Major Piano Noob

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ssmalley
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed May 17, 2017 10:31 pm

Major Piano Noob

Post by ssmalley » Wed May 17, 2017 10:48 pm

Well I am 44 and I have always wanted to do this. When my 7 year old son started taking voice lessons, the first question the voice teacher had was, "Do you have a piano?" Well, we have a piano and we have voice lessons. Then I said to myself, "Why don't you take voice lessons?" And then I said, "Why don't you learn piano while you are at it?" When I saw Playgrounds, I knew this would be the way. I hope that I can stay focused and get a base of piano skill that will allow me to further my music education and enjoy life. Who knows, maybe I can get one of my three kids to take up piano and become great!

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sw1tch73ch
Posts: 539
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 1:23 pm

Re: Major Piano Noob

Post by sw1tch73ch » Thu May 18, 2017 4:04 pm

Welcome ssmalley! Piano is a great way to augment your voice training and your son's. Keep us updated on your progress and we'll cheer you on! I'm a piano un-noob. I've been around pianos and keyboards all my life, just never learned to play properly before. I'm working through the rookie bootcamp now. I'm slow, so I expect you'll pass me by in no time at all. :D

But seriously, keep us up to date with your progress!
== Just keep playing. Just keep playing. Just keep playing, playing, playing! ==

-- jbs --

ssmalley
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed May 17, 2017 10:31 pm

Re: Major Piano Noob

Post by ssmalley » Thu May 18, 2017 11:17 pm

Hey switch! Thanks for the encouraging words. I just got to the first Soul Sister video lesson. I practiced on that mug for 2 hours. Still did not get a 100%, but I enjoyed the grind! I really did. Now I don't know how I'll fare 6 months from now, but as of right now, I am very pleased to be taking on this monumental challenge!

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sw1tch73ch
Posts: 539
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 1:23 pm

Re: Major Piano Noob

Post by sw1tch73ch » Fri May 19, 2017 4:40 pm

Excellent!

If you run into, as I have occasionally, frustrating lessons, remember that you can set the metronome down to a slow speed and practice playing the right notes. Once you are good with that tempo, you can speed it up. If you are using the PC or Mac, you have fine level controls that let you change the tempo 1 Beat Per Minute... I usually jump up from 8 to 12 beats per minute at a time. So if I started slowly at 60 beats per minute, my next level might be 70 and work my way on up to the full speed.

You'll find only the two preset speeds of Full and the "Medium" speed have the accompaniment. But I find getting my fingers used to hitting the right notes and speeding things up a little at a time really helps on the more challenging lessons.

Hopefully the iPad and eventually even Android apps will have all the same features as the PC and Mac versions, then everyone will have access to the very necessary abilities.

It's good you are enjoying the "grind" - you'll probably find a fair amount of just working a lesson over and over. But it all is good. If the saying is true, that you need 10,000 hours to master something and become an expert, then every second of practice counts.
== Just keep playing. Just keep playing. Just keep playing, playing, playing! ==

-- jbs --

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