BF2S Forums Pianos

If you want to learn piano, real pianos are necessary. You don't get the same feeling with digital like every other instrument.

Anyways, I've played all my life pretty much. It took me about 3-4 years to play intermediate songs in a competitive/performing way. My piano i think is called petrof, but I mainly mooched off of my violin teaher's steinway

mcminty wrote:

You wouldn't count keyboards as "piano", would you?

At the beginning of this year, I got an old Yamaha PSR-640 off a mate. I've just been learning some keyboard parts from Sonata Arctica songs, and trying to use it as a midi-controller with my macbook/garage band.

Wish I could play better tho Any tips for learning independence between left and right hand? Or just exercises to make playing feel more.. natural? (shush, I know that's pathetic ) Cause so far I'm really just playing chords with my left hand, and a lead synth part with the right.. so when it comes to doing anything else with my left hand, I fuck it up

just time...with practice, my hands started playing as a unit. I don't think you should be thinking about independence, cause that's generally the problem. beginning with two hands is hard cause you can only focus on one hand. after a while your hands will just play the music. things get tricky when you switch up things like moving hands under and over and switching melodies.

keyboards are not pianos.

=NHB=Shadow wrote:

Wow, good tips guys thanks!
anyways, I think I want to start with a digital piano first and when I get good enough, i'll invest into a actual grand piano

Make sure to get one with weighted keys.

If you want to get a decent instrument to learn on, which you very well may drop in a few months, don't spend $1600 on anything. If you played an entry level electric board from the beginning to your premier recital at Carnegie Hall, you'd shit bricks. But that's just absurd.

Find a simple keyboard, one that just makes sound when you press the key, and if you can get a hold of one that feels a bit more real without pouring out your wallet, go for it. But DO NOT drop that much cash right now. I played piano, violin and clarinet before playing saxophone for years, and THEN I bought one.

Edit: You may want to reconsider ever "investing" in a proper grand. For a Yamaha, $25k sounds about right. Much more for a Steinway. Unless you deal drugs or defraud foreign governments, that's not worth it. You won't be trucking it around much anyways.

Last edited by Defiance (2009-09-01 19:36:05)

Kmarion wrote:

I used to play when I was younger. It's one of those things that you have to keep doing or you'll lose it.


This is one of my favorites. This kid has talent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI0oELRcBTI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xFPLWNyu9k

This is what my day would look like from now on:
School from 9am-2pm/4pm
homework if any till i'm done
Then at least 2-3 hours maybe even more daily on the piano

Been playing for ~8 years. Not nearly as good as I should be.

That Yamaha should work just fine for you, Shadow.  Quite similar to my Roland actually.  I've played since I was 11 ... so 18 yrs ... learned and practiced on "real" pianos which I recommend if possible.  However, the new digitals have come a long way in their key touch/feel being very close to the real thing.  Advantage of the digitals is never having to pay for tuning them and of course the space/price savings.  But hey if you have the coin someday, a baby grand piano is absolutely amazing and fits well in a home.  It was a downright spiritual experience when I played a Kawai baby grand for my senior year recital.

Been playing for a good 14 years.

Don't learn piano on an electric unless you're more interested in pieces generally played on them. Classical tunes are a bitch to play on keyboards because you never get the same feel, sound and effect with the pedals.

Reading is quite tough and I even still struggle at times so don't give up due to frustration!

Stingray24 wrote:

That Yamaha should work just fine for you, Shadow.  Quite similar to my Roland actually.  I've played since I was 11 ... so 18 yrs ... learned and practiced on "real" pianos which I recommend if possible.  However, the new digitals have come a long way in their key touch/feel being very close to the real thing.  Advantage of the digitals is never having to pay for tuning them and of course the space/price savings.  But hey if you have the coin someday, a baby grand piano is absolutely amazing and fits well in a home.  It was a downright spiritual experience when I played a Kawai baby grand for my senior year recital.

Hmm... whenever I play on a digital it feels "wrong". It just feels too artificial on the touch and too 'loose', if you get what I mean.

Played piano for 5 years when i was like 6. Don't remember a thing my parents and teacher said that i was pretty talented, but I hated it