Learning to play piano

[lsmith]

I learned a bit about the theory of music from this article., but now I want to take things further. I figure it will help me get a better sense of music if I learn how to play the piano. It will of course also give me one more tool in the box to create unique mixes.

I think I will try using the free GarageBand video's as a start. Depending on how well this works, I might buy additional lessons.

Aside from this I am looking to buy a MIDI keyboard piano. So far it seems like the Korg microKontrol is a good fit, since it also seems to offer quite a bit of functionality for launching samples and controlling channels etc making it a good companion for a DJ. I have small hands so I might not be affected by the fact that the kes on this controller are supposedly very close together. I am not sure if the German version also includes Live 4 Korg Edition, which would obviously be nice to have as a start (wonder what the upgrade to Live 8 costs?).

I am open to other suggestions for a MIDI controller or hints about how I can learn how to play the piano on my own.

[BentoSan]

i wouldnt recommend microkontrol the keys are tiiiiny, and its only 2 octaves.

If you really want to learn to play piano i would highly highly recommend going with a 5 octave dedicated keyboard. That way your learning on real sized keys and have enough octaves to play most songs and very imporantly enough room to learn to play with 2 hands properly.

Only after you have the hang playing piano a bit with that would i even bother getting a 2 octave keyboard for gigging. Thats how i see it anyway.

[lsmith]

I dont know yet how far I really want to take this piano playing. For now the main target is to get a better sense of rhythms and beats and maybe doing very short intro's while DJing. Also if I get things right, this is 3 octaves, still limited of course.

[kidfromkibbly]

I would also suggest getting large range keyboard. I use the Yamaha NP-30 at the moment. It's a great, simple keyboard for playing VSTis, and for practising scales on.

Using a single octave keyboard would make learning music theory difficult because you wouldn't be able to see the different scales in relation to one another.

[Stryng]

I'm also want to start learning to play the piano/keyboard.
My idea is to just buy a oxygen 8 v2 to start with, just play a bit.
After I practiced some more I can maybe buy a bigger keyboard with 5 octaves, that's how I will do it.

The only thing I'm looking for right now is good lessons, most likely videolessons.
Any suggestions? Or good sites, thanks

[lsmith]

@Stryng: I will be using the ones from GarageBand for now. Might be worth checking out in case you have access to a Mac.

@kidfromkibbly: What do you mean with "single octave"? Like I said the microKontrol has 3 octaves (or 37 notes).

I will ponder this a bit. Getting a dedicated 5 octave keyboard obviously changes the investment a bit.

[DvlsAdvct]

I know I couldn't get any of the Korg synths that had the little keys cause my fingers weren't accurate enough and it just ended poorly.

If you want to learn to play piano just get a cheap 49 or 67 key MIDI controller for $80 new, or cheaper used, and learn to play. If you then decide to move on to something bigger then sell it used and go from there.

[mpetersen3]

Last night I was playing around with some videos on youtube, trying to learn heart and soul and also New York, New York (not the moby one lol, the FS original). Most of the keys sounded pretty good using the garageband classical piano synth in logic, but when I would hit certain notes they sounded quite off, even though I am hitting them correctly. Is this just a weakness of the synth to emulate combined keys' frequency addition?

[Segfault]

I learned to play on a grand piano, but thats because I was 5 years old, my parents are both trained musicians, and I took piano lessons for a long time. I still regret not keeping up with them.

My two cents: the best way to learn to play piano is, well, on an actual piano. Chances are good you don't have one lying around, but if there's a university near you, it would probably be easy to venture over there, sit in a practice room, and plunk out on keys for a while, or even sit in on a keyboarding or theory class. (talking to the prof's first would be a good idea. In my experience, they're usually ok with it.)

[lsmith]

If you want to learn to play piano just get a cheap 49 or 67 key MIDI controller for $80 new, or cheaper used, and learn to play. If you then decide to move on to something bigger then sell it used and go from there.

Hmm the cheapest 49 keyboard (M-Audio KeyRig 49) I found over here is more like 150CHF (about 140 USD) and 222 CHF (about 205USD) for a 61 keyboard (Behringer U-CONTROL UMX61 .. includes an USB Audio interface).

Amazingly ebay seems to be void of good deals here in Germany/Switzerland. But I will shop around, though generally I really hate buying used, because I hate all this dealing with faulty stuff.

Maybe one of my friends has one flying around that I can just borrow. So it seems the key recommendation at this point is to get a 61 or even 88 note keyboard. Doesnt need to be great, but this way I learn how to play with 2 hands and I can practice learning various popular songs.

Once I got that more or less decently working I should see about getting a more portable keyboard to potentially integrate into live playing.