sight reading and still am, so I want to do better at that.

Given the above, if I were to go to a music teacher and tell them what I want to achieve, would it be too much to say I want to improve my theory, sight reading, pedalling, technique, speed and dynamics all as one? Is that too much? For pieces, I'd like to learn how to do happier and more jazzy stuff as well as the slower stuff. Will they prefer that I pick one?

Thanks for any advice. I only ever did lessons in school so I don't know if it's different for private.

I'm based in the UK, I should add.

I’ve been teaching myself how to play the piano for 5 years now and I’ve found the use of the sustain pedal challenging for me.

What I learned and been practicing is that, at the start of a chord you press and sustain the notes till the start of a new chord where you do a quick release and sustain after the first note of the new chord.

Often, the sound is murkier or I lose continuation of the sound.

How do I use and effectively practice with the sustain pedal?

I can play it at 75% speed, but my main struggle is on the repeating arpeggio-like, scales passage. It starts with e flat on left hand and G, B flat. The problem is that my left won't run during the repeating notes. Also, I find my left hand hard to do the passage when I'm unprepared. I can do it quite fine with my right but I feel like my left hand is getting tensed up. Maybe lack of finger independence between my lh thumb and index. Can anyone help? Other tips are welcome! Thank you!

Hey everyone, is there any free learning software which allows me to connect my electric yahama into my Surface pro similar to Synthesia? That's the only one I've found so far with a guitar hero style with verticle scrolling notes, also allowing me to change the tempo so I am able to slowly learn the keys. It's by no means a traditional learning method, but for now I'm just looking to play a specific song or two honestly. Any feedback is of course always welcome! I'm willing to try whatever is available out there! Thanks everyone

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How do I simplify the Bass clef (left hand), down to either one or two notes? I find it quite difficult to play 3 notes.

Is the any specific way to do it, or is it better to just wish me good luck?

I cannot say I have been “learning” piano, but it has been sitting there and I sat and started playing it maybe the start of this summer.

Since then, I have insanely improved my theory knowledge and can write moderately good pieces on piano note by note, by hearing them, but I can’t up my level because I cannot play more complex melodies so I use Garageband.

I have trained near perfect pitch, so I don’t have problems with the notes’ sounds.

My main goal is to be able to play any melody that comes to my mind without resorting to any computer program.

I want to improve:

1. Sightreading
   I absolutely cannot read ANY sheet music, I depend on piano roll videos to learn pieces, so any advice about that would be great.

2. Finger mobility
   I cannot play fast, so I cannot sound out faster melodies I have made in my mind and resort to garageband again. Also I have small and chubby fingers and hands, so I can reach only from C to E one octave above, I see some touching F easily. I also accidentally play especially with my pinky wrong notes (like i accidentally touch the space in between the two notes)I have many more finger problems, so absolutely any advice about any finger techniques is much appreciated.

3. Composition?
   If you have any advice about music composition, that would be much appreciated for a new composer :)

Any other advice that you think would be helpful, Im open for training techniques, about how to learn songs etc. I’m all open.

Hi! I'm a woman in her early 20's and I really want to learn how to play the piano. However, I don't know where to start and which lessons or topics I should do first.

We have a piano in our house so that won't be a problem. I'm an absolute beginner whose only current knowledge with piano is the notes in sheet music. But even on that aspect I don't really know much, I only know that when notes are placed at a certain line or place that they are a b c, so on. Recently I've been trying to play music on the piano by searching their sheet music and playing the most basic notes. I'm terribly slow since I'm trying to recall the notes while playing since I don't have them memorized.

My question now is where should I begin as an absolute beginner? And am I doing the right thing by jumping straight at trying to read sheet music or should I hold off on doing that? And on that note (pun not intended), what's a good way to really memorize the placement of the notes both in the piano and music sheets?

I'm also curious if I should read some music theory books to really learn or should I focus first on the actual playing and trying to have a feel on the ibstrument?

Any advice is accepted but please note that I am an absolute beginner who want to be self-taught.

Thank you!

Hi guys,

I was using SimplyPiano for a long time, but their pricing was too expensive for me and lessons got a bit boring.

I always wanted to make my own music app/game (my final BsC project was a guitar rhythm game), so this idea was in my head for 10+ years.

Since last year, I started on my game, and I think it's almost ready to be released, I think it's quite fun, but I'm pretty sure it still had many flaws and I might completely forgot about some basic things.

You can play with touch, PC keyboard or MIDI keyboard.

I would love it if you could try it here for a few minutes (free, no account needed), and share how did it go.

My piano game: https://game.ultimidi.com

I've been playing piano for as long as I can remember. From when I was just starting school to now, weekly classes and practice between them has been a semi regular part of my routine. I spent the first 9 years simply working on reaching the end of the Faber series, and completed RCM 1 after that. I am currently playing RCM 3 and preparing to take the test in January.

Last summer, I switched from the piano teacher that I had had since around the age of five to move to a different centre, having both noticed the fact that I was no longer making and progress, and had my teacher just finally come out and say that she had:

a) given up on me ever being a competent pianist

b) been asked if I had any significant learning difficulties I hadn't let her know about(using a word that I wouldn't in polite company)

c) just had her be dead silent simply staring at me even when I had made blatant mistakes for out last few lessons.

I moved to a place both cheaper but far more well regarded in my city, and currently have a teacher that seems to explain things in ways I'm able to understand much easier, and gives me more constructive criticism. Despite this, I still seem to struggle to read and play pieces that one would think would be natural after over a decade.

From constantly incorrect rhythm, to incorrect fingering on scales, to consistently misreading even the most basic of measures, I feel stuck.

At this point, despite absolutely adoring piano music and the instrument itself, I've lost almost all motivation. What can I do to finally start to improve, and is there anything from all these years of lessons that might have helped me besides my little skill?

Body posture: I feel that I am sitting fairly far away from the piano. My knees are behind the board. Still I find the keyboard extremely wide. I play the keys around C4 well (well, I reach the keys well) but when I go further up or down I feel my wrist are not aligned with the keys and I have to bend my wrists horizontally to be able to play the keys. I assume this is body posture and I need to bend further away from the piano, but is that even true? As I said, I feel that I am already pretty far away from the keys.

Touch force: I seem to have trouble hitting the keys at the force I want. Mostly, especially when my brain gets in the way, I start to hit the keys very light, therefore lowering the volume I play at very inconsistent.

I am an absolute beginner and have been practicing on and off for a couple of weeks only but I want to correct this before I get used to bad posture or bad playing.

so I've been playing the piano for around 1.5 years and I really liked my teacher, but he recently quit because of a few personal reasons. I feel pretty demotivated and sad, and very lost as I can't get a new teacher straight up... I dint focus on music theory much and I had plans to start learning it deeply but my teacher quit in between. where do I go from this?