Trubore
Ok, my history: Started playing piano when I was 6. Whent to quite a few national competitions. Was planning on becoming a concert pianist, but then I wanted more money. I had a bursary for music but I am studing engineering now.
Played my grade 8 Unisa a few years ago.
Now my problem is: I haved started playing piano in church, just of chords etc. Its not what i'm used to at all. It is easier for me to play Chopin etc than filling in random stuff with my left hand.
Basically I have nothing to work from as I have no experience in playing stuff from chords. Playing the melody is easy. But having to play something you have never heard before is tricky. I don't know most of the music yet so I have to improvise.
Do you have/know of any online resources that can help me to play these kinds of strange and peculier things?
chrisbark
The Jazzeveryone website is a great online resource.
Willie Thomas is a great teacher and his simple approach to improvisation will help you to create cool melodies over chord sequences right away.
The JE system will help you develop a good vocabulary for improvisation, starting with pentatonics then adding more colour as you advance through the lessons.
The site has hundreds of video lessons, playalongs and exercises and at $10 a month it is really great value.
If you sign up for the free intro lesson you will probably be offered a one week free trial to check out the whole site.
domhatch
well, i did everything the other way 'round. with a little help from a friend, i taught myself to play piano. i'd been playing guitar for about three years and arrived at a boarding school with two baby grands on the school stage and about eight uprights in practice rooms at the top of the main hall building. it was a pretty natural progression. he showed me how to use the 'black' keys by teaching how to play a couple of bars of 'fur elise' and the first movement of the moonlight sonata, so i wasn't stuck with only the natural notes from the outset.
i tried to take lessons but got very bored very early on, but i had a ball sneaking off to the practice rooms when i should have been in 'prep' doing my homework in the evenings. i'd frequently miss dinner and get back to the dorm after lights out. although i'm very happy being able to sit down at the piano and noodle, i do now regret not having learnt the practical and theory simultaneously - especially sight reading. i think i'd be a much better musician all round, and guitarist especially, if i'd gutted it out. i also backed the youth chorus at school, and i kept getting the comment that my playing was too gregarious, and that no-one could hear the singing over all my trills and frills. so i had to cut it back to simple chords and bass notes. (i feel your pain!)
i then went to another school to do a post matric course, and i did four grades of unisa music theory in one year, passing with 96%. (we won't talk about the marks i got in my unisa comm. law 1 and english 1 exams.) i credit my mark with having a practical background, and mostly having to put names to what i already intrinsically understood, as well as having a phenomenally enthusiastic and passionate teacher. the fact that she was gorgeous had nothing to do with it at all.
the point is that you can learn anything you put your mind to. it's just a question of how you go about it. you've already mastered the difficult bit. now all you have to do is tone it down a touch. or maybe a bit more than a touch. what might not be a bad place to start is to get hold of the chords and lyrics for a few church songs, or hymns, or songs that you haven't heard before, and just put them down on paper in front of you and practice without any other support. this may give you a sense of developing some timing of your own without notes to help you out, and a chance to develop interesting things to do with your left and right hands.
moving from one genre to another is a difficult transition - and especially if you're going from something with a lot of structure and discipline in and of itself to something which is a lot less so.
good luck, and keep us updated.
dh
ps - chrisbark - tks, i'll also take a look at jazzeveryone, sounds interesting.
Gareth
I feel your pain,
In some ways the "knack" of jamming is harder to grasp than the discipline of reading, anyways a couple of suggestions :
re what to play
Try "de-constructing" some familiar (to you) pieces into it's basic chord sequence and get an idea of what the "random stuff ? " is, look for chordal repeatisions, jot them down and play the piece from this (chords) rather than the notation, basically get a feel for not relying on notes and looking at the chord structure of a piece.
re how to fit in
In most cases a piano piece (written) is for piano as a solo instrument, this leaves very little room for other to play with, so you have to leave out stuff, listen to the other instruments and find what is missing, then own it, maybe a counter melody (riff) maybe some extra "colour" to a chord or chord sequence. Listening is key.
how to play,
Classical and contemporary music and musicians sometimes seem miles apart, though both are performance orientated, contemporary music tends to focus on feel and delivery more than note perfection, that's maybe a bad way to put it (flame war) ... but attitude goes a long way, think Jimi Hendicks or Jon Lord, find YOUR part and OWN it.
Lastly and probably most importantly just play and have fun, don't get too frustrated, with practise it will come and you have a good and solid grounding on which to build (don't neglect you Hannon etc. ? ) ... and the best way to practise .... put on a CD with your favourite music and play along with it (and don't forget to de-construct, it's not completely random ? ).
Have fun, hope this helps ...
Keira-WitherKay
well when it comes to improvising on any instrument, your knowledge of keys and chord construction are everything ........
so find a good tutor (live tutors are more beneficial as they can correct your errors on the spot ...........unlike internet lessons where if you grasp it wrong you won't know.....and one then can build on errors ..) and the process of learning is always sped up with a tutor
and if you want to learn to improv .learn from a jazz pianist .since improv is 2nd nature to a jazz muso , where just recently i worked with a few classical pianists who play anything if it's written at top level , even 1st time sight reading but don't ask them to improvise and these are pro classical muso's , so if you want to learn how to improvise definitely seek out a jazz pianist
if youwant to go that route i know a fabulous jazz pianist ,who improv's wonderfully ......... we often play at the same gigs ....... , his name is Dimpie Tshabalala ..... lovely touch and a wonderful jazz pianist and just a fab guy been a pro pianist for 40 yrs he';s in his 60's , i'm sure he teach's too ...... if you want his number pm me for it
