Thread: Wish me luck! I'm starting from scratch!!!

Originally Posted by soundlover

Sonata congratulations on your decision to learn the piano!I am 36 years old and I decided to learn the flute last year.One step at a time is the best thing to do as you have already written in your last post.If you really do that you will be amazed how soon you will play sopen..
In the beginning I was trying hard to learn quickly because of my desire to play my favourite piece of music.the result was that I had no progress.As soon as I became patient everything became more clear and the small,realistic goals brought the progress that I've been searching.
So good luck and relish every step of yoyr music journey!

This is the secret of learning a musical instrument, don't rush, take your time, stay relaxed. It isn't a competition so don't compare your progress to anyone else, everyone learns at different speeds.

Originally Posted by Sonata

As you all probably know I am very passionate about music. This passion was developed relatively later in life; probably about eight years ago. I am now 30. I know NOTHING about music theory and practice. I have decided that's going to change! I ultimately would like to take piano lessons.

However, I want to make the most out of them once I get there. So I am starting from square one. My husband and I sat down for half an hour tonight, with him helping me learn how to read the notes on a staff, and playing the notes on a keyboard app so I can hear the sound of the different notes. Should be an interesting journey, here's to hoping I keep up the inclination and practice to actually achieve my goal! Wish me luck

Take your time, go slowly so that you understand every step. Learn to read the notes not the fingerings. Learning everything properly at first means that you won't have to go backwards later.

Doing a fun little exercise to try to help improve my music reading and working on getting my ear to recognize the different notes. I have a page of sheet music on my iPad from Tori Amos, a song called "Silent All These Years" I know this song well. So I'm reading a set of notes a few times in a row then playing the music. This way they are no longer abstract figures on a page, but have meaning connected to the song. The opening of the song appears centered around G.

At the keyboard I also have a very basic goal... one towards improving my ear. I'm going to work on recognizing the different notes one octave at a time.

Good luck!

How far have you got Sonata?

Have you learnt how to play Scriabin's Black Mass yet lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENxotmXmvGw






(J/k)

LOL not quite. I am still in the very beginning stages right now. I am still using the keyboard and enjoying it. But I want to get a really good foundation, so most of my time I am focused on the music reading. Still pretty basic stuff memorizing where the notes are on the staff, and comitting to memory where those same notes are on the keyboard. It might sound crazy slow...but I tried to jump ahead with the guitar and flute and that got me nowhere. I intend to take my time to really learn and understand music so that when I do finally get my piano and take lessons, I'll have some good basic knowledge and the confidence to stick to it.

Good luck Sonata!

Working on Hark the Herald Angels from a Christmas hymn book my husband's buddy had with the keyboard. Just a few measures in on the treble clef. I'll worry about the bass later. I look forward to when I can see a note on the staff and know what note to press without thinking about it.

Originally Posted by Sonata

Working on Hark the Herald Angels from a Christmas hymn book my husband's buddy had with the keyboard. Just a few measures in on the treble clef. I'll worry about the bass later. I look forward to when I can see a note on the staff and know what note to press without thinking about it.

You are doing fine. Just remember that everyone has had to start at sometime.

Well, the section in my book on rhythm and time signatures went over my head. I mean, I understand whole notes, half, etc well enough. But everything else doesn't click. Well, I'll try a couple of the basic exercises with a metronome to see if it sticks, and listen to the CD samples. But I think this is one section that by and large will be in the hands of my piano teacher to help me with, when I start up with formal lessons next year.

Time signatures take a little work. I know what they "mean" but I don't always "get" them. I know 4/4 well enough and I think of 3/4 as a Waltz beat (which most people do). I only know 7/4 time because that's Money from Pink Floyd...lol.

Music theory was always hard for me. I just play by feel and ear now (I play guitar 99% of the time and I dabble in keyboards).

For me it's more important to know how to figure things. In my guitar playing I know how everything works, but I don't have any of it memorized. I know "how" to figure out what the major 3rd of a Bb scale is, but off the top of my head I don't have a clue what note it is.

Moral of the story: I just didn't work on it hard enough, but the more you figure out "how" things work, and spend the time actually doing them, the more it will make sense.

Sonata, have you tried clapping or tapping the rhythms?

If you don't understand how the note values fit into the time signature, it's actually rather formulaic:
Top value in the time signature is how many beats in a measure.
Bottom value is which note value gets one beat.
Thus 3/4 is three beats per measure, quarter note gets the beat.
3/8 is three beats per measure, eighth note gets the beat.

If you do understand how the note values fit into the time signature, but you are having problems thinking about what note and its value at the same time, try clapping or tapping the rhythm first.

Once you get the rhythm by clapping, then try playing the phrase on the piano.

Working with a metronome is a good idea and will help you develop good habits.

Thanks for the suggestions Lunasong, I will give those a try. Part of my problem I think is that I've not had the proper amount of time to grasp it. For the most part I've been practicing or reading in 15-20 minute chunks. For just playing on the keyboard that's fine, but not for understanding some parts of music theory. Perhaps I'll make it a goal to spend an hour chunk on the weekend on theory aspect of it, during my son's nap.

Thought I'd continue to post updates periodically.

Unfortunately, had a bit of a break in practicing or reading my music book. It's been about a week. I had to focus on some housework, then my weekend trip, and I found I really needed some extra sleep. But I read my practice book during my lunchbreak, and I plan to get back to the keyboard tonight.

My goals are to start scales today. I've had fun playing different melodies, but it's time to get back to business and work on really building a good foundation as well. Besides, my husband has been practicing scales for about four days now and I can't let him get too far ahead!

Good Luck. It's best to devote many hours to practice for results. I need to heed this advice.