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Jayenkai
Created : 07 July 2024
Edited : 07 July 2024

Learning to Play Piano



Is 44 years old too late to be learning how to properly play piano?
Spurred on by a series of events that started with an Echo (echo), I've now bought a half-decent-sized KORG MicroAir 49.
Truth be told, the keys are still a little stumpy.. Maybe I should've shelled out for a full-sized keyboard, but I couldn't find anything with bluetooth midi that I was convinced would work correctly with the software I have, that wasn't also in the £350+ price bracket.
.. So a £114 KORG it is.

I already have a MicroKey Air 25, but you can't really do anything two-handed on that. There's not enough range in the layout.
The 49's much better, and both me and Mum had a little play with it yesterday. Seems great and entirely fit for purpose.

Today, then, I opened up a couple of youtube clips.

I first found This.., which states it's a "Day One" tutorial, but .. Then scoured his channel for Day Two, and .
*shrugs*
Just a chaotic scattering of videos without too much in the way of a specific step from A to Z..
But it was a decent enough start, and I found a second video on his channel here, which teaches you how to do a slight reinterpretation of Mary Had a Little Lamb.
I got to the halfway point of that one, and ...


View on YouTube

...
I mean, it's not awful.. (It is though, Jay!!!)

It's not the full range of his tutorial, and I need to go back and find the other video he references..
As far as playing goes, my fingers are still refusing to go in opposite directions, and play at different rhythms. That's the one thing I've ALWAYS struggled with. My fingers are happy to type on the keyboard one letter at a time (even at full pelt, you never type two keys simultaneously) and having to retrain my fingers to do that is likely going to be an effort.

So, um..
yeah..
Bloody July Creativity thread.. grrr...

 

Comments


Monday, 08 July 2024, 07:40
Jayenkai

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Day Two


I spent about half an hour with yesterday's "Mary Had a Little Lamb" finger exercises, before moving on to trying out the JNKPlat theme. Pretty similar, same-ish chords, but it has much more movement in the right hand, so I ended up tripping over myself quite a bit.
In the end, rather than doing "C-E-G-E-C-E-G-E" on the left hand, I switched to a two step "C-E&G-C-E&G" chord playing.
It works well enough, but I do really need to disconnect the left+right hands a bit better.
Tuesday, 09 July 2024, 08:27
Jayenkai

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For today's lesson, I followed (or tried to follow!) this tutorial.

I managed to get levels 1 and 2 down without any issues. The video above is my attempt at levels 3 and 4, and I struggled with those.
I tried levels 5 and onwards, but quickly jumped back to levels 3 and 4!!!
Goodness me, my hands don't work like that!
I'll probably be trying this over and over for the next few days.
Wednesday, 10 July 2024, 04:52
Dan
It is never too late to learn something ...
Wednesday, 10 July 2024, 11:28
Jayenkai

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Oh god, I'm crap at this!!!
But I'm getting better, I think.
I can manage the 1-2, just about, so today I'm tackling the 1-3.
Again and again and again.. Failing and failing and failing!!!
Gah!
Thursday, 11 July 2024, 10:49
Jayenkai

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Day Five, and I'm to the next level! Woot!

Honestly, though, I've been retrying May had a Little Lamb, and I'm not feeling any improvement, yet!
Keep trying, Jay.
Friday, 12 July 2024, 08:35
Jayenkai

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I'm probably going to stop posting daily clips here, or.. well, we all know I've still not paginated comments yet!!!
In future you can either chart the progress on the yewtoobs, or if I think I'm doing particularly well, I'll post the occasional reply here.

YouTube Playlist
Friday, 12 July 2024, 20:19
therevillsgames
We tried a couple of times to learn playing, and it's hard work... we are time poor but it's still no excuse, you need to spend a minimum of 15 mins a day practicing... Good luck!
Sunday, 25 August 2024, 05:06
Jayenkai

View on YouTube

Day Fifty!
Managed to half-ass a couple of bits of the Closure song..
It's supposed to sound like this.. But it's FAR and away from that!!!
And in bits and pieces..
Oh my god!!!

Fifty days is not enough for Closure.