I’d like to learn piano
Hey everyone, after DJing for a whlie i’m looking to start doing some of my own productions. Traktor S4 has in a way become my DAW and I’d love to be able to start with my own loops and work them into my sets. I feel like learning piano is the place to start. Can anyone recommend any online tutorials to follow or exercises to do. I was looking into Rock Band 3 just as a fun way to get my hands moving on a piano what do you guys think.
Piano lessons are pretty cheap. I used to only charge like $10-12/hr. And you’ll learn way more than a video/game can teach you.
Hey Drew, hope you don’t mind me asking you a few questions. The reason I want to get into production is i’ve been inspired by A-Trak’s production as of recently (Duck Sauce, Infinity +1). Is learning piano the right place to start for something like that? I’ve been watching a lot of videos recently of major producers in the studio and it never looks like they’re doing anything to complex on the piano. How many of these guys do you think just go through trial and error?
Well piano is a great way to get into music theory, which is vital for any producer. Even if you don’t actually play much, it will help you learn. But, it isn’t really necessary. It all really depends on what you want to do. If you don’t really have an interest in learning piano, then i would suggest getting a book or two on music theory.
Or you can just get this,
I’m looking into taking piano lessons myself, but more for proper form and playing technique. I can work my way around a keyboard if I have a certain melody/bassline in my head, but I want to get more into just jamming out and try to come up with a hook or bassline more organically.
I’m on the same wavelength. I picked up a copy of Learning Piano for Dummies - now I just need to find the time to sit down and read through it. In the interim, I started learning about minor (W-H-W-W-H-W-W) and major (W-W-H-W-W-W-H) keys and have been able to do some neat stuff with that knowledge. And now that I have a copy of George Duke’s Soul Treasures, I really have to get going. 
You can get by producing without actually being able to play the piano. This is because in production you don’t have to do everything on time and live (ie you can play left hand separately to right hand and you can take as long as you like to do it). But having said that, it really helps if you have a good knowledge of chords and musical scales (there are plenty of website available for this).
On the other hand, learning to play the piano is an idea I am considering myself because it does give you the freedom to produce music live which can make it sound more “real” and less quantised and computerised.
Good luck!
Could someone get by on a 25 key keyboard or do you really need 49 to get started?
I got an Akai 25 key and it was fine at first as i was in between my g/fs house and mine so stuffing Maschine and the akai in a bag was really handy but i soon wanted a big keyboard so i could try to hammer out better basslines or whatever without having to up the keyboard octaves.
I recently got an Alesis Q49 and its great. Simple midi keyboard but with pitch and modulation wheels. Didnt need anything with knobs or pads so, yeah im happy with it.
Try here, lessons and music theory, best of all it’s free.
I’ve got a 25, 2 61’s, and a 88 (and a 73, but that’s my Rhodes); one of the 61’s is out of commission right now. I use the 25 quite a bit actually. So for someone who doesn’t really play piano and is just writing lines, it should be fine. Now if you really want to play, a 49 will not cut it; it simply doesn’t have enough range. To play something like this, you’ll need at least a 61…
I’m taking piano lessons with a bunch of kids (6 yr olds)
MPK25
Poly 800
Alesis QS8 (my fave… 88 weighted keys without the piano size)
The freedom associated with being able to read music is incredible… like a whole new language.
Get a book or two on music theory
I also would like to learn how to play the piano. Does anybody recommend this by using GarageBand, or are there more preferable ways to do it? I would prefer learning it through software, internet or books, because that way I can decide whenever I want to work on it.
Best choise taht fits your need is : http://synthesiagame.com/ …piano HERO !! its real !!
oh lawdy
a fun and free approach to learning piano…
Kind of like guitar hero and piano lessons put together… comes with heaps of “classical” piano tracks/lessons… u can load in whatever midi tracks you want, even in the free version, so say you wanted to learn the final fantasy 7 theme song, you could find the midi file, download it, and import it to learn it. you can set different dificulties of the same song so like Easy - 1 hand basic notes /Medium 2 hands - basic notes Hard 2 hands - all notes, choose the speed of the song to play at your own pace… and you can play it with any softsynth/plugin you have on your computer, so if you wanted, you could play bethooven with a supersaw synth… but by default it just uses a basic piano sound.
if you buy the full version, which is cheap anyways… it teaches you about chords, scales and all that, you can learn to read sheet music with it and theres heaps of other neat options with it aswell, like for instance you can set the song to stop playing if you make a mistake until you hit the right note/notes. its not quite as “traditional” as getting lessons, but its free for the lite version, and if you like it, the full version really does offer a lot of insight into music theory. id reccomend it highly, try out the demo and see if u like it.
haha didnt see someone already posted it… synthesisa FTW!!!