#piano tip

[alienslikedmyfantasy]

Any tips for learning piano?

[pianosplus]

4 Simple Tips For Cleaning Your Piano

[thepiano-blog]

Piano Tip #7: Record yourself playing

Whenever you feel like you have achieved a certain level of completion with a technique or a song, record yourself. Or set goals, and record yourself every time you reach one. When you record yourself with the expectation of posting it online, you are learning to be confident in front of an audience, and it will greatly improve your playing. I record all of my songs on tape, and it has helped me become a better player throughout the past 2 years that I've been doing it.

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I agree with this tip very much and I've been doing it since the very beginning of my exploration with the piano. I listen to some of the recordings from 3 years ago and laugh at how inexperienced my playing was. It's great to hear your growth from one year to the next. What would be an interesting experiment is to record one song every year for the next 10 years to see how that song changes as you study the piano.

This Piano Tip is brought to you by: versatz.tumblr.com

[thepiano-blog]

Piano Tip #6 - Be Patient and you will get better, Faster!

This is for all you beginners out there. The best thing you can do for your growth as a piano player is BE PATIENT. I know this from experience. When I first started playing piano, I wanted to start playing good music as soon as possible. So I rushed to transcribe  some of my favorite Jazz artists. In doing so, I skipped many important steps that are necessary to understand what I was playing. I was just playing the notes without knowing what chords or scales I was using.

After my 2nd year of playing piano by ear, I decided that I wanted to learn Maple Leaf Rag. This was the worst thing I could do to my technique and understanding of music. It took me about a year to learn it and there was a lot of time wasted in learning that piece. Instead I could have learned a few easier tunes and built my way up to Maple Leaf Rag. Later on, I had to go backwards in learning scales, building chords, and hand technique.

The point here is by taking your time in learning the piano step by step without skipping anything, you will actually learn how to play properly, you will understand what you are playing, and you will learn how to play faster!

Learn from my mistakes: Don’t skip any steps in your learning process!

Piano Tip #5- Silence Speaks louder...sometimes.

[thepiano-blog]

Piano Tip #5 Silence speaks louder...sometimes.

This applies to everyone but even more emphasized towards musicians who play with other musicians. Sometimes silence can say even more than playing the notes! It's true. You hear it all the time in Ahmad Jamal's solos. So many musicians (including myself) want to play fast and this usually results in "general" playing. By being specific about what you want to say and when you want to say it, you are painting a much more clear image for the listener.

Make the other players you are playing with look good! By being silent, you are giving emphasis to the other players and allowing them to throw in their voice. You have to find a balance though. I mean, if you want to be silent all the time, you may not be giving your partners enough.

So the next time you are soloing on changes or playing with a group, try to make your partners look good by allowing room to breathe in between what you say. No one likes it when one does the same thing over and over again at the same volume and speed. Vary it up, be loud, be soft, be fast, be slow, be silent at times and the whole group will benefit.