Category: Jam Session
Okay, so I am taking some piano lessons for the summer (and probably beyond), and my instructor uses classical pieces to teach theory and proper technique. What I am wondering is has anyone adopted any, or used any practical solutions to accomplish this. I don't really have access to any braille music, plus the turn around time on getting pieces back probably won't be fun at all.
So basically:
How did you learn classical pieces? How effective was this method? How complex were the pieces you were learning using this method? Are there any other resources I should look in too?
I would really appreciate any help you can offer. Also if anyone has experience with transcription and composition I'd love to hear about that as well.
I too would love to know this. As for composition, I mainly use audio editing software to lay out the music in my head. Not really all that helpful I'm afraid.
I mean I was referring more to notation, but at least you posted something. Anyone else...?
If you have access to Web Braille and some sort of braille display, there's a decent although often limited collection of books available for download. You can also order physical copies from the Library of Congress. It's often hit or miss, but you can usually find something for any purpose if your instructor's willing to be flexible with assigned pieces.
All I know for classical music is Braille music, which you can download from Bard if you have an account and either a Braille display or Braille printer to print it off of.
In my opinion, reading piano music from the display is the pits, I'd much rather read it off the page where I can look at multiple lines and see position, etc. Braille music is how I learned, but you can't sight read and it takes longer to learn pieces than looking at a page and playing it.
I know, because lately I've learned wind music for recorders, and the way I cheat is to use a melodica -- a wind-based keyboard -- with one hand and read with the other. I'd never really known how amazing it could be to sight read, but that's one line at a time. Nobody looks at piano music that way.
I used to learn piano pieces by ear. At the end of each leson, I would have the teacher record the left hand, right hand, and then the hands together, as well as any notes on dynamics and fingering. I would then use the recorder's speed control, (This was an Olympus, don't remember the model number) to slow down the recording, to make learning leasier. I learned some Bach Inventions, some Mozart and a little Rachmaninoff with this method. Hope this helps!
Wait wait, you can download braille music off Bard? That's interesting to say the least. Not that I have even a slight clue how to read braille music. never even seen the stuff. Do you "HAVE" to be a US citizen to use Bard? I know with bookshare back in the day you did. Not sure if that's still the case.
You can also go to the following website:
www.musicvi.com
This is a website run by a gentleman by the name of Bill Brown, who teaches piano and several other instruments strictly by ear. He has several instructional courses, and by my estimation, hundreds of songs available for you to learn. Some of his stuff is also available in the bard Musical collection, and yes, you do have to be a U.S citizen to use Bard.
My piano instructor teaches me similarly to how post 6 learned to play. Almost have Chopin's Reindrop sonata memorized where dynamics are concerned.
Thanks for the answer about BARD. And balls to that answer. Canadian here. Oh well.
Hello, fellow Pianists!
I'd like to learn a beautiful Scriabin prelude just by ear, but would need a little help. While was trying to learn, I was having some problems with the fingering.
Here's a link of the composition (I've uploaded it to a picosong page because I didn't find a standalone version of it):
http://picosong.com/w3w4c
Did anyone ever play this amazing piece?
If so could send me a recording in which the two hands are played separatedly? As soon as I'll hear the left and the right hand not at the same time I'll understand the fingering. But the original recording sounds too complex..
Thanks in advance,
Annie (from Hungary)
Hello all,
I've always worked exclusively with traditional scores. Reading music is
indispensable, especially beyond the basic level. It may be fun to learn one or two
easy works by hearing at first, but as soon as things become more complex, we're
lost. I'm a big supporter of musical literacy. Teaching piano is not my main job
anymore; however, I do encourage all those who are seriously interested in music,
not only classical, to put time and effort into learning how to read and write
music, together with music theory. Without those things, you won't go very far.
Good luck and best regards from me,
Vlad.