All posts by Andy Todd

Day 21 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

Mrs TwinBikeRun has been learning the piano too. Unlike me, she has stayed with the essential lessons on the Simply Piano app and has advanced through to level 3. I’m still working my way through chords.

Today, she decided to start chords and after an hour said “It’s too hard, my hands hurt!”.

So do mine but I’d never thought about it until she said. Of course our hands hurt, we’re bashing – I’d say playing, but bashing is a better description of what we’re doing! – away at the keys and it takes an effort to do that when you don’t use your hands for anything else. I type. I hold a knife and fork. I don’t do anything particularly tiring or taxing with my hands. I’m using my little pinky to lift up a truck. Instead, this is the first time I will have been using my hands for long periods of time and apply force and strength while my fingers are fully extended. It’s got to hurt – but not equally. Some fingers are stronger than others, I’ve realised. And that’s when I stumbled across this:

There is a sub-genre of piano videos to teach you how to strengthen your fingers, even down to looking at an individual finger and working on it.

Now, how do I work on my middle finger?

Day 19 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

There are three pedals at the bottom of our piano. I know that one of them muffles the sound of the piano. We have this on at all times as we live in a semi-detached home, albeit one with thick walls, and we don’t want to bug our neighbour with our practice.

Some people would love to live next to piano wizard, Lang Lang. However, we are Clang Clang, and no one wants to live next door to that.

But I have no idea what the other two pedals do. One seems to make the piano sound echo-ey. I call it the Ghost Pedal as it makes the piano sound haunter.

The other one does…. nothing. I press it. Nothing. It doesn’t muffle. It’s doesn’t try and scare me. Nothing.

I could google the answer but it seems more fun to try and work it out myself, like it’s a rite of passage for all piano players. Until you work it out, you can’t call yourself a musician. And looking up the answer would just be cheating.

Day 17 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

I’ve been watching a a lot of videos about learning to play the piano and this one, ahem, struck a chord.

As I’m following the Simply Piano app, I’ve not thought a lot about timing. 

1… 2… 3… 4

1……. 2…… 3

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Part of not thinking about timing is that I’m both not fast and too fast. I’m not fast, as I try and play pieces and can’t change between chords as fast as shown on the screen. I’m also too fast as when I practice on my own, I try and play as fast as I can rather than going slower and learning better technique.

I need to slow down to speed up.

Day 16 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

It turns out I like banging away at chords. I’m now spending more time just randomly playing patterns of chords than following the app itself. I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

I think it’s good to practice myself and see what I can learn by trying different rhythms, different keys and hearing the difference it makes (usually awful). But am I getting into bad patterns that will hamper me later?

For the moment, I’m going with it’s good to noodle. Elton John didn’t have an app. Lang Lang doesn’t take an iPad out when he wants to practice. So why should I?

(Obvious answer – because they have years of experience and I have only a couple of weeks).

Day 14 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

I’m going to be number one!

But first I need to learn how play chords. So far I’ve been playing with my right hand and learning the essentials of how to read sheet music. Today, I have to chose. I can continue with essential skills or I can change course on Simply Piano to learn about pop chords.

The choice is easy – I’m going to be number 1 and all I need is “three chords and the truth”!

However as three chords and the truth is considered to be the basis for all country songs, I might also need a stetson, a heartbreak, a truck, a Bud, a hometown gal and the Good Lord above. None of which are offered in the app.

My number one might be a long time off yet.

Day 13 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

Our piano is in the hall beside the living room. If I’m playing, I keep the living room door open so I can keep an eye on little three year old Wee TwinBikeRun when she watches her cartoons. However, in the last few days, every time I sit down to play, about five minutes after starting, she comes out of the living room, stares at me and then holds her hand our to take my hand. She then pulls me into the living room.

I may not be as melodic as I thought. Even a 3 year old is a critic!

Day 11 – Learning the Piano (Andrew)

Imagine singing a song but only learning every second word.

“Take… Down… The… Paradise… Where…. Grass…Green….. The…. Are Pretty”

Now try and play it on the piano with the missing music too.

That’s Simply Piano.

Which sounds like a complaint, and it is, but I can see it’s also necessary. The app teaches the piano by playing along with songs. However the songs are complex so it simplifies the songs so you only play along with parts of it. It’s just enough to know the song but, because it’s simplified, I can filling in the missing notes in my head and think I’m missing out on playing some keys.

On the other hand, as I move through the lessons, you come back to the same songs and gradually learn how to play more complex versions of it, which helps show how you’re improving.

But it is frustrating as I want to be better than the programme will let me. And that’s probably a good thing as it’s forcing me to learn the basic techniques and to practice those before doing anything more complicated.

Day 8 – Learning the Piano (Andrew)

I now know the basics of reading sheet music. And by basics I mean that as long as the sheet music shows a single note I think I can work out how to play it. If it shows anything more complicated, then it might be a language I recognise, like English, but spoken by someone from Aberdeen in a broadest Doric, fit like. Incomprehensible.

I like the fact the app tries to teach both theory and practice. But I don’t know how well it does this as I’ve nothing to compare it too.

They say that if you learn a foreign language then you pick up the accent of the person who teaches you it. So, if you learn English from an Aberdonian you will pick up their accent too. You won’t sound like a BBC newsreader, you’ll sound like a sheep farmer.

For all I know, the app could be teaching me to sound like a sheep farmer rather than Elton John. But I am enjoying it and it provides a useful guide to progress as I can see that songs and concepts are becoming more complicated as I progress through it. Just don’t ask me to read more than one note.

Day 7 – Learning The Piano (Andrew)

There are 88 keys on a full size piano. 53 white and 36 black. I thought all pianos would be the same but each piano is subtly different in key size and response. If you want to know how they differ then watch this video as one man starts playing with the cheapest piano he can find and then works his way up to one worth $3m.